Alarm - O2 Academy, Liverpool, 8/3/2016
by Richard Lewis
published: 15 / 5 / 2016
intro
Marking their 35th year as a band, the Alarm plays to a sizeable crowd supporting the Stranglers at the Liverpool Academy
In the 35 years logged since their name change from The Toilets to their present moniker, The Alarm have accrued a cult following through their extensive touring over the years. Supporting tonight’s headliners The Stranglers and playing to an impressively large early doors crowd, the Mike Peters-led rabble rousers continue to mine the same impassioned songs that established them in the early 1980s. The heart-on-sleeve lyricism and strident thrash of ‘Superchannel’, their biggest UK hit ‘68 Guns’ and the well-suited ‘Deeside’ (which faces the other side of the Wirral peninsula opposite the Mersey), highlights the Springsteen influence that runs through Peters’ work. Guitarist James Stevenson’s lead lines embellish the tracks. The anthemic ‘My Town’, played late in the set, garners the biggest response from the crowd, along with an audience-sating rendition of ‘Where Were You Hiding When the Storm Broke’. Concluding, with the bulk of the headliners’ audience watching them, the none-more-apt ‘Spirit of '76’ concludes proceedings in raucous fashion.
Also at O2 Academy, Liverpool
Band Links:-
http://www.thealarm.com/https://www.facebook.com/TheOfficialAlarm
https://twitter.com/thealarm
Picture Gallery:-
interviews |
Interview with Mike Peters Part 2 (2004) |
In the second part of our Alarm interview, the first part of which we published last month, frontman Mike Peters talks to Anthony Strutt about the recent release of all his band's old albums, and his side project , punk supergroup, Dead Men Walking |
Interview with Mike Peters (2004) |
reviews |
New Home, New Life (2004) |
Excellent new CDS from reformed 80's anthemic rockers the Alarm, their first official single in thirteen years |
In The Poppy Fields (2004) |
most viewed articles
current edition
Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies - Sala Apolo, Barcelona, 29/11/2023 and La Paqui, Madrid, 30/11/2023Anthony Phillips - Interview
Difford and Tilbrook - Difford and Tilbrook
Rain Parade - Interview
Oldfield Youth Club - Interview
Autumn 1904 - Interview
Shaw's Trailer Park - Interview
Cafe No. 9, Sheffield and Grass Roots Venues - Comment
Pete Berwick - ‘Too Wild to Tame’: The story of the Boyzz:
Chris Hludzik - Vinyl Stories
previous editions
Microdisney - The Clock Comes Down the StairsWorld Party - Interview
Michael Lindsay Hogg - Interview
Heavenly - P.U.N.K. Girl EP
Ain't That Always The Way - Alan Horne After The Sound of Young Scotland 2
World Party - Interview with Karl Wallinger
Joy Division - The Image That Made Me Weep
Dwina Gibb - Interview
Steve Harley - Interview
Prisoners - Interview
most viewed reviews
current edition
Marika Hackman - Big SighSerious Sam Barrett - A Drop of the Morning Dew
Rod Stewart and Jools Holland - Swing Fever
Ian M Bailey - We Live in Strange Times
Loves - True Love: The Most of The Loves
Paul McCartney and Wings - Band on the Run
Autumn 1904 - Tales of Innocence
Roberta Flack - Lost Takes
Banter - Heroes
Posey Hill - No Clear Place to Fall
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart