Interview: Mike Peters, The Alarm

SOMETHING TO DECLARE

You only live twice: once when you're born and once when you look death in the face. Basho's Haiku poem may have inspired the title of a Bond movie, but Mike Peters, singer-songwriter behind 1980s rock legends THE ALARM, has never heard of it.

"I wasn't aware of that poem. That's fantastic," Peters says down the phone from Wales." 

It has particular relevance: since 1996, Peters has been fighting a recurring battle against cancer that, just like the poem, has given him a new lease on life.

"It's absolutely true, and that's how I look at look at it," Peters says of the poem. "In addition to The Alarm, my wife and I also run a charity, so yes we do live two lives."

The couple's Love Hope Strength foundation supports families affected by cancer, raising money and promoting bone marrow registration drives -- the latter inspired by Peter's most recent battle with leukaemia.

Peter's fighting response to his health challenges is a reflection of the positive spirit with which he and other budding musicians embraced the punk explosion of the 1970s -- something that fed directly into The Alarm's debut album Declaration, released 30 years ago this year.

While Punk is often seen has nihilistic and antisocial -- more associated with glue sniffing than smiles -- Peters is keen to point out its positive aspects. 

"That's what it became the moment the SEX PISTOLS put Sid Vicious  in the band," Peters says of punk's self destructive edge. "But before that, it was about being creative. I saw the Sex Pistols in 1976. and there was nothing negative about them then. They took a hard line approach, but they brought change with them -- they brought it into the room. They brought it in their lyrics at a time when all the established bands were singing about goblins and pixies and mountain sides."

Peters remembers the hope that early punk generated.

"There were a load of young people starting fanzines, taking control of a camera, learning how to utilise a photocopier, how to express themselves by making their own clothes -- and that was the punk rock that fired the imaginations of Bono or Bob Geldof or myself."

As the noted names imply, while the movement itself had a short shelf life, punk provided the impetus for much of the music of the 1980s, the era of New Wave and, later, "rock with a conscience," with bands that wore their political hearts on their sleeves. Hailing from North Wales, The Alarm were often associated with other anthemic rock acts from the Celtic fringe like U2, BIG COUNTRY, and SIMPLE MINDS.

Peters rejects criticism levelled at Bono, who is a close personal friend.

"Recently I was doing a show in Cardiff," he recalls. "Towards the end, the presenter pulled me to one side and said, 'We've got a video message here from an aspiring young band who have got some questions for you.' I had no idea what was coming, and up on the scream popped Bono and all of u2 eulogising Declaration and singing 'Going Out in a Blaze of Glory.' I was absolutely blown away. They didn't have to do that, but they took the time out of to send their best wishes, and I think that says a lot about them."

Peters is now reviving The Alarm's stirring debut album in a unique one-man show that will come to Tokyo later this month. But those who remember the original Declaration album may be in for a surprise, as Peters is reinterpreting the album with a more acoustic slant.

"Yes the shows will be very acoustic," he says. "But it'll have the crossover. You know, there was always a point in an Alarm gig where we put our foot on the stomp box and everything suddenly went electric, so expect some of that."

It seems fans can expect even his one man show to live twice.

Colin Liddell
Metropolis
8th August, 2014

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