02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Mike Peters, Frontman of the Alarm, Is Dead at 66
Mike Peters, the frontman of the Welsh post-punk band the Alarm, which in the 1980s drew comparisons to U2 for its storm-the-barricades passion and its clarion-call anthems like 'Sixty Eight Guns' and 'Blaze of Glory,' has died. He was 66, having lived with cancer for three decades and been a prominent campaigner against it.
His death was confirmed in social media posts by his wife, Jules Jones Peters, who did not say where or when he died or specify the cause.
Mr. Peters was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1995 and twice with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, in 2005 and again in 2015. Both are forms of blood cancer. Last year, on the eve of a 50-date U.S. tour, he discovered that he had Richter's syndrome, a more aggressive form of lymphoma.
Starting in the 2000s, Mr. Peters took on a second career as a prominent spokesman in the fight against cancer. He helped found the Love Hope Strength Foundation, which has staged concerts in dramatic locations like Mount Everest and Mount Fuji to raise funds for cancer research and treatment. The Alarm in 1982, from left: Nigel Twist, Mr. Peters, Eddie Macdonald and Dave Sharp. Emerging from Britain's punk underground of the late 1970s, the group was known for its electric-shock hairstyles as well as its righteous fury. Credit... Erica Echenberg/Redferns, via Getty Images
Emerging from Britain's punk underground of the late 1970s, the Alarm, known for their righteous fury and electric-shock hairstyles, fused the high-octane energy of punk with a distinctive twin-acoustic-guitar attack while firing off musical fusillades like 'Where Were You Hiding When the Storm Broke?,' 'Spirit of '76' and 'The Stand.'
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