Dead or Alive were an English pop band who released seven studio albums from 1984 to 2000. The band formed in 1980 in Liverpool and found success in the mid-1980s, releasing seven singles that made the UK Top 40 and three albums in the UK Top 30. At the peak of their success, the line-up consisted of Pete Burns (vocals), Steve Coy (drums), Mike Percy (bass), and Tim Lever (keyboards), with the core pair of Burns and Coy writing and producing for the remainder of the band's career due to Percy and Lever exiting the group in 1989. Burns died in 2016; with the death of Coy in 2018, the band ended.
Two of the band's singles reached the US Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100: "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" (No.11 in August 1985),[6] and "Brand New Lover" (No.15 in March 1987). "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" peaked at No. 1 for two weeks in 1985 in the UK, then charted again in 2006 following Burns's appearance on the television reality show Celebrity Big Brother and on season 4 of Stranger Things.[7] It also became the first of two singles to top the BillboardHot Dance Club Play chart. In December 2016, Billboard ranked them as the 96th most successful dance artist of all time.[8]
History
Formation and early career of band
Nightmares in Wax (March 1980)
In 1977, Burns formed a punk band with contemporaries Julian Cope, Pete Wylie, and Phil Hurst, calling themselves the Mystery Girls. They only had one performance (opening for Sham 69 at Eric's Club in Liverpool in November 1977) before disintegrating. Cope stated that Burns's performing style drew from the transgender punk performer Wayne County and Wylie recalled that "his head looked like someone had melted a load of black vinyl down into a kind of space quiff."[9][10]
Burns continued in early-1979 with a new band, Nightmares in Wax (originally called Rainbows Over Nagasaki), featuring a gothic post-punk sound, with backing from keyboardist Martin Healy, guitarist Mick Reid, bassist Rob Jones (who left to be replaced by Walter Ogden), and drummer Paul Hornby (who also exited after the band's formation to be replaced by Phil Hurst).[11]
The group played their first gig supporting Wire at Eric's Club in July 1979,[12] and recorded demos which included a cover of the Simon Dupree and the Big Sound song "Kites", a feature of their early shows. Although signed to the Eric's Records label, their only release, a three-track 7-inch EP entitled Birth of a Nation, appeared in March 1980 on Inevitable Records. A 12-inch single featuring two of the tracks from the EP, "Black Leather" and "Shangri-La", was released in 1985.[13] The EP featured "Black Leather", which turned halfway into KC and the Sunshine Band's "That's the Way (I Like It)".[11]
The band went through several line-up changes over the next three years while recording a series of independent singles.[14] In 1980, after replacing several members, Burns changed the band's name to Dead or Alive.[11] Dead or Alive's singles started charting on the UK Indie Chart, beginning with 1982's "The Stranger" reaching No.7.[15] This prompted major label Epic Records to sign the band in 1983. Their first release for Epic was the single "Misty Circles", which appeared at No.100 on the major UK Singles Chart in 1983. Two more singles co-produced by Zeus B. Held ("What I Want" and "I'd Do Anything") were released but mainstream success continued to elude the band.
