ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 3, 1989
By Steve Newton
Unlike the multitude of rock bands around today whose first and foremost goal is finding a shortcut to the bank, the Alarm is one group that sets its sights a little higher. Things like fading cultures and lost languages are important to it. That’s why the band went so far as to record its new album in both English and the native tongue of its own country, Wales.
As guitarist Dave Sharp explained to me recently, the idea to record Change simultaneously in English and Welsh came from lead vocalist Mike Peters’ fear that an important culture was being subverted–and that he should do something about it.
“Since he’s been living back in Wales,” says Sharp, “Mike has become very concerned about the Welsh language and the Welsh culture, which he feels is being buried by the influx of new industries and new people into the country. And by recording some lyrics in Welsh he felt as though he could help preserve the language and the culture–at least a bit.”
The Alarm’s act of faith in its homeland took the form of a Wales-only release titled Newid (the translation for Change), which, according to the group’s bio, Peters hopes “is understood as an invitation to delve into and preserve one’s heritage”.
The band will be bringing the English version of that album’s tunes to the 86 Street Music Hall this Saturday (November 4), as part of a world tour that includes Europe, Australia, Japan, and the Far East.
The follow-up to 1987’s Eye of the Hurricane, Change is a back-to-basics kind of album, according to Sharp.
“With the kind of recording we wanted to make, which was essentially live, we went for a real old studio that had very simple equipment–just a recording console and a tape recorder. And we wanted an engineer who understood that the Alarm was about to commit some serious rock and roll to vinyl. Tony seemed to fit the bill.”
Tony Visconti was the person called in to twiddle the knobs for Change. Rock fans might recognize his name from the early-’70s albums he made for T-Rex (Electric Warrior, The Slider, Tanx), or mid-’70s efforts by David Bowie (Low, Heroes, Young Americans).
“We weren’t planning to make a record that sounded anything like David Bowie or T-Rex,” notes Sharp, “but we certainly respected the work that Tony had done. We knew that he was capable of handling any situation that was thrown at him.”
With classy albums like Hurricane, Strength, and Declaration to compete with, the Alarm and Visconti had their work cut out for them in coming up with something to match the band’s previous vinyl. Sharp figures they did okay.
“I think that Change is a record that’s more focused on the excitement of music that’s alive–it’s real music. I think that we’ve matured a a band, and we’re a band that’s in control. I think we’ve made an album that’s loaded with attitude.”
Change is certainly a record that covers a lot of ground, from the almost AC/DC-ish intro of “Sold Me Down the River”, to the album’s closer, “A New South Wales”, recorded live with the Morriston Orpheus Male Voice Choir and members of the Welsh Symphony Orchestra.
“That was a real awesome experience,” says Sharp, “to hear a hundred voices all singing at once. It’s gonna leave a real mark on me for quite some time to come.”
When he’s not in the studio or cranking out the Alarm’s righteous tunes on stage, Sharp likes to listen to Celtic bands from his homeland, and he’s also heavily into American bluesmen like Muddy Waters and Memphis Slim.
“Mr. Buddy Guy is a current favourite,” he adds. But picking a personal fave track on the new album isn’t quite so easy for Sharp.
“It’s difficult to say because you inject as much into one song as you do into another,” he says “I mean, if you don’t feel it don’t play it.”
To hear the full audio of my 1989 interview with the Alarm’s Dave Sharp subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 500 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with musicians since 1982.
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