Mike Peters, The Alarm, Welsh Pops Orchestra, Acquire, Morriston Orpheus Choir at Cardiff Millennium Centre

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 & Times fundraising book I am publishing to raise funds for Beating Bowel Cancer. I can only wish Mike the very best in beating it again.

Declaration 2014 Tour - Oxford

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 Rifles

I think it's a case of straight to the point with this post. The brand new album by The Rifles entitled "None The Wiser" which came this week is quite simply an absolute belter. It has been a long wait for it to come out, but it has been more than worth it. It is the band's 4th studio album and it more than holds its own with their previous efforts. What does it sound like? I don't think there is any harm in making comparisons to bands like The Jam, but for me it just sounds like The Rifles! Elements from all the previous 3 albums are in there so we get the fast energetic melodic guitar tracks as well as some beautifully crafted acoustic sounding slower tempo songs. I think my favourite song on the album at the moment is "You Win Some", which has a fantastic unofficial video to go with it, but seeing as I am playing the album non stop at the moment I am sure this will change in the days ahead. It seems these days that guitar driven bands like The Rifles struggle to get much radio airplay, which is simply beyond belief. It can't be because the music is not popular as the band have no problem filling concert venues and the new album is riding high at number 6 in the midweek charts during its first week of release. Its about time radio stations stopped deciding for themselves what is and what is not popular and created their playlists a little bit more based on facts...

I kind of missed out early Rifles material at the time, and not sure why as its bloody brilliant including the wonderful "She's Got Standards". By the time I got round to trying to buy the debut album "No Love Lost" it had been deleted. As much as I love the band I refuse to pay the high prices now being asked for the album so I had to resort to downloading it from a file sharing site. I shall have to hope that one day it gets reissued so as to get a genuine copy.

However I was right on cue to buy "Great Escape" the fantastic 2nd album. This album has been my favourite album by them to date, and I think it will be a close run thing with the new album as to whether it remains so. This album contains the live favourite anthem of "Romeo & Julie", which when seen live with a crowd in full song is about as good as things get at any gig...

The third album "Freedom Run" continued the run of quality material being released by the band. Around this time I was due to go and see the band live for the first time at The Coronet in London, I had my ticket and everything was set, and then unforeseen circumstances prevented me from going at the last minute. I put this right in 2012 going to see an acoustic show in Oxford which was amazing. Last year I went Rifles mad seeing the acoustic tour in Reading, then 3 dates in one week in November with the original line up playing back together, plus finishing off going to a Christmas concert at the Boogaloo in London. I am looking forward to seeing them on tour this spring in London.

Don't underestimate this band. They write rousing guitar driven anthems with lyrics that are both insightful and connect with their audience. They have also released 2 acoustic albums on their website of the songs of their career to date, and this is where the stripped back versions let the lyrics come much more to the forefront. This a band at the top of their game.

A Week With The Rifles

What a way to spend the dark late autumn evenings. Having never seen the full Rifles electric live show I booked up to 3 concerts on the current tour with the original line up. In fact 3 gigs in 4 days, which would be a test of stamina for a golden oldie such as your truly!

The week started in Oxford on Tuesday November 12 at the Oxford Academy. Being a school night and with the venue being a bus ride away from the railway station I decided to drive from Reading. I was pleasantly surprised to find space in the tiny car park close to the venue. A young homeless girl was doing great business instructing numpties like me on how to put money into the machine as it was one of those silly machines that required your car registration number. I think she was handing out instructions regardless whether you neeeded them or not in the hope of getting some loose change. Arriving at the venue at 8:00 I was a little surprised to see The Rifles were not due on stage until 10:00pm, but at least it gave me the opporunity to listen to the support bands, Dexters and Life In Film. I have to say I was particulary impressed with Dexters. My bad back held firm and 10:00 came and on stage arrived The Rifles. What a joy to see them in their full glory. It was a great set with the band playing for about an hour and playing stuff from their 3 albums plus new tracks from the forthcoming album. I think the late start meant they ran out of time depriving the audience of "Romeo & Julie" at the end with a strict 11:00 curfew in place. I drove back to Reading a happy man. The video below from Oxford is "Local Boy" and no matter how hard I try I keep getting spelling errors in the title so I apologise for "Oxfod" in the title, but I never intended to have a career in video production!