The band's debut album, Sophisticated Boom Boom, was released in May 1984 and featured their first Top 40 UK single, "That's the Way (I Like It)", a cover of the 1975 hit by KC and the Sunshine Band.[14] That song, along with "Misty Circles", were also hits on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.[16] The album was a minor success in the UK where it peaked at No. 29.[17] As Burns and his band achieved greater media exposure, his eccentric and androgynous appearance often led to comparisons with Culture Club and its lead singer Boy George as well as "Calling Your Name" singer Marilyn.[14] Burns would describe producing his first album as "the most joyous experience of my life, full of happy memories, because there was no commercial pressure on us."[18]
Burns said that the record company was unenthusiastic about the single to such an extent that he had to take out a £2,500 loan to record it. Afterward, he recalled, "the record company said it was awful" and the band had to fund production of the song's video themselves.[21] Additionally, Burns said that 12-inch singles comprised over 70% of the original sales of "You Spin Me Round", and because these were regarded by the record label as promotional tools rather than sales, the band had to threaten legal action against the label before they received the royalties on them.[22]
Other album tracks released as singles included "Lover Come Back To Me" (No. 11), "In Too Deep" (No. 14), and "My Heart Goes Bang (Get Me to the Doctor)" (No. 23) which all reached the UK Top 30. Despite the international chart-topping success of Youthquake and its lead single, Burns said it was the album that he was "most dissatisfied with" and recalled that "one of the unhappiest days of my life was when Spin Me reached No. 1 – and I mean really unhappy. Because I knew it would be downhill all the way after that."[18] Burns had a fear of success and hoped that his singles would not chart highly. "I didn't want too high positions because I didn't want to lose my life," he recalled. "I thought, if it happens it happens, but if it doesn't – phew!"[18]
In late 1986, Dead or Alive released their third album, Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know (US No. 52, UK No. 27). Production of the album was marred by more fights between the band and SAW.[23]
The lead single "Brand New Lover" became a modest UK hit, peaking at No.31, but was more successful in the US where it reached No.15 on the US Hot 100, and No. 1 on the US Billboard dance chart.[20]
Three more singles from the album were released; the most successful in the UK was "Something in My House" (No. 12), with a sleeve depicting Burns in front of what appears to be a Satanic altar, featuring an inverted cross.
Clashes between the band and the label continued over the song's music video, with Epic Records reportedly objecting to a "mildly suggestive" sequence involving Burns and a banana.[24] "By the time we got to 'Something in My House', I felt I wanted to express myself on film, as well as record, amuse myself, show my sense of humour," Burns wrote on the liner notes to his Evolution: The Videos compilation DVD. "Well apparently the manner in which I 'peeled a banana' seemed to work against me/us! And, it was downhill all the way after that."[25][26]
Recording of the song was also fraught, with Burns alleging that producer Mike Stock erased his original vocal take after objecting to the singer's use of the phrase "wicked queen", a lyrical double entendre implying reference to a gay relationship.[27] "We would butt heads so fucking badly; it was unbelievable," Burns told journalist James Arena in his book Europe's Stars of 80s Dance Pop. "That's why we eventually walked away from them. For instance, there was a lyric from 'Something in My House' where I make reference to a wicked queen. The actual producer, Mike Stock stopped me and said I couldn't use that term because it would mean the record is about gay people. I was like, 'Fuck this, it's going on!' They actually wiped the original vocal, but then Pete Waterman came back and said, 'Let him do it the way he wants to.'"[27]
Despite the reservations of the label and producers, the track proved to be Dead or Alive's biggest hit in the UK since "Lover Come Back to Me" and was the only single from their third album to earn a UK Top 20 placement.[28] The song also proved to be the act's final Top 40 hit with an original release in the UK, and their last Top 20 hit in Australia.[28] A 12-inch version of the song, the 'Mortevicar Mix', featured scenes from Nosferatu and sampling of dialogue from the soundtrack of The Exorcist and a sampling from the George A. Romero American movie trailer from his film Day of the Dead.
