I was a big, big fan of The Alarm. Many people unkindly called them the poor man’s U2 but I thought they were great. Fronted by Mike Peters along with Dave Sharp (guitars), Eddie Macdonald (bass) and Nigel Twist on drums. They were Anglo-Welsh in origin and this was reflected in their music.

Absolute Reality, written by Macdonald and Peters, entered the UK Singles Chart in the w/e 2nd March 1985 and found its was into my record collection on 16th March. It reached its high point of number 35 in the w/e 23rd March. It was backed by a live version of Blaze of Glory. Absolute Reality was the first single taken from the album Strength.