Mike Peters, the frontman of Welsh rock band The Alarm, has died after a three-decade battle with cancer, the BBC reported Tuesday. He was 66.
The musician was an original member of The Alarm, which formed in 1981 in Rhyl, Denbighshire, and soon became known for their activist rock songs “The Stand” and “Sixty Eight Guns” in the U.K.
In the U.S., The Alarm’s 1987 “Rain in the Summertime” got notable airplay on alternative radio stations. The band would go on to open for U2, and Peters also performed with Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen during his musical career, having left The Alarm in 1991 before reforming the group nine years later. Peters also worked with his wife Jules in the band Poets of Justice and served as the lead singer for the Scottish group Big Country from 2011 to 2013.
As Peters pursued his career in music, he also battled cancer publicly. Peters was first diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1995, and in 2005, he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which returned in 2015 before going into remission.
His wife also battled cancer, and together, the couple founded the Love Hope Strength Foundation to help recruit bone marrow donors at live music shows. Peters soon became known for his cancer fundraising efforts, even putting on a concert at Mount Everest Base Camp in 2007 for cancer awareness.
The musician also appeared in two documentaries about his battle with cancer — the BBC’s Mike and Jules: While We Still Have Time and Mike Peters on the Road to Recovery. Peters was awarded the MBE in 2019 for his contributions to cancer awareness.
Peters continued to tour until last year, when his lymphoma returned. On Tuesday he died of blood cancer in Manchester, England. He is survived by his wife Jules and their sons Dylan, 20 and Evan, 18.
In 2018, he told Guitar World magazine that his “simple message” was “to stay alive and appreciate every second you’ve got,” adding, “Live right up to the last breath and stay positive about the world, your family and the environment you live in.”