With the Wednesday off to recharge my batteries we moved on to Reading on Thursday November 14th at SUB 89. Always nice to see your favourite bands on the doorstep and I was able to get a bus to and from the town centre. My original plan was to have a bite to eat at the Oakwood Social Club, but this was thwarted by some problem in the kitchens requiring water to be pumped out! So plan b was to go to O'Neills for a Magners and a burger. Adequate if not particulary memorable... With still an hour to kill I decided to go to the Hop Tap close to the venue for another drink. The Hop Tap is a Wetherspoons pub and as soon as I sat down with my drink I thought to myself no! Sure the pub sold cheap beer but I really hope I don't end up like some of the folks in there in another 15 years or so. To be fair I always have a dating head on and it is definitely not a pulling pub! Note to one self spend a few extra pennies next time and go to a decent pub. My timing was good though as I arrived at SUB 89 just after 9:00 and only had to wait a few minutes before the arrival of The Rifles. It was in truth a very similar set to the Oxford one, but I felt there was a warmer atmosphere in the venue and and a better cross section of people in there. It was a brilliant set and had the added bonus of the band closing with "Romeo & Julie". The video below from Reading is of "Robin Hood".

With just a short bus ride home and having had a few drinks I decided to hang around afterwards and picked a copy of the 7" limited editon "Heebie Jeebies". All the band came to the merchandise desk so along with many others I got my copy signed so went home a merry chappy.

With no respite the following night, Friday November 15th, it was off up to The Forum in Kentish Town for the final show in my trillogy. The journey got off to a poor start with no seats on the train from Reading to Paddington. I suspect the England international at Wembley had something to do with this. Things did not get much better on the tube with delays on the Victoria line so I had to change my route a little to get there. On leaving the tube station 2 police cars went screeching past and I immediately thought "Welcome to London". The plan was to have a bite to eat and I had been suggested to try the Kentish Canteen. However it was full and I have to admit looked a bit too posh for a pre gig meal. I do however know where to take a lady out for a bite to eat if I ever date anyone in Kentish Town! Instead I went to the Gulshaan Indian restaurant and enjoyed a lovely lamb byriani washed down by 2 pints of Kingsisher. On entering the venue I was immediated taken back by the size of the crowd. The place was packed and it was just on such a bigger scale than the 2 previous shows. Once again it was a great cross section of people and the atmosphere had a really good vibe to it. I was not overly impressed with the yellow jacketed security numpties who seemed rather over zealous and the way they shone their power torches during the set was a little too gestapo like! One poor soul close to me was taken out for smoking so missed most of the set. Surely a tap on the wrists would have been sufficient? Anyway I digress as the set by The Rifles was stunning. They had certainly saved the best for last and it seemed the audience were bouncing off the band and visa versa. The set was a good 30 minutes longer than the other 2 shows and the band seemed to be in their element. One of the finest gigs I have been to in a very long time. A rather tedious and long journey home was fine as the show made everything worth while. The song I filmed in London was "Peace & Quiet". I didn't film "Romeo & Julie" at any of the shows as it is a song to get involved with and enjoy rather than stand and hold a camera and film...

 

So what next after such a great week? Well I have booked up to go to one of The Rifles acoustic Christmas shows at the Boogaloo in London in December, which will be a great end to the gigging year for me. I have seen the band acoustically a couple of times before so I know I am in for a treat!

