Replicas is an album by the British band Tubeway Army, released in 1979. It was the second and final Tubeway Army LP, following a self-titled debut the previous year. After this, Tubeway Army frontman Gary Numan would continue to release records under his own name, though the musicians in Tubeway Army would continue to work with him for some time. Replicas was the first album of what Numan later termed the "machine" phase of his career, preceding The Pleasure Principle and Telekon, a collection linked by common themes of a dystopian science fiction future and transmutation of man/machine, coupled with an androgynous image and a synthetic rock sound. Fuelled by a surprise number one hit single, "Are 'Friends' Electric?", the album also reached number one in the UK charts in July 1979 and was certified Gold by the BPI for sales in excess of 100,000 copies. Background Something of a concept album, Replicas was based on a book Numan hoped to complete someday, set in a not-too-distant future metropolis where Machmen (androids with cloned human skin) and other machines keep the general public cowed on orders from the Grey Men (shadowy officials). Whilst the album’s setting and lyrics were directly inspired by the science fiction of Philip K. Dick, particularly his seminal work Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the title was not. Though similar to "Replicants", the term used for androids in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, based on Dick’s book, Scott’s film came out three years af