In 2022, The Alarm was finally celebrating its 40th anniversary and was forced to cut its world tour short when singer Mike Peters was hit with a relapse of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, something he had already battled twice before.
Videos by American Songwriter
Back to an old, familiar place, and after being admitted to the hospital for treatment, Peters used his stay inside the ward as a provisional rehearsal space, playing guitar, while composing new songs he’d start performing for fellow patients and hospital staff.
“I was in for such a long time, and I was quite isolated because it was a sort of post-pandemic environment,” shares Peters. “Outside, it was back to normal life but in the hospital social distancing was still in place. I wanted to keep my fingers going, so I asked if it was ok if I brought a guitar in. So I just started strumming away, and the other patients said ‘Play it louder. We like it.’”
He adds, “My only bit of sanity and escape was playing guitar. It allowed me to think a bit more clearly, and I could accept everything that was going on, but I didn’t want to make a record about where I was. I wanted to make a record that got me out of here, and projected me back to life.”
First diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1995, Peters later received a diagnosis of a rare B-cell form of leukemia in 2005, while working on the band’s 2006 release, Under Attack. In 2006, he also co-founded Love Hope Strength Foundation, which supports cancer patients and treatment through live performances, and his journey in relapse and remission of cancer over the years was documented in the Russ Kendall-helmed 2017 documentary, Man In the Camo Jacket. Around the time, his wife, Alarm keyboardist Jules, was also diagnosed with breast cancer (which did go into remission).
The Alarm continued on, releasing Equals in 2018 and their follow-up, Sigma, a year later — both topping the UK rock charts. After being cornered by cancer once again, Peters eventually got back into the studio with the band for The Alarm’s new album, Forwards.
Forwards is The Alarm’s songbook of hope with eight of the 10 tracks written by Peters in between his recovery from pneumonia, undergoing tests, and being treated with chemotherapy to placate the leukemia. In an earlier message to fans online from the hospital, Peters signed off with the word “Forwards,” which became the driving track of the album.
“That was the eureka moment,” says Peters of the opening track, bolstered songs of coming back to life on “The Returning.” Have you heard the news / That it’s all over / Have you heard them say / There’s no way out of here / Well, I don’t believe it sings Peters on the triumphant “Another Way.”
Uncertain of his fate at one point during his hospitalization, Peters asks Are you ready for what’s next? on the high-powered “Next,” while the defiant “Whatever,” prompts another important reminder: Every time the sun goes down, I say a little prayer, for when the morning comes / I count all my blessings, and I say thank for the simple things in life.
“I heard John Lennon’s song “Whatever Gets You Through the Night,’” says Peters on the latter track. “Never mind the night. What about life? What about tomorrow? How am I gonna get beyond this, and I just sort of played around with it.”
On Forwards and any album, Peters’ song criteria has always been the same: “Can you live with this for the rest of your life?” he says. “Are you gonna stand with this song for 30 years? Songs are the same. You have to stand by them, otherwise don’t put them out there. They’re given to you as a gift. A song is a gift, and you bring it into the world.”
Oftentimes, that “gift” comes at the most unexpected moments, like the time the band’s 1989 song “Frontiers” flooded into Peters’ head while he was standing next to Bob Dylan in line at airport immigration. “I’m at a border crossing, and here comes this melody,” says Peters, singing There are no frontiers / That we can’t cross tonight / There are no borderlines.
“It arrived in my imagination fully formed, and I went back on the bus worked up chords, and kept thinking “Where did that come from?,” he laughs. “I think maybe they were sending it down to Bob Dylan — and it missed.”
Peters jokes that he dreads the day when the “higher power” that gives him songs decides that his time is up. “They’re gonna say, ‘I think it’s time you moved on Mike,’” he says. “‘Give someone else all these melodies’”
Coming out of the pandemic, and the past year, Peters says the band has streamlined their live sets to encompass more of their four-decade-wide catalog, including room for deeper cuts. “It gives you the means to go deep into the catalog as well because you’ve got space, and it’s not it’s dominated by same 15 to 20 songs every night,” says Peters. “It’s a new way to play, a new way to think about the setlist. We really came out of the 40th anniversary and the pandemic stronger for it and ready for whatever’s next.”
Nearly four decades since The Alarm’s 1984 debut, Declaration, Peters is always indebted to the band’s standout hits like “Sixty Eight Guns,” “Rain in the Summertime,” and “The Stand,” and even more grateful that The Alarm continues making new music.
“People say to me, “How long will you keep going with The Alarm?” says Peters. “I would say as long as we’re enjoying it. The band has changed over the years, but the intuitive has never left. The enjoyment never left, and the challenge of making new music. I try to steer the band on a good path and not down the nostalgia trip too much because you can end up in the ’80s.”
On January 27, 2023, Peters finally stepped back on stage with The Alarm for the first time for the 30th anniversary of their The Gathering shows in their home country of Wales. “That show was a long time coming,” says Peters. The show was canceled and rescheduled several times around the pandemic but was planned years in advance with a save-the-date countdown for June 5, 2021, the day marking the 40th anniversary of the day they became The Alarm, on their website.
Stepping out again for the first time, Peters was greeted with a fitting salute and welcome as the entire room at the Venue Cymru, Llandudno, North Wales sang the band’s 1985 Strength track “Walk Forever in My Arms.”
“I was relieved to be honest because I wasn’t quite sure what the outcome was gonna be,” shares Peters on getting back on stage for the first time after his recent diagnosis. “I was in hospital most of 2022 and I wasn’t even sure if I was gonna be alive, or even playing a concert, so to come on stage and it was an amazing moment. I walked on stage for my first show for The Alarm Gathering, and all the fans were singing to me.”
Prior to the show fans had emailed one another and coordinated the surprise. “They said, ‘Mike always sings for us so let’s sing for him,'” recalls Peters. “So I walked on stage and the channels just opened, and they’re all singing, and it just sort of floored me, to be honest.”
Now, Peters is still looking forward, in life, with The Alarm, and to what’s coming next.
“I’m really lucky,” says Peters. “I’ve gotten to see a lot of people being treated [for cancer] who have lost. For some reason, I must keep going, and I’m really grateful for that.”
Photos by Stuart Ling / Reybee, Inc.
