Ky-Fi

I guess this could go in the "movie" forum, but it's more of a music story, I think. Anyways, a new independent movie is being released in the UK called "Vinyl", and it's based on the real-life story of Mike Peters and the Alarm, when, in 2004 he was pissed off that the music industry was just dismissing his music because he was an aging has-been, so he recorded a new song, made up a fake band name, and hired some young actors to do a music video---and the song climbed the charts. Peters doesn't star in the movie, but he does have a role, and he wrote the songs for the soundtrack. Movie seems to be getting good reviews.

I met Mike Peters in 1988, when he played my university. I was part of the college radio station, and volunteered as a roadie. He was as nice a guy as you'd want to meet, came out by himself a couple hours before the show, was really friendly and talked to everyone, and played a game of pick-up soccer with us. One of the good guys of rock, and I hope this movie does well.

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cungar

I saw them for free at UCLA once. Posers.

JAA

Interesting, thanks. Their album Strength still holds classic status for me.

Ky-Fi

Yeah, I loved their early IRS stuff---their first EP was fantastic, Declaration was really great, and Strength was a solid album. For me, their stuff kind of got progressively blander and less interesting after that, but I always liked Peters' attitude and approach to music. I know in the late 90s, early 2000s The Alarm released a box set of their albums, and Peters made the offer that for anyone who ordered it, they could request any song (Alarm or other) for Peters to perform acoustically, and he would play and record that just for that person---if 200 people requested the same song, he would record it 200 times so every one would be unique. I guess he underestimated how many he would have to do, and he was recording them at sound checks, on busses, at home, on vacation---anywhere he had 5 minutes, but he did them all.

Also, if people don't know, Peters is now fronting Big Country, and he's being joined by ex Simple Minds bassist Derek Forbes, who's replacing the retiring Tony Butler.

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