Today is 4^th May 1999. 20 years ago today a song was released as a single that would eventually become number one in the British charts and changed the way people thought about music. That song was "Are 'Friends' Electric?" by Tubeway Army.

At the time, I was 13 years old and just getting into music, as most people at school were. It was a time when you were either a mod, a punk, or a heavy metal fan at our school, nobody would ever admit they liked disco which was just as well really. I didn't like any of these types particularly but liked a bit of this and a bit of that, not being able to get a bit of the other…

It was a mate of mine who first mentioned the song to me, saying that he liked that new one by Tubeway Army. I got confused with a band I had heard called The Tubes and argued with him that it was crap. Then, I heard it… It was so different to anything I had heard before. The sounds of the instruments, that voice, the way it seemed to change into a completely different song half way through. I was hooked. Later I saw it on Top of the Pops and this pushed me even more towards this new kind of music, what an image, what an attitude, what an ace performance that blew everyone else away who was on the programme.

I had never actually bought a record at this time and I don't think I even knew where I could buy them from. My mate bought it anyway and so I just used to listen to his. At that age you sort of think, "What's the point of me paying for it when I can listen to it for free?" don't you? But this was the one that got me into music. I loved that song, and when the next single by the singer Gary Numan came out, it was that one that became the first single I ever bought. I soon went around shops and found somewhere that I could buy the old one from and I consider this single to be the one that changed my life in 1979.

Although a lot of people in the music business would never admit it, I truly believe that this was probably a landmark in music history. OK, a lot of people had used synthesizers before, but not in quite a way. They were either totally full of weird noises that made no sense at all or were hidden away somewhere in the background. This was the one that opened the way for a whole new style of music and led to a lot of electronic based bands during the Eighties. It is such a shame that it isn't recognized for it.