Thanks to everyone for joining Mike and I for the Big Night In on Saturday nights.
We seem to have discovered a mutually beneficial way (that’s you and us!), of helping each other through Lockdown, enjoying a relaxing couple of hours (well, not always relaxing for us haha!), of music, chat, previously unseen footage, video & film premieres, reminisces plus sharing snatches of our rock and roll family life under Lockdown here in our picturesque village of Dyserth, North Wales.
Despite sometimes being challenging technically, we are learning more each week, with the fabulous help from our Tour Manager, (now Director of the Big Night In!), “Over to you” Andy Labrow. It has been our ambition from the ‘get go’ to deliver the best sound possible and that has been a learning curve, testing new platforms, cameras and sometimes just going with the flow and learning from the true live experience!
We didn’t want to just broadcast a straightforward gig of Mike singing from the sofa. We wanted to entertain through chat and interaction, looking backwards through the archive history and forwards to new horizons yet challenged. Now that we have prised open the Treasure Chest known as The Alarm Archive, we have a lot to discover and share with you, so we’ll keep going with the Big Nights In indefinitely for now, if that’s ok with you?
The Big Night In has become something of a full time job for the three of us with the added input from Gary Overington in England, who assists with sourcing footage/editing as well as Lily Elsayed in New Jersey, who oversees Alarm social media comments and keeps the requests and dedications flowing through.
Our kids, the Stormtroopers, o k a Dylan and Evan, enjoy the fact that we, (Mum and Dad), step away from Homeschooling on Saturdays and generally leave them to their own devices (literally!) Hence, they are nowhere to be seen most of the night, apart from the occasional dip into the fridge! Otherwise they remain firmly locked-down upstairs!
During the week, Mike has continued to impress me with his Homeschooling talents. He’s taught the kids how to play ‘Anarchy in the UK’ and tomorrow is teaching ‘Rage Against the Machine’s “Wake Up”. He’s also shaping up to be a brilliant P.E. Teacher with countless episodes of Footie/ Rugby and Keepy Uppies in the back garden. He’s 100% the Rock Star Dad.
I’m in charge of Piano Lessons plus Music Theory, with English & Maths thrown in. I trained to be a teacher in 1990 (thought I better give my English degree some quick purpose in case my parents started complaining!) before the bright lights of touring the world with The Alarm tore me away from my post-graduate studies! I’m not sure it has held me in good stead to teach my own children but like the Big Night In, I am persevering each week! Music will keep us strong!
I’m so excited to invite you into our home on Sat night, at the earlier time of 7pm for the Big Night In ‘Special Edition Night of Virtual Theatre’ and the world premiere of OXY the Musical, written by Mike Peters, Steve Allan Jones, Paul Sirett and directed by Peter Rowe…
I hope you will be all dressed up, out there in home theatre land, enjoying your pre-theatre dinner, with drinks chilling in the fridge, ready for the Interval and Aftershow.
Last week, Mike and I were completely taken by surprise by a film compiled of Alarm fans’ video messages from all around the world, letting us know that they were tuning in to the Big Night In. We were so touched and I’ve added the screen grabs below for you to see… It’s amazing to see how the Big Night In has brought people together on a global level.
I thought it might be nice to replicate this idea with photos this Sat 25th April, so if you have the time, I invite you to send a photo of yourself, all dressed up and nowhere to go ;-0) with a piece of paper held up, showing your name and place in the world #BigNightIn. Then we can share to the world and other Alarm Galaxies!
(Please send your photo to alarmcalling@mac.com)
Speaking of which, here’s our selfie to kick things off…
We are Mike and Jules and we are tuning in to the Big Night In from Dyserth (Big love and thanks to Alarm Artist Dan Shearn who illustrated our selfie) I feel a T shirt coming on! So many of you have been asking for a Big Night In T shirt so we shall see!
After Oxy, we are hosting a special one hour Big Night In, inviting requests, dedications and songs from all around The Alarm globe so get requesting and our very own Human Jukebox Man of over 400 songs, will do his very best to oblige.
Thanks for being the best Alarm family we could wish for.
Here’s to keeping safe and staying home for the Big Night In.
Music will keep us strong.
Love Hope & Strength,
Jules Jones Peters X