The Alarm

The Alarm was made in Wales, UK and by the time of 1981’s debut single ‘Unsafe Building’, featured a daring mix of amped-up acoustic guitars, harmonica and passionate vocals that invited the enduring description “Bob Dylan meets The Clash”.

This is the sound of The Alarm that has been heard around the world ever since, with 17 Top 50 UK singles, a host of successful albums and over 5 million sales worldwide. Following an initial breakthrough in North America with 1983’s The Stand, alongside the evergreen Sixty Eight Guns which smashed into the UK charts soon after, The Alarm headlined their own ‘Spirit of ’86 Concert’ before 26,000 fans in Los Angeles, transmitted around the world to millions via MTV’s first ever live global satellite broadcast.

In the summer of 1991, the demands of the road were at the heart of a very public swan song for the original members at London’s Brixton Academy before the current line up emerged causing worldwide controversy in 2004 through The Poppy Fields ‘fake band’ escapade. Released to conceal their true identity, the Alarm’s first single of the millennium – ’45 RPM’ would ultimately take their signature electro-acoustic sound into the UK top 40 and back into the mainstream rock culture of North America.