Editorial

DEAD MEN WALKING, LA RECORD – REVIEW Photos and words by David Valera “This is a rock concert!” How dare anyone in the crowd at the Troubadour stare into their cell phones while the legendary British punk rocker Ian Rubbish (aka Fred Armisen) is right before your eyes. This musician is a god among musicians and deserves your full attention. Rubbish was part of a special one-off show as the [read more]

It was a hectic week for Mike Peters at SXSW. A crammed schedule of events saw Mike Peters make 9 appearances in just four days. Following on from two sell out shows in London and Bristol, Mike Peters flew to the USA early on Monday morning, arriving in Texas in the late evening where he was met by friend and Love Hope Strength co-founder James Chippendale. Mike was in action [read more]

It’s another early start for the Love Hope Strength team. It’s Sunday but here in Tel Aviv it is the equivalent of Monday morning back home and so there is a lot of traffic on the road as we make the journey to Nazareth to join Dr. Amal and her team for the Arab Donor Drive. The drive has been organised at the request of people in the community who [read more]

My alarm clock has never been worked as hard as it is here in Tel Aviv. At 8.00 am Jules and I are waiting outside the hotel and within seconds are greeted by the smiling face of Lior Sabban driving the car towards us on this bright and sun shiny day. We are bound for the Sea Of Galilee. In the car with us is our trusty team of Russ [read more]

Today begins at the more respectable hour of 10 o’clock and our first meeting of the day is with Miri Ziv of the Israeli Cancer Association at the Eretz Israel Museum Coffee Shop in Tel Aviv. Shlomo drives us to the meeting and we spend a lunchtime connecting with Miri and hear all about the marvellous work conducted in Israel by the ICA. Dr. Amal and Prof. Brautbar both spoke [read more]

The light of the Golden City pours into the room at an altogether unholy hour… We have a meeting at 8 o’clock (6.00 AM for us technically), so we fight the urge to not wake up and struggle down the stairs to reception for the first meeting of the day. We are meeting with Natan Shapira and we talk through ways to bring a Love Hope Strength contingent to the [read more]

Touchdown in Ben Gurion, Tel Aviv airport was greeted with a spontaneous round of applause from all the on board passengers (which is something I have not experienced since my early flights to the USA back in the early 1980’s). Jules and I joined in enthusiastically, and took it as a sign that our mission to Israel was going to be even more special than we dared hoped it might [read more]

Thirty years ago, on September 21 1983, The Alarm performed for the very first time on UK television show Top Of The Pops. ‘Sixty Eight Guns’ was in the UK charts at number 54 and the band’s performance on the BBC was beamed into the households of the UK and watched by millions. Watch The Alarm’s performance again here and read this report with the band that was conducted in [read more]

Mike Peters has created a Daily Blog site featuring diary entries from the US tour he is currently undertaking with Big Country. The blog captures intimate and candid insights into Mike’s life on the road as a musician and a chronicle of the work he is pursuing in his role with Love Hope Strength Foundation. Read all about it here: http://mikepeters2013.wordpress.com

1. First off, how are you feeling these days? I’m feeling as good as I could hope to be. I recently became very ill again during The Alarm ‘Vinyl’ tour but was able to keep going although I was only a few seconds away from having to cancel everything. I went to see my hematologist Dr. Edwards and if my blood count was one degree higher than it turned out [read more]

To Celebrate the anniversary of The Alarm’s first ever gig in America on June 1st 1983 at the San Francisco Civic. 21st Century’s intrepid reporter Steve Fulton revisited the period and has come up with this fascinating and insightful article which brings together unseen photos and recollections from the band members themselves. Read on…. The Alarm – Wake Up America 1983 [On the War tour with U2] In May 1983, The [read more]

‘Ask Simon’, our very own Gathering concierge, reflects on the Gathering 20. Please read on and savour every moment of Simon’s memories of the Gathering 20 and anticipate the excitement of G21 to come next January! An AskSimon view of Gathering 20 It’s a really strange feeling wandering around Pontins pre Gathering.  All that space and all that silence and knowing that in a few days time it will be full of [read more]

Acoustic Tour of Norway 2011 What to do after 4 weeks of shows in the UK? Head to Norway for another 5 shows. Well it seemed like a good idea at the time. Day 1 Up at 3am for final pack and drive (type of transport = 1) to Manchester airport. There is always that feeling that you’ve forgotten something. Doubly so when you go on tour. Would be slightly [read more]

So…. where do I start? Today, December 15 2011 is my 28th year anniversary of seeing The Alarm for the first time and to mark that occasion it has come full circle as I look forward to seeing Mike play tonight in NY once again so many, many years later. If it wasn’t for my then 13 year old sister Dahlia, so passionately convincing me to see the band, this [read more]

 By Paul Miles Picture discs, gatefold sleeves, imports, coloured vinyl, white labels, shaped picture discs, limited editions, 12” singles, double singles, special editions, lyric sheets / sleeves, demos and the classic Flexi Disc are all rich in The Alarm’s history as various media was used to promote singles and albums, with the collector buying the same song a few times over. Now we live in the digital age and [read more]

Wondering about going to the Mike Peters Acoustic Alarm in the UK tour this autumn…? Check out our timelapse videos from the Direct Acoustic tour. Audio taken from the Live in Glasgow CD.

LA / San Francisco Rocks! Jules (and the Peters family) american adventures roll onto San Fransisco… Jules San Francisco Rocks facebook photos Los Angeles Rocks! Mike Peters Acoustic Night at the El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept 4th Mike Peters Acoustic Night turned into a Mike Peters All Star Band night in Los Angeles.  Mike delivered a special acoustic set, stepping off the stage at one point and [read more]

Introduction I was web master for http://thealarm.com for over 15 years. In that time, the web site has changed immensely: from a single page with news and rumors, to a fully dynamic web community. As I was writing this story, a couple thoughts occurred to me. Mike Peters and MPO had the foresight to get into the internet very very early. Their first site was also one of the first [read more]