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.

Doctors first discovered his cancer back in 1996 after feeling “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.

In 2019, he 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.

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; they sang of a future; 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 a 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.

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.”

Scott is the Content Director of Music at Future plc, responsible for the editorial strategy of online and print brands like Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, Guitarist, Guitar World, Guitar Player, Total Guitar etc. He was Editor in Chief of Classic Rock magazine for 10 years and Editor of Total Guitar for 4 years and has contributed to The Big Issue, Esquire and more. Scott wrote chapters for two of legendary sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson‘s books (For The Love Of Vinyl, 2009, and Gathering Storm, 2015). He regularly appears on Classic Rock’s podcast, The 20 Million Club, and was the writer/researcher on 2017’s Mick Ronson documentary Beside Bowie.