The Pleasure Principle – The First Recordings

2LP : Double orange vinyl

Even before the single “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” was released, Numan had recruited a permanent drummer and keyboard player and demoed an album’s worth of new material between April 9-12, 1979 at Freerange Studio in London’s Covent Garden. This was supplemented by a second session, probably the following June, that yielded four further songs and two re-recordings. Following the hectic schedule of promoting “AFE?”, Numan recorded a new session for John Peel the day after the single hit #1 on the UK charts. Rather than record as Tubeway Army, the session was credited to Gary Numan and the group name abandoned at the peak of it’s success. As before, rather than promote the current album, Numan chose to record four new songs. While the album Replicas hit #1, Numan was busy recording a follow up in Marcus Music Studio. From the surviving tapes there are six mixes marked as out-takes and these have been included in the CD package. The discs have been sequenced with the stronger, second Freerange demo preceding the first session but all tracks are in the order of the tapes.

CD

DISC 1

1. Cars (Demo Version 2)

2. Films (Demo Version)

3. Complex (Demo Version)

4. Random (Remastered 2009)

5. M.E. (Demo Version)

6. Conversation (Demo Version 2)

7. Tracks (Demo Version 1)*

8. Cars (Demo Version 1)*

9. Metal (Demo Version)

10. Airlane (Demo Version)

11. Trois Gymnopédies No.1 (Demo)

12. Observer (Demo Version)

13. Conversation (Demo Version 1)

14. Engineers (Demo Version)

15. Asylum (Remastered 2009

16. Oceans (Remastered 2009)

17. Photograph (Remastered 2009)

DISC 2

1. Airlane (BBC Peel Session)

2. Cars (BBC Peel Session)

3. Films (BBC Peel Session)

4. Conversation (BBC Peel Session)

5. Tracks (Outtake mix)

6. Complex (Outtake mix)*

7. M.E. (Outtake mix)

8. Engineers (Outtake mix)*

9. Airlane (Outtake mix)*

10. Cars (Outtake mix)*

* previously unreleased

LP

A1. Cars (Demo Version)

A2. Films (Demo Version)

A3. Complex (Demo Version)

A4. Random (remastered 2009)

A5. M.E. (demo version)

B1. Conversation (Demo Version 2)

B2. Tracks (Demo Version 1)*

B3. Cars (Demo Version 1)*

B4. Metal (Demo Version)

B5. Airlane (Demo Version)

C1. Trois Gymnopédies No.1 (Remastered 2009)

C2. Observer (Demo Version)

C3. Conversation (Demo Version 1)

C4. Engineers (Demo Version)

C5. Asylum (Remastered 2009

C6. Oceans (Remastered 2009)

C7. Photograph (Remastered 2009)

D1. Airlane (BBC Peel Session)

D2. Cars (BBC Peel Session)

D3. Films (BBC Peel Session)

D4. Conversation (BBC Peel Session)

* previously unreleased

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-2qTkzY0XE