Review: THE LIMIT, SHEFFIELD, 5 February 1984

The Limit club is packed to the rafters with over-aged and under-aged punks, hippies and students whose enthusiasm is seemingly unbounded. As the evening progresses the sick, smoky atmosphere gets denser and condensation begins to run down the walls and drip off the roof.

The Alarm bounce into view and throw themselves into their set with a burning passion, to an instantly wild response from the crowd. Their stance is that of the Angry Young Man, all flying crimped hair and serious expressions. The music, not surprisingly, follows along the same lines as the two hit singles. In there you can find a crossover point where hippiedom meets U2, The Clash with a dash of Stiff Little Fingers thrown in for good measure. But I wouldn’t want to knock them too hard since they sing with a sincerity and commitment as if they really believed what they sing about – that’s lacking in a few of the microchipped pop acts of this day and age.

The steady stream of raging punk anthems, literally streaming with feeling, have the crowd screaming for more. After five encores, including the old Rod Stewart song “Maggie May” and (would you believe) Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”, the crowd won’t let them go and they’re still yelling themselves hoarse when the house lights go up. 68 young guns can’t be wrong.

Publication::Publication:Record Mirr
Author::Claire Sheaff