In 1987, Dead or Alive released their greatest hits album Rip It Up, and a concert tour of the same name with dates in Europe, the United States, and Japan. Film footage was recorded at two shows at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan on 9 October and at Osaka's Osaka-jō Hall on 11 October, and released on video cassette (VHS) and Laserdisc that same year under the title Rip It Up Live. The concert was eventually issued as bonus material for the first time on DVD as part of the 2003 compilation release.[29]
In mid-1988, Dead or Alive, now pared down to a duo of Burns and Coy, released the self-produced Nude (US No. 106, UK No. 82). In 2021, RetroPop Magazine retrospectively described Nude as the "perfect Dead or Alive album" and "their strongest offering overall".[31] During the album's production Tim Lever and Mike Percy were fired from the band. The pair later formed careers as mixers and producers; both owned and operated Steelworks Studios in Sheffield and experienced success writing and mixing songs for acts like S Club 7, Blue, and Robbie Williams.[32][33] From the information booklet in Sophisticated Boom Box MMXVI, Burns stated:
During the first couple of months of writing and recording, Mike and Tim seemed to be acting a little distant and insular, and after a bit of investigation, we discovered that they were building their own professional recording studio where they lived. When we asked why, they said they wanted to move into concentrating on record production work on their own, didn't want to be in a band and touring and away from their families all of the time and say they were leaving the band at the end of the Nude album recording! Well, excuse me boys, but I don't tolerate disloyalty and people making plans behind my back. I discussed it with Steve, and he and I decided that we didn't want them working half-heartedly on an album that we knew had to be the very best we could make, so we fired them on the spot, and told them to go concentrate on giving 100% to their new career as producers. It was a tough decision to make, but they made the decision for us.[34]
The album featured the single "Turn Around and Count 2 Ten" which reached No. 2 in the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart and No. 1 for a record-breaking seventeen-weeks in Japan. It was followed by the singles "Baby Don't Say Goodbye" which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart and "Come Home with Me Baby" which spent thirteen-weeks at No. 1 on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play due to a popular remix by producer Lewis Martineé.[35][36][24] However, "Come Home with Me Baby" and the other singles struggled in the UK. This was attributed to the lyrics of the song, which encouraged casual sex during the AIDs epidemic.[24]
Additionally, despite strong customer demand, the US record company refused to release it as a proper single (claiming they objected to the male dancers in the music video) which prevented the song from becoming a major hit on the Billboard Hot 100.[24] In 1989, to support his Nude album and the release of its companion remix album Nude – Remade Remodelled, Burns toured with fellow Stock Aitken Waterman acts Sinitta and Kylie Minogue in Asia and Europe on the ensemble Disco in Dreamconcert tour. On 6 October, Burns gave a performance at the Tokyo Dome, the largest concert venue in Japan (with a seating capacity of 55,000 people), which was broadcast on the NHK television network.
1990s and 2000s
In 1990, the band produced their next studio album, Fan the Flame (Part 1), although their only successful record deal was in Japan where the album peaked at No. 27 on the Japanese Albums Chart. The band had begun to produce Fan the Flame (Part 2), however the album was shelved until it was finished in 2021.[37] An acoustic album Love, Pete was also made available during a US personal appearance tour in 1992 and was since widely bootlegged with the title Fan the Flame (Part 2): The Acoustic Sessions.[38][39][40][41] Pete strongly criticized its subsequent distribution.[42]
On 7 September 2010, Burns's solo single "Never Marry an Icon", produced and co-written by the Dirty Disco, was released to the iTunes Store. The single was released by fellow band member Steve Coy's label, Bristar Records.[44] Even though Burns stated Dead or Alive had ceased to exist in 2011, Coy later declared the moniker was still active and the band was not over.[45] On 21 December 2012, Burns and Coy performed at the Pete Waterman concert Hit Factory Live at London's O2 Arena.[46][47] Burns died of a cardiac arrest on 23 October 2016, at the age of 57, ending the band.[48]
On 28 October 2016, a 19-disc box set titled Sophisticated Boom Box MMXVI was released by Edsel Records. The release was announced on September 8, via Demon Music Group as a "personally curated [by Burns and Coy] 19 disc set, featuring the original album tracks plus a plethora of rarities, live recordings, alternate mixes, instrumental versions and more than 12 previously unreleased remixes and tracks from their vaults, bringing a unique collection together from the band’s internationally successful career for the very first time."[49] Coy died on 4 May 2018 at the age of 56. Coy was in Italy to work on a new studio album before he died at his Bogliasco home following an eleven-month battle with cancer.[50][51]
Personnel
Members
Pete Burns– vocals, tambourine[52](1979–2016; his death)
Peter Jozzeppi Burns was an English singer, songwriter and television personality who formed the band Dead or Alive in 1980 during the new wave era and was the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter. He sold over 17 million albums and 36 million singles worldwide and also gave the songwriting and record production trio Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) their first UK No. 1 hit single. His first three albums all reached the UK Top 30, with Youthquake reaching the Top 10. Additionally, the band had seven UK Top 40 singles, two US Top 20 singles and another two singles which went to No. 1 on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. In 2016, Billboard magazine ranked Dead or Alive as one of the most successful dance artists of all time.
