Mike Peters, who as frontman for The Alarm sang on such tracks as “Energy,” “Sixty Eight Weapons,” “Spirit of ’76” and “Rain within the Summertime,” died Tuesday of blood most cancers in Manchester, England, a spokesman introduced. He was 66 and had been battling continual lymphocytic leukemia for many years.
Born on February 25, 1959, in Wales, Peters performed in Seventies punk bands The Bathrooms and Seventeen earlier than forming The Alarm in 1981. The group supported its eponymous first EP — which featured “The Stand” –with a key opening slot on a lot of U2’s breakout 1983 world tour, together with the Purple Rocks Amphitheatre present captured for U2’s EP Beneath a Blood Purple Sky.
Already a powerhouse stay act, the quartet launched its debut album, Declaration, the next yr and make the UK Prime 10 helped by the Prime 20 single “Sixty Eight Weapons.” The track was a minor Mainstream Rock hit within the U.S., pushing the album into the Prime 50.
The Alarm broke by means of Stateside with its third album Energy, which made the Prime 40 fueled by the anthemic title monitor hitting No. 12 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. Observe-up single “Spirit of ’76” — which Peters co-wrote, as he did for many of the band’s songs — recounted his early days of discovering punk rock and name-checks the likes of Johnny Rotter and Siouxsie Sioux.
“The track is about a very powerful time in my life,” Peters wrote in this system for the Energy tour. “I had my complete life mapped out earlier than me and life appeared fairly unexciting. Then I noticed bands like The Jam and The Buzzcocks and U2, and issues and so they actually had an influence on my life. It gave me the braveness to depart one thing behind and exit and attempt to construct a brand new life for myself.”
The Alarm continued to hit charts on each side of the pond, scoring its largest hits in 1987 with “Rain within the Summertime,” from the album Eye of the Hurricane. It peaked at No. 18 within the UK and No. 6 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart.
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The band’s different in style tracks embody “Presence of Love,” “45 RPM,” “Offered My Down the River” and a canopy of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Pleased Christmas (Warfare Is Over)” that was included on The Alarm’s 1990 compilation album Requirements. The band’s songs have been utilized in a number of movies and TV exhibits starting from the Tom Hanks film Bachelor Social gathering and British cleaning soap EastEnders within the Eighties to 13 Causes Why and Animal Kingdom in newer years.
In all, the group would launch 5 full-length albums from 1984- by means of 1991, when Peters first was identified with most cancers. The Alarm was inactive for many of that decade earlier than regrouping and persevering with to file and tour. Peters co-founded the charity Love Hope Energy in 2005 and was featured in a documentary the next yr titled Mike Peters on the Street to Restoration.
In 2007, Peters and different musicians made a two-week trek to Mount Everest Base Camp to carry out a fundraising live performance for most cancers consciousness. It was billed because the highest-elevation present ever placed on. Peters was awarded the MBE in 2019 for his contributions to most cancers consciousness.
Peters continued to file and tour as lately as final yr. Survivors embody his longtime spouse, Jules, who beat breast most cancers and likewise was an activist towards the illness, and their sons Dylan and Evan.
