The Alarm began in 1978, in the North-Wales town of Rhyl, under the name of 'Seventeen'. Its 4 members were Mike Peters, Dave Sharp, Eddie Macdonald and Nigel Twist. They knocked around the music scene for a while with little success and reformed as 'Alarm Alarm' (taken from one of Seventeen's songs) in 1981. Then John Peel compared them to 'Duran Duran' and 'Talk Talk' and they quickly changed their name to 'The Alarm'. With the change of their name, came a change of location. The Alarm moved to London and shared a small flat in the city to save money for their first single, 'Unsafe Building' b/w 'Up For Murder'. They came to the attention of U2 in '82 and toured with them as their support band (they frequently reprised that role). In 1983, 'Sixty-eight Guns' was released. It became their biggest hit, propelling them to #17 in the charts, and they appeared on Top of The Pops for the first and last time. Throughout the decade, the band made more albums, including 'Strength' and 'Eye of the Hurricane'; but by the late 80's The Alarm had begun to drift apart, with Dave Sharp feeling isolated and left out of the song writing process. The relationships within the band were deteriorating. Their last album, '
1 | Eye Of The Hurricane | The Eye Of The Hurricane |
2 | Black Sun | Change |
3 | Hallowed Ground | The Eye Of The Hurricane |
4 | How The Mighty Fall | Change |
5 | Presence Of Love | The Eye Of The Hurricane |
6 | Devolution Workin' Man Blues | Standards |
7 | Hardland | Change |
8 | Rain In The Summertime | Standards |
9 | Strength | Standards |
10 | Prison Without Prison Bars | Change |
11 | Howling Wind | Declaration |
12 | Tell Me | Declaration |
13 | Blaze Of Glory | Declaration |
14 | Shout To The Devil | Declaration |
15 | Unsafe Building | Standards |
16 | The Road | Standards |
17 | Marching On | Declaration |
18 | Where a Town Once Stood | Change |
19 | A New South Wales | Change |
20 | Only Love Can Set Me Free | The Eye Of The Hurricane |