The Alarm - Oran Mor - 09/03/13 (Glasgow_

The Alarm.

Glasgow.

Sold out gig.

Six words that naturally work together.

You get a great band, a music loving city, and some rabid fans, and then when they all gravitate towards each other the magic is made.

On tour promoting the release of the movie Vinyl - a film that covers the time that the band hoaxed the charts and media by delivering a single under the name The Poppy Fields - the band are probably sounding as urgent as I have ever heard them.

Part of that is certainly down to the material that was freshly written for the soundtrack.

Mike has very obviously keyed into the roots of the band from as far back as when he and Twist were playing as The Toilets and injected the music with a late seventies punkyness.

It's a very welcome addition to the sound of the band, and one that certainly gets the heart racing and the blood being pushed to parts that it maybe hasn't managed to reach since the mid eighties.

For fans of the band it's conceivable that the new songs sound like an imaginary missing link between the Toilets and the Alarm.

That's of course if we neatly forget about Seventeen, and that no bad thing.

Not neatly forgetting Seventeen, but recreating a period in time that could be picked up on as a stepping stone that felt their feet as they went from the seventies to the eighties.

The set flows very well.

From Alarms classics to fan favourites to a section left to kick out the jams and get the new material road tested it all works and passes by with dizzying alacrity.

One minute I'm welcoming the band on stage and the next the lights are up and everyone is drifting away.

It wasn't a short performance, but more a hit and run one that had all the vim of youthful intent.

For guys who have been around the block a few times you could have closed your eyes and very easily imagined that this was a show from some young guns who were wanting to take on the world, and that is as it should be.

I wouldn't care to think about how many times I have seen the Alarm as it makes me feel old, but without exaggerating it this show was up there with the best of them.

The rendition of Spirit of '76 was worth the ticket price alone.

Major plus point for the night was also the take up on people volunteering to be added to the bone marrow transplant list that is championed by Love, Hope and Strength.

Fifty seven people in one night.

Now that's something that should be applauded as loudly as the band were.

Next promoted gig - Dave Sharp

The man needs no introduction, or shouldn't do, but just in case he's the ex Alarm fella who for a number of years now has been touring up and down the country carving a reputation for himself as being the guitarists guitarist and a travellin' blues man that can't be missed.
In support is Homesick Aldo.
Have harmonica and drum will travel.
Plundering the R&B sounds of the sixties, 70's punk and the blues he mixes it all together to give an audience a primal injection of raw music that will leave your head reeling.
Last, but by no means least will be the uber talented Cal Murray.
A man, a guitar and the ghost of Strummer looking over his shoulder.
Click on the pic for a larger image

The Alarm - The Sound and Fury

On first listen to the latest album from Mike Peters and his band of merry musicians I will have to admit to being just slightly underwhelmed.
For an album that is called the sound and the fury I wasn't feeling a punch from it.
Now that a number of days have passed and each of the songs have bedded in I've decided that the reason for that is prior to hearing much of it from the studio my only point of reference for the music was from the live experience.
Put the two together and the studio versions sound like pale imitations of what the songs can sound like.
In the studio the heartfelt 'fury' seems to have been lost, distilled down, and tamed by going through the recording process.
I've said it before, but how do you capture the lightning that can spark from a live performance?
I'm not sure that you actually can, but even when a producer comes close to doing just that I reckon that it's a hit and miss stroke of luck.
This reworking of songs written during Mike Peters long career, while worthy, maybe could have been something that was tinkered with until a bit more energy was caught in the recording.
So while I'm now enjoying this album far more than I initially thought I would, I'm still longing to hear the songs played again with that Sound and Fury that is promised and is delivered each time Mike takes to the stage.

Promoting gigs 101

Promoting gigs is often seen as a thankless task by those who do it. If there are individuals who consider it to be a pathway to fame and fortune, and you know them, then give them a slap.
It's for their own good.
The amount of effort put into booking a headlining band, arranging supports, sorting out venues, arranging equipment and accommodation, negotiating a rider, printing tickets, making posters and flyers and then going out and about advertising the gig is the story that is never told.
All of this needs to be done prior to anyone setting foot on a stage or a punter entering the door.
Then when everyone is enjoying the acts you will more often than not find yourself at the end of a cold and damp corridor - or just around the corner from where the action is - taking tickets, stamping hands, and generally keeping the peace while smiling inanely at the jokes that those who are slightly worse for wear insist on telling you.
Then when it is all over people can congratulate you on what a great night it has been before you go home and make pizza for the bands. Then there's breakfast in the morning to be sorted.
No one talks about all that.
Yet after saying all this Kel and myself keep coming back to doing it again and again.
Someone maybe needs to give us a slap.
The upside to it all though is that most of the time the stress and hassle is worth it.
Even if the night isn't a huge success and you find yourself out of pocket there is still something worthwhile about it all.
One of the positive aspects is making something out of nothing.
The process of an idea pushed forward into becoming a reality can give you a bit of a buzz.
While most people are talking about it you are doing it.
A successful gig will give you a high so good that it should be registered as a Class A.
Then there's is the friendships forged.
You can't put a price on that.
I don't mean with the bands who are just travelling through - although most of them are cool as the proverbially cucumber - but with the people who come back again and again. You find out that you have loads in common with someone who might live three streets away, but you never knew them until they turned up at the first, second and third gig.
It's not unusual to be stopped in the street to ask what you have coming up and it is from that little acorn that relationships grow.
Just recently my 16 year old son had been moaning about not being able to attend some of the gigs due to them all being for over 18s.
If I was just someone that was heading out to club and pub gigs then his moaning would be just that. A gripe I could do nothing about, but through promoting the gigs I asked two acts to do an acoustic set for him in my flat and both agreed.
I mean how great is that?
Push the coaches back, clear a space and have a nice relaxed gig in your front room with a limited audience.
Probably the best thing about it for me though is that it is an extension of my love for music and the counter culture.
On the outside looking in I'm a single parent working in care and struggling to get by just like virtually everyone else, but that is just one part of my life and I'm also immersed in music. Loving every minute of it. Doing an unpaid job that I love.
There is huge satisfaction in it all, and for all the trials and tribulations there have been times when it has actually kept me sane.
So I guess I will just keep dipping my toe in. Taking a break when it is too much and then diving back in when the mood takes me.
Just confirmed today is the return of Dave Sharp, ex guitarist of the Alarm, who is currently extending on the sound that Guthrie and then Dylan pioneered.
He's in the final leg of making a new album and until that is done and dusted we really can't comment, but if he can capture just 20% of the magic he weaves live then it will be something pretty special.
Supports have still to be sorted, but the ElDiablo signal has went up and I'm just waiting on the nod from a few people before I can announce the full line up.
Apart from that we also have The Duel confirmed. Another personal favourite of mine.
In fact Kel and me don't put on any bands that we don't personally like. That would be too much like a business.
So anyone you see at one of the shows we have arranged is there not because they were simply available, or a mates band, but because we like what they do.
I'm looking forward to this as their last trip to Scotland was plagued by problems from really, really, crap weather keeping people from attending, a crowd who were mainly there to see the support band and buggered off prior to a note being sung or a chord being struck and then sound gremlins added to the misery.
This time it's going to be a different story and they are going to imprint the name of the Duel in local history as THAT band who came and stole our hearts.
So far one support band has been arranged. A local mob called Mechanical Smile who have the bones of a good band in them and I'm hoping will blossom into some home-grown talent that we can be proud of.
We have all seen bands like this. everything is in place, but we are just waiting on them to align and then they can shine bright.