The Alarm's Mike Peters has died after a 30 year battle with blood cancer

Mike Peters, lead singer of The Alarm, has died aged 66. He had been battling cancer for three decades.

In 2019, Peters was awarded an MBE for services to cancer care. Since his diagnosis, he released 10 albums as The Alarm MM++, one as the singer for Big Country, played countless gigs and led several awareness-and-fundraising treks across the world.

Always a beacon of positivity, he was an inspiration to many – a force of nature who took the energy of punk and transformed its nihilism into something positive and inspirational.

Doctors first discovered his cancer back in 1996 after he felt “a lump in his collar-bone”. After a seemingly miraculous remission, the cancer returned in 2006. Since then, Peters has dedicated a large part of his life to chronicling his battle with cancer and raising awareness and money through the Love Hope Strength foundation.

Peters' first band The Toilets were formed in Rhyl, Wales, at the height of the punk explosion in 1977. The Alarm followed in 1981. In 1983, their single Sixty Eight Guns made the UK top 20 and affirmed them – alongside peers like U2, Simple Minds and Big Country – as part of a new movement of post-punk bands. The new breed had neither the aloofness of rock's old guard nor the nihilism or cynicism of the punks.

With albums like 1984’s Declaration and the following year’s Strength, The Alarm’s statements were bold and full of bravura. As Classic Rock's Philip Wilding commented, "They sounded hopeful, if often dismayed by the state of the world around them."

Personal matters and changes in musical fashions, brought the band to an end in 1991. Peters pursued a solo career and then in 1996, he felt the lump.

“I thought it was my lymph glands,” he told Classic Rock. “So I had a blood test. I was with the doctor, and I could see this piece of paper on the desk, and it had the word ‘cancer’ written all over it." The doctors diagnosed him with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. "He said: ‘I think you’ve got a 50/50 chance of making it, and you might not want to tell your wife because of how bad it is.’”

A few months later, miraculously, the cancer went into spontaneous remission. It returned in 2006. Peters then became a seemingly indefatigable campaigner in the fight against cancer, fearlessly chronicling his own fight with the disease, and raising awareness and money through the Love Hope Strength, a foundation he co-founded with his wife Jules.

Love Hope Strength's “Get On The List” campaigns – often hosted at rock concerts and even atop mountains – added over 250,000 people to the global stem cell registry and helped secure thousands of potential life-saving matches for patients worldwide.

And, throughout it all, he did the work. In 1999, he formed Coloursound with The Cult's guitarist Billy Duffy. He helped pioneer fan-centric events by holding The Gathering, a annual weekend event in Wales, for Peters/Alarm fans. In 2000, promoter John Giddings signed him up to support Big Country on their final tour, and billed him as The Alarm 2000.

Peters remembered the incident on a blog on The Alarm's website: “I was calling to leave you a message to say that I’ve billed you for this tour as The Alarm 2000 and there is an advert in Q magazine coming out this morning," said Giddings. “Don’t worry, you’ll thank me for it one day.”

The following year, he formed Dead Men Walking a kind of 'punk supergroup', with Kirk Brandon (Spear of Destiny) and a revolving cast that included Pete Wylie (of the Mighty Wah!), Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols), Captain Sensible (the Damned) and more.

In 2004, in response to not being taken seriously - or thought credible - by radio stations or the music media, he released a song as The Poppy Fields. It went to no.28 in the charts, and Mike revealed the truth live on BBC Radio 1. The ruse inspired the film Vinyl.

"We thought we had nothing to lose,” said Peters. “If we had put out a single by The Alarm, there would have been a negative feeling because, whether record company executives and music journalists admit it or not, image is rated far higher than the music nowadays.

“I hope we’ve proved a valid point. Why must new music necessarily have to made by new bands. I’m 44 but I’m writing new songs as fresh and as vibrant as anything I’ve ever done. In Britain, we’re too quick to want to find the next big thing. If you’re over 35 you’re dismissed as over-the-hill."

Vinyl Official Trailer (2014) - Phil Daniels, Jamie Blackley Movie HD - YouTube

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He joined Big Country as frontman in 2011, determined to pay tribute to their former frontman, Stuart Adamson. The comeback tour led to an album, The Journey.

“I’ve had cancer twice in my life,” Peters told Classic Rock. “I’ve fought back both times. I say yes to everything because I’ve had to confront the fact that life could be over for me, so every day is uber precious. I was told I couldn’t have kids and now I’ve got two boys through the technology that’s out there. I’ve had to overcome some massive things, so to go out there and uphold Stuart’s name is only part of the big challenge of life."

In the years between 2017-23, he released seven albums.

In April this year, Peters confirmed that his cancer had returned. His chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) had transformed into a high-grade lymphoma.

"Cancer has been chasing me for 29 years now," he said, "and in all that time, I have managed to outrun the disease and stay alive. My focus and resolve remain the same, and I’m determined to keep running even harder to stay one step ahead and resume my life as a husband, father, and musician as soon as possible.

“I’m all about going with the positives and trying things, given all that has happened,” he told us in 2011. “We are defined by the choices we make in life. It’s not an outcome; you take your chances.”