Mike Peters Presents The Alarm Acoustic
Mike Peters is known primarily as frontman of the internationally acclaimed Welsh rock band The Alarm, he is also an inspirational solo performer and (as a three time Leukaemia survivor), founder of rock and roll cancer charity 'Love Hope Strength'.
Mike Peters has played an acoustic guitar all his musical life and the sound of the instrument has been at the core of all his work from the very beginnings of The Alarm to the present day. Achieving over 17 Top 40 UK singles and over 6 million album sales worldwide along the way, Mike Peters musical journey has seen him sing with some of history's greatest performers such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Neil Young & Bono, he has also taken his trusty acoustic guitar to some of the world's highest elevations performing at 'The Highest Ever Concert On Land' at 18,500 feet on Mt. Everest (2007), and at 19,380 feet at the summit of Kilimanjaro.
Mike Peters formed The Alarm in 1981, first becoming successful soon after with classic singles such as ‘Sixty Eight Guns’ and ‘Rain In The Summertime’ and building a reputation for all out shows based on their thoughtful and challenging music.
In 1992, Mike Peters and The Alarm founded The Gathering, the annual Mike Peters hosted 'Alarm' event held in North Wales which now attracts fans from all over the world.
Throughout most of the 1990’s Mike Peters took a step back from The Alarm, beginning with the release of 'Breathe' in 1994 (which debuted at number 5 in the U.K. independent charts). A second solo album, 'Feel Free' (1996) documented Mike Peters' first battle with cancer (Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma). Rejecting conventional treatment, Mike Peters went to see of a faith healer instead, and continued to tour. Upon being told that 'green' was a powerful colour in his life, Mike Peters wore green combat fatigues every day until he eventually went into spontaneous remission.
In 2000, it was time for Mike Peters to reconvene The Alarm once more and in 2004, The Alarm released the controversial '45 R.P.M.’ single in the U.K. under the pseudonym 'The Poppy Fields' and entered the UK charts at number 27, immediately becoming the subject of a controversial international news story.
In 2006, Mike Peters' life journey entered into another dark phase when, just days before the release of the hit single 'Superchannel' (from the album 'Under Attack'), he was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL). Throughout a six month spell of hardcore chemotherapy, Mike continued to play and perform, taking to the stage each time in his trademark 'green' combat fatigues and taking the first steps in beginning the Love Hope Strength Foundation by leading a host of Alarm fans to the summit of Snowdon to raise funding for the local cancer care centre in North Wales that had helped put Mike on the road to recovery. A revealing and insightful BBC documentary was screened in October 2007 chronicling Mike Peters' inspiring story.
Since then, Mike has embarked on a series of remarkable journeys to raise funding for cancer care both locally and globally, In 2007, his travels took him to Nepal where Mike inspired a team of musicians, cancer survivors and supporters on a trek to Mt. Everest to perform an acoustic unplugged session at 18,500 feet (The World's Highest Concert on land), filmed by VH1 America and currently screening in the USA as 'Everest Rocks' the trek was instrumental in providing Nepal with it's first mammography machine which is now housed at the Bhaktapur Cancer Centre.
In 2008, The Alarm released 'Guerilla Tactics’ via an audacious acoustic concert in New York's Times Square and along with the prophetic 'Three Sevens Clash' gate crashed America's airwaves once more reaching number 3 on Billboards Rock Alternative Chart. In the autumn of that same year, Mike Peters lead 62 trekkers along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu for 'Peru Rocks' and funding raised provided the cancer centre in Lima with a specialised bus that could travel to remote villages to offer care and early detection facilities for those living outside of the reach of modern medical practices.
More recently, Mike Peters was awarded the MBE for his services to charity and between 2016 and 2022, spearheaded the release of three brand new Alarm albums Equals, Sigma and Omega all of which have featured in the UK’s Top 10 Rock album chart with 2019’s Sigma entering at Number one. The Alarm also wrote, recorded ad released ‘The Red Wall of Cymru’ as the official song for Wales’ appearance at Euro 2020.
Despite being further challenged by both Pneumonia and another life threatening re-occurrence of Leukaemia in 2022, Mike Peters is currently reporting a clean bill of health and the latest brand new Alarm album FORWARDS released on June 16th 2023 reached number 4 in the UK Rock Chart and number 21 in the Billboard Indpeendent Album chart.
Mike Peters remains as passionate as ever about his music and charity Love Hope Strength. When he was first diagnosed with cancer in 1995 quitting music wasn't an option and he is now in his third remission from Leukaemia and still challenging himself and his audience through music and the outreach of his charitable actions. In his own words and from the title of one of his own songs "Are you ready for what’s next?".
Journalists & fans call him ‘The rock n roll poet.’ He's an Outlaw folk & rock n roll singer songwriter with a cause –songs of real life experience society,social struggles , ,love ,rebellion& satire –
A man with a message .A voice of the forgotten regular people kicked around by life who beat the odds .He overcame death more than once –being told he’d never play music or walk again after a rare illness in 2009 then collapsing and dying right on stage only to rise up and survive with a full miraculous recovery.Thrown in a UK jail while on tour ,hanging out with other immigrant's being held in the tank from all over the world .Armed with his battered acoustic & electric guitars,soulful harmonica & his songs , he has a perspective other songwriters don’t have,follows no one & goes where the winds takes him.
