Mike Peters and The Alarm | Photo by Stuart Ling
Mike Peters of Welsh rockers The Alarm is back with a triumphant new single called “Next,” a song he wrote while being treated in a hospital for his latest relapse of leukemia. You can hear the track below via its music video, which, appropriately, was filmed in a hospital.
Peters, who was initially diagnosed with leukemia in 2005, spent much of the last year in hospitals, receiving chemo treatments and battling a life-threatening pneumonia brought on by his relapse, according to The Alarm’s publicist — who added that Peters is now “newly energized from a healthy prognosis.”
“Words cannot express the joy of leaving the hospital after a long stay on the wards, especially when it means you have regained your health,” Peters says in a statement released alongside the new single.
He continues on the writing of the new song:
“The lyrics of the song were conceived while I was being treated for a leukemia relapse and a lung that had filled with blood. The outcome was uncertain, but the medical and nursing staff did all they could to keep me going and, in fact, were probably the first people to hear what I was working up musically while they did their life-saving work. It wasn’t planned, but once the realization hit me that I would be in the hospital for a long time, I knew I needed my guitar to break the monotony of the isolation. Being able to play music to myself kept me going, and I’m convinced that it helped me make the transition back to life.”
Peters will bring The Alarm to New York City for two “Gathering” concerts at the Gramercy Theatre on June 23 and 24; tickets for both are now on sale via Live Nation.
Check out the new song:
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- The Alarm, members of The Damned, Blondie, Sex Pistols set for new David Bowie tribute LP
- Watch: Billy Corgan joins The Alarm for ‘Rain in the Summertime’ in Cleveland
- Premiere: The Alarm debuts video for ‘Thirteen Dead Reindeer’ off new album ‘Equals’
- The Alarm to tease upcoming album with Record Store Day vinyl EP featuring Billy Duffy
- Watch: Trailer for ‘Man in the Camo Jacket’ — documentary about The Alarm’s Mike Peters
I like Mike Peters’ music, but it just sounds like he’s trying to be heavy.