Tubeway Army ushered in a new era of mainstream electronic music when Are ‘Friends’ Electric? made it to the top of the UK singles chart for the first of four weeks at the summit. Written and produced by the band’s frontman Gary Numan, the song brought synth-based music to the masses. The singer later admitted that the lyrics told the story of a robot prostitute – if the BBC had been aware of that at the time it’s likely it would have been banned. Are ‘Friends’ Electric? moved on from the more guitar-based sound of Tubeway Army’s eponymous debut album and was an integral part of its acclaimed follow-up Replicas.
The Sugababes later sampled the track for their single Freak Like Me, which also topped the singles chart, this time in 2002. Steve Harnell