It had been 25 years since I had last seen Mike Peters & The Alarm on stage in Cardiff. The previous time they were supporting U2 at The Arms Park. That was a day I remember for there being no alcohol inside the stadium, which meant an evening on Panda Pops! Roll the clock forward and once again I was on soft drinks, but this time down to the fact that I was driving to Cardiff from home in Reading.
Over the last couple of years Mike has reworked the songs of The Alarm's first two albums, Declaration & Strength. He has predominantly been touring these albums as a one man band aside from the annual Gathering shows where we have been given a taster of the potential that was fully realised at this concert at the Millennium Centre.
The early evening saw a screening of the director's cut of The Man In The Cameo Jacket, which is a forthcoming film which documents Mike's career in the music industry and his 20 year battle with cancer. Prior to the concert Mike had gone public about the recent return of his cancer, which he is now battling a third time. The film was terrific, and received a well earned standing ovation at the end. Mike took to the stage to another standing ovation. The absolute love and support for him inside the hall was not something I have often seen.
The question is just how many musicians can you get on one stage. Answers on a postcard to thealarm.com. By the end of the evening Mike & The Alarm were on stage with two choirs, Acquire & the Morriston Orpheus Choir, plus the Welsh Pops Orchestra.
2015 has seen the 30th anniversary of Strength and the set featured a large part of it. The highlights for me from that album were the performances of Deeside, Spirit of 76 and The Day The Ravens The Tower. Seeing these songs with full orchestral arrangements in such a wonderful setting was an experience that will not be forgotten. The sheer power and beauty of an orchestra was simply stunning! Adding to that the performance of Acquire, who have performed at The Gathering, and who were once again a real treat to watch. I have always thought more recent performances of Alarm classics have lacked backing vocals... Well that certainly wasn't the case here!
The reworking of 68 Guns was always going to be a bit special, and I wasn't disappointed. The older songs were given a new lease of life. If only it might be possible for this show to go on the road as a full tour... I always enjoy performances of The Stand, which is the song I first heard on John Peel in 1983 that got me into The Alarm. Other songs included Marching On, Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke, One Step Closer To Home, Breathe, My Town, One Guitar, Blaze of Glory, and Rain In The Summertime. A special mention must be made of the rendition of A New South Wales which saw the arrival on stage of The Morriston Orpheus Choir. It was quite brilliant. The set lasted for a good two and half hours, and it was one of the best concerts I have been to. When I first saw The Alarm at The Marquee Club in 1983, I never would have thought that 32 years later I would see many of the same songs performed with the orchestra and choirs.
Mike took great delight in celebrating Wales qualifying for the Euro 2016 finals when the result was shouted out to him during the evening. As an Englishman in the audience I could not bring myself to join in the "Wales, Wales" that rang around the auditorium! No offence :-)
Mike now begins his cancer treatment. I found out the day before the cancer that my mother's bowel cancer has returned for a third time so it was quite an emotional evening for me. Mike let me photograph him at Abbey Road for the forthcoming Lives & Timesfundraising book I am publishing to raise funds for Beating Bowel Cancer. I can only wish Mike the very best in beating it again.
30 years on from the original release of The Alarm's debut album "Declaration", Mike Peters is touring the UK in 2014 performing the album in full. This is no ordinary tour though, as marking the anniversary he has completely re-recorded the album with totally new arrangements taking the album back to the origins of the band's sound of acoustic guitars and drums. I got a taster of the new recordings at The Gathering in Llandudno recently so I was eagerly anticipating this gig in Oxford to hear the whole album performed in full.
