Mike Peters

Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5yCx2gzgolz2sctLCC8NTe?si=2f94399bd6bc4eb4

1

I used to hear from him all the time.

That's what happens when you write something positive about somebody. But time passes and they have no more hits and you don't, which is weird, because you still feel connected.

I bought the initial Alarm EP when it came out in 1983.

It was a different era. One of optimism. The seventies were history, as was the Iran hostage crisis, it's like the entire slate had been wiped clean and replaced by a sunniness which we didn't know we were paying the price for until this century, for it's the eighties when income inequality started to burgeon, and if you fell behind there was no way to catch up, unless you won the lottery. But in the eighties the music and fame was still more important than the money, today it's reversed. And as a result we were passionate about the scene, which was driven by MTV.

You couldn't get it everywhere at first, not even in Manhattan, which is kind of weird when you look back from today, where too much is instantly at your fingertips. But you'd go to the house of someone who had it and you'd be mesmerized, you couldn't turn it off.

And at first it was English acts that had traction on the Continent, because you broke through video as opposed to radio play there, but then the script flipped, Tom Petty and Genesis survived, and eventually Don Henley brought the boys of summer, but really it was a new era, headlined by...

Culture Club. And a lot of one hit wonders, from Haircut 100 to T'Pau (I used to hear from Carol Decker too)...

Then ultimately U2.

And thereafter Duran Duran. Duran Duran invented the MTV paradigm, truly. Spend a zillion on an exotic video and...if it works you become the biggest act in the world.

But before that U2 broke through at Red Rocks.

Not that U2 was unknown, after all how indelible is "I Will Follow"? One listen was enough, you had to hear it over and over again, and they continue to play this song live, and it's still radiates the same high watt energy.

"October" was a critical and commercial disappointment and then in the spring of 1983 came "War."

This was before Bono was hanging with world leaders trying to save the globe, before he wore those glasses, back when the Edge even had hair, and when you dropped the needle on "War"...

SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY!

Most Americans had no idea what Bono was singing about, but it was an anthem anyway, and when that Red Rocks video hit the air, with Mr. Hewson parading around in the fog... U2 triumphed.

And that same spring is when the Alarm made their debut.

Now in hindsight, if only the Alarm were on a major label... They were on I.R.S. Sure, the Go-Go's broke, but Danny Elfman gave up Oingo Boingo to become a film composer.

You see England was a different market, the press could carry you to success. But in the U.S. you had to spend money, and Miles Copeland was notoriously tightfisted. So...

The press got me to buy the Alarm's EP and their first album, which were filled with anthems, akin to U2 but more upbeat and...you could get them on one listen.

From the very beginning, "Unsafe Building," Marching On," "Sixty Eight Guns," "Where Were You Hiding When the Storm Broke" and then...

"Give me love
Give me hope
Give me strength
Give me someone to live for"

"Strength" is a veritable tear. It leaves the station and you're running to catch up, and when you get on the train you hold on for dear life.

This is rock and roll.

There were more in the same mold, yet not similar, but the true American breakthrough was "Rain in the Summertime."

I was glad to see the band all over MTV. Then again, I kept wondering about their guitars in that video, how did they survive all that water? Is this the way you should treat your instrument?

Ultimately "Sold Me Down the River" had even more chart impact, but it wasn't long thereafter that it was over.

2

The nineties were a lost decade, for me anyway, despite the economy raging, it didn't trickle down to me.

And in the latter half of the decade there was the internet, and you no longer had to leave the house to find the action. But before that...

Being broke, one of the best places to hang was Borders on Westwood Boulevard.

It was much better than Barnes & Noble... Many more books, not as dark and there was an amazing selection of magazines and a café and...

Listening stations. Which were still pretty uncommon.

And one night, in the empty music department, because who would buy their albums at Borders as opposed to Tower up the street or Rhino just a few blocks away, I saw this Alarm album "Standards" and put on the headphones and was...POSITIVELY STUNNED!

I won't recite the litany of my problems, but this music made me forget them, it was powerful. I mean I loved "Achtung Baby," but the Alarm is a bit different from U2, it's the driving force, that train ride I mentioned above.

And I didn't own "Rain in the Summertime" at home so I played it. And then played it again. And again.

