Mike Peters of The Alarm on fighting leukaemia, a new album and returning to the road with a gig at The Wedgewood Rooms | Interview

Originally diagnosed with leukaemia in 2005, the musician had long-since beaten the disease back, continued with the band and founded a charity, the Love Hope Strength Foundation off the back of it to fight cancer.

But in 2022, he had a relapse. Mike, however, is not one for lying down and giving up.

He returned to the stage at Venue Cymru Arena in Llandudno, North Wales, in January for The Gathering, an annual celebration of The Alarm’s music with their legion of fans.

‘I walked out on the stage, and I was sort of steeling myself for the crowd to see them again and to feel their passion,’ he recalls. ‘Unbeknownst to me they'd created a group on the internet to arrange this and decided to sing a song for me!

‘I got on the stage and I heard some piano, so I'm thinking: “where's that coming from?” Then the next thing, the whole audience has burst into song. It was very... emotional for me and I had to steel myself not to just breakdown at that point.

NOW READ: Kids Arena lineup for Victorious Festival is announced

‘It was a long road back to the stage. In the darkest moments I thought that this could be the end here. I was very lucky that I got onto some brand new drugs that have been released into the healthcare system – not many people had taken them yet. I had to be weaned onto them and weaned off the old regime that wasn't working. There was a lot of uncertainty at the time as to whether it was going to work, or it was mutating into another kind of disease which would have been very risky for me.’

Mike kicked off a solo acoustic tour last week under The Alarm’s banner in Liverpool and the tour makes its way to The Wedgewood Rooms in Southsea on June 7.

While in hospital Mike reveals that he actually lost his voice, temporarily as it turned out.

‘It was a side-effect of the drugs. The other drugs, they'd worked well, but they weren't fully efficient, so I was always struggling with certain things, but now this brand new drug, now I've got used to it, I'm on a very high dose every day and I seem to be able to take it.

‘A lot of people, once they reach the high dose, and it balances them out, they have to lessen the load, but I seem to be able to keep going on this high dose without too many side effects. My body is tolerating it and my blood count is absolutely normal.

‘When I started singing again, I was thinking, I'm singing better than ever! I was amazed how easy it was to get certain notes – not that I struggling with them before, but I had to really push myself. I felt very comfortable singing on stage. I was surprised and absolutely grateful that the treatment was working so well.’

SEE ALSO: Review | Seven Drunken Nights – The Story of The Dubliners at The Kings Theatre

Over the course of their four-decade career, the Welsh rockers, led by Peters have had 17 top 50 UK singles including the anthems Sixty Eight Guns and Spirit of ‘76, and more than 6m album sales worldwide. They are now about to release album number 20 – Forward, featuring songs Mike penned while in hospital.

​One of the album’s singles is Whatever, an anthem to the power of positivity.

‘I heard John Lennon's song, Whatever Gets You Thru The Night on the hospital radio and I thought, hang on, what about getting through life? I want to get through more than just tonight! That sort of triggered my own song in my own way. I'm sure John won't mind me borrowing the sentiment.

‘I had my guitar brought into the hospital because I was in for such a long time and there were still a lot of pandemic-era practices in place with regards to having visitors on the ward. There was no real visiting allowed, just short little windows with one person at a time.

‘I saw a lot of people come and go, shall we say. It's not a nice place to be. All life and death was in there. And you never really sleep in hospital, it's like going on a plane – you drift off, but you're never really into deep sleep, there's always noises going on.

‘I asked my wife to bring the guitar so I could keep myself company on those long days.

‘I had the guitar just to keep the callouses on my fingers strong and to be prepared for when I came out. I thought, I can't pretend that I'm not coming out, I have to prepare myself and focus on getting out.

‘Then before you knew it, besides just strumming the guitar quietly to myself the patients on the opposite side of the ward were saying: “Keep going, it sounds great,”’ he chuckles.

