My second massive interview with Mike Peters from 1997. This is the longest interview I ever conducted. The first interview was mostly about The Alarm, but this one covered more of his solo career.
-Steve Fulton
1. 'Feel Free' has been a success in many European countries, especially
Italy. Can you tell us just what happened in Italy? Do you consider it a
breakthrough?
'Feel Free' has generally been received well in every country of release.
The album has enjoyed positive reviews and has definitely advanced the
overall perception of Mike Peters as an artist working at the cutting edge
of modern music. In Italy, the album received some decent airplay and I was
able to perform on national t.v. which helped to ensure the concerts were
very well attended. As to this being a breakthrough, only time will tell.
2. What about France? The Alarm had a tough time breaking through to the
French, did you make any encouraging in-roads with them this time?
Yes! The French music press have been very favourable towards 'Feel Free'
and the album actually scraped into the lower regions of the French charts.
3. You played at Disneyland France. That must have been a strange couple
of days. Can you let us in on what happened there?
That was a closed show for the French media, although I played a warm up
show with the band the night before to a lot of bemused families, who were
quietly munching burgers (or as in Pulp Fiction should that be a "royale
with cheese"). I think they were expecting a doo wop group or something but
when we blasted into 'Rip' a lot of them fled for the exits leaving us
alone to get on with our rehearsal.
Showing posts with label Mike Peters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Peters. Show all posts
Monday, September 1, 1997
Sunday, September 1, 1996
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".
-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".
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