Mike Peters at the o2 Academy, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It has to be said that Mike Peters really is the epitome of musicians who never know how to sit still and take in their place in society, nor can he ever be accused of giving anything less than 100 percent when he is on stage. Whether as part of one of the finest bands to come out of Wales, The Alarm, his occasional forays into the world of Big Country of which he has done a splendid job fronting or when it is just him, a guitar and a harmonica; he never ever gives less than the crowd deserves.

For Mike Peters, it is a pleasure, you can see it written all over his face as he plays song after song knowing full well that the audience will, without a moment’s hesitation on their part, join in, loudly and with much pride for every tune he plays.

Mike Peters came on stage and gave the vocal but adoring crowd a glimpse of what to expect in the New Year as he played a version of one of the songs off the new album, a tremendous and almost bittersweet track titled Breed Apart. It may have been a song the people in the o2 Academy had not had the satisfaction of hearing before but it certainly served a healthy reminder that The Alarm are still more than capable of creating excellent music.

The evening bounced along in time honoured fashion with the audience doing their best to out sing Mike as he played such songs as Spirit of ’76, Marching On, Up For Murder, Absolute Reality and Moments in Time to a deafening crescendo.

Something incredible also took place as one of the crowd called out for High on the Hill, Mike was able to convince the teeming audience to be quiet just for the one song and let the music do the talking. It worked a treat and made the evening unexpectedly superb.

With the quiet long behind them Mike and the audience blew each other away with a couple of Big Country tracks in the shape of Chance and In A Big Country and the Alarm classics Where Were You Hiding (When The Storm Broke), 68 Guns, the brilliant Blaze of Glory and the all to sadly familiar refrain of Deeside.   

Mike Peters finished the night in style and with some energetic fun as he paid homage to John Lennon with Working Class Hero, the Big Country classic Fields of Fire, the stunning One Guitar and with time just enough left for one song, the exquisite Love, Hope and Strength.

Whatever was going on in Liverpool on a cold November night; whatever the attraction in a city filled to the brim with things to see, Mike Peters made the evening his own, he gave the audience that came to watch him in the o2 Academy a night they shall never forget.

Ian D. Hall