Mike Peters says he rerecorded the Alarm’s first two albums with unused lyrics, new arrangements and additional instrumentation to challenge himself and his audience.
“I’ve sung those songs all my life and the meanings have changed as I’ve grown,” Peters said of the tracks on the Welsh rockers’ anthemic “Declaration” (1984) and “Strength” (1985) records. “I’ve always been interested in taking things forward with the music I created. I’m taking the past and making it part of the present.”
Peters will stage test his new takes on Alarm classics like “Sixty Eight Guns,” “Strength” and “The Stand” in a solo performance on Wednesday at The Trout & The Troll in Byram - the recorded discs will be released on Oct. 2. Peters will also play at fundraisers for his cancer foundation, Love Hope Strength, on Sept. 13 in Jersey City and Rahway.
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Peters, 56, said that he was too young in the 1980s to recognize the weight of the words that he wrote - or chose not to use. For instance, he said that the Alarm removed a key verse in their most popular song, “Sixty Eight Guns,” to shorten the track so that it could be released as a single.
“We took out a verse with the line, ‘if they take our chances, we’ll create our own,’” Peters said by phone from Wales. “That was such a central tenant of what the Alarm were all about it. Thinking about it now, I was like, ‘wow, we didn’t realize that by getting to the chorus faster we stripped the song of its soul.’”
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Peters said he hopes that 1980s fans and music aficionados in general who remember the Alarm primarily for its spiky hair and colorful new wave outfits will find a new appreciation for their music in the reshaped and stripped down tracks. Many of the songs feature acoustic guitar and piano arrangements, lending them a more world-weary feel.
“Because we performed on [British music show] “Top of the Pops” and “American Bandstand,” and because of the big haircuts and outlandish outfits, I don’t think everyone appreciated the depth of the music,” Peters said. “I wanted to play the songs now in a way that the audience could rediscover them.”
In addition to playing in Byram, Peters will perform on Sept. 13 in Jersey City and Rahway at benefits for his Love Hope Strength cancer foundation. A two-time cancer survivor, Peters founded the non-profit group in 2007 to raise money to purchase medical equipment and supplies for doctors. Love Hope Strength also sponsors bone marrow and stem cell donation drives.
Peters was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1996 and leukemia in 2005. He is now cancer free. “I’m still standing and I owe a lot of people, not only friends and family, but my doctors and the nurses for everything that they did,” Peters said.
“That’s why we raise money to buy medical equipment,” he said. “Many foundations give to cancer research. I wanted to give the money to buy equipment so that anyone looking after cancer patients, the doctors and nurses on the front line, have the proper tools that they need.”
Peters founded the Alarm in 1981 and the band’s early, energetic live shows quickly caught the attention of then-nascent Irish superstars U2, who made the Alarm an opening act on several of their early tours. Bono would often join the band onstage.
The Alarm’s debut album, “Declaration,” hit No. 6 in the U.K. Sophomore effort “Strength” cracked the Top 20 in Britain and also made waves in America, where it hit No. 39 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. The album’s title track reached No. 12 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock singles chart.
The original Alarm released three additional records before splintering in 1991. Peters pursued a solo career over the next decade before resurrecting the Alarm with new musicians in 2000.
Peters has released several albums under the Alarm banner in the 2000s and said he’s currently working on a solo album. “I’ve got a new record brewing that’s a summation of everything, of Love Hope Strength, the Alarm and Mike Peters,” he said.
WHO: Mike Peters of The Alarm.
WHAT: Rock and pop.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesday.
WHERE: The Trout & The Troll, 172 Lackawanna Drive, Byram. 973-347-1534 or saltgastropub.com.
HOW MUCH: $25.
ALSO PERFORMING: At fundraisers for his Love Hope Strength cancer foundation on Sept. 13 in Jersey City and Rahway; visit lovehopestrength.org for details.
MORE INFO: thealarm.com.