Anthemic Christian rock

There must have been some shows in 1986, but I'm drawing a blank for now. I remember having tickets for Half Man Half Biscuit at the Royal Court, but they split up, and the Smiths Queen is Dead tour didn't come to town, alas. One of my great regrets is never seeing them in their glory days, though if recent history is anything to go by, they'll join the long list of reformers looking for a last pay day. Did I hear anyone say Bauhaus?


For some reason, at this time, I liked The Alarm. Not really sure why. Maybe it was their easily accessible stadium rock, which hadn't quite made it big. There was that whole Celtic rock thing going on - Simple Minds, Big Country, U2, Runrig and the like. So, I trooped along to the Royal Court, April 25, 1987 to see the local boys from Rhyl or one of those other shitty North Wales coast towns, full of caravan parks and scallies from the estates on a day out at the arcades.

I can remember the majestic opening bars of Strength kicking it all off, then a run through a few new songs from the forthcoming Electric Folklore tour, and all the classics - Where were you hiding?, 68 Guns, Spirit of '76, KnifeEdge, One step closer to home. Lots of people jumping up and down. In the weeks later, I managed to pick up a bootleg of the show from one of the dodgy geezers at the monthly record fair at Quiggins.

It was only later I found out they were a bunch of Christians. And unbelievably, they're still going, or at least Mike Peters is back out there for more. What ever happened to our heroes crashing and burning in a blaze of glory?
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