Tubeway Army “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” 1979. Beggar’s Banquet. 12″ single, German pressing. I absolutely adore this single from Tubeway Army’s LP Replicas; it went to #1 in the UK. It was Tubeway Army’s last single before composer/vocalist Gary Numan (Gary Webb) dropped the Tubeway Army band name and continued on as a solo artist (keeping many of the same musicians, though). “Are ‘Friends’ Electric” is icy synthpop, inspired by sci-fi: the song references Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Numan says about the song, “The lyrics came from short stories I’d written about what London would be like in 30 years. These machines – “friends” – come to the door. They supply services of various kinds, but your neighbours never know what they really are since they look human. The one in the song is a prostitute, hence the inverted commas. It was released in May 1979 and sold a million copies. I had a No 1 single with a song about a robot prostitute and no one knew.” Side B of the 12″ is another electronic new wave synthpop track, “We Are So Fragile” which leans more towards rock than the A side – there’s a bit of guitar solo! – but still has a bit of that sci-fi flavor.