A Conversation With Mike Peters
A Conversation With
‘The Alarm’ Frontman
Mike Peters
The Alarm’s Mike Peters returns to life after a year dominated by pneumonia and a serious leukaemia relapse, with the release of the video to ‘Forwards’, the title track from the band’s forthcoming album, out 2nd June 2023.
“I literally took my guitar into hospital with me,” says Peters. “I was on the ward for such a long time, I started writing these songs in between IV sessions and the first people to hear the music were the very people who were trying to keep me alive.”
In between hospitalisation periods Peters took the band into the recording studio with producer George Williams and, although barely able to speak due to the debilitating effects of chronic illness, Peters was able to focus the sessions on creating the music for ten new life-affirming Alarm songs.
“I’ve been to places only deep suffering can take the human spirit and, in the darkness, I clung onto every piece of light I could find to work my way back to life. This was the energy that drove me to write and record Forwards.”
New album ‘Forwards’ is alive with melody and invention and destined to contend for a top place amongst The Alarm’s extensive discography, one that boasts 17 Top 50 UK singles and over six million album sales worldwide. In fact, the previous three Alarm albums have all featured in the Top 10 of the British Rock Album Chart with Equals (number 2 in 2018), Sigma (number 1 in 2019) and Omega (number 8 in 2022).
“A lot of artists have to kill to make a record like Forwards and, with the challenges that came my way in 2022, I certainly had to kill or be killed to realise the ambition in these songs. It was literally life or death making this record,” says Peters.
“I’ve already taken so much from life that, when I was in hospital stricken with chronic illness, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be spared another opportunity to live. Fortunately for me, I was granted more time on earth and the challenge remains, as ever, to make the most of every single second – FORWARDS.”
NSGs Billy Vitch Caught up with Mike to talk about his illustrious career
Billy: Good morning Mike and how are you? What have you been doing today and how’s that going?
Mike: All good today thank you. I’ve been prepping for a BBC Radio session on Wednesday and working up some acoustic versions of Alarm songs.
Billy: So you have been at this music thing like forever, haven’t you? Can you remember how you first got into music and wanting to be an artist as a career?
Mike: I saw the Sex Pistols in 1976 and was so inspired that I knew I had to start my own band. The trouble was I didn’t know anyone like Malcolm McLaren in the Rhyl area so had to make it all up myself. I started like pretty much every band in history, knocking on doors. I started a band called The Toilets (that eventually became The Alarm) and knocked on the door of Eric’s club in Liverpool trying to get a gig. The promoter (Roger Eagle) answered and offered us an audition gig a week later. As soon as we played that following Saturday lunchtime, something electric happened and Roger Eagle asked us to stay on and play with The Clash later that night. That was the beginning……
Billy: Your band The Alarm has had such an extensive and amazing history, from 17 Top 50 UK singles to over six million album sales worldwide. What do you think was the reason or secret to your success?
Mike: Sticking to our ‘68′ Guns‘ (haha), and focusing on the music rather than trying to be famous. I once tried to kidnap a journalist from the NME. It all went horribly wrong, and an old hack there named Roy Carr stopped me in my embarrassment and said “put all that energy into your music and that’s what will drag people to see your band“. I’ve never forgotten that.
Billy: How Did The Alarm come to be?
Mike: We evolved from a punk band in 1977 – The Toilets, into a mod band – Seventeen (from 1978 – 1980), and after we got a lucky break supporting Stray Cats [on their Runaway Boys tour in late 1980] became something entirely different altogether. In 1981, the same band became The Alarm.
(The Alarm (Mike Peters) live at The Gathering (c) Stuart Ling 2023)
Billy: You had a really terrible few years health-wise, with last year dominated by pneumonia and a serious leukaemia relapse. We are made up to see you back and well again. We read that during this period you wrote your new album, ‘Forwards‘. Could you tell me about this period of your life and the album?
Mike: It was a strange period being isolated from my family and friends. I asked for my guitar to be brought to hospital to help me pass the time and have a distraction to the fact that I wasn’t sure if I would make it out alive. I wasn’t expecting to write a new album, but I did – and the first people to hear what I was creating were the doctors and nurses who were trying to keep me alive.
Billy: Did you learn anything about yourself or life in general, during your period of illness?
Mike: Yes – that life is more precious than I had realised. At one point, when my glands were so swollen that I looked like the Elephant Man and could barely speak (and not sure if I was going to see the next day), I thought to myself keep breathing, keep believing and there will be another way. There was another way, and I was put on new, groundbreaking drugs, and walked out of hospital not only grateful for my life, but with a head full of new ideas and, just as importantly, another way forwards.
Billy: You’re going on tour soon – wanna tell us a bit about what we can expect?
Mike: I’m presenting The Alarm Acoustic – which is not dissimilar to the Alarm electric, only a lot more stripped-down. Personally, I’ve always thought that an Alarm gig is as much about the audience singing along to all the words as anything else that goes on. This time around (at the Epstein Theatre in Liverpool on May 24th), it will be just me, the fans and the words in an acoustic setting that is just as electric as a full-blown Alarm band concert.
Billy: The Alarm has its 30th Anniversary Gathering at Venue Cymru Arena in Llandudno, North Wales in April. For the people who don’t know, what is it and how did it start?
Mike: Back in 1992, I came up with the idea of the fans going on tour and doing all that kind of hard work, while I got to stay at home and put on a massive weekend of Alarm related happenings, named The Gathering, that reflected the history of the band past, present and future. It’s an idea that has kept going ever since.
(Mike Peters (The Alarm) in hospital (c) Jules Peters 2022)
Billy: What is the key to happiness?
Mike: Recognising what ‘happiness’ is.
Billy: If you had not become a musician, what other career do you think you’d have chosen?
Mike: Computers. I worked at Kwik Save Discount HQ in Prestatyn from 1976 – 1979 before leaving to further my adventures in rock and roll. If only I’d known how BIG computers and it’s industry were to become!
Billy: If you could sit down for dinner with any three people from history, past or present, who would they be and why?
Mike: Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Joe Strummer. I think they would all have got on great together, and I would love to have been able to listen to their stories and insights. All gone too young.
Billy: The UK is in a right mess politically. What do you think some of the fundamental problems are and do you have a solution to them?
Mike: Like most people, I only have questions, no solutions I’m afraid. I was listening to Bono‘s audiobook ‘Surrender‘ this morning on my walk, and he spoke of the biblical phrase ‘Love Thy Neighbour‘ as being a command and not ‘advice‘. Made sense to me.
Billy: As an artist, what do you think has been your most defining moment or most special memory?
Mike: I’m not sure my defining moment has arrived just yet, but singing with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Captain Sensible is pretty defining. Not may British artists have a CV like that!
Billy: Asides from the new album release and tour, how’s the future looking for Mike Peters and the Alarm?
Mike: Already making plans for 2024, 2025, 2026 and beyond, so I would say the future is assured (as long as we can all stay healthy that is).
To follow The Alarm on social media or buy tickets, click on the links below
