Big Country, The Alarm

Big Country and The Alarm join forces at O2 Academy Liverpool on 4 December 2026. Formed in Dunfermline in 1981 around Stuart Adamson, Big Country first emerged from the post‑punk and new wave moment before carving out a sound of their own. Those ringing twin guitars, often mimicking the lift of Scottish traditional music, run through The Crossing and Steeltown to The Seer and Peace in Our Time, then into the more direct writing of the 1990s. Back on stage since the late 2000s with Bruce Watson steering the ship and The Journey marking their 2010s output, the band leans on tight rhythms, melodic hooks and that unmistakable Celtic-tinged bite, revisiting early anthems and later tracks with the same focused energy.

The Alarm, born in Rhyl in 1981, grew out of the local punk scene into a lean mix of new wave, post‑punk and alternative rock. Acoustic-electric interplay, straight-to-the-point refrains and a clear Welsh identity shaped their first run, from Declaration and Strength to Eye of the Hurricane, Change and Raw, with singles like The Stand, Blaze of Glory, Sixty Eight Guns and Spirit of ’76. Revived around Mike Peters in the 2000s, the group continued to write and record, from In the Poppyfields and Under Attack to Equals, Sigma, War, Omega, Forwards and Music Television. On stage, that direct, hard-hitting songwriting remains the core, balancing storytelling, dynamics and chorus-driven momentum.