Set The Alarm – Mike Peters is back on tour with a date in Birmingham

Peters, like his peers, isn’t simply a rock’n’roll star, however – though that’s an occupation at which he excels.

He’s also a man who gives back. The co-founder of the Love Hope Strength Foundation, he raises funds and awareness to benefit people with cancer and leukaemia. The charity has saved countless lives and continues to do so.

He is also continuing to thrill fans, and is back in the West Midlands this month with The Alarm.

Where then, to start with Michael Leslie Peters, MBE?

He’s the man who created The Alarm, counts Bono among his mates and sang for Big Country and for Coloursound in his brilliant offshoot, with The Cult’s Billy Duffy.

He’s an innovator and the embodiment of passion. He’s a family man and a homebird. And he’s a peerless rocker. Those are some of the indisputable facts. He’s a fan, too, and – that rarest of commodities among rock’n’rollers – he’s also a decent bloke to boot.

He formed The Alarm in 1981, having formerly played in a prototype band The Toilets, that were inspired by punk. The Alarm worked hard for their success. Within two years, they were in the Top 20 with the still-relevant Sixty Eight Guns and a year later their debut album, Declaration, was helping shift the first of the band’s six million album sales as it became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Soon, The Alarm were opening for U2 and Bob Dylan as they surfed the waves of international success and broke through in the USA.

“That whole time was a fairytale,” he says. “It sounds like it happened in a short space of time but we’d been playing in one form or another since 1977 and there’d been a lot of disappointments along the way.

“We grew up and thought the only way to succeed was to make demos then link up with some form of svengali who would transform our lives. But that’s not what happened.”

It isn’t, at all. The Alarm’s story is one rooted in hard work, in taking tiny steps and never giving up. It’s one underscored by determination and indefatigable energy. “We moved to London and we worked. We knew we couldn’t force people to come and see us but we thought if we put our energy into making the band amazing, that would be enough. Instead of putting our focus into record labels or agents, we put our focus into making the music great.

“London was important but our home, Rhyl, shaped and defined us. When I was a kid, I saw Wales as a back water and that’s why I wanted to go to America. But when I was in America, people would ask me to describe Wales and as I spoke about it I just realised how amazing it was. When I went to amercia people asked what it was like and it sounded amazing. Coming home to Wales gave us the time and space.”

The Stand gave them a break through. It skirted the Top 100, having been based on an end-of-the-world, Stephen King-inspired scenario. “It’s stayed very relevant,” says Peters. “It’s just been on Netflix, in 13 Reasons Why, and it reached a whole new global audience. We woke up the next day and there were three million people listening to us on Spotify.”

Some music doesn’t age – and The Alarm’s debut record, Declaration, falls firmly into that camp. Boldly optimistic, earthy and raw, The Alarm found a post-punk sound that harnessed their wild energy while being riven with soul. While the world was tuning into Duran Duran and Buggles, The Alarm were evoking Springsteen, Dylan and the like with coruscating rock.

Despite being new kids on the block, they were invited by U2 to tour America. “That situation was unique. We got there before we’d had any success. We were invited on the War tour because U2 liked us.

“We’d played with them and struck up a friendship. So when they were asked to extend their tour they wanted a band who they could talk to and relate to. We went there before anybody in the States knew who we were.”

The Alarm made their debut in San Francisco and blew the place to bits. They’d stepped off the plane armed only with their guitars and the intention to do well. There’d been no expectation – then, suddenly, they were rock music’s new darlings. U2 would go on radio stations to promote the tour, then ask DJs to play The Stand, rather than New Year’s Day.

The British music press, usually one step ahead, found themselves on the back foot. The Alarm were one of the few bands to break without a leg-up from the media.

The band enjoyed ten years of success, up to Raw, in 1991. Five albums were released but an undertow was pulling against them. “The world was changing. Some of the band had gone to live in America and I don’t think any of us released how much difference that would make to the band. Our relationships changed. We were growing up to be men, we weren’t boys in a band anymore. I thought in the interests of the band it was best to step aside and follow a different path.” So, onstage at Brixton Academy, Peters announced he was leaving.

He formed a band, The Poets of Justice, with his wife, Jules, whom he’d met having hitch-hiked home to Wales one weekend. They hooked up in 1986, when The Alarm were at the height of their fame but Peters was still living with his parents in Rhyl. Jules was an undergraduate studying English at Bangor University and their happy, lifelong union began. It was to become the cornerstone of his life.

A solo career followed while Peters and The Cult guitarist Billy Duffy also formed the extraordinary Coloursound, a band allowing them to let off steam and get their kicks.

“Billy was in a similar position at the time. The Cult and The Alarm were both on a massive hiatus and Coloursound was cathartic. We’d both enjoyed success and we were dealing with that as adults. Some groups stay alive because the band members are dependent on each other for success. In other cases, the band is dependent on the songs, rather than the band members.” Which is what happened with The Alarm.

Peters returned soon after the millennium with Alarm MM++. Peters tricked the British music industry by issuing a single under the fictitious name The Poppy Fields. Another band mimed to a video and it became a Top 40 hit, before the hoax was revealed. But then he’d always been one step ahead. The band had lived through sending postcards to fans through to opening a phone line so that followers could get in touch. More recently, fans have been able to burn their own cds with new music.

As things were again looking up, disaster stuck. Peters was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. As Jules cared for him, he started a cancer foundation called Love Hope Strength to help with the fight against cancer. Then, in October 2007, Peters, along with 38 other musicians, cancer survivors and supporters, made a 14-day trek to the Mount Everest base camp to perform the highest concert ever on land.

“We were helped by so many people when the word cancer smashed into the doorway of our home and threatened to tear down our lives. We had to stand up and be counted against it. Jules became my carer and later I became her carer when she got breast cancer. There were inspirational doctors who kept us going. We wanted to give back so we created Love Hope Strength. It’s saved a lot of lives.”

The Alarm returned under Peters’ leadership. He continued to make new music and connect with a fan base that had never gone away. They connected with more than 500,000 viewers during lockdown when they broadcast their own weekly music and chat show The Big Night In. Then last year, Peters’ band released WAR< their finest record to date, which was conceived in just 50 lockdown days. It captured the attention of global news broadcaster CNN.

Which brings us to the present. It’s 40 years since the band emerged and The Alarm are back on the road. They play Birmingham’s Institute on March 19 – the show has already sold out – and have issued a sensational box set, History Repeating.

Peters – a man for whom the word ‘workaholic’ does no justice – is grateful simply to have lived the life he’s led. “I’m just grateful that we’ve had that time. When you look at the way that music is constituted it’s hard to conceive that artists that are starting out on their journeys today will be able to sustain themselves for that long. The future of rock’n’roll is uncertain. We have to be honest about that. So let’s enjoy it while we can. Let’s make the most of every opportunity to play live. We make the most of every single gig as though it’s our last night on earth.”

History Repeating and details of more gigs are available at thealarm.com