 





The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park

The perfect summers day at London's Hyde Park. At 8:30pm as the sun began to set The Rolling Stones took to the stage for a 2 hour set that was pure class. The place was absolutely packed and I have never seen so many queues for food, drinks and merchandise, but everyone appeared to be there for a good time from what I saw. I must admit that I am not exactly a huge Stones fan, but when the concerts at Hyde Park were announced I thought it would be pretty cool to get to see this band, especially as there might not be another opportunity. A little bit of detective work got me a code for the pre-sale, so I safely had my ticket before the mad scramble for tickets started.

Fortunately the numerous HD screens and speaker gantries meant that the sound was pretty good all over the site, and this was also helped by there being no wind. By the time I arrived I had no chance of getting anywhere close to the front. The big question for me was could the band still do it, and with the rather steep ticket prices I had high expectations. Absolutely no worries on that score, from the opening chords to Start Me Up to the finale of Satisfaction they just rocked the house down!  This is a band whose influence and importance to the history of the British music scene cannot be underestimated.For me it was the older songs that really were the highlights, especially "Gimme Shelter" and the absolutely stunning version of "Can't Always Get".

Green Day

Some bands can make you feel quite old! No I don't mean that in a bad way, but as a late 20s bloke I loved "Dookie" when it broke through in the UK in 1994, and I bought the next two albums on the back of that album. I can remember seeing "Basket Case" on Top of the Pops and thinking that this band would be a great band to see live. However it was not until 2009 that I finally go top see the band play live.

The "American Idiot" album is one of my favourite all time albums. Big sound, big anthems, basically big everything. There is no doubt that Green Day were on of few bands that came out of Live 8 with an enhanced reputation on the back of a blistering performance in Berlin.

As much as Green Day are the masters of a 3 minute thrash melodic frenzy they also have the ability to take things down a notch or two and "Time Of Your Life" is a brilliant song and had been the band's closing signature tune until recently.

I always think that the best gigs are not necessarily those where the band plays note perfect replicating the record as that kind of takes away something of what live music is all about. I have now seen Green Day twice. In 2009 I saw them at the London O2 Arena and then in 2013 I saw them at The Emirates Stadium in London. Both gigs were stunning, and I give the most recent gig the nod partly due to the fact I was down on the pitch rather than up in the gods as I was at the O2. The band give a live show their all and the 2 and a half hours at The Emirates was brilliant. Yes it was a warm sunny Saturday in June with cold alcoholic refreshment in good supply, but that aside it was a brilliant gig.

It appears that the band's recent trilogy has come in for criticism and that the band's popularity is on the wane? I can't really answer that except to say I think its a great set of albums and the tracks stand up with the older material. I am sure that the disappointing sales figures might give some credence to that argument, but there is no doubt that as a live entity there are few bands around who can do it as well as Green Day and I suggest that those who are writing this band off might yet have to eat their words...

The Beat

The Beat or The English Beat depending on which country you are in cemented my love of ska music as a teenager. What they managed to do possibly more than the other 2-Tone bands of the era was to bring guitars more to the forefront of the sound without losing any of the infectious ska rhythms. They did not shy away from political statements either and "Stand Down Margaret" was not only a massive anti-Thatcher statement of it's time, but a wonderfully melodic tune.

Their debut album "I Just Can't Stop It" is just full of great songs, "Mirror In The Bathroom", "Best Friend" and "Hands off She's Mine". Their second album "Wha'ppen" was more gentle in its musical style with a more reggae influence, but the band had still had their finger on the political pulse with songs such as "Get A Job". Their third and final LP "Special Beat Service" was much more mainstream in its music direction, but contains my favorite Beat song "Save It For Later". Just the most gorgeous melody and the song has been covered by Pete Townsend, regularly features in the live version of "Better Man" by Pearl Jam and more recently covered by The Wonder Stuff. All three albums have recently been reissued as 2 CDs + DVD each featuring extra tracks and videos. I didn't get to see the original line up, but have seen Ranking Rogers UK version. How magical would it be to see to the original line up again...