I have seen Mike Peters perform Alarm material acoustically many times, and this was without doubt the best acoustic show I have ever seen him perform. The show was split into two halves with the first half seeing him perform a selection of material covering the bands complete musical history so there was something for everyone. For me it was an absolute treat to see him perform songs like "Lie of the Land" and "Across The Border" which got rare outings. With "Unsafe Building", "Up For Murder" and the glorious "One Step Closer To Home" it was a terrific first half. He is using a new guitar called "The Deceiver" which allows him to seamlessly switch between an acoustic and electric sound, and a small drum by his feet allowed him to put a beat into the music at times too. Also by using a sampler and the occasional backing track it really was a lot more than just an acoustic gig. Very much a one man band in 2014! The second half of the show was the performance of Declaration, and it was stunning. With every track being completely reworked it made for a new experience for any fan of The Alarm even those of us who go back to the early days. The anecdotes in between the songs were both interesting and amusing as we were treated to a really interesting insight into the band back in the early days leading up to the release of the album. It's hard to call a favourite song from the second half... "68 Guns" has been transformed into a song of both beauty and power, "Where Were You Hiding" rocks along in free flowing fashion and the anthemic "We re The Light" has taken on a more sullen beauty to it with introduction of minor chords to the verses. "The Stand" which was the song that brought me into this band has a wonderful skiffle arrangement and "Blaze of Glory" which finished the set was glorious, and watch out for the choir on the new recording of the song. We also got an insight into the origins of the lyrics and the band's relationship with U2. Possibly for me "Third Light" was the highlight as it is such a powerful song lyrically and very apt at the moment with the 100 year anniversary of World War One. The audience was very enthusiastic and much bigger than I expected, so I would advise anyone thinking of seeing the show to get their tickets in advance! A fantastic evening, and I hope tour this again very soon!
Of course there are bound to be many fans who will be anti the idea of reworking the album and dabbling with songs they have lived with for the past 30 years. It was interesting to hear Mike talk about how disappointed the band was with the production of the album, how tracks were messed with in their absence, and it brought back memories to me too. I had a copy of the single version of "Marching On" and back in 1984 I was eagerly anticipating the album and I remember when I first played it being disappointed with the production of that song more than most. Having seen the band a number of times during 1983 starting at The Marquee somewhere the live sound just hadn't been captured like I hoped. However you learn to live and grow to love albums and Declaration remains one of my all time favourites, but 30 years on I am eagerly anticipating the new release and getting the 2014 perspective. I see no point in Mike simply re-recording the album as it was, and if you are going to do it I think it is right to strip the songs back and represent them in a fresh light, whilst staying true to the origins of the band. It might not be for everyone's tastes but I still eagerly anticipate new music as much as I did back in the day and am very impatiently waiting for my order of the new album to arrive in the coming weeks.
I have included a chapter on Mike Peters & The Alarm in my "Beating Bowel Cancer" fundraising book I have self published to raise money for the Beating Bowel Cancer charity. If you would like to find out more about that please click here.
The Alarm is my favourite band of all time. A band I have followed since early 1983 to the present day and the music is just everything I like music to be. Back in 1983 I was 16 years old and was recovering from quite a serious kidney illness, and musically I was searching for a band to replace The Jam who had just split up. I would have my little radio in my bedroom and I was listening to John Peel when I heard this wonderfully powerful acoustic stomping tune. It was "The Stand" which was the 3rd single by The Alarm.
I ordered the 7" and 12" singles from my local record shop in Maidenhead and for the only time in my life did I take records into school to play to my friends once they arrived. On the basis of that 4 of us went up to see The Alarm play at The Marquee in London in May 1983. I was blown away by these weird looking band members with spiky hair banging out tunes on acoustic guitars with such power and energy the like of which I had never seen before. Over the following months I saw the band in London at every opportunity and saw just the most amazing shows by these 4 guys. We missed last trains home, got stuck in car parks and went to venues I never knew existed. The old ballroom venues in London were simply magical.
The band for me were at their best playing live and studio recordings sometimes never quite captured the essence of those live gigs. The commercial success in the UK came with the singles "68 Guns", "Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke", "Spirit of 76" and "Rain In The Summertime" with the 1st album and my favourite "Declaration" going straight into the UK Top 10 albums on its first week of release.
For me the golden years of 1983-84 saw the band at their finest. I suppose the day Dave Sharp started playing with a white strat rather than the acoustic changed the sound of the band and for me some of the magic was lost. I remember the Christmas show at the Hammersmith Palais in 1984 when I think the band played just about played every song they knew how to play that night and it was one of the truly great nights. It was the year of Band Aid and when the song was played before the band came on stage the place was just a mass of bouncing people. I remember going to see the band play at Heaven in London and apart from it being my first experience of a gay venue I remember seeing the most blistering version of "One Step Closer To Home" I have ever seen. I think the band stopped during the intro and re-started the song as they wanted to really crank it up!
The 2nd album "Strength" saw the band being able to fill out the Hammersmith Odeon and I remember in May 1985 going to see the band play there direct from watching Arsenal play away at West Brom, and then outside the gig afterwards I saw my hero Charlie Nicholas leave so I chased him down the road to sign my football programme from that day. "Strength" was an album that always left me a little disappointed as it just seemed so so different from "Declaration". In fact it was only in more recent times when http://www.thealarm.com/ put out "Alternative Strength" which included demos showing how the album progressed did I finally understand and appreciate the songs more fully.
