January 1982: The Alarm are interviewed by Mick Mercer for ZigZag magazine. Excerpt: “The Alarm have just released a single on their own unfilled label, ‘Unsafe Building’ backed with ‘Up For Murder’, which reflect both the energy and variety of their live show. When flailing frantically and passionately before our very eyes they slip through pure acoustic bliss to evocative electric chaos. Beginning with three acoustic guitars and drums, they end up in a more traditional electric line-up, but rest assured they are distinct and different from anyone else around at the moment. For future live shows they hope to continue a plan that they set in motion at a recent Ronnie Scott’s appearance. The idea means continual entertainment for the audience from the moment you go through the door.” (read article here)
January 26, 1982: Live gig: The Alarm, The Rock Garden, London. Review by Mick Sinclair in Sounds “The Alarm, however, are far from being empty-headed sixties revivalists. They use that decade’s essence as a springboard and combine it with a cynicism blended with a courageous optimism that is relevant and right for the eighties.” (read full review here)
January 28, 1982: Live Gig: 1/28/1982, The Alarm, Hammersmith Palais: (Stiff Little Fingers support)
February 11,1982: Live Gig: The Alarm @ The Rock Garden,
February, 25 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Polytechnic Of Central London (Jam support)
March 5, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, London School Of Economics:
March 22, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Thames Polytechnic, London
March 23 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, City Of London Polytechnic:
March 27, 1982 :Live Gig: 3/27/1982, The Alarm, Deeside Leisure Centre: (Support to The Jam)
April 14, 1982: Live Gig: Dingwalls London: Support for Syd Sylvain
April 24, 1982: Live Gig: Half Moon Herne Hill, London
April 27, 1982: Live Gig: Fulham Greyhound, london
April 30, 1982: Live Gig: Southbank Polytechnic
May 1, 1982: The Alarm featured in Sounds: Mick Sinclair writes about and interviews the band. Excerpt ” “The passing of songs revealed the hollow-bodied portions of the set to be equally split with electrically-plucked material. In the staid Venue setting the band’s fervent enthusiasm permeated right through the crowd to the last row of optics behind the drinks counter. I copped a handout, blagged their self-produced ‘Unsafe Building’/’Up For Murder’ single and finally caught up with the band at the massive Deeside Leisure Centre where the quartet were supporting the Jam. Our serious chatterings took place next morning over a background of yelping gulls on the sea-front of their home town, Rhyl….Right now, particularly with the acoustic material, the Alarm are welcomingly fresh and vibrant which so far compensates for their obvious naiveté. I probe them on how their beliefs can be fully equated with the capitalist splendours of the music industry, which they seem to embrace with open arms, and their answers are vague and indecisive. I bet they don’t know.To be honest, neither do I.”
May 1, 1982: Live The Alarm, Thames Polytechnic, Woolwich
May 6, 1982:Live Gig:, The Alarm, Hope And Anchor, Islington
May 7, 1982:Live Gig: The Alarm, Oxford Polytechnic:
May 8, 1982:Live Gig: The Alarm, Warwick University
May 9 ,1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Exeter University
May 11, 1982:Live Gig: Thames Polytechnic
May 14, 1982: Live Gig The Alarm, Dundee University
May 15, 1982:Live Gig: The Alarm, Strathclyde University
May 16, 1982:Live Gig: The Alarm, Valentino’s, Edinburgh
May 24 1982:Live Gig: The Alarm, Hammersmith Clarendon, London. Set List: Shout To The Devil/Marching On/For Freedom/Third Light/Second Generation/Pavilion Steps/The Deceiver/Up For Murder/68 Guns/Across The Border/What Kind Of Hell/Reason 41/Marching On/ Breakdown (Buzzcocks cover)/Up For Murder/68 Guns
May 27 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Hope And Anchor, London
May 28 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Target Club, Reading
May 29 1982: Live Gig:The Alarm, Two Brewery, Clapham
June 3 1982: Demo Recording: The Alarm recorded 3 demos for EMI at EMI studios, London. Songs included “Lie Of The Land”, “Reason 41” and “The Deceiver” Mike Peters “When we actually got down to London, we started getting a lot of interest from record labels and things like that. One of the first things we did when we were starting to play with U2 and all that, we started to get some interest and got to make some demos for Polygram and all these other kind of record labels. At the time we were just 3 accoustic guitars and a drumkit. We had no bass, but we had this theory that if we mic’ed up the basedrum that’d be enough. But when we made these demos it sounded terrible and all the interest we had started to evaporate. We just didn’t get anywhere. Eddie took on the bass role because he was a good guy basically. He gave up a lot of his guitar aspirations to fill a hole in the sound of the band. Then we got to make these demos for EMI and that started to turn it round for us. I’ve actually included the demos that we did for EMI, they’re included in the first part of the boxset in “The Alarm” titled album from 1981 to 1983. It was the first thing we did where we had proper bass going on. We actually got offered a singles deal by EMI and we agreed to do it. It was for two singles and we thought “Great!” and then we went out to celebrate and got drunk and talked ourselves out of doing it cause we wanted to make a proper album. We though “Let’s bin it and we’ll get a proper album” but we never got another record company after that interested in us until Miles Copeland came along.”
