Welsh musician Mike Peters along with his band The Alarm has embarked on a thrilling North American tour with both one-man and full-band shows and is scheduled to make a stop at Knuckleheads Saloon in the east bottoms of Kansas City for a solo acoustic performance on September 27.
The alternative rock and new wave band originally formed in 1981 and had its biggest hit in Britain with “Sixty Eight Guns” (1983) [No. 17]. That tune was included on the record “Declaration” (1984), which helped take it all the way to No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart. In the United States, the group had eleven Top 40 hits on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart with “Sold Me Down the River” (1989) [No. 2 MRT/No. 5 Hot 100], “Rain in the Summertime” (1987) [No. 6 MRT/No. 71 Hot 100] and “Strength” (1985) [No. 12 MRT/No. 61 Hot 100] receiving the greatest notoriety.
The Alarm disbanded in 1991, but original frontman Mike Peters reformed the group in 2000 with long-time member Mark Taylor on keyboards, James Stevenson of Gene Loves Jezebel and The Cult on guitar, Craig Adams of Sisters of Mercy and The Mission on bass and Steve Bernard of Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros on drums. Reimagined, the group enjoyed an immediate return to the music spotlight, and despite its founding member’s diagnosis in 2005 with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia—a disease from which he is thankfully now in remission—continues to record and perform live. Peters even launched his own charity, Love Hope Strength, with dedication to “Saving Lives – One Concert at a Time.” To date, through concerts and festivals, the charity has signed more than 150,000 people to the international bone marrow registry and located more than 2,500 life-saving matches.
Upon tremendous success garnered in the early part of the 1980s, The Alarm performed for of 26,000 fans in Los Angeles and millions around the world at its own “Spirit of ‘86” concert, which aired on MTV’s very first live global satellite broadcast. Now, on the heels of an extraordinary “Spirit of ’86 in 2016” trek through the United Kingdom and Ireland, the group has set forth on a 20-date tour through the United States this month. Tickets for the Kansas City solo acoustic performance at Knuckleheads are just $15 (plus tax and fees) and are available in advance via Etix. Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 8pm.
**Look for the concert film “Poppies Falling From the Sky” coming out on October 10 and the incredible life movie “Man in the Camo Jacket” set to release later in the year or early 2017.**
