INTERVIEW:  Before Kloten Festival, May 1984

Notes:  A well meaning, but hard to understand German speaking Swiss
        girl interviewed the band.  Her questions are denoted with
        'I:'.

I:  "I just told People, umm, That you are using mostly
     acoustic guitars, and ah, not any synthesizers, and this is very
     rare nowadays, and why do you use no synthesizers?"

Mike: "Well we just tend to think of ourselves as a band that writes
       songs, songs are written on guitars, songs are written by human
       beings, not by machines.  You know, we do the synthesizer a
       little bit, but only as a musical instrument, not as something
       to take over the people, because music is about emotion, and we
       show out emotions live on stage, that's what it is all about.

I:  "So you are a real live band then, and we'll see you tonight, but
     what is, what are you doing tonight?  In Switzerland you are not
     as well known as in England, how do you conquer a new audience?"

Twist: "Play live basically."

I:  "Play loud hehe..."

Twist: "No, live, playing live"

I:  "What does it mean"

Twist: "It means we enjoy playing live shows, which is what we are
        doing tonight"

I:  "And then you come over to them?"

Twist: "Oh yeah, yeah, definitely"

Dave:  "Just want to say hello to Switzerland basically, 'cause we 
        haven't been here before.  Hello"

Twist: (laughs)

Mike:  (laughs)

I:  "You are compared to great groups like U2, Clash, and even The 
     Rolling Stones and Who, so what do you think of that?"

Mike: "We don't mind, if you are going to get compared, get compared 
       to the best,... you know, as we are a song writin' band, and
       all groups who have great songs, we pride ourselves that we 
       have, and, ya know, if we've been talked of in that company, 
       that must all get well for the future."

I:  "But...is Alarm different to other groups now coming from 
     England?"

Mike: "Were here in Switzerland, and their not."

I:  "Ok, let's play live..but a, you were touring with The Pretenders
     and the U2 in America, how was it?"

Mike: "It was a great opportunity, ya know, we are alive band, and 
       that gave us an opportunity to play live in front of somebody 
       else's audience, ya know, we went out there to nick the 
       audience, and we managed to establish ourselves as a headline
       act in America in our own right, and we hope to be doing that 
       here in Switzerland tonight, it is our first ever live concert, 
       although we did the ???? Pop Festival once but that was miming,
       but now we are here to show what we can really do as a live 
       group."

I:  "You told me before I talked to you, you are still fans from U2 
     and so on, and how do you show this, that you are fans?"

Dave: "Well, we always have been, and we always will be fans of music,
       we appreciate all different kinds of bands, we just like to feel
       that we can be like everyone out there ya know."

I: "Ok let's go, huh"


Notes:

The Alarm go out and play a short, but good show including the songs:

-Declaration
-Marching On
-Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke?
-Howling Wind
-Third Light
-The Chant
-The Stand
-68 Guns
-Bound For Glory

This show is available on a few different bootleg CDs, for example:

-The Alarm, Live in Switzerland 1989
-The Alarm, Live In Switzerland 1984

Transcribed by Steve Fulton <sfulton@ix.netcom.com>, April 16th 1995