- January: Mike Peters Works with Poet Billy Lamont: Into The 21st Century” is poet Billy Lamont’s new recording with Select recording artist Mike Peters, formerly of The Alarm, and special guest, Allen Ginsberg. “Into The 21st Century” is an anthem for the Strobe Light Generation.
- January 11th: The Gathering 5: at approximately 11:30 P.M. (UK time) One half of the 80’s band The Alarm returned to the stage for the first time in nearly 6 years. Bass player Eddie MacDonald joined lead Vocalist and guitarist Mike Peters on stage for stirring renditions of two the The Alarm’s best songs: “Spirit Of ’76” and “Rescue Me”.
- February: Q Magazine Features The Gathering: Q Magazine (Feb./U2 on cover) featured an excellent, full page, glowing report of this year’s Gathering!
- February: Mike Peters The Producer: Mike Produced 3 tracks for for the band band, ‘Junk’ who supported Mike and The Poets at the 100 Club in December 1996.
- February: European Solo Acoustic Tour: Mike Peters’ trip to France, Germany and Holland was a great success. Many fans old and new were treated to very special solo acoustic performances. The tour kicked off in Munich where the crowd demanded four encores before allowing Mike to leave the stage. In Frankfurt, Mike was joined on stage by long-time fan, Bodo, who fulfilled his dream by accompanying Mike on ‘A New South Wales’.
Hamburg was definitely the highlight of the tour. The venue was electric with anticipation as Mike played his heart out, drawing from a huge repertoire of songs, stretching from 1981 to 1997. Two and a half hours later and the audience barricaded him on stage with Mike finally finishing with a moving rendition of ‘Wonderwall’. - February: Rise album demos records: Mike walked straight off stage in Montbeliard, France and straight into the studio to begin work on pre-production for the new album. Songs like ‘Ground Zero’, ‘First Light’, ‘Rise’ and ‘High on the Hill’ (which were all tried and tested at this year’s Gathering) are emerging as possible contenders for the new record.
- February: Billy Duffy ColorSound collaboration starts: . Mike and Billy Duffy are worked on new songs together after their successful partnering at the Gathering. Rumour had it they were working well together despite their obvious footballing differences!
- February: Mike has just spent time at MTV Studios in London recording a special for VH1’s ‘The Bridge’ programme. The featured programme on Mike includes a in-depth interview with VJ Paul King, the Shine On video and two acoustic performances (with Slug on guitar) of ‘The Message’ and ‘Regeneration’. A screen date is yet to be finalised, to hopefully coincide with the new single/UK Tour dates.
- March 31st: “My Calling” single cancelled. My Calling was scheduled to be the 2nd single from the Feel Free album but it was scrapped in favor of a “mystery track” that in-turn never surfaced as a single. This ended the single cycle for the “Feel Free” album. Rumor has it that the track was a remix of The Message.
- May: Rise album recording/Mixing: During the mixing of the ‘Rise’ album in Matrix Studios in London, Mike was spotted with a medley of artists. Hanging out at the studio were Bruce Foxton (Stiff Little Fingers), Jody Porter (Fountains of Wayne), Eddie Macdonald (The Alarm) and Billy Duffy (The Cult). Mike was also seen with Paul Weller (check out recent Sunday Observor Magazine Weller interview) and Echo and the Bunnymen. The new ‘Rise’ songs are sounding really cool from all accounts, getting the seal of approval from attendees at the ‘Listening Party Tour’ (May UK) and industry types.
- June: The Peters/Duffy songwriting partnership continud with a bunch of songs taking shape during mountain outings! Billy Duffy joined Mike on stage at the Royal Albert Hall on June 13th (Stranglers’ Anniversary bash) for ‘White Noise’ and ‘High on the Hill’. Mike and Billy also cemented their live acoustic performance further at the recent ‘Rock the Dock’ concert at Liverpool’s Royal Court. At the recent ‘Phoenix Festival’ in Stratford-upon-Avon, Mike and Billy played football together at Loaded Magazine’s charity soccer tournament.Their team (including Mr. Paul Gallagher) reached the final where they lost out to Gordon Strachan’s ex-Man Utd) superior skills!
- July: Mike played in Paris at the Elysse Montmartre, where he previewed tracks from the forthcoming ‘Rise’ album.
- July: A rumor floated about the album Seco0nd Generation Vol. 2 that would contain “Classic, Rare & Unreleased” Alarm material revisited:, however this never appeared. Instead, years later, a live album was released with the same name.
- August: Mike Peters played football at the Racecourse Football Ground in aid of Mickey Thomas (ex-Man Utd) testimonial. Other team members included Billy Duffy, Angus Deayton, Nick Hancock, Vinny Jones, Ian Rush, Kevin Radcliffe…Mike opened the account with an own goal, alas, but soon redeemed himself with a goal in the right net! Check out the back page of the Daily Post for a classic pic of Mike, Vinny and Mickey!
- August: Mike appeared as Special Guest to the Saw Doctors at Manchester Apollo, joining the boys from Galway for the encore and a rendition of ‘Teenage Kicks’. Mike played songs exclusively from the new album, ‘Rise’, together with ‘My Calling’. Rumour has it that Mike spent a whole hour at the soundcheck testing out songs from recent Duffy-Peters collaborations…
- August: “Rise album release is moved to January 1998, as Mike signed a new record deal.
- August 25th: On bank holiday Monday, August 25th, Mike Peters will be played at the Swansea Festival.
- October 28th: “Red” “and “Blue” Mike Peters Acoustic Works albums released with this press release: “MPO is proud to announce the forthcoming release of the ‘Red’ & ‘Blue’ albums (Mike Peters Acoustic Works 1981-1991).The 2 albums, available exclusively on 21st Century records through MPOfeature 46 songs from ‘Unsafe Building’ to ‘Walk Forever by My Side’ (1981-1986) and ‘Rain in the Summertime’ to ‘Moments in Time’ (1987-1991). ‘Acoustic Works’ will be available as 2 separate C.D.’s, each containing a double album’s worth of material totalling almost 2.5 hours of running time.
- November: Original release for 4-Track “Rise” Sampler CD scheduled. Move to January 1998.
- December 4th: MPO US Christmas Party took place at TT’s and the Bears ,Cambridge, Ma
- December 17th: “Acoustic Christmas”, the MPO Christmas Party took place at the Cavern Club in Liverpool