Eurobeat refers to two styles of dance music that originated in Europe: one is a British variant of Italian Eurodisco-influenced dance-pop, and the other is a hi-NRG-driven form of Italo disco. Both forms were developed in the 1980s.
Youthquake is the second studio album by the English pop band Dead or Alive, released on 3 May 1985 by Epic Records. The album was their commercial breakthrough in Europe and the United States, due to its lead single "You Spin Me Round ", which was a No. 1 hit on the UK singles chart and a Top 20 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100. Additional single releases from the album included "Lover Come Back to Me", "In Too Deep" and "My Heart Goes Bang ".
Sophisticated Boom Boom is the debut studio album by the English pop band Dead or Alive, released on 20 April 1984 by Epic Records. Featuring mostly synth-pop and dance elements, the album contains the band's first UK top 40 single, a cover version of KC and the Sunshine Band's "That's the Way ". That song, along with "Misty Circles", were hits on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The album was a minor success in the UK where it peaked at No. 29.
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know is the third studio album by the English pop band Dead or Alive, released in December 1986 on Epic Records. Continuing their association with the Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) production team, Dead or Alive scored several hit singles from this album, including "Brand New Lover" and "Something in My House". In addition to an image of singer Pete Burns, the cover features one of the game walls at the Château de Raray, where some of the scenes for La Belle et la Bête were filmed. The cover photographer was Bob Carlos Clarke. The phrase "Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know" itself comes from a statement by Lady Caroline Lamb describing controversial English literary figure Lord Byron.
"You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" is a song by the English pop band Dead or Alive, featured on their second studio album, Youthquake (1985). Released as a single in November 1984, it reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart in March 1985, taking 17 weeks to get there. It was the first UK No. 1 hit by the Stock Aitken Waterman production trio.
"I Begin to Wonder" is a song co-written by Dannii Minogue, Jean-Claude Ades, Dacia Bridges and Olaf Kramolowsky for Minogue's 2003 album Neon Nights. The song was released as the album's second single in March 2003. The single reached the top twenty in multiple countries, and topped the club charts in the United Kingdom. In 2003, it was certified gold in Australia. "I Begin to Wonder" received positive reviews from music critics, and is considered by Minogue to be her "signature tune". Its futuristic music video, directed by Phil Griffin, features Minogue dancing in a room with the song's title swirling around her in numerous languages.
Nude is the fourth studio album by British pop group Dead or Alive, released in Japan on December 18th, 1988 and in Europe and America in July 1989 on Epic Records. Nude marked the first Dead or Alive release which was solely produced by core members Pete Burns and Steve Coy, as during the album's production, Tim Lever and Mike Percy were fired from the band. While the album was not as commercially successful in the band's native United Kingdom as their previous offerings, the album peaked within the top 10 in Japan, charted for 18 weeks, and produced the band's biggest hit single in the territory, Turn Around and Count 2 Ten, which peaked atop the Oricon Singles Chart. The album was re-released in the UK in 2016 as a part of the comprehensive box set Sophisticated Boom Box MMXVI.
Evolution: The Hits is a compilation album from the British dance/pop band Dead or Alive, in 2003. This is the band's second hits collection, after 1987's Rip It Up. This collection spans their musical history from their 1984 debut album, Sophisticated Boom Boom, to 2000's Fragile, and contains all their single releases and several remixes. The album was released in two editions: a single disc containing 18 tracks, and a double disc containing 28 tracks. A DVD video compilation was also released.
"That's the Way (I Like It)" is a song by American disco and funk band KC and the Sunshine Band from their self-titled second studio album (1975). The single became the band's second No. 1 hit in the Billboard Hot 100, and it is one of the few chart-toppers in history to hit No. 1 on more than one occasion during a one-month period, as it did between November and December 1975. It topped the US pop chart for one week, and then was replaced by another disco song, "Fly, Robin, Fly" by Silver Convention. "That's the Way (I Like It)" returned to No. 1 for one more week after "Fly, Robin, Fly" completed three weeks at the top. "That's the Way (I Like It)" also spent one week at No. 1 in the soul singles chart. The song is in natural minor.
