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picture of MikeMike Peters, Columbus, Ohio, CD101 Big Room/Mekka, October 21, 1998

6:00 AM: Jumped in a cab from Long Beach NY to go to LaGuardia Airport for my flight to Columbus, Ohio. I'm very excited about catching some more Mike Peters shows and meeting up with a couple of really old Alarm friends, Tracy and Kellie. The first time all three of us got together was in April 1988 for The Alarm's Eye of the Hurricane tour in Kent, Ohio and the last time all three of us got together was for the Alarm's Raw tour in 1991. So it would be a very special reunion!

11:00 AM: Land at Port Columbus Airport. Boy, after being used to JFK and LaGuardia, Port Columbus seems soooo tiny! Picked up a rental car for my road trip. Very interesting since I haven't driven a car in two years since I moved to New York! (ok, so now which one's the gas and which one's the brake....) At least it's a teeny little Escort. Cassette player but no CD player. Turned on the radio to CD101 and heard Mike Peters would be playing the Big Room, so decided to drive down to the radio station. As I walked by the radio station, some guy was standing outside, so I asked him if Mike Peters would be playing there later. He said yes, he was. I told him that I had flown from New York to see Mike that evening and had seen him in Seattle, Portland, Boston and NYC. He introduced himself as Michael Palermo, one of the DJs, and said Mike would be there around 3:00 PM and I was more than welcome to drop by then to see the live performance! I was very excited and said I'd be back! BTW, CD101 has always been a great supporter of The Alarm and Mike Peters. There's even a special CD101 mix of "Shine On" which I've been trying to get my hands on for years!!

3:00 PM: Arrived at the radio station. There were a few people milling about, in particular one guy who kind of reminded me of Twi$t who was carrying a well-worn copy of The Alarm EP. The CD101 folks were really great, and offered all of us fans (ok, so there were only about 6 of us there!) snacks and sodas. Unfortunately, when I hit the road I end up eating very little. Too bad because they had great sandwiches, buffalo wings, and chips. Anyway, I started talking to the guy who looked like Twi$t (I believe he even said he played drums!). He couldn't get to any of the shows because he had to work evenings and he had kids also.

4:00 PM: Saw the infamous white Chevy Blazer pull around the corner, so I let the CD101 folks know that they just arrived (ok, so they were a little late!). (For those of you who haven't heard, it's just Mike and Jules driving across the country in their rented Blazer). When Mike and Jules came in they seemed a little surprised to see me there . Jules came over and said hello, and that she knew I was going to be in Ohio, but didn't expect me to be at the radio station! Finally the CD101 guys said it was time for us to all go into the Big Room (all six of us plus six guys from the radio station!). As we wandered in, Mike said hello to me and asked how I was doing, and I told him the flight from NYC was very, very bumpy!! Anyway, as Mike was fiddling with his harmonicas I reminded him to make sure he had the right harmonica for the right song! As it approached air time, Mike was commenting about opening for John Taylor (he was opening for JT again for the Columbus gig) and playing to more girls than he'd ever played to before! Someone also asked if it was hard for The Alarm to get into their cars with that big spiky hair!!

SET LIST for THE BIG ROOM:

  • The Stand
  • Transcendental
  • We Are The Light
  • Spirit of '76

Andyman, the big Alarm fan at CD101 introduced Mike and confused him also! Mike wanted to start out with something that everyone had heard before and then Andyman suggested starting with Transcendental, so Mike started to switch harmonicas, but then Andyman said Mike could play whatever he wanted, so Mike started with The Stand. Very cool!! Mike then played Transcendental, and Andyman pointed out the heavy Beatles influence. They also talked about Coloursound a little bit and how Mike had fans who travel around the country and the world to see him (I was smiling very broadly during that part!). Next Mike asked if there were any requests from the audience in the Big Room, and the guy with The Alarm EP shouted out We Are the Light. Finally to wrap things up, Mike played Spirit of '76 for Andyman and Michael Palermo and a friend of theirs who was going into the Army and the last song they heard together was Spirit of '76. It was a really moving moment.

After we were off the air, everyone got stuff signed and all that. I got a promo CD signed for Damian in Canada, and told Mike Damian couldn't get to any gigs on the Interactive Acoustic tour since Mike wasn't playing Canada! Mike assured me that he would be in Canada "soon". Yeah, OK, I told him--heard that one before! Said goodbye see ya at the gig to Mike and Jules, and headed off to find Mekka.

5:00 PM I must have driven around the block three times before I found the damn place! Finally saw some people hanging around, so guessed that must be it! Terry Flynn from Detroit was there, actually didn't recognize him at first because he had lost so much weight from when I last saw him in April for Coloursound, but saw the infamous T-Bird so I knew it was him!! There were a couple other Alarm fans and some Duran Duran fans there too. Actually, John Taylor's bus pulled up and JT got out--and pretty much ignored his fans!!! Just makes you realize how special Mike is.

Finally my buddies Kellie and Tracy arrived and many hugs all around! It was so good seeing them again! It started to rain, so we hung out in Terry's T-Bird for a while. I decided I wanted to move my car closer to the door. As I got out of the car, who should pull in but Mike and Jules! As I ran back to my car, Mike pulled up and asked me where to load in, so I told him to go back to where Terry's T-Bird was.

