3-4-1 Tour Part 3: The Alarm @ ABC, Glasgow 5th June

Only a 45 minute set from The Alarm tonight but what a power packed 45 minutes it was. Old School Alarm and New School Alarm played with an energy that the Damned seemed to lack. The sound seemed better for The Alarm than the Damned and I'm not sure why that was. Mike Peters made the best of what he got and I'm certain they won over a few new fans on the strength of this performance.The Alarm setlist: Three Sevens Clash, Loaded, Where Were You Hiding, The Alarm Calling, Superchannel, Spirit of 76, Rescue Me, My Town, 45rpm and 68 Guns.
The first few dates of the tour Mike and James were the only steady Alarm prescence. Stevie had been off playing drums for SLF and Craig was out and about with Spear of Destiny. In their stead Smiley of the Mescalaros and Los Mondos Bongo was on the kit and one time Simple Minds bassist and Four Good Men member Derek Forbes was on bass. Tonight it was the full quota of Alarm members and they demonstrated why they are one of the finest live acts aound at the moment.
Passion is something that is evident in every performance of The Alarm. That rubs off on the audience and last night the crowd were in great voice. A normal headline show for The Alarm would see them just starting to warm up after 45 minutes but right from the opening chords of 'Three Sevens Clash' to the closing notes of '68 Guns' there was no let up. They set out to win hearts and minds by the power of rock and roll and man, they did it! The place was bouncing.

3-4-1 Tour Part 2: Henry Cluney @ ABC, Glasgow 5th June

Henry Cluney is of course famous for being one of the founding members of Stiff Little Fingers. On the tour he has been playing a short set of SLF songs that included 'Barbed Wire Love', 'Alternative Ulster' and a superb rendition of 'Suspect Device' (backed up members of The Damned). Watch the video below. The sound was pretty poor I thought and that's a shame as it made the whole show difficult at times (especially when The Damned were onstage). Odd thing was that the sound seemed a little better for The Alarm (though the bass was too loud at times. More about that in the next blog though).

3-4-1 Tour Part 1: The Damned @ ABC, Glasgow

The Damned were on good form tonight but they weren't excellent. The comic element that has followed them all their days was in clear evidence again. The Captain of course is a born joker but it does tend to mar the fact that they have some real quality songs. The set started off well with four Damned classics but then took a wee dip and personally speaking I don't think it really recovered until they played 'Neat, Neat, Neat' and 'Melody Lee'.

Vanian was looking good and is more Errol Flynn than Vampire/Goth Rocker these days. The band was tight but the sound at the ABC was not fantastic. It was great seeing them again though despite the fact that I thought they were blown off the stage by The Alarm.

Mike Peters @ The Cat Club 3rd April 2009

Moments in time
Statue of Liberty
Unsafe Building
Deeside
Hallowed Ground/Working Class Hero
Breathe
Rain
Stand
Knife Edge
Wind Blows Away
One Step
Pavilion Steps
Presence of Love
Walk Forever
Spirit of 76'
Marching On/Where Were You Hiding...?/Absolute Reality
Strength
68 Guns
Love, Hope & Strength

Thanks to David Wess (Minnesota) for the great videos and Lily (NYC) for the set list.

The New Beautiful South

The return of the New Beautiful South at King Tuts, Glasgow. What a fantastic show played to a full house. A nice mix of stuff in the setlist.

Preparation for Punk Week on The Hack

This weekend on my favourite Forum is the start of Punk Week and I'm looking forward to "digging up the bones of Strummer and Jones" (to quote 'London's Brilliant' by Wendy James). A lot of people forget that amid the whole Punk movement there was some real quality music released both here in the UK and in the USA (not forgetting France as well). People always assume that the bands could not play and that their lyrics never made sense and that basically that punks were good for nothing. I've always thought that was quite a harsh assessment and hopefully other the week we will see that quite the opposite is true.

Here's a few of my favourite tracks from way back when:
Subway Sect - Nobody's Scared


Metal Urbain - Hysterie Connective


The Jam - All Around the World


Magazine - Shot By Both Sides


Buzzcocks - What Do I Get?

Dave Sharp @ The Gathering

Videos from The Gathering

The Deceiver & Majority


The Rose Beyond the Wall


The Stand


Father to Son


Badge of Honour


Rise

Franz Ferdinand @ Barrowlands, Glasgow 4th March 2009

Magazine @ O2 Academy, Glasgow, Monday Feb. 16th 2009