Tubeway Army is the debut album by Tubeway Army, released in 1978. Its initial limited-edition run of 5,000 sold out but did not chart. When reissued in mid-1979, following the success of the follow-up Replicas, the more commonly known cover art featuring a stylised portrait of Gary Numan was introduced. This release made No. 14 in the UK album charts.
Overview
Despite being the band's debut, Tubeway Army was seen as a transitional record, linking the punk flavour of early singles "That's Too Bad" and "Bombers" with the electronic music and science fiction imagery of Replicas. The first track, "Listen to the Sirens", borrowed its opening line from the Philip K. Dick novel Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, while "Steel and You" contained references to androids. These and a number of other tracks featured primitive synthesizer effects, the legacy of Numan chancing upon a Minimoog in the recording studio one day. Elsewhere, the album’s lyrics generally inhabited a seedy world that was compared to William Burroughs, an author whose influence Numan acknowledged. "Friends" concerned male prostitution. "Every Day I Die" was about teenage masturbation. "Jo the Waiter" referenced drug addiction. "The Life Machine" was told from the perspective of a comatose man on life support who can only "watch from somewhere as the loved ones come and go". Sonically, the album ranged from hard rock with punk overtones, such as "My Shadow in Vain", "Friends" and "Are You Real?", through the post-punk of "Listen to the Sirens" and "The Dream Police", to the predominantly acoustic "Every Day I Die" and "Jo the Waiter". Major influences cited for this album's overall sound included David Bowie, early Roxy Music and Brian Eno, Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground, and early Ultravox. Numan has regularly performed tracks from this album since his early solo career, including "My Shadow in Vain", "Something's in the House", "Every Day I Die" and "The Dream Police". Others that later appeared in his live repertoire included "Listen to the Sirens", "Friends" and "Jo the Waiter".
''Live at the Roxy''
The 1998 CD reissue of Tubeway Army included a live concert, originally a bootleg called Live at the Roxy, retitled as Living Ornaments '78 - a retrospective reference to Numan's official live albumsLiving Ornaments '79, 80 and 81. It included early versions of "My Shadow In Vain" and "Friends" as well as a cover of The Velvet Underground's "White Light/White Heat".
