Gig: 5/24/1984, The Alarm, Lund

ANTHEMIC: the Alarm had as much Beatles as Clash and U2 in them, with a strong dash of Mighty Mighty Bosstones camaraderie. Even in their ’80s heyday, the Alarm used to get knocked for writing too many anthems – as if coming up with rock anthems that worked were an easy thing to do. But the Welsh quartet wrote virtually nothing else: they took “The Stand,” they made the “Declaration,” [read more]

The Alarm may look like desperado bandits fresh off the cattle truck from Mexico, but in reality you couldn�t hope to meet four nicer boys; honest! The clothes may be black and menacing, the haircuts stiff and spiky, but underneath the tough exterior The Alarm heart ticks to a happy beat! The four musicians from Rhyl in North Wales suddenly found their world turned upside down when their single, �68 [read more]

Day Twenty Six: Monday 27th June 2005 Today, James gets stuck into guitars on ‘Cease and Desist’. It’s sounding great but we are having a few problems with the tuning. A lot of James Stevenson’s guitars are of the vintage variety and come from a variety of eras. Some from the 1950’s (The ‘Golden Age Of Guitars’) but mostly sixties and seventies. They all sound amazing but sometimes are hard [read more]