POST-PUNK HERO MIKE PETERS DEAD AT 66

Mike Peters (third from left)

From the BBC:

"Mike Peters, front man of Welsh rockers The Alarm and a long-standing cancer campaigner and fundraiser, has died aged 66. His band was formed in 1981 in Rhyl, Denbighshire, out of the punk era and had a top 20 hit, "Sixty Eight Guns," two years later. It typified an anthemic style of song but their unpretentious and down-to-earth approach earned loyal followings on both sides of the Atlantic.

Peters lived with blood cancer for 30 years, following his diagnosis of lymphoma in 1995, and later having chronic lymphocytic leukaemia twice.

He was born in Prestatyn, Denbighshire, and lived in Dyserth with his wife of 39 years, Jules - who had fought her own cancer battle - and their sons Dylan, 20 and Evan, 18.

He was awarded the MBE in 2019 for his services to cancer care."

Here at Revenge of Riff Raff, we have had a long-running 'connection' with Peters and THE ALARM, with the original Riff Raff magazine supporting their music when the default reaction of the London music press was sneering contempt and snide comments about sheep shagging. Check out Simon Robinson's gig review from 1990.

I was a big fan, although not in an entirely serious way, as I couldn't help feeling a little ironic distance from their at times overly earnest approach. Nevertheless, the band's idealism was refreshing, and I remember them using it to work up an audience of Japanese salarymen into a frenzy at Tokyo Yuubin Chokin Hall (literally "Postal Savings Hall) in their last gig of the 80s,

But maybe they weren't really as idealistic as all that. Like most bands, they were riven by jealousies and rivalries, and broke up in 1991 soon after their popularity stopped expanding. Read Riff Raff's 1991 post-break-up interview with Alarm guitarist Dave Sharp here.

I kept an eye on them, and when Peters lined up dates in Tokyo in 2014 for a one-man acoustic performance of the classic Alarm alum Declaration, I arranged a phoner, which you can read here (or the whole unedited thing here). Unfortunately I was out of the country when he arrived in town to perform. 

The BBC obit mentions the role played by the SEX PISTOLS in inspiring the formation of the band:

"Peters - who had worked in the computer department for Kwik Save supermarket - had started a band THE TOILETS in Rhyl in 1977, after seeing the Sex Pistols play in Chester.

After various changes of line-up, notably the introduction of guitarist Dave Sharp, and changes of name, The Alarm played their first gig in Prestatyn in 1981.

They would go on to sell an estimated five million records and also become the first Welsh musicians since TOM JONES and BONNIE TYLER to crack America."

The defining influence of the Sex Pistols on the formation of the band was crystalised on what I thought was their best song, "The Spirit of 76," which strains with every fibre of its being to become a true epic and just about pulls it off:

Colin Liddell
Revenge of Riff Raff
30th April, 2025

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