During this period I saw The Alarm support Queen at Wembley in 1986 and U2 at the Cardiff Arms Park in 1987 I think! I remember the Wembley show mainly as shortly before The Alarm came on stage we made our way down to front having to step over loads of picnics that the Queen fans had laid out for the day. The set was magnificent and "68 Guns" went down a storm as it was the one Alarm song that most of the crowd knew. Cardiff was very eventful. We got the train down to Cardiff and had a good liquid lunch in the bars around the stadium. On entering the stadium to my horror they were not selling booze and the only drink on sale was Panda Pops! I was tempted to leave and get a train home. Fortunately both The Alarm and U2 were amazing and it was a wonderful day. Having said this I am always happiest going to Alarm gigs in their own right.
I enjoyed the 3rd album "Eye Of The Hurricane" as it kind of moved the band back towards the acoustic rock sound I enjoy. I remember Gary Davies from Radio 1 really getting behind the "Rain In The Summertime" single at the time. The 4th album "Change" was another hard album for me to really love as its more blues influences I found hard to really enjoy. The single "Sold Me Down The River" remains a great song but I wonder as I did from time to time with Alarm single releases whether it was the best choice of single at the time. I do remember the "Change" tour coming to Reading so it was nice seeing the band locally as well as in London. The final album from the original line up was "Raw" and I have to concede having seen the UK tour gig at Brixton we decided not to go to the extra show back at Brixton at the end of the European tour as something had gone from the live performance at that stage. As it turned out that last show in 1991 was the moment Mike Peters left the band so I actually missed the dramatic event. But even during such a dark hour there was a moment of light relief. At a fan club convention in Leicester shortly after Mike Peters left the band they were doing a quiz on stage when a poor girl's chair leg slipped in a gap on the stage causing her to fall over backwards. We have never laughed so long and cried such tears over any event before or since. I have now been contacted by the unfortunate victim after all these years, and I am glad to report that Pauline Redman is alive and well.
I think its no coincidence that I spent the next 10 years "retired" in the main from going to London gigs and just tended to buy CDs rather than going to gigs generally. And when Mike Peters put a new line up together and started playing as The Alarm again I suddenly started going back to see live music again. The release of the complete back catalogue as a CD box set was a fantastic release for a mad fan like myself. The modern line of The Alarm have released some amazing albums... "In The Poppy Fields", "Under Attack", "Guerrilla Tactics" and "Direct Action" with numerous box sets complementing these releases. Singles taken from these albums include "45 RPM" and "Superchannel". I make the annual pilgrimage to The Gathering in North Wales where a whole weekend of live music and much more is put on for the faithful fans. The "In The Poppy Fields" album for me announced that as well as continuing to honour the songs of The Alarm past, that this band had plenty to say here and now and that the music could stand up in its own right along side those songs of years gone by.
What I like about the new line up is the freshness of the music, the amazing live shows and an ability to capture the live essence of the live songs in the studio recordings. If anything the songs now are faster and angrier than ever and as a song writer Mike Peters has come of age over the years. I think the music of the modern Alarm era shows that there is plenty of life left in The Alarm yet, and who knows what chapters could be added to the story of The Alarm in the years ahead.
Bring the story up to date I recently saw the band on the 30th anniversary Sound And The Fury tour which sees the band band playing all the classic tracks from the last 30 years and the live sound is amazing. An album was released in June 2011 of the same title featuring reworkings of Alarm / Mike Peters songs from over the years including a single of "Unbreak The Promise". The album stayed clear of the more well known recordings which was a brave and interesting idea. To finally get a studio recording of "For Freedom" after decades was brilliant.
The Alarm will always play a huge part in my musical life and I hope there remain many more chapters in the story. Could I name my favourite Alarm song? "Majority" always has been a huge favourite. The electric version of "One Step Closer To Home" and going back to the beginning I loved "For Freedom" and am so happy it is finally getting a studio recording release on the forthcoming album.
The solo work of Mike Peters and Dave Sharp will follow in other blogs as the solo work kept a connection going with The Alarm during the 1990s.
p.s. I am also the proud supplier of The Alarm printed carrier bags you get all your merchandise in :o)
