Standards by The Alarm

Released in time for the Christmas market, Standards serves as a summation of The Alarm’s 1980s output — a decade of big-hearted, big-sounding rock anthems that aimed for the rafters and often reached them. Rather than a new studio record, it’s a compilation of the band’s defining moments, drawing together hits like “Sixty Eight Guns,” “The Stand,” and “Spirit of ’76,” alongside a few fresh touches: the newly recorded “The Road,” a reworked “Unsafe Building,” and a rubbish cover of “Happy Christmas (War Is Over).”

It was a stop gap between last year's Change (their fourth studio album) and next year's swansong Raw. As a collection, Standards captures what made The Alarm distinctive — their mix of punk earnestness, folk-rock idealism, and stadium-scale ambition. Tracks like “Sixty Eight Guns” still carry a raw, uplifting energy, and “Spirit of ’76” remains a stirring anthem of youth and resilience. For newcomers, Standards is an accessible entry point: it distills the band’s most recognisable songs and presents them in a single, cohesive-enough package.

Yet hearing these songs side by side also exposes some of The Alarm’s limitations. Their grand, impassioned delivery sometimes teeters into over-earnestness, and without the momentum of a live performance, the production can feel a bit heavy-handed. The compilation lacks the narrative flow of a proper album, moving instead through snapshots of different sessions and producers across the decade.

Still, Standards succeeds in its main goal — to remind listeners of a band that, for a time, stood shoulder to shoulder with the likes of U2 and Simple Minds in their drive to fuse passion, politics, and melody. It’s not their most subtle or unified record, but it’s a strong, heartfelt portrait of The Alarm at their most anthemic. For anyone curious about the band’s legacy, this is where to start.

Bomb Disneyland Sept 1989 BBC Radio

Bomb Disneyland session on John Peel's show

Shortly after their Peel Session and the release of their debut, the band ran into legal trouble. The Disney Corporation famously filed a complaint regarding their name.

[taken from link2wales.co.uk]

Deeside based punk-grunge band (1987-89), feat; Mark Cooper (gtr,voc), Prud (bass) (feat on a V8’s video shoot, sadly died of septicemia), Scott Preece (drms).
Another former drummer Barry St.Clair formed Dearly Beheaded in 1992 and original drummer was Tash (Steve Gorst) (later Carnage, Cousin Grace) who recorded 'Why Not' with them until he broke his wrist.
They released a number of records (incl; LPs Bomb Everything (05.89) and Nail Mary) under this name until they were contacted by a lawyer / representative of Disney who while telling them they couldn’t use the name, actually said: “We are not a Mickey-Mouse company”! (They changed their name to Bomb Everything) This sounds like an urban myth but it did happen. 

Scott went on to play for hardcore punks GBH.
Bomb Everything was produced by Robert Heaton and Justin Sullivan of New Model Army.

Butthole Surfers and Darling Buds at Riverside Suite, Newport.

This was the year those crazed motherfuckers hit our shores in an acid-crazed frenzy like no one had seen before. August 5th, 1987 — the Butthole Surfers rolled into Newport's Riverside Suite like a derailed freight train from the underworld, dragging LSD, feedback, and naked nihilism in their wake.

Fresh off the back of the album, Locust Abortion Technician, they weren’t just playing gigs — they were conducting psychic surgery on every town they hit. Gibby Haynes was wielding a megaphone like a flamethrower, sometimes a shotgun. Paul Leary's guitar sounded like it had been dragged through a swamp full of broken teeth. Behind them? Smoke. Strobes. Film loops of surgery and car crashes. And yes, Kathleen Lynch, the infamous bald, topless dancer twisting through it all like some deranged shaman.

Support that night? The Darling Buds, Caerleon’s own jangly pop hopefuls, still in the glow of their earliest shows — and I bet Andrea and co were wondering what alternate dimension they'd stepped into once the Buttholes kicked off.

If you were there, you probably don’t remember all of it. And if you weren’t — you’ve probably still heard the stories. Newport was never the same.

DID YOU GO? LET US KNOW BELOW

The Smiths cancel Llandudno gig

The Smiths were scheduled to perform at the Astra Theatre in Llandudno on 28 October 1986, but the gig was cancelled due to an incident at the previous night’s show. On 27 October at Preston Guild Hall, Morrissey was struck on the head by an object thrown from the audience, sustaining a wound that required medical attention.

As a result, the band was unable to travel to Llandudno and perform the following evening. The cancellation was noted in tour records and gig archives, marking the date as cancelled.

The incident highlighted the challenges of live touring, where an injury at one venue could immediately impact subsequent shows. While The Smiths resumed other dates after Morrissey’s recovery, the planned performance in Llandudno never took place, and the venue remained empty on that scheduled night.

