Big Country, The Alarm

Big Country and The Alarm share the stage at O2 Academy Bristol on 10 December 2026.

Born in Dunfermline in 1981, Big Country forged a singular sound out of post‑punk and new wave, with interlaced guitars that echo the contours of Scottish traditional music. The Crossing (1983), Steeltown (1984), The Seer (1986) and Peace in Our Time (1988) set the tone, followed by No Place Like Home (1991), Why the Long Face (1995) and Driving to Damascus (1999), where the writing leans toward a more direct, roots‑tinged rock. After a break and the loss of Stuart Adamson in 2001, the group returned to the stage from 2007 around Bruce Watson and released The Journey in 2013. Live, Big Country draws on taut rhythms, melodic lines and that unmistakable Scottish grain carried by ringing guitars.

Formed in Rhyl the same year, The Alarm grew out of the local punk wake with Mike Peters, Dave Sharp, Eddie MacDonald and Nigel Twist, blending acoustic‑electric dynamics, straight choruses and a clear Welsh identity. The early run of singles — The Stand, Blaze of Glory, Sixty Eight Guns, Spirit of ’76 — led to Declaration (1984), Strength (1985), Eye of the Hurricane (1987), Change (1989) and Raw (1991). Revived in the late 1990s around Mike Peters, the project continued with In the Poppyfields (2004), Under Attack (2006), then Equals (2018), Sigma (2019), War (2021), Omega (2022), Forwards (2023) and Music Television (2024). Mike Peters, long the band’s central voice, died in 2025; the catalogue endures, carried by a lean, urgent rock pulse.