Hey, I'm an Alarm fan from the beginning. I thought their first EP was really great---an intriguing mix of acoustic rock-punk--very original sound. The next album, Declaration, was quite good, and Strength after that had some good stuff. Unfortunately, IMO, the Alarm's sound seemed to get blander and more mainstream with every successive album.
Still, there's no denying that Mike Peters' heart has always been in the right place, and I will never turn down a chance to see him perform live. I saw him in a new version of the Alarm in Boston in the spring of 2001, and he totally rocked. He also showed what an incredibly cool guy he is. He spent the last few years personally overseeing the remastering of every Alarm album, and then they were all offered separately, or in a box set. For every single person who ordered the whole box set off of his website, he agreed to do an individual, personalized recording of an acoustic version of ANY song they wanted---be it an Alarm song, or a cover song. He would do a little personal dedication, and then the song. If 50 people wanted "the Stand", he recorded it separately 50 different times. He said that when he made the offer, he thought that there wouldn't be that many people that took him up on it---he ended up doing hundreds and hundreds! He said he was recording them at sound checks, on the bus, at home, in the studio---whenever he had a spare minute. I just thought that was an incredibly cool thing to do for your fans.
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