Mike Peters must currently be one of the hardest working musicians in rock.

Originally published by The Birmingham Mail. July 2007.

When he isn’t touring with Dead Men Walking or helping care for a new addition to his family whilst bravely battling serious illness, he’s on the road with his first love, The Alarm.

A packed Birmingham Academy cheered enthusiastically from the start as the band opened with the driving Three Sevens Clash and My Town before going into Something’s Got To Give.

A small acoustic set followed before Mike, Richard Llewellyn, James Stevenson and the energetic Steve Grantley took an increasingly vocal crowd back to their first few albums with the storming Sixty Eight Guns, a sublime version of Marching On and a very apt reminder of darker economic times with Dee Side.

A fantastic evening was rounded off with a punk-filled encore of Spirit of 76, 45 rpm, Anarchy in the U.K. and The Kids Are United.

Ian D. Hall