The Poppy Fields was the name of the band that Mike Peters created in 2004 for the single “45 RPM Hoax”. The members were, in reality, a local band named The Wayriders
Encouraged by the success of the reissues of the resmastered The Alarm albums, Mike Peters immediately set about recording new material only to encounter a quite astonishing amount of resistance from within the industry by those who felt Peters was “too old” to be relevant. And thus, in 2004, the impetus for Peter’s cleverly-perpetrated hoax upon an entire country’s music industry was born
Fittingly, it began with a performance video from a new band called The Poppy Fields for a song called “45 RPM”. To lend credibility to the idea that this was an entirely new song by an entirely new band, Peters enlisted younger musicians to appear in the clip. Members of a local Rhyl, Wales band The Wayriders, adorned in typical ’90s punk regalia, were enlisted and a rock video was filmed. The song and video were both greeted positively by the press and rock fans, sending “45 RPM” in the UK Top 30, at which point Mike Peters revealed the truth on BBC Radio 1’s weekly countdown show. A revised version of the song’s video was released, featuring the appearance of Peters and the rest of the real band
The whole experience would later become the inspiration for Sara Sugarman’s critically-adored 2013 film “Vinyl” (not to be confused with the HBO series of the same name), starring Phil Daniels in a loose approximation of Mike Peters.
The Wayriders were part of the UK’s 3rd wave ska scene of the late 90’s / early 2000’s that hailed from the city of Chester in the North West. They toured extensively until their eventual split in 2005 having played shows with the likes of Capdown, The Buzzcocks, Lightyear, Bad Manners, 4ft Fingers, The Alarm, King Prawn, The Dead Kennedy’s, Tuuli, Captain Everything, The Selector and many others. Their final, self titled album was released in 2004
Members of the band that appeared in one version of the video for 45 R.P.M. were – Andy Morgan, Hugh Jones, Sean Howe, Paul Bunker
(Page updated 28/03/2022)