rivers2cross

Since I began fundraising back in 2012 one of the biggest supporters of what I do has been The Alarm and their fans. I’ve met the band members past and present, and made many new wonderful friendships with fellow fans along the way, who have continued to buy my fundraising items in large numbers including The Record.

So here’s how I got The Alarm involved in the book. I’ve followed the band for 37 years, and for The Record I set my sights on the current line up, trying to get Steve ‘Smiley’ Barnard, Jules Peters and James Stevenson to take part. It took me about two years to succeed in this quest, but I was delighted to get all three involved.

First up was Smiley at his Sunshine Recording Studios. It was third time lucky for me having failed at The Gathering in Llandudno when he went to watch Chelsea instead! Our second attempt was also a disaster as I arrived to meet him, but no-one was home as he’d taken the family to Brighton for the day! Thankfully the next time all went to plan and I spent over an hour with him chatting all things music, and a nicer man you couldn’t wish to meet. His first record is an absolute belter.

We spoke at length about The Alarm and his career in music, and in fact he’d just received his advanced copy of the ‘Blood Red’ album that very day. Sadly there was to be no sneak preview for me.. What came across was the deep affection that he has for Mike and Jules, so without giving too much away it’s a chapter well worth reading.

Next up was James who I met before The Alarm’s gig in Oxford in 2017. Fans will remember this for not only being a terrific gig, but also as the pink gig in support of breast cancer awareness. James took me into the venue while things were being set up before the sound-check, and Andi Badgeman shone some extra light for us to get some photos, which earned me a telling off from Mark Warden… James not surprisingly oozed guitar pedigree, with a great first record, and he gave me a fascinating insight into his musical influences.

Just when I thought that I was going to miss out on Jules, after two years of trying to make it happen, we had a long and fascinating chat just a couple of months before The Record was published. Her first record is a classic… Jules was extremely open about her breast cancer, and talked at length about the whole journey, and in some ways the chapter compliments the two television documentaries on her life with cancer. She naturally spoke at length about The Alarm, and it was interesting to hear her talk about the band pre the 1991 Brixton gig, and also about her now being part of the band and how that came about. It became the longest chapter in the book.

I don’t want to give too much away here, as I’d love as many fans of The Alarm to buy The Record as possible. I can’t thank Smiley, James and Jules enough for their support for the book. There are some more Alarm related chapters in the book as I also got to meet Gareth Jones, who was lovely before the band’s London gig in May 2018. There is also fellow Alarm fan and bowel cancer survivor Gillian Wood, who I was so pleased to finally meet at the 2019 Gathering. Finally the legend, and friend of the band that is Rupert Moon, who gave me an amazing guided tour of the Principality Stadium in Cardiff when we met up.

So I’m hoping that there is enough there for fans of The Alarm to get their teeth into and enjoy, and I’m so extremely grateful who have already bought the book. I’ve made no secret that the friendships I’ve made in recent years with fellow fans in recent times has been life changing…

COVID-19 has resulted in the charity sector facing a sever funding crisis, and that includes Bowel Cancer UK who have had to make 40% of their wonderful staff redundant. All profits raised from sales of my recent fundraising book The Record are donated to Bowel Cancer UK with every penny so important to them now more than ever. The book is dedicated to the memory of my mum who died of this awful disease in 2016. The Record is available to order from https://rivers2cross.com/product/the-record-charity-book/.

Bowel cancer claims 16,000 lives in the UK, and is the second biggest cancer killer. However if caught early at stage 1 it is very treatable, and the five year survival rate is over 90%. When detected at the late stage 4 the five year survival rate drops dramatically to 7%. This shows how crucial early diagnosis is to getting a better outcome. Knowing the symptoms is so important.