Tubeway Army

Fronted by Gary Numan, with Jess Lidyard (drums) and Paul Gardiner (electric bass), founded in 1977. After releasing the albums “Tubeway Army,” and “Replicas,” (both sold over a milllion copies) Numan decided to release records under his own name, but with the same musicians. To this day, Tubeway Army and Gary Numan have been a great inspiration to a lot of current electro and techno artists.

Discogs attributes 3 albums, 12 compilations and 15 singles/EPs as releases by Tubeway Army Tubeway Army since the band formed in 1977.

In terms of the three albums, ("Tubeway Army," (BEGGARS BANQUET – BEGA5), "Replicas," (BEGGARS BANQUET – BEGA7) and "For Future Reference," (Rocket Record Company - TRAIN 18), two have appeared in the "UK Top 40’," music charts.

With "Replicas," entering the UK Charts in June 1979, reaching the "Top 10," and eventually the ‘No.1’ position after seven weeks. The album stayed at No.1 for only one week but it did appear in the Top 10 for 9 weeks and within the Top 40 for twenty-one weeks. Overall, Replicas has spent 31 weeks on the UK album charts.

The self-entitled album, "Tubeway Army," spent 7 weeks within the UK Charts’ Top 40. Achieving its highest position of No.14, four weeks after entering the charts in August 1979. The album "For Future Reference," commonly attributed with the band ‘Dramatis’, didn't chart at all.

Tubeway Army has had limited chart success with their 15 single/EP releases. Whilst five have appeared in the UK Charts, only one has had a significant showing. To many, the anthem of ‘The Futurist’ movement, and possibly the most successful forerunner of that era/genre of music, the only single/EP by ‘Tubeway Army’ to reach the No.1 spot is "Are 'Friends' Electric?," (BEGGARS BANQUET – BEGA18).

This single entered the UK Charts in May 1979 (19/05/1979) and in its seventh week it hit the No.1 spot. "Are ‘Friends’ Electric?," remained at the coveted No.1 position for a further 3 weeks (4 in total) and eventually spending 8 weeks in the Top 10 and 12 weeks within the Top 40 singles chart. Overall, this record was present in the UK Charts for 16 consecutive weeks up until 01/09/1979.

The four other singles/EPs, whilst accredited to Tubeway Army on the official UK Charts, were released jointly as ‘Gary Numan and the Tubeway Army’ (UK Chart artist listing).

"Gary Numan / Tubeway Army - The Premier Hits," and "Gary Numan / Tubeway Army - The Plan," are the only two compilations, accredited to ‘Tubeway Army’ by the UK Charts, to achieve chart success. Whilst only appearing in the UK Charts for seven weeks combined, both did achieve peak positions in the UK ‘Top 30, singles chart.

"Numan* / Tubeway Army - 1978 / 1979 Volume Two," and "Gary Numan / Tubeway Army - 1978 / 1979, Volume Three," whilst categorized as compilations in Discogs, they briefly appeared in the singles chart in March 1985 for four weeks but remained in the lower part of the charts.
(Source: Official Charts Company (UK) (April 2020)).

Barry Benn, Billy Currie, Bob Simmonds, Ced Sharpley, Gary Webb, Jess Lidyard, Paul Gardiner, Sean Burke (2)

The Tubeway Army, Tubeways Army, チューブウェイ・アーミー