Artist · chart history
Tubeway Army
Band London United Kingdom Active 1977–1979
Tubeway Army formed in 1977 in London, United Kingdom and was active until 1979. Tubeway Army has 5 chart appearances on 5 radio countdowns from 3 stations on RockLists, spanning 1979–2022. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Are Friends Electric?”, which appears on 5 lists with a best position of #39. The station that charted Tubeway Army most often is Virgin Radio (United Kingdom), with 3 appearances.
Tubeway Army started out as a London punk outfit, formed while punk was at its peak, but under Gary Numan they kept edging toward the machines until the machines took over. Numan sang, played guitar and worked the keyboards and synthesizers, Paul Gardiner held down the bass and added backing vocals, and Jess Lidyard sat behind the drums, with Beggars Banquet Records putting out the records.
The payoff was Replicas in 1979 and its single "Are 'Friends' Electric?", a cold, droning slab of synth pop sung in a detached, android monotone, and both the album and the single went to number one in Britain that summer. Nobody from the electronic scene had topped the charts with a synth-driven single before, and suddenly the future sounded like it had been wired up in a bedsit.
The name didn't survive its own success. Numan wrote the songs, produced the records and was the band's only public face, so he dropped Tubeway Army and carried on under his own name, keeping the same players on as his backing band.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Tubeway Army on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Are Friends Electric? | 5 | #39 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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