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The Gathering 2026 Itinerary
THE GATHERING 2026 – New Beginnings A Letter from The Peters’ Family Dear Gatherers, Thank you for joining us for our 32nd Gathering! – Y Plas, Cardiff University, 2nd Floor, Park Place, Cardiff. We look [read more]
![Jan 9, 1981 Seventeen - Queens Showbar, Rhyl, Wales [The Alarm’s first real concert & live debut of Sixty Eight Guns]
Selected ‘Love’ Book Extracts explain Mike’s memories of this special day in history ⬇️
“Even though we now had no manager, we still had a few Seventeen shows to attend to, including one in Rhyl on January 9th. During the Runaway Boys tour, we had been due to appear locally in North Wales at the Colwyn Bay Pier, but the Stray Cats had to cancel the show when the Runaway Boys single charted and they went back to London to appear on Top of The Pops instead. We were disappointed to lose the show, so we booked the Querns Showbar on January 9th for a homecoming Seventeen gig instead.
To prepare, we organised a rehearsal at the Merseyside Camp at Craig Fawr, in Dyserth. Inspired by John Lennon, Eddie and I had continued to work and write new songs and had come up with something we both found exciting called Four Minute Warning. We also took a second look at a song we had tried out in February/March 1980 called Streets of Fear.
I’d been reading a book called ‘A Glasgow Street Gang Observed’, by James Patrick, that Woofer had recommended to me. It was about belonging to something that mattered, and about what it means to be a part of something meaningful even if only for a short while. It had given me some new ideas for a set of lyrics and a song title ‘Sixty Eight Guns’.
Mike Peters
Love Autobiography](https://thealarm.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
