Mike Peters, songwriter, vocalist and activist, has died at the age of 66.
Mike Peters, the singer of The Alarm, has died at 66. He battled cancer for three decades.
In 2019, Peters received an MBE for his services to cancer-related charity work. Even after his diagnosis, he put out 10 albums as The Alarm MM++, one as the singer of Big Country, played countless gigs, and was actively involved in raising awareness and funds around the world to fight cancer.
He was an artist who took the energy of punk and turned its nihilism into something positive and inspiring.
Doctors first found cancer in Peters in 1996, after he went in complaining about a swelling near his collarbone. Everything seemed like a routine procedure, but the cancer came back in 2006. Since then, Peters devoted a big chunk of his life to chronicling his fight with cancer, raising awareness and collecting money through the Love Hope Strength foundation.
Peters’ first band, The Toilets, was formed in Rhyl, Wales, at the height of the punk explosion in 1977. In 1981 came the move to The Alarm. The single Sixty Eight Guns hit the UK top 20 in 1983, and with it The Alarm joined generational peers like U2, Simple Minds and Big Country in a new musical movement dubbed ‘post-punk’. This new generation of bands had no hang-ups about the old guard of rock bands and didn’t buy into the nihilism or cynicism that was otherwise typical of punk!
With albums like “Declaration” from 1984 and “Strength”, which followed a year later, The Alarm built themselves a monument full of bold musical bravado. Even when they were socially critical, The Alarm inspired hope and positivity.
Due to personal matters and shifts in musical trends, The Alarm called it a day in 1991. Peters carried on with a solo career, and then in 1996 the health problems began.
But that didn’t stop Peters. In 1999 he formed Coloursound with The Cult guitarist Billy Duffy. In 2000, promoter John Giddings brought him on board to help Big Country on their final tour. Giddings billed Peters for that tour as The Alarm 2000.
In 2004, in response to radio stations and music media not taking him seriously, he released a song called The Poppy Fields.
He joined Big Country as frontman in 2011, wanting to pay tribute to their former frontman Stuart Adamson. After the tour, he put out the album The Journey with Big Country.
Between 2017 and 2023, Peters released no fewer than seven albums.
This April, Peters confirmed that the cancer had returned. His chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) had developed into an incurable lymphoma.
