The Poppy is one of the symbols used by The Alarm in record release and related artwork, stage design and merchandise which was originally designed by Robert Olson. The band liked the symbol for its imagery, and because the poppy is the “flower of life.”

Ian Wilson brought a graphic artist Robert Olsen (Sarah Jane Olsen’s brother), to see us play in London with a view to creating a record sleeve for Marching On single. Robert went away with the lyrics to our songs in his mind. He was particularly struck by the war-like titles of some of our songs, Marching On, 68 Guns, Third Light etc and came back to us a few days later with the artwork for an exploding red poppy. It was later used in some shape or form on every record sleeve we ever produced, was taken to heart by our fans all over the world, and became the centre-piece of many of our stage productions and videos – Mike Peters, Alarm 2000 collection liner notes on the 1982 recording


The first public use of the artwork was on the Marching On single released as a 7″ single in the UK on 22nd October 1982

The image would then be seen on TV for the first time thanks to the TV performances of The Stand where the lyrics and poppy had been spray painted onto the backdrop my Mike Peters, this TV appearance would in 2018 form the basis of the remastered video release as The Stand never had an official promotional video


Click on image for video of The Stand showing Mike creating a Poppy for the backdrop to the TV recording

It has changed many times over the years.