Ahead of Forwards, the latest album by north Wales’ favourite rocking sons The Alarm, Rhonda Lee Reali speaks to founding frontman Mike Peters about the circumstances of its recording, and how both he and his wife’s continuing battles with cancer has steeled his creative resolve.
Healthwise, how are you and your wife Jules doing?
Great, thanks for asking. We both seem to be beneficiaries of amazing treatment. Great regimens through the NHS, brilliant medical doctors and nursing staff. We’ve come through massive ordeals and are still able to live our lives, play music, bring our family up, enjoy living. Not everyone can tell the same story or have the same outcome. We definitely got our lives back. I still have treatment everyday – it means I can still keep living, dreaming, having hope and ambition.
Forwards, The Alarm’s latest album, sounds very urgent. Is that because you wanted to cram as much as you could into it? That’s the feeling I got.
Yeah, I wanted to make the album fast, while I was still alive. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sing again – my voice was challenged by the amount of drugs I was taking. I had one window of opportunity to do the first demos I did of all the songs when I came out of the hospital, because I knew I was going back in pretty much straight away. That became the beginnings of the record.
When I took those tapes to producer George Williams, he said, “Mike, you’ve got it here already. We don’t need to start from scratch. We’ll get Smiley [Steve Barnard] to redo the drums and we can redo the guitars.” I wasn’t sure I could be able to redo the vocals, because the treatment was beginning to be hard. We almost had to think of the album as working on it posthumously – me still being alive, but my voice not. So, the urgency comes from that.
It worked out well – I regained my voice in time, and sang all the record in one day because I was so scared of not getting it back again. The Beatles recorded their first album in a day, and John Lennon had to sing Twist And Shout right at the end – he was battling for his voice, but it’s one of his greatest ever performances. If you know the story behind it, you can hear the tension in his voice as he’s trying to get it down that one time. I relate to that.
You sound fantastic: I wouldn’t have thought you were ill at all.
The demos are good, but you can hear some of the challenge in the voice. On this, the proper recording, I’ve surprised myself. I’ve benefited from having the new treatment I’m now on, this drug called Venetoclax. It’s working like a miracle on me. My blood count is absolutely normal – I’ve never had a normal blood count for 40 years – and I find singing onstage now almost effortless. A song like Strength by The Alarm, it’s always the highest note in my range – I can hit it fairly comfortably! I’m actually amazed. The drugs are definitely working and taking me to another place.
These new songs are very anthemic.
That’s always been a word around The Alarm – I prefer us being a stirring group rather than anthemic. Sometimes anthems can take you into feveristic ways that can be controlling, but I like inspiring choruses, where you get an uplift from the melody – that’s always driven me.
There are also softer moments, with acoustic guitar and keyboards; the song Next is very psychedelic with its guitar.
I had that little riff before I was diagnosed, while I was having a jam session – I thought, “I’ll park that…” When I was in hospital, I was thinking, “what’s next?” and the riff just started. I had a line pop into my head – “Whatever’s trying to kill me makes me feel alive.” It was an important line to me when I started thinking of life and the disease like that – it made me feel a lot stronger and better about the situation, more capable of waking up the next day and keeping going.
I always think that about cancer: you have to respect it to understand it. It’s part of life. Negative is a weakness. I’m gonna stand up to the disease and treat it as an opponent that you actually respect – hate is such a negative energy. I’m not a big fan of the ‘fuck cancer’, ‘I hate cancer’ thing.
I really like album track Love And Forgiveness, because of all the lyrical comparisons. Who are you asking forgiveness from?
I think it’s more the higher power. I remember once, in 1988, I was crossing the border into Canada, when we were touring with Bob Dylan. We were allowed to get off our tour buses, and I stepped off at the same time as Dylan. I stood right next to him with our passports in hand and all of a sudden, a melody arrived in my head: “There are no frontiers / There are no borderlines we can’t cross tonight.” The song featured on our 1989 album Change, and I always think – where did that come from at that moment? I often think the higher power was sending it down, and they were aiming for Bob Dylan, missed and got me instead!
I’ve taken a lot out of life, and I’ve written a lot of songs in hospital. I felt like I was receiving these melodies. I often ask, “Lord, is there a song today? Am I going to get love and forgiveness again because I’ve taken so much out of life?” I’ve been lucky enough to have so many great songs thrust into my imagination, and sometimes I wonder – if I take too much, will I get anymore? To me, that applies in life. How much can you take out of life? How much is fair? I’ve been living with cancer since 1995, almost 30 years now. I’ve probably had more chemotherapy than any human being that’s alive today. How much can I expect, and what’s going to be given to me?
I’m always amazed when the doctors say, “we’ve got some more chemotherapy for you today.” My imagination says, “I’ve got a new song for you today, Mr. Peters. You just need your guitar and see it into the world.” Or I’ll go to my family – they put up with me and see how crazy I can be at times, chasing my rock’n’roll ambitions. They still love and forgive me for being me, and I think that’s an incredible part of life. But you do think to yourself, when’s it gonna end? And I hope that day never arrives. Keep hoping for as much love and forgiveness as possible.
What can you tell me about the 2024 edition of Alarm fan meetup, The Gathering?
We can’t wait to bring it to Cardiff. It’s always been an ‘all-Wales’ event, for 30 years, but in the north, so we thought, let’s take it back to the south. We’ve been playing The Gathering out in our hometown [Rhyl] and bringing people from all over America and Europe into north Wales. Let’s bring them to Wales and show them what the capital is all about – like our history.
We’re looking forward to coming to Cardiff in January – the complete takeover of the city. There’ll be Alarm fans everywhere: in Cardiff Bay, in the streets, in the pubs – like the Old Arcade, in the Temple Bar – in the university, the castle. They’ll be everywhere! People will be coming down from the Valleys into the city. From all over Wales. It’s going to be our own version of the Home Internationals!
Hopefully I can attend some events. I’ve never been before.
It’s all our best fans from all over the world under one roof for a weekend, so it creates the most incredible atmosphere. Everybody’s made friends through The Alarm. Then when anyone who comes along who’s not seen the Alarm before, they get swept away in all this energy and communal feeling that exists at The Gathering. It’s a very unique event.
Lots of bands have tried to copy what we do, but it’s hard cos they haven’t got the same kind of fan commitment the Alarm has! The fans bring their A-game as much as we have to bring our best to the occasion as well, and that’s what makes it work. It’s a totally unified rock’n’roll experience.
The Alarm’s new album Forwards is out on Fri 16 June via The Twenty First Century Recording Company.
The Alarm support The Cult at Cardiff Castle on Tue 4 July.
Tickets: £49.50. Info: here
The Gathering 2024, Cardiff University Students Union (plus further events across Cardiff), Thurs 18-Sun 21 Jan.
Tickets: £84 (full weekend pass). Info: here
words RHONDA LEE REALI