Today marks the 39th anniversary of Gary Numan's debut studio album 'The Pleasure Principle'; a synth-pop masterpiece released via the independent label Beggars Banquet. And yes, this is our way of hinting for a world tour for the 40th anniversary next year.

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle

'The Pleasure Principle' came just six months after 'Replicas', the second and last studio album from his new wave band Tubeway Army and similarly ended up peaking at number one on the UK charts, to no-one's surprise. Gary Numan would also achieve the same feat a year later with 'Telekon', but it's safe to say that this first release was where his music career peaked.

The album saw a renunciation of the much-beloved electric guitar in favour of the perfect synth sound, and ended up with a move that was more electronic than any of his work with Tubeway Army.

Many tracks were heavily influenced by the music of Kraftwerk. Possibly his most famous song of all time, number one single 'Cars', in particular drew on inspiration from 'Autobahn' and even uses the same synth models. The success of 'Cars', and the fact that his later songs didn't gain quite as much traction has led him to be labelled, extremely unfairly so, as something of a one-hit-wonder - despite the fact that much of this album was influential on later artists.

For example, 'Metal' has since been covered by Nine Inch Nails, Thought Industry and Afrika Bambaataa, and sampled by Planet Funk. 'Films' is another notable track that Bambaataa claimed was an influence on the later hip hop scene, while 'M.E.' was sampled on Basement Jaxx's 'Where's Your Head At?'. 'Complex' and 'On Broadway' are two other big fan favourites from the record. 

More: Gary Numan released 'Savage: Songs From A Broken World' last year

For the album's 30th anniversary, Gary Numan toured the US and played the record in its entirety - with next year marking the 40th anniversary, we're excited to see what he pulls out of the bag (if anything) for that.