Lead singer with Wales's most successful rock music export, The Alarm, who has since gone on to solo success.
The biggest band to come out of Wales in the 80s, The Alarm played their first gig in the Victoria Hotel in Prestatyn on 10 June 1981, releasing their first single on their own label in November that year. However, this was neither Mike Peter's first gig or band.
His inauspicious musical debut came on 6 October 1975, when he fronted 'Hairy Hippie', a band formed with his schoolmates to perform at his sister's birthday party at the Talardy Hotel in St Asaph. His first band proper was called Seventeen, formed after he saw the Sex Pistols play Chester in 1976. The energy of their performance so impressed him he knew his job as a Computer Operator could only be temporary, and so Seventeen were formed. Bluffing their way onto a tour by The Stray Cats as a support band, all was going well until Mike heard of John Lennon's murder. The event affected him profoundly and he decided it was time for a change in direction, away from punk towards more 'meaningful' music.
In 1981 Seventeen became The Alarm, and moved to London to have a serious go at 'making it' as a rock band. Signed up by Miles Copeland, manager of The Police, their gig roster changed dramatically as they were sent to America to tour extensively.
After touring their single '68 Guns' became a chart success, and from there the band went on to score several successive hits on both the single and album charts.
In the early nineties, however, the band's popularity was on the wane, and on hearing Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' on the radio Mike realised that The Alarm's time had passed, and dissolved the band. In 1994 he launched his solo career, and now hosts 'The Gathering' each year, a musical event near his home in Dyserth which attracts fans from around the world.
In 2001 Mike hit the road once more as part of Dead Men Walking, a collective with the aim of putting together 'a British Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young'. Featuring Mike alongside Pete Wylie (of The Mighty Wah!), Glen Matlock (ex Sex Pistols) and Kirk Brandon (Spear of Destiny), a second tour in 2002 saw them playing a mixture of old and new material spanning their combined careers.
In 1996 Mike won a battle with lymph cancer and again in 2006 and since then has been raising money and awareness with a range of stunts including singing on Snowdon and even on Everest [October 9-31 2007] as part of his work with the group www.lovehopestrengthfoundation.co.uk.
Depsite this, Mike is still busy performing gigs at more traditional venues.
Mike lives in Dyserth, Denbighshire, with his wife, Jules, and their son, Dylan. The couple's second child, Evan ap Michael Peters, was born on January 2 2007.
