76 Questions For Mike Peters

This is the first expansive interview I did for TheAlarm.com (then actually www.demon.co.uk/alarmpo) as the web master for the site.  My wife and I picked up Mike Peters at the airport in June of 1996 and drove him to the MTV Movie Awards Radio Roundtable where he was interviewed and played a few acoustic songs.  The 76 questions came out of the long and in-depth conversations we had that day.  This was the first time I had spent any length of time with my boyhood hero, and I was blown away by how easy going and open he was to al lthese question.
-Steve Fulton


1. How avid of an Alarm collector are you?

If there was a Top 10 of Alarm collectors I like to think I would be in it. I used to collect everything when I was in The Toilets/Seventeen but when success eluded both bands I started to view my scrapbook collection as a bit of a curse and so stopped around the time The Alarm came into being. I started collecting again in about 1985 and now have a fairly extensive catalogue My most recent purchase was a copy of the IRS (U.S. only) Finyl Vinyl "Unsafe Building" ($10.00) from Bleeker Bobs in Los Angeles. The one record I do not have, much to my regret, is a mustard vinyl "Deceiver" which might keep me off the number one spot!


2. Do any tapes of The Toilets or Seventeen exist, and will we ever get to hear them?

No Tapes of The Toilets exist to my knowledge. I had a live tape from a support slot with the Buzzcocks at Eric's, Liverpool in 1977, but lost it in 1980 when my car was broken into. Seventeen made numerous demo tapes during the years 1978-1980. The most definitive would be a 12 song 4 track demo recorded in 1979 at WSRS in Wallasey. I personally don't have a copy of this, although Twist still has the masters somewhere. I think this would be a fascinating release at some point as it features all the original members of The Alarm. Some song titles are "Talkin' About The Weekend", "Lies Lies Lies", "Stop Thinking About Yourself" and a cover of the Beatles "Please Please Me" among others. It may or may not include a cover of Tom Jones "It's Not Unusual" which was brilliant.


3. How many and which Seventeen songs went on to become Alarm songs.

Of the many Seventeen songs, only "Sixty Eight Guns" went on to become an Alarm song. It was the last written during the Seventeen era and was played during the band's last tour of Scotland and at the final Seventeen show (The Half Moon, Herne Hill, Dulwich London, January 1981). It was at this show that we announced our new name "Alarm Alarm".

This is the first editorial I wrote about The Alarm for the web.  I planned it for release on the 10th anniversary of the Spirit Of' 86 concert.   It was originally published on The Alarm Archive web site.

Spirit 'Of '86, A Fan Looks Back

by Steve Fulton (USA Alarm Archive President)

"I Was There"

That phrase seems to stick out in my mind, twist around, and implode every time I see it on the "Spirit Of '86" stickers that I have tucked away in one of my Alarm scrapbooks. Not just because, truth be told, I was there on April 12th, 1986, but also because of the bittersweet irony that it represents. I remember that day, 10 years ago, as vividly as any day in my entire life. It was a day, when the biggest rock 'n roll event in the world was centered around The Alarm: two Welshman and two transplanted Englishman who created the most unbelievably inspiring music I had ever heard. April 12th 1986 was the day I witnessed, what I believe, was the finest moment of The Alarm, but also the beginning of their end.