His new album Rabbit Foot Carnival with his band the Starshakers release is out now.
Like his previous albums it was recorded raw & live in the studio – music and vocal's recorded all at once-. Song of our time album in 2019 was hailed as a top release of the year in The USA & UK. A raw Folk album with 21st century lyrics.
His 'Acoustic Rumble' album was named “#1 release of the decade and #1 album of the year with the # 25 best song of the decade Poem to my country’ on the years end top 100 by Los Angeles Times by legendary music journalist ‘Mike Boehm’ who also declared the album
‘Better than Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad".
The album also topped the New york ‘Village Voice Pazz & Jopp poll’ & named #1 by The Orange County register.
He has also garnered critical acclaim in the UK in hip & underground magazines and blogs.
Mojo magazine named Michael's release Last Of The Honky tonks #6 of the month and Shindig magazine in 2018 naming his social commentary song ‘Jeanie Lees Phone' from the acclaimed vinyl release ‘The Ballad of Brian Jones’ -“A smash hit waiting to happen” . Legendary Stones photographer Gered Mankowitz did the vinyl album cover. His new songs Jeanie Lees Phone &
Scratch My Back,Memphis Bound & Jean Harlow played regularly in 2022 on Little Stevens Underground garage -Rodney on the rock show.(Also his first teenage band The Earwigs garage classic 'Here Come The Earwigs')
Michael also has won numerous awards for “Best roots Album , Best Live Performer- Best songwriter – by The Southern California Los Angeles & Orange County music awards.- .Several music journalists in the USA & Europe have dubbed Ubaldini “A Jack Kerouac in a black leather jacket”
The prolific songwriters 2021 album was a raw collection of original folk songs with guitar and harmonica only entitled 'Music Notes From The Underground'- a follow up to the acclaimed 2019 album ‘Song of our time’, as well as the re-issue of the Indie folk classic
‘Acoustic Rumble legacy edition’.The new album is filled with protest songs ,life’s struggles & songs that don’t pussyfoot around.His newest release Rabbit Foot Carnival has been released summer 2022 and first with is full band since 2016's Starshaker- legendary music journalist Robert Kinsler calls it "A Bona Fide Masterwork"
Michael started playing guitar and writing songs at age 7.
The first songs he learned were Hank Williams Jambalaya and and Ray Charles ‘What I’d say’ both learnt from his Dad- He was an odd kid with a 146 IQ as a child –This isolated him so he listened to records by the likes of Howlin’ Wolf ,CCR,Rolling Stones Robert Johnson ,Hank Williams ,Ray Charles ,The Beatles,Bob Dylan pre war Gospel & Woody Guthrie instead of children's records.Early on he played county fairs and sang at sideshows while barkers did card tricks.
When he got to high school it was - rock n roll ,Folk music & 1st wave Punk .
What always has set Ubaldini apart from his contemporaries is his cross breeding of styles blending Rock n roll music, early 20th century ballads ,Folk & delta blues along with honky tonk and what some call 21st century protest songs with attitude .He remains 'apolitical' -not of the left or the right- "I'm one for the everyday people not left or right with extremist ideologies -my songs sometimes hold a mirror up to society that's all -I never was much of a follower"
His musical pioneering would later emerge as categories marketed such as ‘Americana’ or ‘Alt Country – but Michael cant be labeled and came from a more rebellious & artistic dangerous side of the tracks , singing for the underdog, banging away on the guitar- He once was quoted saying:
“Because nobody would write these type of songs,people said I shouldn’t –– It didn’t fit in with mainstream pop or these pay to someone else your money for songwriting workshops where people conform to rules and don’t write what they live –Music needed an alternative to that. Someone had to write this type of songs . These things needed to be sung so I wrote em’-
His fan base included & includes legendary artists such The Late Joe Strummer of Punk legends & rock n roll hall of famers 'The Clash' & ‘Brian Setzer’, both who would turn up at his live shows -the latter dueting on a song with Michael on his debut album produced by Lee Rocker
He has recorded albums At the Legendary Sun Studio in Memphis –
Capitol records Studio B in Los Angeles for his album 706 Union Ave with his former band ‘Mystery train’ for EMI –He has been featured numerous times at The Bluebird café in Nashville &championed by The UK DJ Bob Harris.
He has done recent shows with artists diverse as Judy Collins & The Kingston Trio to Dwight Yoakam.The Cramps, Don Mclean & Lucinda Williams-Jerry Lee Lewis & Brian Setzer.
His very first band ‘The Earwigs- (in his teenage greaser Punk rock days) released a single now garnering 300 dollars by collectors .
He is a published poet (His book Lost American nights lyrics& poems from Moon tide press now in its 2nd edition)-He also has been featured twice -CNN Headline News with two feature stories on his music. ABC's ''Eye on LA' caught him for a live TV clip on stage at
'The Woody Guthrie Fest" in Echo Park CA. Despite his roots ,Michael is in no way ‘Retro’ and dismisses the term “just another label’' . His songs are authentic but with 21st century lyrics relevant to there here and now -He’s packed a lot of songwriting ,singing & outlaw folk & rock music between his wild road life,cheap motels ,relationships and pool halls.
Michael is true American songwriter
‘The rock n roll poet’