‘I did ask if they didn't mind if I strummed for a few minutes while I was off the IV, but all of the other patients were amenable to it. It turned into a really nice little distraction for us all, it evoked conversation – people were asking questions, and I'd ask what music they liked and I'd try to find the chords to a song they liked. It really helped get us all through the day.’

Mike says around ‘80 per cent’ of the album was written from his hospital bed.

‘I just brought the guitar in to keep myself going, but then I’d hear phrases people would say, when the curtains were round the bed, or they'd make a joke with the nurse, and I'd think: “Wow! There's a song there”, and then the next minute the songs start arriving.’

The album’s title comes from the message he put online for fans where he revealed he’d had a relapse.

‘I had to go public with the news as we had to take some things out of the calendar, and people knew I was in hospital.

‘I signed off the message to my fans with the word: “Forward”. I thought, ah, there's a title, and the song arrived within minutes. It helped me forget about the urgency of the situation I was in and the potential danger, and start to dream and think about getting out and making a record – how's it going to sound? What sort of energy do I want it to have? And it was all arriving in those moments.’

Describing the results he says: ‘There's a defiance in it, and a spirit to it that maybe I haven't had on records for a long time. I've written records about what I've been through, but this one is more about where I wanted to get to. It's an aspirational record – can I still find my best songs?

‘I started looking around – has anyone else written an album in hospital before? I was Googling it and thinking, maybe I've stumbled into a mineshaft of creativity that no one else has been in before and I'm pulling them out of the wall because no one else has been there before!

‘We've all been down the old country road, and the punk road and the post-punk road and everyone's mined those wells of creativity – I thought I am here in a hospital and it's uncharted territory, so I'll take it while I can!’

For the time being, Mike’s health and being pragmatic has dictated touring plans. He currently has to be back in the hospital every fortnight for treatment.

‘I obviously wanted to bring the band out, but I felt I couldn't trust myself to sing in the band every night, back-to-back. There will be band shows, but it's finding the right balance.

‘Once I've conquered that (the current tour), then I know I can sing with the band.

‘Don’t get me wrong, whether I sing with the band or on my own, I give it everything I've got – I sing just the same, but I didn't want the pressure on our industry, if you like, and how we work – putting everything out there with the band and having tour buses and hotels and crew members, and all that kind of stuff, and then saying: “I can't do it – I'm going to have to pull shows”. I had to be sensible here and ease my way back into the flow of things.

‘But things are looking good – I played a big show with the band last weekend at St David's Hall in Cardiff, and hopefully that's a sign of things to come.

‘We've announced The Gathering for next year and we're going to New York in June. The way is opening up again. That energy is what's in the new album, Forward.’

Things have been going well too for the Love Hope Strength Foundation after a difficult time during the pandemic.

‘The pandemic was tough for charitable organisations. One of the mainstays of our charity was doing bone marrow donor drives at concerts, which involved spit, which was not a good thing to be involved in during the pandemic! That had to be parked for a while.

‘Jules, my wife, and I, we hiked Offa's Dyke. We intended to do that with 20 supporters as a big trek, but in the end we had to do it alone and people did it alongside us virtually. We found other ways to engage.

‘While I was in hospital I was supposed to go and hike the Sahara Desert, so my wife did that in my absence and raised over £100,000 which was used to support cancer initiatives in other countries. All those missions are still going forward.

‘We've got Snowdon Rocks this year, and we're doing something in Central Park in June, and then in September we're hiking in The Alps.

‘Now we're starting to regenerate the Get On The List campaign – we're encouraging people to register online and get swab kits sent to their homes so they can do it in private.’

His wife Jules is also a cancer survivor – she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016.

‘She's been brilliant,’ says Mike. ‘Once you've been affected by it, you realise how grateful you are for the care you've been given and you want to pass that on and help others navigate the waters they have to sail through themselves.’

The Alarm Acoustic Tour is at The Wedge on Wednesday, June 7. Tickets £22.50. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.