LHS is grateful to ex-Alarm Manager, Ian Wilson, for organising the sale of some original Spirit of ’86 posters and donating the £2000 raised to Love Hope Strength.
The UCLA show was a high water mark for me and The Alarm. For much of the 3 months leading up to the show I based myself in Los Angeles at the home of my good friend and IRS employee Tom Corson. This enabled me to plan and promote the Strength album with IRS Records who were now based on the MCA lot at Universal Studios. The UCLA show was the focus of all our efforts.
Many years later Tom Corson had moved to the East Coast and he and I were firm friends. He would always welcome me to stay at his home in Connecticut. Sometime around the millennium his wife handed me a roll of posters from the UCLA show which Tom had kept and were tucked away in his loft.
I brought them back to London and tucked them away in my loft. This year I remodelled my home and dug them out. It was by chance the 30th anniversary of the show so I decided to contact the original members so that they could be auctioned for charity. I drove to Sidmouth to see Dave, to Soho to see Eddie, to Cardiff to see Mike and mailed them to Nigel in San Francisco. I originally had planned to auction them in conjunction with Eddie’s Smalltown Glory debut which Mike had hoped to support.
When Mike shared his crushing news about Jules I called Eddie and explained there was now an immediate need for me to show solidarity with Mike, Jules and their boys and auction them for Love Hope Strength.
I contacted Pete Cole and Malcolm Namey to run the auction on my behalf. They were brilliant and I am delighted to have helped in a small way to bring a smile to Alarm fans in support of Mike and Jules.
Ian Wilson – ex-Alarm Manager