Pete and I are both from Liverpool. We grew up here in the city, very close to each other. We met in our late teens through a mutual friend. Our Alarm story started then, we both loved the Alarm’s music – it was the thing we had in common and was the topic of conversation for many months before and while we dated.
Life has a habit of getting in the way and we went our separate ways in our early twenties. For many years one particular song always reminded us of each other… “Walk Forever By My Side” was ‘our song’ and we both always connected that song with the other one while we were apart. Fast forward from 1989 to 2011 and through another musical connection we found each other again. While living in the south of England I made friends with some people back in my home town of Liverpool. I visited Liverpool a lot to attend gigs and music was always a huge part of my life. Imagine my surprise early in 2011 to discover that a friend of mine in Liverpool who I’d met in 2007 had gone to school with Pete!
They became Facebook friends when Pete returned to Liverpool and Pete saw my name on his friend’s Facebook page. We connected again through Facebook and very quickly realised that all the feelings we had for each other in the late 80’s were still there. Cutting a long story very short, I moved back to Liverpool to live with Pete. We got engaged in April 2012 and married in Hawaii in October 2012. The first song we played after our idyllic beach wedding was of course “Walk Forever By My Side”. My wedding gift to Pete was a hand written copy of the lyrics written by Mike. It’s a treasured possession that is on display in our home, a permanent reminder of the importance of Mike’s words in our life.
Next weekend we are attending The Gathering together. It will be the perfect end to our first year together, and a tradition I hope we will continue for many years to come.