Chester date added to the Red Poppy Tour

Mike has added a date to the Red Poppy acoustic tour and will be playing at Telford's Warehouse in CHESTER on 20th November 2012.

Joe Silva - "Blue" Review

You might remember the interview we did with Joe Silva a few months back or you may have been lucky enough to catch him at this years Gathering and now his much anticipated album "Blue" hits the virtual shelves so to speak!

So currently the digital age gets a jump start over the physical disc which will appear later and you can download "Blue" from I-Tunes from whichever side of the Atlantic you are. SO the big question you are bound to be asking is...."is it worth my money"? My honest answer (after playing this back to back about five times today) is yes!

I had a few preconceptions before I bought "Blue" based on the interview we had done earlier in the year and was expecting Joe to wear his influences firmly on his sleeve and some of those do come through like his love of The Beatles and especially George Harrison ("Out Of The Rain" shows this most clearly and could even be from Harrison's "Cloud 9" era). The one real comparison that I kept making though was just how reminiscent of latter day Tom Petty this feels which to me is no bad thing but may be doing Joe a massive injustice as he is no imitator.

The album opens with the title track "Blue" which features some great instrumentation with the guitar keeping steady allowing the other instruments to "dance" all around each other.

The previously mentioned "Out Of The Rain" follows and is a great track that to me could have been from the "Cloud 9" sessions albeit without the Jeff Lynne production job! For those of you that haven't read our interview with Joe "Blue" was produced by drumming legend Anton Fig and recorded at the famed SUN studio in Memphis by the way!

"Break The Chain" features a wonderful piano line that weaves in and out of the vocal, flowing as if it is caught on an unseen breeze.

"Didn't Mean It Like That" is a moving break up song (the lyrical theme for a lot of the album) that would be or SHOULD be a perfect fit for radio...how much do I wish I could get a job on commercial radio as a programmer?!

"We Had It All" is piano driven with hints of themes from "Let It Be" and when the keys join in maybe even elements of "Whiter Shade Of Pale" and this is the track where I began to realise that many tracks end before they feel they have reached their full potential. Maybe others will agree with the less is more approach however I would love to hear more exploration in some of the tracks.

"Walk Away" features drums very much to the fore (remember Joe made his name as the drummer and singing in The Threats) which despite being really tight they do distract from what else is going on. Never the less you will be singing along with the chorus by the time the last refrain comes. Even on the first listen I was singing this!

"Coldest Day Of The Year" features another great lyric ("the coldest day of the year came in June this year") exploring the break up of a relationship once more with some great steel guitar work (if my ears don't deceive me).

"Should You Realise" features a great Sax line but honestly mostly past me by.

"Where You Are" is a simple guitar and drum based track that starts with a nice echo laden vocal and soon becomes another great one to sing along to.

That leads us to the album closers "I Do" which again features some great lyrics and finishes on a much more positive theme despite being the shortest track on the album. I love the opening line "You walked into my room, you undressed my doubt", one of many great moments on "Blue".

I get the feeling that "Blue" will be an album that keeps giving as the melodies and lyrics grow more familiar with every listen but it is great from word go! Joe is getting some good exposure and hopefully if enough of us go out of our way to buy this and support him then we may see some live dates on these shores.

BUY IT NOW ON I-TUNES UK http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/blue/id543666130
or USA http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/blue/id543666130

M Fest Cancelled

Hopefully everyone has seen this by now but if there is a small chance that someone hasn't who is going to M Fest in Leeds this weekend.....IT'S OFF!

The statement on the M Fest site reads...

"It is with our deepest regret that due to the adverse weather conditions leading up to this event in conjunction with the extreme weather warning as issued by the Met Office for the weekend, we were left with no other decision than to abandon this weekends MFEST."

Details on how to obtain a refund with be announced on Monday 9th July.

Red Poppy Tour Dates...Official!

As expected we have official confirmation of the Mike Peters solo "Red Poppy Tour" dates. It is 30 years since The Alarm adopted the red poppy hence the tour title!

Those dates now confirmed are...

