Like many of their peers, Welsh rockers The Alarm scored a number of hits during the 1980s. “68 Guns” and “Rain in the Summertime” can still be heard on oldies radio; however, unlike many of their contemporaries, this group is once again a chart contender, thanks to a prank they played on the music industry in 2004.
At that point considered to be old news, the band found itself unable to get a recording contract.
Frontman Mike Peters was so sure of the quality of his new music that he devised a plan to storm the charts. He created a younger, fake band to perform his songs.
“We hired four young kids to mime a video,” he laughed. “A lot of people wouldn’t give us the time of day then, so we really felt we had something to prove.”
Using the alias The Poppyfields, websites and fan pages were created with the kids images.
The result was the hit song “45RPM,” a new recording contract with EMI and a lesson to the music industry that age shouldn’t matter when it comes to music.
On July 14, The Alarm will perform on a bill with The Fixx and The Psychedelic Furs at 4th & B. The band has seen many changes in its membership over the years, with all the original musicians except Peters replaced over a decade ago. Peters admits some fans have questioned his use of a new lineup of musicians under the name The Alarm.
“There have been some people that have been negative, but that’s just the ones that remember us from our high profile time in the ’80s and don’t know what’s happened in the past 20 years.”
He acknowledges some fans want their music heroes frozen in time.
“It’s not the original band, but it couldn’t be, because even the original members aren’t 18 anymore,” he said.
Peters points out that all of the band’s former members sit in with new group from time to time, and they all work together on reissues. But they have no desire to go back to the band as a full-time endeavor.
“You can’t go back to the past,” Peters remarked.
Currently on tour promoting their latest album, “Under Attack,” the band’s concerts consist primarily of the hits with a smattering of new tunes.
Perhaps surprisingly for a band at their level, The Alarm doesn’t use a set list, instead gauging each night individually.
“I call it as I see it,” explained Peters. He admits being influenced in this by one of his own musical heroes.
“I saw Springsteen in 1984, and he had an incredible set list, but then the band started and he played the first song on the list and discarded the rest. The way he worked the crowd really made an impression on me.”
He considers an adaptable set list to be crucial because of their opening slot on the current tour.
“We’re on first,” he said. “You never know if there will be much of an audience when we take the stage. A lot of time people are still parking their cars during the first act. For those shows we gear the powerhouse stuff towards the end of our set.”
The various incarnations of The Alarm have played locally many times, but Peter’s favorite San Diego-related anecdote didn’t actually take place here.
In 1984 he performed with The Pretenders at Golden Hall and followed that with a show in Santa Barbara. His standard routine of audience participation fell flat that night.
“I shouted ‘San Diego, I want to hear you sing’ and got nothing from the crowd. So I said it again, louder. Still nothing. So I shouted it again even louder and got nothing. That’s when I noticed a guy up front trying to get my attention, who said, ‘Mike, this is Santa Barbara.’ I’ve never been so embarrassed in all my life,” he laughed.
Peters is proud of his bands chart run during the ’80s but is even happier with what the current lineup is accomplishing.
“We’ve had three hit singles in the last couple of years; we’re not resting on our laurels,” he pointed out. “The opportunities for bigger and better shows and more recording are coming back to us, not because of a nostalgia thing for 20 years ago but because of how good the band is.”
While the musicians onstage at this show won’t be the same as those from the band’s first heyday, the older cuts continue to be played with passion and conviction. Meanwhile the new tracks are more than worthy additions to The Alarms’ set list.
“All the songs, throughout the band’s career, have been written by Mike Peters,” he joked. “So there is a continuation there.”