The 15 songs originally recorded in March 1978 remained on Beggars Banquet's vault for six and a half years, finally emerging as The Plan in autumn 1984. Not only were the tracks sequenced in the running order that Numan originally intended but the album took on a life of its own by leaping into the UK charts at Number 29.

Gary Numan never really intended these songs to be released. They were meant to give Beggars Banquet a rough idea of the songs that he had at the time, with his band Tubeway Army. Also, by the time these sessions were finished Gary had stumbled across the Mini Moog synth and begun work on an entirely new kind of music, making this punkier material outdated and unwanted by him.

This release, remastered and repackaged, also includes many extra bonus tracks.