The Plan is a retrospective album of early demo recordings

Demo (music)

A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...

 by Tubeway Army

Tubeway Army

Tubeway Army were a London-based punk rock and new wave band led by lead singer Gary Numan. They were the first band of the post-punk era to have a synthesizer-based hit, with their single Are 'Friends' Electric? and its parent album Replicas both topping the UK Album Chart in mid-1979.-Line-up:The...

 (the band name originally used by Gary Numan

Gary Numan

Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music...

) released in 1984.

The demos were originally recorded in 1978. In the album's sleevenotes, Numan states that they were deliberately written and recorded in the then-popular punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 style (clipped vocals, buzzsaw guitar mainly playing barre chords, bass and drums), 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") later became the basis for songs on the released debut album Tubeway Army

Tubeway Army (album)

Tubeway Army is the debut album by Gary Numan and his band Tubeway Army, released in 1978. Its initial limited-edition run of 5000 sold out but did not chart...

, automated with the synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 rock sound which would become the Tubeway Army/Numan trademark.

Numan's record company, Beggars Banquet Records

Beggars Banquet Records

Beggars Banquet is an English independent record label that began as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin, and is part of the Beggars Group of labels...

, decided to release these recordings in September 1984, 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 the 'punk' sound.

The Plan went on to do moderately well, reaching #29 on the UK album chart. Two months after The Plans release, Numan issued Berserker

Berserker (Gary Numan album)

Berserker is the eighth studio album, and sixth under his own name, by electronic music pioneer Gary Numan, released in 1984. It was his first album to be released under Numan's own record label, Numa Records.-Overview:...

, his first album through his own record label, Numa Records. Chartwise, The Plan outperformed Berserker, the latter reaching #45 on the UK album chart. For later CD releases of The Plan, bonus tracks were added such as Tubeway Army's debut single "That's Too Bad

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...

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

Original LP

1. "This Is My Life"
2. "My Shadow In Vain"
3. "Critics"
4. "Mean Street"
5. "Thoughts No.2"
6. "Bombers
   Bombers (Gary Numan song)
   "Bombers" is the second single by Tubeway Army, released in 1978. The song is in a somewhat more conventional rock style than their punk-oriented debut, "That's Too Bad", and features sound effects simulating air raid sirens, dive bombers, and machine gun fire. Like its predecessor, the single...
   
   "
7. "Basic J"
8. "Ice"
9. "Something's In The House"
10. "Friends"
11. "Check It"
12. "Steel & You"

1999 CD reissue

1. "That's Too Bad
   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...
   
   " (single version) – 3:20
2. "Oh! Didn't I Say" – 2:16
3. "Out of Sight" – 3:28
4. "Bombers" (original version) – 3:53
5. "My Shadow in Vain" (original version) – 4:05
6. "This Machine" (original version of "Steel & You") – 3:56
7. "Thoughts No. 2" – 3:25
8. "Something's in the House" (original version) – 4:06
9. "Check It" – 3:35
10. "Monday Troop" – 2:58
11. "This Is My Life" – 2:16
12. "Mean Street" – 3:15
13. "Ice" – 2:16
14. "Crime of Passion" – 3:35
15. "Life Machine" (original version) – 1:52
16. "Critics" – 1:51
17. "Do Your Best" (original version of "Friends") – 2:32
18. "Basic J." – 2:51
19. "That's Too Bad" (original version) – 3:17
20. "Bombers" (single version) – 3:52
21. "Blue Eyes" – 1:44
22. "O.D. Receiver" – 2:38
23. "Fadeout 1930" – 3:13
24. "Don't Be a Dummy" (Lee Cooper advert) – 0:30