Of course, many hugs, autographs and pictures when Mike and Jules arrived! Thank goodness it stopped raining! Mike was really happy to see my friend Kellie from years ago, back when she used to do the irreverent A.D.A.M.:C.L.A.Y.T.O.N. and A.L.A.R.M. fanzines (these are classics if anyone can find them!). Kellie gave Mike a couple of books for the road trip--one about Rock and Roll landmarks and another about other weird Roadside Attractions. She asked Mike how he liked driving the "SportUte" around, much to Mike's confusion--Mike: "The what?" Kellie: "The SportUte"--about 5 times!! I finally couldn't take it anymore and had to say--"THE CAR!!!" Terry got his dream picture of him, Mike, and Jules in front of the Burnin' Down the Road T-Bird. Mike was getting really involved with talking to the fans as usual, so I suggested to Jules that she'd better drag him away for soundcheck or he'd never leave! She agreed and dragged him off

6:30 PM We decided to grab some dinner. Trace had mentioned in a digest posting that we should all meet at Barley's on High Street, so we headed that way for some grub. Kellie, Tracy and I did some reminiscing about our 10 year Alarm history and some catching up. Terry made sure everyone could see his Alarm jacket, but I guess no one else was there.

7:30 PM Headed back to Mekka. Dropped Terry off by his T-Bird since he was hurting from wrestling with his son (long story....). Tracy, Kellie and I waited in Tracy's RAV4 until the doors opened, since it was cold and raining again.

8:00 PM Went to stand in line at Mekka. I was surprised by how many people were there. You could pretty much spot the old Duranies in the crowd. What were once screaming 15 year old Duranies have now become screaming 30 year old Duranies! Found Terry lying on the floor in agony and also met Trace. Doors finally opened, and so Kellie, Tracy and I headed off to see if we could beat out the Durannies for a front row spot. No such luck, but we managed to get relatively close. Then Kellie and Tracy decided they wanted to go talk with Jules at the MPO table, and asked me to hold their spots. Well, no such luck holding a space against crazy Durannies!!

Sixpence None The Richer finally came on. My friends hadn't returned. I had a funny feeling Jules shanghaied them to work the MPO table. I really enjoyed their set, but of course I was waiting for the next performer.....

SET LIST for COLUMBUS MEKKA
(45 minutes, about 500 people at the gig although mostly Durannies!)

  • Kaleidoscope
  • Rise
  • Strength
  • You Are To Me
  • Rain In The Summertime
  • Transcendental
  • High on the Hill
  • White Noise
  • The Stand
  • 68 Guns
  • Spirit of '76

Well, Mike came on and my friends still hadn't returned! Oh well. I really wanted to punch all the Durannies near me who where talking through Mike's whole set. AAARRGHHHH!!!! I'm glad I didn't bring my tape recorder in for this one!

Anyway, Kaleidoscope is turning out to be an amazing song. I really hope it makes an album somewhere soon! Strength finally drew a little recognition from the Durannie set, as did Rain In The Summertime. I really wish Mike would quit playing High on the Hill to unfriendly crowds. It's such a quiet song that you can REALLY hear people chatting through it. Very annoying!! 68 Guns/Spirit of '76 was amazing and the only request he played that night--it was dedicated to Tracy, Kellie, Ecki, Andyman and everyone at CD101. Tracy and Kellie managed to fight their way up through the Durannies to be with me for those songs. We were all hugging and crying and singing the backing vocals to 68 Guns. A truly memorable moment for us!

After the set we headed back to the MPO table--good thing too, since people were wanting to buy stuff and Jules had gone off with Mike to put his gear away. So we took over the MPO table for a little bit. Mike and Jules came back shortly. Mike thanked Kellie for the books and said that he couldn't find anything Rock N Roll in Columbus! Sheesh, we could have told him that! Mike then decided to relate to us with glee a story about how Bogart's in Cincinnati was famous for Alarm food poisoning! He also commented about Natalie Merchant bringing her little brother to Bogart's for an Alarm show.

Of course it didn't take long for the other Alarm fans to find Mike, and as usual, Mike took the time to talk to everyone. Even the guy from Dayton who brought his ENTIRE Alarm collection (and I do mean EVERYTHING!!) for Mike to sign. Which, to my amazement, Mike actually signed everything! What a guy!

Well, after Mike talked to everyone he wandered off to schmooze with the radio folks. Kellie, Tracy and I decided to take in a little bit of John Taylor's set. Sorry any Durannies out there, but JT's really let himself go. Got himself a little tubby belly there, and well, he really can't sing. Someone at the CD101 Big Room commented, "Where's Simon LeBon when you need him!" We hung out in the room where Mike was schmoozing--it had really cozy furniture! Jules came in to talk with us for a little bit also.

We decided to cut out of show a little early so I could follow Tracy back to her place without a lot of traffic. We said our goodbyes to Jules but didn't get to say goodbye to Mike since he was deeply involved in conversation. It wasn't a really big deal for me or Kellie since we were going to see Mike again later in the week, but I really felt bad for Tracy since she wouldn't be able to get to any more shows. Kellie commented that it was a really anti-climactic way to end the evening. Oh well.