The Alarm to Release 'Strength Live' '85 on Record Store Day

The Alarm are proud to announce the release of a brand new limited edition double album entitled Strength - Live '85 on Record Store Day Saturday,April 13th 2019 (which is also day two of The Alarm The Gathering NYC at Irving Plaza Tickets here).

Strength - Live '85 is being released by the Twenty First Century Recording Label on black vinyl only and available from participating record stores worldwide,

including Generation Records in New York City (only a few blocks away from Irving Plaza

and The Gathering NYC), which will host a lunchtime live in-store on the day performance

from Mike Peters (Full details to be released soon).

Full Record Store Day release details can be found here

Participating Record Store Day stores are listed here

This classic recording of The Alarm in concert from Boston Orpheum on November 9th 1985 during the Strength Tour, features 21 performances (16 of which have never been released before in any form whatsoever).

The audio was recorded by WBCN Rado Station in Boston, MA on November 9th 1985, and

features all the classic Alarm material of the era. The show was then mixed a month later at

Yamaha Studios, Los Angeles by the band's live sound engineer Nigel Luby (who had also

recorded the 'Strength' album). 'Strength Live '85' captures the band live in concert in that most Celtic of American cities -Boston, whose people immediately embraced the group as one their own, inspiring the band to some of the finest Alarm performances ever captured on tape.

"Bootleg tapes of the original radio broadcast have circulated amongst fans for years, but this release with a fully mixed and 'approved by the band' master tape release is something that collectors have longed for ever since those first few live b-sides were released in 1986.", says Mike Peters. "The original broadcast was good but remixed a month or so later by our sound man Nigel Luby, it really does capture the essence of the original band at it's most powerful.

Dave Sharp's guitar playing was so good at this point and his presence on stage such, that as a front man he was really giving me a run for my money and pushing us all to give everything we had. Our drummer Nigel Twist was on fire during this gig, and you can hear in his drumming that he was the engine room of all the great early Alarm performances. Eddie Macdonald was there in the background adding flourishes of musical brilliance be it on, bass, electric guitar and E-bow and of course such passionate backing vocals. Interestingly, there are a few things that a band might not get away with in this day and age, especially the sound of First World War gunfire during Third Light, which if approached in this way today, might have people running for cover. There are no overdubs or anything like that added, just the band and an incredibly passionate audience, the pure unadulterated sound of The Alarm Live '85".

The full track listing for 'Strength Live '85' is as follows:

SIDE ONE

Introduction by Carter Alan of WBCN
Majority
Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke?
Knife Edge
Dawn Chorus
The Day The Ravens Left The Tower

SIDE TWO

Deeside
One Step Closer To Home
Third Light
Absolute Reality
Walk Forever By My Side
Howling Wind

SIDE THREE

Spirit Of '76
Blaze Of Glory
Strength
Sixty Eight Guns

SIDE FOUR

Declaration / Marching On
The Chant Has Just Begun
The Stand
This Train Is Bound For Glory
Knocking On Heaven's Door

Four of the tracks (Where Were You Hiding?, Deeside, Sixty Eight Guns & Knocking On Heaven's

Door), were issued as B-sides and extra tracks with the band's 'Spirit Of '76' UK single release of

early 1986 while 'Howling Wind' was issued in the USA only, as part of the 'Live For Life'

IRS Records cancer benefit compilation album.

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