July 4th - Maxwells, NEW JERSEY, USA
July 8th - M Fest LEEDS
July 27th - Access All Eirias COLWYN BAY

August 19th - Snowdon WALES (LHS Event)
August 25th - Ben Nevis SCOTLAND (LHS Event)

October 19th - Gassienda KEIGHLEY
October 20th - The Waterside SALE

November 2nd - Korks OTLEY
November 7th - O2 Academy BIRMINGHAM
November 8th - Flowerpot DERBY
November 9th - O2 Academy OXFORD
November 10th - Thunderbolt BRISTOL
November 11th - Cavern EXETER
November 13th - Duchess YORK
November 15th - O2 Academy LIVERPOOL
November 16th - O2 Academy SHEFFIELD
November 17th - Marrs Bar WORCESTER
November 23rd - O2 Academy 2 LONDON
November 25th - The Cluny NEWCASTLE

More dates still to be announced ! We will be at Snowdon and London and hope to bring you some photos and video of those....remember you can still sponsor us for the Snowdon trek in aid of Love Hope Strength on our Just Giving page... http://www.justgiving.com/inthepoppyfields

Mike Peters Red Poppy Tour Dates

I expect we will have full details tomorrow but a quick search of ticket agencies reveal some solo dates from Mike titled "The Red Poppy Tour". We will bring you the official news after the announcement but from what we know so far the dates will be...

20th October Waterside Arts Centre MANCHESTER
7th November O2 Academy BIRMINGHAM
9th November O2 Academy OXFORD
15th November O2 Academy LIVERPOOL
16th November O2 Academy SHEFFIELD
25th November Cluny 2 NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

As you can see this is by no means exhaustive and a quick search in London shows that Mike will be performing at the O2 Academy 2 ISLINGTON on 23rd of November so there may be more to come! Tickets go on sale tomorrow so check the Alarm official site early!

Spear Of Destiny July dates

I know we have posted most of these before but as they are rapidly approaching there is still time to get your last minute tickets!

Big Country announce Rewind Festival appearance

Big Country have been confirmed for the Scottish Rewind Festival to be held on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd July. The band will appear on the Saturday alongside such acts as Jimmy Somerville, Go West, Midge Ure and Chesney Hawkes. Rewind is an 80's themed festival that is being held in Scone Palace in Perth and then Henley-On-Thames in August with a semi shared line up, however at this time no Big Country for Henley!


Day Tickets have already sold out, however some weekend tickets are still available at http://www.rewindfestival.com/tickets

Dave Gregory....author and lyricist!

When we reviewed the Craig Adams solo album "Demon King" as one of our first posts we noted that the song "Close My Eyes" had lyrics written by Dave Gregory, our assumption was this was the former XTC and current Tin Spirits guitarist but said we stood to be corrected. Well it wasn't THAT Dave Gregory after all! The Dave Gregory in question is brother of Paul Gregory from one of Craig's early bands the Expelaires which also featured Dave "Wolfie" Wolfenden who went on to Red Lorry Yellow Lorry whom I'm sure many will know. RLYL also of course featured Mick Brown who would play with Craig in The Mission. So over to Dave to tell us about how "Close My Eyes" came about...

"Craig used my lyrics as he had told me a couple of years before it was released, (in the Leeds showbiz hub that is North Bar) that he was thinking about doing an album and I said I had some lyrics kicking about that I reckoned I wasn't going to use, my musical career being somewhat short lived and un-noteworthy. It wasn't until last year that he got back to in touch to say that one of the lyrics fitted perfectly with one of the tracks he was recording."

Dave Gregory

Dave now writes under the name Gravyboy using jottify where you can download his screenplays and novella "Smoke And Mirrors" for free for your i-Pad or Kindle. Check out his work HERE


Many thanks to Dave for getting in touch and giving us that info!

Big Country at the Isle Of Wight

Absolute Radio are streaming 5 tracks from Big Country's Isle of Wight Festival performance yesterday. The featured songs are "Another Country", "Chance" which features Elizabeth McGovern, "Restless Natives", "Fields Of Fire" and "In A Big Country". The full set played was..."Angle Park", "Another Country", "Steeltown", "Chance", "Look Away", "Restless Natives", "Fields Of Fire" and finishing with "In A Big Country".

You can hear the Absolute stream HERE


SKY Arts 1 also broadcast "Chance" as part of their coverage after a short interview with Elizabeth McGovern.

More Big Country Photos

 As promised....more photos from last nights gig...these ones were taken by Joff.