Beggars Banquet releases two special titles to commemorate the legendary albums Gary Numan/Tubeway Army.
While both albums have remained in print, these releases concentrate on the early recordings made prior to the completed albums and present the evolution of the albums. The tracks have been sequenced as they appeared on the original tapes and the audio has been taken from the high-resolution digital transfers made by John Dent in 2007.
One of the Freerange Studio tapes suffered irreparable print through damage on two tracks, so they were not used in the 2009 release. However, an alternative source has been located so the tapes can now be presented as complete for this release.
‘Replicas: The First Recordings’: In late 1978, Gary Numan was booked into a small studio in London’s Chinatown with the same musicians that had played on Tubeway Army’s debut album, released a month earlier. Two stereo master tapes were compiled of eleven tracks. A month later they again went to Gooseberry Studio and recorded an additional three tracks, including ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ and ‘Replicas’. At the same time, the band recorded a session for the BBC’s John Peel show, taping alternate versions of three songs from the December recordings. Finally, Numan returned to an upgraded studio, Marthus Music, in February to overdub and remix the Gooseberry recordings into their released versions. Only one alternative out take still exists (‘Down In The Park’), which is included in this release.