Artist News

The Alarm spoof band film in production

By | Published on Tuesday 24 August 2010

Keith Allen and Phil Daniels are set to star in a new film, entitled ‘Vinyl’, documenting The Alarm’s bid to get their 2004 single ’45RPM’ into the charts under the guise of a fake, younger band The Poppyfields – a group of teenagers who simply mimed to the track.

After making the top 30 with the single the band came clean (though many fans had already twigged who was really behind the song). Frontman Mike Peters explained at the time: “We thought we’d send the demo for ’45RPM’ to a few radio stations, but made out it was a new band so we could get some honest feedback. The reaction was so good that were blown away! However, we were sure the reaction wouldn’t have been so positive if they knew it was The Alarm”.

He added: “We noticed that a lot of bands suffered when they attempt comebacks because people generally don’t believe they can ever be as good as they once were. We wanted to make sure that we are judged purely on the strength of the music, and not by our old hairstyles!”

The band, of course, had numerous hits in the 80s without having to pretend to be other people. Now the story of the hoax is being adapted into film form by director Sara Sugarman, which sees the band hatch the plot after meeting up at a funeral.



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