The Alarm

Starting life as a punk act named The Toilets, then a mod group called Seventeen, The Alarm went on to become the biggest Welsh band of the 1980s, selling over 5 million records and touring with the likes of The Jam, Neil Young and Bob Dylan. Rising out of the post-punk and new wave scene, they moved to London from Rhyl, North Wales and built up an acclaimed live reputation as U2's support act across Britain and America. Fronted by Mike Peters, they offered a more polished, genteel approach to punk's anarchic energy, and scored underground hits with early singles "68 Guns" and "The Stand". Debut album Declaration (1984) was well received by critics and reached Number 5 in Britain, but the band softened their edges on Eye of the Hurricane (1987) in order to win airplay on American radio for singles "Rain in the Summertime" and "Sold Me Down the River". The band spilt in 1991, but reformed in 1997 and hoaxed the music world in 2004 when they released driving, garage rock single 45 RPM under the name "Poppy Fields". In a stunt aimed to highlight the industry's obsession with youth, they pretended that the song was recorded by a hot, new, up and coming band, and conned radio stations into playing the song without knowing it was actually by The Alarm. Still performing and releasing albums, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2011 with a gig back in Prestatyn where they originally formed. They followed with albums Peac Train (2014), Strength (2015), Equals (2018), and Sigma (2019) before the Covid-19 pandemic and returned with WAЯ (2021), Omega (2022), Forwards (2023), Music Television (2024). Issued in 2025, Transformation is the last recording with Mike Peters, deceased after a battle with cancer on April 29, at 66.