"Brand New Lover" is a song recorded by the English pop band Dead or Alive. It was the lead single released from the band's third studio album, Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know on Epic Records. It achieved international success when released as a single in 1986, including the United States and Japan, though it failed to enter the Top 20 in the UK.
"Misty Circles" is a song written and recorded by English pop band Dead or Alive. It was co-produced by the band and Zeus B. Held and released as the first single from Dead or Alive's debut studio album Sophisticated Boom Boom (1984). "Misty Circles" was the first song to be released by Dead or Alive after being signed to a major label, Epic Records. The band's prior single releases were issued independently. This song was not very successful, but it managed to peak at No. 100 on the UK Singles Chart.
"The Flame" is a power ballad released in 1988 by the American rock band Cheap Trick as the first single from their tenth album, Lap of Luxury. It was written by songwriters Bob Mitchell and Nick Graham, and was produced by Richie Zito. "The Flame" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1988; it also reached number one in Australia and Canada.
The discography of Dead or Alive, a British dance-pop group, consists of six studio albums, seven compilation albums, twenty-eight singles, and two video albums. Formed by frontman Pete Burns in 1980 in Liverpool, the band were first signed to the independent Rough Trade label in 1982, though moved to Epic Records the following year. Their debut album, Sophisticated Boom Boom, was released in 1984, producing a series of minor hits in the UK, most notably their version of "That's the Way " which gave them their first UK Top 40 hit.
"My Heart Goes Bang (Get Me to the Doctor)" is a 1985 song by English pop band Dead or Alive. It was the fourth and final single from the band's second studio album Youthquake. It peaked at No. 23 on the UK singles chart, No. 12 in Japan, and became a dance hit in the U.S. The music video depicts lead singer Pete Burns in a leather jacket on the back of a motorcycle, and the band walking down a catwalk.
"Something in My House" is a song by English pop band Dead or Alive, produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. It was released in the UK in December 1986 as the second single from the band's third studio album, Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know. The single peaked at No. 12 on the UK singles chart.
"Lover Come Back to Me" is a 1985 single by the English pop band Dead or Alive, produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. It was released as the second single from the band's second studio album, Youthquake. The single peaked at No. 11 on the UK singles chart, No. 3 in South Africa, No. 5 in Switzerland, No. 21 in Germany, No. 13 in Australia and No. 75 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
That's the Way I Like It: The Best of Dead or Alive is the third greatest hits album by English pop band Dead or Alive, released in 2010. It is the last release by Dead or Alive before lead singer Pete Burns died in 2016; the box set Sophisticated Boom Box MMXVI was released just five days after his death.
Sophisticated Boom Box MMXVI is a comprehensive box set by English band Dead or Alive, released on both 17CD/2DVD and 10LP versions, on October 28, 2016. The set compiles the band's seven studio albums, from Sophisticated Boom Boom (1984) to Fragile (2000), and includes the remix albums Rip It Up (1987), Nude: Remade Remodelled (1989) and Unbreakable: The Fragile Remixes (2001). Variants of both the CD/DVD and LP sets were sold on Amazon with limited edition exclusivities. The CD/DVD edition came with a signed print by band frontman Pete Burns, limited to 750 units, and the LP version came with a bonus 10" vinyl EP including tracks previously unreleased on the format.
Let Them Drag My Soul Away: Singles, Demos, Sessions and Live Recordings 1979-1982 is a compilation album by British pop group Dead or Alive, released on July 21, 2023 by Cherry Red Records. Comprising material which pre-dates the release of their first studio album, Sophisticated Boom Boom (1984), the compilation features the band's singles I'm Falling, Number Eleven,The Stranger and the It's Been Hours Now EP, all of which charted on the UK Independent Singles Chart upon their initial releases. It also features the band's first commercial release, Birth of a Nation, released under the moniker Nightmares in Wax. In addition to previously released material, Let Them Drag My Soul Away features various early versions of tracks that were released on Sophisticated Boom Boom, and live material, including two Peel sessions; totalling 16 previously unreleased tracks.
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