Gary Numan Never Expected Tubeway Army 'Replicas' To Be A Hit - Noise11.com
Gary Numan photo by Tim Cashmere, music news, noise11.com

Gary Numan photo by Tim Cashmere

Gary Numan Never Expected Tubeway Army ‘Replicas’ To Be A Hit

by Paul Cashmere on October 25, 2019

in News

Gary Numan had no expectations for success before the release of his Tubeway Army ‘Relicas’ album in 1979.

Numan’s new wave outfit’s album shot straight to the top of the charts, but the 61-year-old singer has admitted when they were recording the tracks he didn’t consider for one minute that any of them, let alone the whole LP, would stand a chance of being a commercial success.

Gary added how he felt the hit single ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ was “too long” and “had no chorus”.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph newspaper, he spilled: “I didn’t see any songs on there that were capable of being hit singles.

“There are no boxes ticked by ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ You can’t dance to it, it has no chorus, it’s too long…”

Tubeway Army dissolved after just two albums and, within six months, Gary put out his debut solo album, ‘The Pleasure Principle’, which gave him his third consecutive UK number one.

Gary has been prolific, releasing 18 studio solo albums over the past four decades, and has proved to anyone suffering from Aspergers syndrome – a form of autism – like he does, that anything is possible.

However, he revealed there are “dozens of things” that affect him, with even just the thought of entering a building petrifying him.

On how Aspergers affects his life and his relationship with his wife Gemma – who was one of his fans, who are known as Numanoids, back in the day – she said: “We didn’t have rows like normal person rows.”

Gary – who releases his next LP ‘Intruder’ in 2020 – explained: “I don’t like going into buildings … I used to have motorbikes, and [setting off on a ride] we’d say, we’re going to go to that little cafe.

“But the closer we got to it, the more I started to wind myself up – ‘she’s making me do it.’

“And then, by talking to me [she had to] try to figure out what had happened. And it wasn’t just cafes, it was dozens and dozens of things.”

music-news.com

Noise11 on Instagram

You’ll discover music news first following Noise11 on Twitter

Comment on the news of the day, join Noise11 on Facebook

Noise11.com

Listen to the Noise11 Music News channel now at iHeartRadio

Related Posts

John Lennon’s Last Autograph Up For Auction

On December 7, 1980 Willie Nile and John Lennon were recording at The Record Plant studio in New York City when engineer Thom Panunzio called saying, “John broke a string on his guitar. Do you have any extra strings?"

1 day ago
Neil Young Coastal
Neil Young Coastal Is Rare Glimpse Into The Reality Of Neil Young

Daryl Hannah’s Neil Young ‘Coastal’ movie is beautiful and rare behind the scenes insight into Neil’s first live shows after four years in 2023 in California.

4 days ago
Roger McLachlan photo by Jason Rosewarne
Little River Band Co-Founder Roger McLachlan Dies At Age 71

Roger McLachlan, the New Zealand born bass player and co-founder of Little River Band, has died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 71.

5 days ago
Steve Lukather Toto Melbourne 16 April 2025 photo by Winston Robinson
Toto Returns To Melbourne #Review

Toto’s 2025 setlist focuses on the heritage of the band. The setlist was interesting. Compared to how it was curated for Australia in 2019 this time Toto kept to the albums of the 1900s. Mind you, there were no complaints from the audience for doing that. The biggest hits came from those early years.

5 days ago
Christopher Cross Melbourne 16 April 2025 photo by Winston Robinson
Christopher Cross Performs In Melbourne #Review

That first Christopher Cross album was so huge that it became all about the songs, not the musician. Until you see Christopher Cross live you forget what a great guitarist he is.

5 days ago
Judas Priest Stained Class
Les Binks of Judas Priest Dies Aged 73

Former Judas Priest drummer Les Binks has died aged 73.

6 days ago
Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson. photo by Ros O'Gorman
Jethro Tull Veers Towards Thick As A Brick in ‘Over Jerusalem

Jethro Tull’s new album ‘Curious Ruminant’ as a curious diversion in the track ‘Over Jerusalem’. 3 minutes 17 seconds into the new song, it becomes ‘Thick As A Brick’.

6 days ago