June 4 1982:Live Gig: The Alarm, Oxford Polytechnic:
June 5 1982:Live Gig: The Alarm, Half Moon, Herne Hill
June 7 1982:Live Gig: The Alarm, Hammersmith Clarendon, London:
June 11 1982:Live Gig: The Alarm, Zig Zag Club: support for The Spund, with Sneezes In China
June 16 1982:Live Gig: The Alarm, The Warehouse, Liverpool
June 17 1982: Live Gig The Alarm, Leeds University
June 18 1982:Live Gig: The Alarm, University, York
June 21 1982:Live Gig:The Alarm, Hammersmith Clarendon, London
July 2, 1982: Label Interest. Steve Tannett saw The Alarm at Exceter University, wants to sign them to IRS records. Miles Copeland says it is OK if they are “cheap”. Mike Peters “A guy called Steve Tannet, who signed The Alarm to IRS records, he’d seen us playing with The Boomtown Rats in Exeter. He organised a rehersal in Brixton, no was in Notting Hill Gate. He organised a rehersal in Notting Hill Gate, and brought Miles Copeland who was the manager of The Police and had this record company called IRS, to come and see us. We played 68 Guns for him. I can remember playing the last cord and my guitarstrap broke and went “pong”. I though “Blood hell, we’ve blown it here” Then Miles went away and gave Steve the go ahead to sign the band, so Steve did. Years later I asked Steve Tannet what had actually Miles said to him after he’d seen The Alarm for the first time, you know “What did he say to give you the go ahead to get the record deal?” And he said “Oh you can sign them as long as they’re cheap” And we were at the time.”
July 15th 1982:Label signing. The Alarm signed with I.R.S. records.
August 1982: Demo Recording. The Alarm record demos for I.R.S. (About August 1982):Demos recorded with Steve Tannett at IRS Basement studios. Demos included “What Kind Of Hell”, “68 Guns”. Showcase for Mile Copeland, owner of I.R.S.
August 16 1982: Live Gig: National Ballroom Kilburn (Undertones support)
September 11 1982:Festival : The Alarm play the Futurama 4 Festival, Deeside: Set-list:Declaration/For freedom/Marching On/Lie of the land/Third light/Across the border/68 Guns
October 1, 1982:”Marching On” single released In the UK.:”Marching On” single released In the UK. b/w “Lie Of The Land” and “Across The Border”. (See it in the discography)
October 1, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Brighton (English Beat support)
October 1, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Poole (English Beat support)
October 3, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Hammersmith Palais, English Beat support with Aztec Camera.
October 6, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Sheffield (English Beat support)
October 8, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Salford University (English Beat support)
October 9, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Bradford (English Beat support)
October 23, 1982: Live gig: The Alarm, Essex University
October 28, 1982: Live gig: The Alarm, Clarendon hotel, Hammersmith
November 3, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Leeds
November 5, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Salford University
November 6, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Thames Polytechnic
November 7, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Cardiff Top Rank (support for A Flock Of Seagulls)
November 8, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Birmingham
November 9,1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, North London Polytechnic
November 12, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Brunel University, Uxbridge
November 13, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Great Yarmouth (Belle Stars support)
November 14, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, The Pit, Exeter University : Set-list: Declaration/For freedom/The Deceiver/Lie of the land/Marching On/Third light/Unsafe Building/Tell Me/Across the border/68 Guns/Marching On/Up for Murder/Breakdown
November 18, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, X-treems, Brighton
November 20, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Cardiff University (Belle Stars support)
November 21, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, The Marquee, London (Chelsea support)
November 23, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Canterbury (Belle Stars support)
November 24, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Huddersfield Polytechnic (Belle Stars support)
November 25, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Preston Polytechnic (Belle Stars support)
November 26, 1982: Live Gig: The Alarm, Manchester, UMIST (Belle Stars support). (“Worst Alarm Gig ever” according to Mike Peters
December 1, 1982:U2 Support : The Alarm, Tiffany’s, Glasgow: Opening for U2 at a set of shows just prior to release of the “War” album (The Alarm’s first appearance as a tour support) Set-list: Shout To The Devil/For Freedom/Marching On/Reason 41/Third Light/Unsafe Building/Tell Me/Across The Border/68 Guns/Marching On
December 2, 1982:U2 Support: The Alarm, Manchester Apollo.
December 4, 1982:U2 Support: The Alarm, The Odeon, Birmingham
December 5, 1982:U2 Support : The Alarm, Lyceum Ballroom, London
December 6, 1982:U2 Support: The Alarm, Hammersmith Palais, London: This is the night in which Mike Peters taught Bono how to play “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”
December 9, 1982:Live gig: Leicester University: Boomtown Rats Support
December 10, 1982:Live gig: Norwich University: Boomtown Rats Support
December 11, 1982:Live gig: Sheffield Lyceum: Boomtown Rats Support
December 13, 1982:Live gig: Hitchen Regal: Boomtown Rats Support
December 14, 1982:Live gig: Folkstone Pavilions: Boomtown Rats Support
December 22, 1982:Live Gig: The Alarm, The Marquee, London: Supporting Lords Of The New Church