Tubeway Army – Replicas

My UK pressing has 'Not for Sale, Promotion Copy' stamped in gold on the front cover and the matrix doesn't match any listed here, it's A2/B2 and has WL instead of EG. Also has the Warner logo embossed on the back of the sleeve.

Don’t know why I waited so long to get a copy of this album. Fantastic and classic. Really good press!

Help anyone ? Mine is A1/B1 with E.G. Strawberry BUT my S number is not showing here.
After the S on each side it is "23" so that's " S23" on both A and B sides.
it has rounded corners and fits the bill on every other facet.
It is just another variant ?
One last thing, I bought it the first week it was released. So no poster inside, guess those copies all sold out. I did live in Leeds and we always got the worst copies if any extra promotional stuff.was supposed to be included. Always !!!
Just another first press variant then ?
Thanks anyone.

Jess Lidyard is a fantastic drummer. Really adds to the album. Still a fan all these years later.

I can't say so much about this release as Crijevo, except that it's Numan plagiarizing in reverse - that is - I get the feeling that he ripped off his own melodies on later releases as just Gary Numan, not The Tubeway Army. I noticed this as I was listening to Track 1, Me, I Disconnect From You, which sounded rather not so distantly similar to his own I Die: You Die. But none of that really matters when an artist rips off himself. My favorite track, and to me the standout on the album, is Are 'Friends' Electric?. The underlying synthesizer really makes the track come alive. Of course I never really could say that Mr. Numan is a standout vocalist, nor is he a great optimist - his lyrics are dark and rather pessimistic, but sometimes that's what makes a project work. Could you imagine any Gary Numan album with bouncy, poppy vocals? Eeeee! That would be terrible!

Numan was without doubt what you'd call the synth pin-up, with clever ideas but executed in a safe recipe mode. Although everyone cites 'Replicas' as "electronic", it's guitars, drums and bass that do the work, the synth serving a purpose of mere decoration throughout the album; 'The Machman', 'You Are In My Vision', 'Replicas', "It Must Have Been Years" and 'When the Machines Rock' add to the successive list of synth-rockers - except for the closing piece on the record, the instrumental 'I Nearly Married a Human', a fairly odd and somewhat eerie, distant tune pleasantly echoing the popular work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Of course, the Eno/Bowie/Ultravox! influence is another one hard to shake off - as futuristic as he wanted to be for the year 1979, Numan watched and learned, picking up the pieces and in the process he created his very own character (Malti Kidia's sleeve adds extra volume to the album's appeal), although in the years that followed Numan was slowly losing focus, becoming the exploiter rather than the explorer.

"Replicas" remains a charming record of the times, "hopelessly dated" as Tropress once put it, but in that statement there is also something of a charming factor, because "Replicas" was destined to sound exactly that. Rough on the edges, clumsy even, and just as frightening if you're into the album's Ballardian storyline.