Mike Peters, frontman of the Welsh rock band The Alarm
Picture credit: Paul Natkin/Getty Images

It has been announced that Mike Peters, frontman of the Welsh rock band The Alarm, has died from blood cancer aged 66.

Peters was first diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1995 and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was identified in 2005. Despite continued battles and periods of remission, the musician was forced to cancel a US tour last year after he discovered a large swollen gland on his neck. Diagnosed by doctors as Richter’s syndrome, a rare complication where the CLL transforms into a more aggressive lymphoma, Peters had been undergoing treatment at the Christie NHS foundation trust in Manchester.

Having co-founded the Love Hope Strength Foundation alongside his wife, Jules, to help recruit bone marrow donors at live music shows, the singer was awarded the MBE in 2019 for his services to cancer care.

Last December he wrote on Love Hope Strength Foundation website: “I  am eternally grateful for the support of everyone who has been to the concerts since this terrible ordeal began. Playing music has kept me mentally focused throughout, and I want to thank everyone who has since signed up to the Stem Cell Donor Registry via Love Hope Strength.”

“In 2014,” he continued, “while addressing delegates at the World Cancer Congress in Melbourne Australia, I said that ‘In 1995, I didn’t see cancer coming but at the same time, cancer didn’t see Mike Peters coming either’. In 2025, I will have been living with the disease for 30 years and in all that time I have had to face the fact that my form of Leukaemia was incurable.”

The news of his passing was announced on social media via a video titled, ‘Michael Peters: 1959 – 2025.’

Autobiographical Trilogy

Last year, Peters revealed his autobiography LOVE 1959 -1991, the first part of an intended autobiographical trilogy titled LOVE HOPE STRENGTH, was available to order. He wrote: “I am honoured to have been given this opportunity to write the account of my life. The publishers, A Way With Media and editor Andrew Richardson have allowed me the scope and space to tell my story, the way I have always dreamt of.

“Most ‘life’ autobiography’s are condensed into approximately 90,000 words or so and as an archivist, diarist, documentary and completist that wasn’t for me. Andrew and A Way With Media have been brave and committed enough, to set me, my archive and my pen free to tell the story the way I have lived it and not to be edited down or discouraged from telling all the stories and laying out all the facts of the life I have been blessed to walk through.

“Volume One alone involved the writing of approximately 158,000 words. No stone has been left unturned…”

Message Of Hope

Just four days ago, on 25 April, The Alarm Facebook page relayed a ‘Personal Message From Mike Peters’, announcing Volume Two ‘HOPE‘. It said:

“I’m writing personally to thank you for the love and understanding shown to me and my family during my trials at The Christie Hospital, Manchester, throughout these challenging last few months. Andrew Richardson (my publisher at A Way With Media), has kept me fully abreast of all the wonderful feedback you have sent him regarding the book content, story telling and attention to detail that I poured into the writing of LOVE 1959 – 1991. Luckily for me, I was able to stay alive long enough through 2024 to complete Volume 2 HOPE 1991 – 2005.”

Transformation

Earlier this year it was also announced that The Alarm would be releasing a new album, Transformation,  on 6 June. It was revealed that the recording sessions for Transformation began spontaneously on 7 October 2024 and was completed on 15 January 2025. 

Reflective of Peters’ fighting spirit, the announcement was accompanied by the video for new song, Outlier, which was filmed and recorded in early March by Peters’ two “official and authorised visitors” – Jules Peters and Andy Labrow, who helped create the film inside his isolation room at The Christie NHS Foundation Hospital.

Watch below:

Determination Through Adversity

Born in Prestatyn, Peters formed The Alarm in 1981 and scored a Top 20 hit with Sixty Eight Guns, two years later. Having stepped into the void created by the demise of bands like The Clash, Peters and The Alarm were celebrated for their anthemic, politically aware, rabble-rousing rock.

Peters told Classic Pop in 2018: “We discretely did things like supporting the miners’ strike funds. However, I didn’t want our music to become like The Redskins or Billy Bragg, where you’re really just a mouthpiece. Our politics were about the politics of the individual waking up to who they were and then making their own choices. My role as an artist was to stimulate conversation.”

Their debut album Declaration was released in 1984. Alongside Sixty Eight Guns, the LP also featured Blaze of Glory. However it was the follow-up Strength (1985) which Peters claimed was: “The Alarm’s best album, song for song.”

Throughout his career, which also saw him front Big Country between 2011 and 2013, Peters was able to proactively use his position to promote charitable causes – not least the aforementioned Love Hope Strength Foundation. His determination through adversity inspired many and his passing has been greeted with great sadness and numerous tributes from fans online.

Peters is survived by his wife, Jules, and two sons, Dylan, 20, and Evan, 18.

For more on Transformation and LOVE HOPE STRENGTH trilogy, click here

Visit the Love Hope Strength Foundation here to find out more or donate.

For more on Mike Peters read our Declaration of Strength: The Alarm interview