Mike Peters, who found fame in the 1980s as frontman for Welsh rock band the Alarm and co-founded a cancer charity that recruited thousands of stem cell donors, has died. As The Guardian reports, Peters died from blood cancer after a three-decade battle with the disease. He was 66.
Peters was born in 1959 in the Welsh town of Prestatyn. As a teenager, he made his musical debut with the short-lived band Hairy Hippie before seeing the Sex Pistols in 1976 and launching his first proper group, a punk band called the Toilets, in 1977. The following year it was on to another act called Seventeen. But by the dawn of the '80s, he was on to the Alarm, which took their name from one of his Toilets songs, "Alarm Alarm."
The Alarm became arena rock staples in the '80s, opening for U2 and Status Quo. Peters later performed with both Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. In the early '80s, their post-punk-infused howl-along activist rock songs like "The Stand" and "Sixty Eight Guns" made them natural peers for U2. Later in the decade, they made headway on the American charts with hits like "Strength," "Rain In The Summertime," and "Sold Me Down The River." The band broke up in 1991 after Peters walked offstage during a show at Brixton Academy. He segued into a solo career in the '90s, continuing to tour and record up until last year, when health struggles forced him to cancel a planned American tour at the last minute. (Peters also fronted Big Country from 2011-2013.)
Peters was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1995. Though he fully recovered, cancer later struck again in the form of multiple instances of lymphocytic leukemia. His wife, Jules, with whom he fathered two children, also battled cancer. Together with American businessman James Chippendale, they founded the Love Hope Strength Foundation in 2006 with a plan to "change lives one concert, one step, one helping hand at a time." The organization worked to recruit more than 250,000 bone marrow donors for stem cell research, in addition to fundraising for treatment, support groups, and cancer awareness.
Below, check out some of Peters' music with the Alarm.
