Q. Mike, before you start, where were you when The Alarm played MTV Unplugged and what do you think of The Alarm's Welsh
albums now?
I'm proud of them, the ones we made. I think they made a contribution to the culture, keeping it going and opening it up to
other people, so yeah, I'm pleased and glad we had the opportunity to do it & hopefully we'll get a chance to do it again,
one day in the future.
The unplugged thing - that is em… how can I go into that one at this time of night? I think it's common knowledge that my
sister became ill at that time. We'd been on tour in America for a couple of months, I got a phone call asking me to come
home because my mum thought she wasn't going to make it. So I asked the boys if we could cancel a few shows so I could go
home to be with her because we felt that she wouldn't survive. She had an operation on her brain that had gone wrong and
obviously since then we've never been able to communicate.
You've all seen my sister at The Gatherings, she comes every year, she's a great personality but she's not the person I
grew up with. She has her own personality & thankfully she can laugh & make us all laugh and that's a great gift in itself.
But that's the reason I missed the unplugged show - I had to fly home. Thank God that she survived in her own way - she
lives a great life in her head now. I'm sure she'd like to be here tonight if she could, but she's not unfortunately. I'll
probably see her at the weekend.
The unplugged thing is something I really would have loved to have been taken part in, but other priorities got in the way,
Sharpie & Twist went on and did the unplugged, but it was when I flew back to sit in the hospital with my sister. I flew
home and my brother picked me up at the airport & drove me to the hospital, it was in Walton in Liverpool. We had a vigil
by her bedside and stayed up for what must have been 48 hours and she pulled through. I went back for the tour and the last
three nights of the tour were three very big shows for The Alarm. There was a big New York show, the Tower Theatre in
Philadelphia and the last night was in Boston. So I really made an endeavour to get back so we could finish the tour
properly & then go off to Japan. I know there's a lot of sadness attached to that story, but it was actually quite funny,
there was funny things happened around it.
When I'd come home, I was being flown back to America and was actually booked into a first class flight on Pan Am airlines.
The day I was going back was almost 12 months to the day after the Lockerbie disaster and the security was red hot in the
airport. Me and Jules flew down to Gatwick and Jules was going to come back with me to support me and make sure I was OK to
continue the work I was going to do.
The first thing happened - I'd been up for 48 hours in this horrendous situation with the family and on the shuttle from
Manchester down to London, we actually got locked in a holding pen at the airport. There was about 50 people all rammed in
trying to get on this plane and the airline staff couldn't even open the doors to get us on the plane. We nearly missed the
plane.
When we got to London the Lockerbie thing was going on and there was dead heavy security. I must have looked like I don't
know what, I hadn't slept for 48 hours, I must have looked like a drug dealer I reckon. I had all my leather jackets on
and everything and I showed them my first class ticket, but they wouldn't believe that I was a first class passenger.
Eventually we convinced them and the let us on the plane. But you know there's no Pan Am airlines now, and I know why. I
must have been knackered but I said to the airhostess "I'm a bit cold, could you get me a blanket" and she said "no - you
must be tired". I thought "god, that's good service in first class!".
And when I got off the plane at the other end, we were actually shooting the Love Don't Come Easy video. When I'd gone
home, I was supposed to be going down with a film director to shoot the Love Don't Come Easy video. We were going to shoot
it at the White Sands down in New Mexico. So when you see the Love Don't Come Easy video and you see this guy wandering
round in a cowboy hat and that stuff, that probably would have been me, but unfortunately I wasn't there, so Russell Young
who was a photographer who did the New South Wales & Love Don't Come Easy for us, he stepped in and he's the guy in the
jeans and the cowboy hat filling in for me.
When I got off the plane in New York, I got into a car and was driven through all this traffic and got straight out the car
into the film studios. The band had been shooting their individual performances for the video. So I got off the plane, they
caked me in make up and I had to perform the Love Don't Come Easy video, which was a blast. I went straight from there to
the hotel, had a shower, got straight back down and we went to play this venue, Studio 54, it was called the New Ritz at
the time, had about 5000 people in it, totally sold out. I got straight out of the car, Red Eye gave me my guitar, walked
straight out onto the stage and we blasted into the set.
We finished the set, I walked off at the end of the night and there's Neil Young stood, like there. Elliot introduced me to
him, I had met him before and I said to Neil "Why don't you come up and play Rockin' In The Free World, we're going to do
it." He says "Alright then, but I don't want to sing". So I said "Why don't you?" and he says "I just don't feel like it
tonight, just get me a guitar and I'll come and play guitar at the back." And he said "Don't introduce me, I'll just hang
around in the shadows at the back."
So Sharpy sorted out an amp and guitar, he gave him his spare Strat. The house lights went down and I was there giving it
all that
(plays riff) and then the house lights came on BANG and everybody starts pogoing to Rockin' In The Free
World and then this second roar goes up as everyone realises we've got Neil Young stood at the back giving it this on his
Strat. And I got to the first chorus and the next thing, bam, Neil comes straight up on the mic & starts singing it with
me. He did the next verse and it was a brilliant moment. Luckily someone was there with a camera to capture the moment,
because it was a pretty amazing thing. You know a few months earlier I'd got to sing with Bob Dylan, now here was my second
hero, Mr Neil Young.
The whole Rockin' In The Free World had come about because Sharp had been given a copy of Freedom and Dave suggested we
play it. And that's why Neil came, because he heard we were playing Rockin' In The Free World before it was even released
on his own album. I walked off stage and realised I hadn't slept for about 72 hours, went straight to bed and collapsed.
This is called "Rockin' In The Free World".
Rockin' In The Free World