TRYING TO FIND THE WAY FORWARDS
A CONVERSATION WITH MIKE PETERS OF THE ALARM
“I’m in London playing the Union Chapel tonight, looking forward to a gig. Just pulled up outside the venue and ready to make some noise tonight”. Mike Peters of The Alarm and I begin our discussion about their new single and album, both named Forwards.
Mike Peters had quite a history in the music industry already. He had been in The Toilets and Seventeen with other members who would also join him in The Alarm. They went on to huge success during the 1980s and 1990s. He also released several successful solo albums, recorded with The Cult’s Billy Duffy as Coloursøund, and even helped out Big Country. Now in 2023, a new album, Forwards is ready for release.
Forwards does have a very powerful story behind it. In 1996, Peters recovered from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and began recording and touring again. In 1995 he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia which relapsed in 2015. While undergoing chemotherapy at the North Wales Cancer Centre, Peters used the time to write an album with his own flair.
“You know, it’s really a forward-looking record, you know, excuse the pun, of the title, but it is. I didn’t want it to be a record about where I’d been last year, but I wanted to be a document of what I was aspiring towards to staying alive, to live, get back to life and cherish the things that are special. And that’s really what the record is, is the document of that journey back to life and that aspirational optimism that, you know, sometimes in this modern world we live in, you have to self-generate to get you through life and get you to realise your ambitions and your dreams and your hopes and that’s really what the record is.”
As Peters points out, he was able to play the guitar in the hospital and music became not only a way for him to express himself but to connect with others in the hospital. “I connect with a lot of people, not just through the music, but through the actions of life itself. People inspire me, you know, when I was in those hospitals a lot of last year and I was really moved by the compassion of the nurses and the doctors to get me well. And even though working in difficult circumstances, they never stopped caring for me. And although they never give you false hope, they quietly go about their jobs with a steely determination to get me well. I find that really inspiring. And that’s what helped me write a lot. The music for Forwards, I brought a guitar into the hospital and played it quietly for myself. Then all the other inmates on the ward, shall we say inside they need you to play a bit louder. It’s nice hearing the guitar in the hospital ward, and they became my compatriots, and in the end, survival. And even the heart monitors and the alarms that go off when drugs are running out on people’s machines, they became my little rhythm track to work towards. And those songs just started coming.”
PURCHASE FORWARDS
But it was a fan who was visiting his father in the same hospital who let the news out. “He said that he was on the Alarm forums last night, Mike Peters was in the cancer centre, doesn’t look well, and I thought to myself, I know he’s basically let it all out and I was trying to keep it quiet and so I had to write a letter for the fans just to give them some reassurances and stop the rumours of my premature demise going around.” This also led to the song “Forwards”. “I signed up the letter then wrote the word ‘forwards’ and it was an instinctive word put down. And as soon as I wrote that word down, I thought, that’s the album that’s kind of forming in my mind, right? And, and so that became the title straight away. And soon as I got out of the hospital, I wanted to record the music straight away while it was fresh and alive.”
For Peters, the songs came quickly, and he was actually recording some bits in hospital. He was ready and willing to finish once he was home. “I think the record is the document of the moment. The creation is preserved on the record. We just built on what I created in the hospital and took it to the final recordings. And that was exciting for all the other musicians around the Alarm camp. It was to communicate the songs straight away, although it’s head scratching, thinking, how am I going to get a guitar part here? Or how am I gonna play drums to these things? It was all fairly direct and informative straight away, and the album was recorded in 12 days, pretty much from top to bottom.”
And one song on the album was inspired by John Lennon. Keep in mind that hospitals in the U.K. have always had their own radio stations and volunteers would come and play music and talk for those staying in hospital. So, when Peters heard a certain song, it triggered him to write his own, “Whatever”. “You could say stole it,” laughs Peters. “I was in hospital for a long time. And sometimes you think, what else is there? You know? And then I put those two headphones on that hang it up behind the band. Everyone has used them for a long time. It seems like old technology listening to the radio, but the deejay played “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” by John Lennon. And I just remember thinking, not because I’m a massive John Lennon fan, but I was thinking, ‘Oh, never mind the night it was to get through the whole of life. And off I went.”
MIKE PETERS AT NORTH WALES CANCER CENTRE
The video is equally powerful as well. Peters filmed the video in a location that is near and dear to his heart. “Yeah. It was shot really quickly because it was absolutely freezing. It was right at the start of a snowstorm, right outside my house, outside the front door. That’s the mountain I see from my window. And looking up, there’s a building that you can see at the beginning and the end of the video. That was part of an old communication system from the 50s. It’s abandoned now, but sometimes I look up and you can see lights and sometimes something, maybe someone’s taking shelter at night, or someone trying to get one of those early morning sunup type of photos. And it’s always been quite an attractive place in a strange way, so I walk a lot. I’ve walked that mountain millions of times. It’s right at my doorstep. And I love the walk, getting up high and looking out over the world. And when I was in hospital, I kept thinking that when I get well, I’m going to get back to that mountain. And to me, getting out of hospital, I’ve always aspired to get to the mountaintop. And so I said, “Let’s take the camera with us.”
And the most recent video, “Forwards” is equally powerful and moving. This is a special concert appearance captured to illustrate the new song. “That was from the gathering that we held. That was our 30th gathering of Alarm fans from all over the world coming to our hometown in Wales and next year we’re moving it to the capital city to make it even bigger, better. It was an emotional night to get back on the stage, to be honest, after all I’ve been through the year before, so hopefully that comes across that. That’s what we’re trying to do to move forward.”
Now, Peters is planning some shows throughout the UK and even a couple in the US. Peters is very clear as to what music and touring mean to him. “This is my hobby, you know, it’s in my work. I always say I get paid for travelling. I always get on the tour bus and the hotels and the airports and the drive in and the miles. I get paid for that, but I do the gig for free and I play the music for nothing. So that’s where I’m at. It’s always been my hobby and if I wasn’t known and no one was coming to see me play, I’d still be sitting at the weekend or playing music with my kids or doing something. Because I enjoy playing music and making music. And I have been lucky and blessed to be able to do that for all of my adult life. So long may it continue.”
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Main Photo Credit: Mike Peters
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