The Alarm score UK hit by disguising themselves as a younger band

Okay. Judging by the single's musical value, you're still boring, pompous shite then Mike.

In a list of 100 Welsh heroes, he is currently number seven behind Tom Jones, Richard Burton and Welsh revolutionary Owain Glyndwr.

Wales is a foreign country, they do things differently there.

Oh my god. This thread revive is for Trayce.

I couldn't find a proper Alarm thread and I'll leave it to Geir to start one.

I love "Rain In The Summertime". I'm playing the Strength album now for the first time since I was about 15. I don't know why I am doing this except for the LULZ. Anyone who wants to smack me over the head and say "what the hell are you doing listening to this crap 80's music?" is welcome to do so.

I mean, they're just designed for 15 year olds who don't know any better eh? Oh the drama and the earnest lyrics! As if to say "Yes, we're like U2...but WE MEAN IT MAN!" LOL

Spirit of '76 is seriously making me laugh right now.

I went to the concert! I bought an ALARM BANDANNA! It said "Spirit of '76" all around the border! Oh the horror!

yeah you know i loved the first few albums when i was 15/16. but i have a lot harder time justifying it than i do a lot of other things i liked at that age. they were supremely stupid. but ... catchy.

mike peters deserves a mention on that worst-lyricist thread.

I know, isn't it amazing? I never even owned any of their earlier records, which I regret now.

they also had sort of stunningly hilarious hair.

I know, I can't get enough right now! I cannot get enough. The 80's police are gonna drag me away in the bad 80's paddywagon.

The orig lineup was a terribly unattractive lookin bunch of lads. And yet I thought they were awesome.

TBH I only realy loved "Declaration" (which I still have on vinyl, haw); by the time "Strength" came out they started to sound too polished and major labelly.

WHERE WERE YA HIDING
WHEN THE STORM BROKE
WHEN THE RAIN BEGAN TA FAAALLLL

... aargh. Cringe.

"each man kills the thing he loves/for better or for worse"

he's like bono's retarded brother.

I had a book on the Alarm at one point - you know those horrible cheap chapbooks on bands you could buy in the 80s with a rundown on them and loads of pics? - and it miffedly complained at one point about an NME journo calling them "an imitation of a shadow of the Clash". Har.

"Bono's retarded brother" LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL Oh fuck I love ILX. Always right there when I need it.

"The Day The Ravens Left The Tower" is so MEANINGFUL! FROM THE HEART! WE MEAN IT MAN!!! WE ARE TEENAGERS AND WE DON'T GIVE A SHIT!

Trayce did you actually have a book about them???? Oh god, do tell! This is AA here, Alarm Anonymous, and there's no need to be ashamed.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39880000/jpg/_39880435_peters.jpg

A teenager, yesterday.

I know, I'm trying to be patient. I'm trying to download the early stuff now, and be patient. Then when I have that, I'll be complete forevermore.

The book was just one of those shitty newsagents books you used to be able to get on random chart bands, back in the day. Do they still make things like that? Like a potted biog with pics.

"Rain in the Summertime" was the balearic/Acid remix that never happened.

Mark G.!!!

Oh my god I love you and I don't give two bits of shit about what is hip

Bono's retarded brother, ladies & gentlemen!

I loved the "Strength" album more than anything else they ever did. A bit more polished than the debut, surely, but just to a fitting level. By "Rain In The Summertime" and the "Eye Of The Hurricane" album, they kind of lost it and later material hasn't been particularly good at all. But still two excellent albums in the mid 80s. And, yes, "68 Guns" is a wonderful anthemic single!

Saw them at free lunchtime concert put on by a local radio station during the 'Declaration' tour. Drinking beer at noon and listening to rock anthems A+.

I just saw someone describe them as a "poor man's Big Country". I wholly approve of this description. I never heard their first album, but I'm seeking it out now. For sheer lolz and teenage kicks.

Except they wrote much better and more catchy songs than Big Country. Big Country were never close to composing a chorus as wonderfully anthemic as "68 Guns".