And then "Strength."

And I ultimately bought that greatest hits CD. And I'd put it in the drawer of my million dollar Sony CD player that moved the CD not the lens and cranked it up and it blasted out of the JBLs and I kept the windows closed so as not to completely piss of my neighbors and I smiled in my own cocoon.

"I love to feel the rain in the summertime
I love to feel the rain on my face"

It doesn't rain during the summer in Southern California, but where I grew up on the east coast...

Sure, maybe at the end of the summer it rained and was miserable, but on those hot humid days at the end of June, in July and the beginning of August...that rain was a relief.

And the amazing thing is it's got nothing to do with money or status. It's just a personal experience.

"And then I run 'til the breath tears my throat
'Til the pain hits my side
As if I run fast enough
I can leave all the pain and sadness behind"

That's right, my mind was haunted by memories and loss. But when the Alarm blasted...

And then...

"Someone write me a letter
I need to know that I'm still alive
Someone give me a telephone call
I need to hear a human sound"

I couldn't afford long distance phone calls. Radio promotion men called me every week and I didn't let them off the phone, they were my connection.

"Someone open up a door
And let me out of this place
I've been caged up for oh-so-long
I don't know if I'm living or dying"

When done right, music gets you through. It's not a bling fantasy, but something electric, like you plugged yourself into the socket and all those volts lit you right up.

And there were the classics on the CD, the aforementioned "Sixty Eight Guns" and "Unsafe Building," but there were numbers that had never truly resonated previously.

"I don't know why and I don't understand
How you sold me down the river"

That's not exactly how it happened, but nevertheless I still could not understand, and neither could Mike Peters in "Sold Me Down the River."

But screw the lyrics, just that stinging guitar was enough to put the number over the top.

And Mike's delivery! It was never casual. You needed a frontman who could deliver without production, who could grab the audience's attention and then hold it, and hold it...through the tension and the release.

Mike could do that. And that's pretty rare today, not that it was so common in the days of yore. Then again, it wasn't like today, there weren't all the amateurs competing with the pros on Spotify, cluttering the channel with their substandard music delivered in a pedestrian fashion at best.

That's right, the Alarm were a professional band.

And they had success.

But that was back in the eighties.

3

So Mike told me he'd been sick, and he was energized by his recovery. He was going to spread the word, not that most people knew, this was before ubiquitous internet information. If "Rolling Stone" and MTV News didn't cover it, good luck getting the story out there.

But he carried on.

Not with hits. Mike had energy, but times had changed. Even U2 can't have hits anymore, they went on the road and played "The Joshua Tree" from start to finish. You've got your niche, your fans, you mine them...

But that's not the way it used to be. Used to be if you made it on to MTV and stayed there, YOU WERE KNOWN AROUND THE WORLD!

And Mike Peters was.

And now he's gone.

He just couldn't beat the leukemia. He held illness at bay for decades. but it ultimately got him and snuffed the life out of him at 66.

So what do we do with that?

Well, if you're a youngster, 66 sounds old. But I remember Irving remarking when Jerry Weintraub died at 77 that it was before his time. Now that I'm over 70, I get it. You don't know how long the ride lasts, but you hope it does until all your friends are gone, not forever, you don't really want that even though you think you do.

So Mike's gone, all the accolades mean nothing to him.

And what are the odds they'll be spinning the Alarm's music fifty or more years from now? Pretty low. Good luck with even Duran Duran.

But if you were alive back then, if you lived at the record store, if you were glued to MTV, you know exactly who Mike Peters was.

He was not a one hit wonder. He didn't sing covers written by committee. No, Mike Peters channeled his inner truth. He was angry, pointing out injustice, but that was back when music was seen as more than entertainment, as a way of speaking truth to power. You didn't want to hang with the billionaires, who didn't even exist back then, you just wanted to triumph in the world of rock and have an impact.

Mike did.

He reached me

Maybe he reached you.

But one thing's for sure, the energy in the Alarm records is baked into the grooves forever, it's still there, pull up the tracks, you'll be energized, you'll smile, you'll be amazed.

And that would have made Mike Peters happy, that's exactly what he was looking for. To reach you with the sound, with his message, sans trappings. He just wanted to be a rock star.

And he was.


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