Mike Peters, the guitarist and vocalist with Welsh rock band The Alarm has died. The frontman had been suffering with multiple forms of blood cancer for the past 30 years and had dedicated himself in that time to raising awareness and funds to help those suffering similar illnesses.
Peters was awarded the MBE in 2019 in recognition of his services to cancer charities.
After seeing The Sex Pistols play at a gig in Chester in 1977, Peters, then working in a local supermarket, was inspired to form his own band. His band, The Toilets, were formed that same year. However, following multiple changes in line-up, including the appointment of Dave Sharp on guitar, the band was renamed, becoming the more conventional, US-rock inspired The Alarm in 1981.
The band’s biggest breakthrough came in 1983 when they were asked to support the similarly anthemic U2 on their breakout 1983 US tour. Following the gigs the band earned fans on both sides of the Atlantic producing their debut album Declaration in 1984, bearing their biggest hit, Sixty Eight Guns.
Subsequently, the band would also play support for the likes of Queen, Bob Dylan and U2 for a second time and have notched up five million album sales and had 16 UK Top 50 singles.
Despite international success, Peters still lived in North Wales with Jules, his wife of 39 years, and their sons Dylan, 20 and Evan, 18. Peters would quit The Alarm in 1991, instead working alongside his wife Jules in The Poets Of Justice.
However, he reformed The Alarm in 2000 and became the lead singer for Big Country for two years, in 2011.
Peters was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1995 and at the end of 2005 was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, which returned in 2015 before he went into remission.
He co-founded the Love Hope Strength Foundation with his wife, publicising the cause and recruiting potential bone marrow donors at their gigs.
In 2007, Peters and fellow musicians trekked the Himalayas and more, including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to play the "world's highest gig”, watched by 3m online to raise funds for cancer charities.
In March 2018, the band’s German tour was postponed due to a reaction to his medication and in 2025 it was confirmed that his Richter syndrome lymphoma had returned.
Speaking to Guitar World in 2018, Peters said that his: “simple message" was "to stay alive and appreciate every second you've got".
"Live right up to the last breath and stay positive about the world, your family and the environment you live in."
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