He was a big fanny even back then...

Anhrefn – 1st John Peel Session

Sion Sebon – Guitar/Vocals, Rhys Mwyn – Bass, Dewi Gwyn – Guitar, Hefin Huws – Drums/Backing Vocals

At the time Anhrefn received very little support or coverage through a very conservative Welsh media. This was the Bangor band’s first of three John Peel Sessions broadcast on BBC Radio One, and paved the way for other Welsh language Peel Sessions / airplay. This particular session was aired three times on the show during the latter half of 1986.

During a visit to London to promote the band and their label (of the same name), Anhrefn’s bassist (and acting manager) Rhys Mwyn introduced himself to John Peel;

“I was told that John was in a wine bar around the corner; as I entered the bar and caught Peel’s eye he greeted me with; ‘You’re not a mugger I hope,’ which kind of says a lot about him. I explained about the compilation of new ‘underground’ Welsh-language acts and a couple of days later he played Rhywle Yn Moscow by Anhrefn, which at the time felt like we’d actually made it!”

John Peel, who had Welsh connections himself through being in boarding school in North Wales and his father lived in Rhosneigr, was about to discover the Welsh scene. Rhys Mwyn sent him some demo tapes of his bands, and Peel began to realise that Wales had a music scene all of its own which was very much alive and well.

“Rhys had put together and sent me two worthwhile compilations on his own Anhrefn Records,” he remembers. “They were quite primitively produced in their way, because of the financial constraints the bands faced. However, when I eventually met Rhys, he was such a persuasive and dedicated person – the sort who just couldn’t be ignored – that he started me off on Welsh music. Before that I had zero interest.”

Sion (pic above) introduced each song in Welsh then translated them into English, explaining what they were about for the Radio One listeners

Tracks aired – 1. Action Man / 2. Dawns y Duwiau /3. Defaid /4. Nefoedd Un (also called, Teimladau)
Recorded: 1986-07-22.
Broadcast: 04 August 1986.
Repeated: 20 August 1986 and again, 22 December 1986.

Anhrefn are featured in the NME

 

FUTURAMA 4 at Deeside Leisure Centre

(posted by paul evangelista on facebook)

The Futurama Festivals ran from 1979 – 1983, with an extra one in 1989, and were basically a who’s who of post punk and it’s many sub genres, as well as throwing a few curveballs at its audience by including the likes of Hawkwind, Bay City Rollers and, erm… Gary Glitter.

I was lucky enough to go to all six of them and they provided me with some of the best weekends in my life.

By the time the 4th festival came around it relocated to Deeside Leisure Centre, which converted to a gig venue by the simple expedience of rolling a carpet across the ice rink that covered the main hall, meaning that just a few centimetres underfoot was a layer of frozen water, resulting in cold feet for all attendees.

With it being so close to Liverpool, Futurama 4 featured many bands from there, including Dead Or Alive, China Crisis, Cook the Books and The Cherry Boys. One of the festival’s oddest sights was Dalek I Love You who, despite being a chance to play the main stage in front of thousands of people, opted instead to play in the foyer, behind a layer of camouflage netting.

For some reason, first day headliners New Order decided to go on before Blancmange and played a brilliant set. I thought this would mean that Blancmange would play to an emptying hall but instead kept a huge crowd entertained in an early glimpse of how likely their breakthrough was.

Day two gave space to the emerging goth scene, giving important exposure to Southern Death Cult, Sex Gang Children, Danse Society and March Violets. I remember the SDC crew puffing on a large peace pipe full of weed and emitting huge plumes of smoke thereafter, that, despite my asking nicely, they refused to let me sample.

Sitting on carpeted ice all day was a bit of a challenge and Saturday was spent in the sports hall, rolling out our sleeping bags onto the shiny wooden floor. One interesting sight on the Sunday morning was a very ‘alternative’ looking couple standing up completely naked and fashioning clothes for the day by folding a large piece of fabric around themselves to make harem trousers and a top. Well it beats breakfast TV by some distance I suppose.

On the Sunday night we were refused this accommodation and had to find somewhere outdoors to sleep. After wandering across fields for a while, we settled underneath a convenient bridge. Upon making our way to the train station the next morning, we noticed that we’d missed falling into a huge hole by a matter of feet.

Musically the weekend looks very much a game of two halves, but lineups featuring seemingly disparate bands were quite common back then, and all bands got a good reception and a large crowd to play to.

Our very own Marc Jones tried to bring the Futurama Festivals back a few years ago, but was scuppered by Covid and its after effects, which is a huge shame because they were wonderful weekends full of friends, music, drink and other mind altering substances and I miss events of this kind.