''The Plan'' is an archival compilation album of early demo recordings by British new wave band

Tubeway Army Tubeway Army were a London-based new wave band led by lead singer Gary Numan. Formed at the height of punk rock in 1977 the band gradually changed to an electronic sound. They were the first band of the electronic era to have a synthesiser-b ...

(the band name originally used by

Gary Numan Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, he released his d ...

), released in 1984. While the demos on ''The Plan'' were originally recorded in March 1978, they remained unreleased until September 1984 when Numan's former label,

Beggars Banquet Records Beggars Banquet Records is a British independent record label. Beggars Banquet started as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin and is part of the Beggars Group of labels. History In 1977, spurred by the prevailing DI ...

, issued them a year after Numan left the label. In the intervening seven years since recording the demos, Numan's career had scaled great heights of commercial success and then waned. His most successful material had been similar in basic form and structure to the demos on ''The Plan'', but had showcased a new synthesizer-based instrumentation instead of his previous punk rock sound. In the album's liner notes, Numan states that these songs were deliberately written and recorded in the then-popular punk rock style with the express aim of securing a record deal. Some of the songs on the album (such as "Friends," "Something's in the House" and "My Shadow in Vain") formed the basis for songs that would eventually be released on Tubeway Army's debut album in 1978, subsequently rearranged and augmented with the

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

-based rock sound which would become the Tubeway Army/Numan trademark. ''The Plan'' went on to do moderately well, reaching #29 on the UK album chart. Two months after ''The Plans release, Numan issued ''

Berserker In the Old Norse written corpus, berserker were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word '' berserk'' (meaning "furiously violent or out of control"). Berserkers ...

'', his first album through his own record label, Numa Records. Chart-wise, ''The Plan'' outperformed ''Berserker'', the latter reaching #45 on the UK album chart. All CD releases of ''The Plan'' include a wealth of bonus tracks, such as Tubeway Army's debut single "

That's Too Bad "That's Too Bad" is the debut single by Tubeway Army, the band which provided the initial musical vehicle for Gary Numan. It was released in February 1978 by independent London record label Beggars Banquet. On the day of its release, Numan qu ...

" and an early version of the ''Tubeway Army'' album track "The Life Machine."

Track listing

All tracks written by Gary Numan.

Original LP

1993 CD reissue

In 1993, Beggars Banquet issued a digitally remastered version of the album on CD, featuring 10 bonus tracks and a different running order. This release was packaged with Tubeway Army's 1979 album ''

Replicas A 1:1 replica is an exact copy of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without claiming to be identical. Al ...

'' and was part of a series of double CDs, each of which paired two of Numan's albums together, remastered, with bonus tracks and new liner notes.

1999 CD reissue bonus tracks

In 1999, Beggars Banquet reissued the CD as a stand-alone release, newly remastered, with the further addition of two bonus tracks.

References

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

* Paul Goodwin (2004). ''Electric Pioneer: An Armchair Guide To Gary Numan'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Plan 1984 compilation albums Gary Numan compilation albums Demo albums Beggars Banquet Records compilation albums