This never-seen interview with Mike Peters, who lost his 30-year battle with blood cancer on April 29, 2025, took place on March 28, 2024, less than two months before his band the Alarm were about to embark on a 50-date U.S. tour that included a set at Pasadena’s Cruel World Festival. Peters was promoting Music Television — a Pin Ups-style, limited-edition covers album celebrating the music of the early-MTV era that turned the Alarm and their fellow Cruel World performers into post-punk superstars — which would be available for sale on the tour. But as was the case with any interview involving the affable frontman, our immensely enjoyable conversation veered in many directions.
Over the course of an hour, Peters and I discussed the early days of MTV and IRS’s The Cutting Edge; the rogue way the Alarm made their “The Stand” and “Rain in the Summertime” videos; performing on the same Top of the Pops episode as Madonna, Echo and the Bunnymen, and the Smiths; doing MTV’s first global broadcast, in 1986, at UCLA, and all the things that went awry behind the scenes that historic day; and his hoax comeback band of the early 2000s, the Poppy Fields.
Heartbreakingly, Peters also excitingly discussed the Alarm’s planned tour, telling me that his health was “fantastic” at the time and that his blood count was the best it had ever been. “It’s like it’s never happened, almost,” he said, referring to the health scare of 2022 that had inspired his brilliant album Forwards, which he made while he was in the hospital. “Hooray, I’m alive again! Now I could do that kind of [tour], so it’s going to be brilliant. I can’t wait. I’m really looking forward to playing at Cruel World. It’s been on the horizon for the last three years, and then life has gotten in the way. I’m grateful that the promoters have stuck with us.”
Peters was unable to make it to the festival when, just weeks after this interview, he was diagnosed with Richter’s Syndrome, an aggressive form of lymphoma. He sent 2024 Cruel World attendees a message, which played on the festival’s main-stage video screen, expressing his regrets and vowing to make it to the festival in 2025. But tragically, that never happened. It is a cruel world, indeed.
My love, hope, and strength go out to Mike’s wife and bandmate, Jules Peters; to the entire Peters family; and to his fans and friends around the globe. I am sharing this interview to show just what a wonderful and positive person Mike Peters was. He will be dearly missed.
