No Cause For Alarm
Since the release of Bringing The News From Nowhere, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl had experienced a catastrophic meltdown, bringing back to mind Leon's clutch of early-1980s songs opposing nuclear power, which were originally recorded for the campaign LP, Nuclear Power: No Thanks. One of them is "No Cause For Alarm" which takes as its theme the insistence of those in control of the industry that it represents no significant threat to anybody, and the song is worded as if from an official spokesperson. Its place in time speaks volumes.
The song title may well have been borrowed from Leon's own spoken piece, "To Deter or Not to Deter" on the 1964 LP, Vote For Us, which concludes with exactly these words. Leon also used No Cause For Alarm as the title of a stage show performed many times in the 1980s, with an anti-nuclear theme. Roy Bailey and Frankie Armstrong were also involved, and thereby the song will have reached many listeners before its formal re-recording in 1988, and indeed before Chernobyl made its implied warnings come true.
The song title may well have been borrowed from Leon's own spoken piece, "To Deter or Not to Deter" on the 1964 LP, Vote For Us, which concludes with exactly these words. Leon also used No Cause For Alarm as the title of a stage show performed many times in the 1980s, with an anti-nuclear theme. Roy Bailey and Frankie Armstrong were also involved, and thereby the song will have reached many listeners before its formal re-recording in 1988, and indeed before Chernobyl made its implied warnings come true.
"Written for the Plane Label Co-operative/Inter-Action LP 'Nuclear Power No Thanks' (1981) and closely based on the confident reassurances, after every nuclear accident or mishap, by those who know." - LR (sleevenotes to Perspectives, 1997)
Recordings
Version 1 (1981) First recording, on a various artists LP
Version 2 (1988)
- Nuclear Power: No Thanks
Version 2 (1988)