The Alarm - Alt-Strength (2001, Twenty First Century Recording Co.)

It's night one of the Festival of Lights. Welcome to it, wherever you may be situated.  Mark Peters, ringleader for The Alarm once intoned in one of his earliest compositions, "You're here for a purpose, but you have to search for it."  As tragic and sobering as his passing was on April 29th of this year, virtually anyone who encountered him, even as a mere fan, understood full well that he found his calling in life relatively early on.  

As frontman for the aforementioned Welsh quartet, he guided multiple incarnations of his band to chart success, but perhaps even more poignantly he transcended professional ambitions in favor of building a rapport with listeners, even if it meant patiently assembling his audience one person at-a-time.  The Alarm may not have held "dessert island" status with me, but came achingly close to the shore throughout much of the '80s. Peters' integrity, and more specifically his relentless "rally-the-troops" ethos was the benign clarion call most of us didn't even realize we were waiting for when soon-to-be classic missives like Declaration and Strength arrived in record racks.  For roughly the last thirty years of his life, just about anyone who was tuned into his lengthy personal campaign with cancer, and furthermore multiple tentacles of activism (disease-related and otherwise) had the comfort of knowing that his spirit remained undeterred, despite how grim his mounting prognosis' may have been.  Mike Peters literally climbed mountains and walked the walk whenever physically capable of doing so.

Like the bulk of Alarm adherents who came up with the band in the '80s, I was endeared to their earlier stuff. "Strength," both the single and album served as my introduction. No doubt, Peters & Co. inevitably conjured numerous U2 comparisons, both preceding and contemporary to the LP.  So be it I suppose, yet the Alarm gradually grew into their own aesthetic, accessible and pedestrian as it might have been at times.  The empathetic stanzas of "Strength" should have struck a universal chord, but in reality the band wasn't exactly filling arenas, at least not in America.  Other songs on the album proper were just as anthemic, and perhaps even more rousing, notably "Absolute Reality" and "Spirit of '76."   If not a through-and-through masterstroke for the 1985 time capsule, Strength's modus operandi was nonetheless empowering and even a bit insurgent to my 12-year-old eardrums.  I would regularly listen to these fellows when I was delivering papers in middle school. The Alarm were a Walkman staple.  

So where does Alt-Strength come in?  2000 & 2001 saw the reissue and remastering of the Alarm's entire back catalog.  This naturally included Strength with attendant bonus material, virtually doubling it's length with the usual assortment of b-sides and such.  A year after it saw the light of day, Mike Peters quietly released the double-cd-r Alt-Strength, gathering 40 more tracks, honing in on demo sessions, a clutch of jovial covers, and perhaps most revealing a June '85 selection of live-in-the-studio renditions for the album that often bore even more sheer presence and fervor than the finished versions.  I didn't catch wind of Alt... until it had sold out, and to this day don't possess a physical copy.  In spite of that, it's a colossal treat and veritable required listening if you want to delve deeper into the Strength-era. Highlights include the spirited outtake "In the Cold Light of Day," that would have fit in like a glove with the aforementioned crowd pleasers.  Ditto for "Only the Thunder," which at the very least was relegated as a b-side.  There's multiple takes of "Spirit of 76," and as mentioned a session of the boys letting loose and running through a spate of classic rock covers, often in vastly truncated form.  A cursory listen will illustrate why hot takes of "Get it On," "Summertime Blues" weren't green-lighted for mass consumption, although their spin on "Maggie May" which segues into a dig of a certain prime minister is relatively presentable. There's a lot to love here, so enjoy. 

CD 1

Nov. 29th-30th 1984 E-Zee Hire Demos

01: Knife Edge

02: Absolute Reality

03: Sons Of Divorce

04: One Step Closer To Home

05: Rose Beyond The Wall

06: Steeltown (Deeside)

07: We Are Majority

08: Black Side Of Fortune

09: The Day The Ravens Left The Tower

April 4, 1985 Roundhouse Studio, London

10. Get it On

11. Summertime Blues

12. Gimme All Your Loving

13. Alarm Alarm

14. Radar Love

15. Burn

16. Black Night

17. Can't Always Get What You Want

18. Walk on the Wild Side

19. Vicious

20. All Right Now

21. Communication Breakdown

22. It's in the Charts

23. Maggie May / Maggie's Farm / Stand Down Margaret

April 4-10 1985 Roundhouse Demos/Mixes

24: Dawn Chorus

25: Knife Edge

CD 2

May 10th, 1985: Birmingham Odeon Sound Check

01. Give Me Love (Strength)

May 17th, 1985 Pluto Studios Recording Sessions

02: In The Cold Light Of Day

June/July 1985: Main Recording Sessions, Marcus Studios

03: River Still To Cross

June 27th, 1985 Rough Mixes

04: Strength

05: Spirit Of '76

06: Deeside

07: For Tomorrow (Father To Son)

08: Majority

09: Absolute Reality

10: One Step Closer To Home

11: Only The Thunder

12: Day The Ravens Left The Tower

13: Walk Forever By My Side

July 15th, 1985 Marcus Studios Rough Mixes

14: Strength

15: Spirit Of '76 

Hear