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]
In a 2009 interview discussing the song, Burns disputed the Hi-NRG label, saying "to me it was just disco", and describing the song as "a pop hit, not a hi-NRG hit".[22] Burns later said he had wanted to make a "glittery disco record", while Pete Waterman, asked to define the song's sound, said it was "techno-disco; without a question that's what it was. It was new technology playing Motown; that's all it was. Taking out the musicians and bringing in technology for the first time."[23] Burns would later criticise SAW for their methods, describing that "they took our sound and just basically wheeled it off with a load of other imbeciles, and that makes me a bit sour."[24] Burns stated in his autobiography that he composed "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by using two existing songs:
How did I write "Spin Me"? I listened to Luther Vandross's 'I Wanted Your Love'. It's not the same chord structure, but then that's the way I make music – I hear something and I sing another tune over it. I didn't sit and study the Luther Vandross album – I heard the song and it locked. [...] I'm trying to structure the music and I know what I want. [...] It's like do this, do this, do this – and suddenly it hits. I don't want to do Luther Vandross's song, but I can still sing the same pattern over it. And there was another record, by Little Nell, called "See You 'Round Like a Record". [...] So I had those two, Van Dross [sic] and Little Nell and – bingo! – done deal.
—Pete Burns, Freak Unique (2007)
Burns claimed the song was "completed" by the time the producers were then chosen to work on it, stating that "the record companies don't trust a band to go into the studio without a producer".[24] However, according to Burns, the record company was unenthusiastic about the single to such an extent that Burns 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.[25] 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.[26]
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, with the latter frustrated by the band's refusal to branch into house music,[27] and Burns being unwilling to hand over songwriting duties to the producers.[28] SAW's recording engineer Karen Hewitt recalled the singer appeared to thrive on his often explosive and confrontational dynamic with Mike Stock and Matt Aitken during the album sessions.[27]Matt Aitken described the band's songwriting as less complete than the previous album, requiring more input from SAW as producers.[29]
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.[21] Following a fraught six-month recording session with producers Stock Aitken Waterman, which was marked by fights and disagreements between the band, record company and producers over the sound of their new material, Burns claimed he struggled to get Epic to commit to a release schedule for the single.[27] He said this changed when Bananarama had major success with their Dead or Alive-inspired cover of "Venus", which Burns claimed encouraged the label to schedule "Brand New Lover" for release.[27] Later, Burns blamed the song's disappointing chart run in his home country on his then-ongoing war with his UK label, alleging that the company had failed to press and distribute enough copies of the single to make it a hit, and claiming the band had lost out on 67,000 UK sales as a result.[27]
Three more singles from the album were released; the most successful in the UK was "Something in My House" (No. 12), tonally Gothic and with a sleeve depicting Burns in front of what appears to be a Satanic altar, featuring an inverted cross. Originally conceived by Burns as a Halloween release, the horror-themed "Something in My House" was delayed until late December in the UK, amid wrangling between the band and their record company, with the latter feeling the track was "too brutal" to be a single.[27]
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.[30] "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."[31][32]
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.[33] "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.'"[33]
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.[34] 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.[34] 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.
Another highly controversial 12-inch white label mix, known as "Naughty XXX",[35][36] was released to club DJs, featuring a series of stronger dialogue clips from The Exorcist – with the track described as "unique" in its capacity as the only known example of a "filthy, obscene [and] sexually explicit" Stock Aitken Waterman record.[37] A third single, "Hooked on Love", failed to make the UK Top 40 amid Burns' battle with the label over their refusal to prioritise his preferred mix, which featured a "Gothic" overtone.[38]
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.[39]
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".[41] 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.[42][43] 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.[44]
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 for ten-weeks and "Come Home with Me Baby" which spent nine-weeks at No. 1 on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play due to a popular remix by producer Lewis Martineé.[30][45] However, despite the chart success of "Come Home with Me Baby" and the other singles, the song struggled in the UK. This lack of success was attributed to the lyrics, which encouraged casual sex during the AIDs epidemic.[21]
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.[30] 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.[46] 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.[47][48][49][50] Pete strongly criticized its subsequent distribution.[51]
In the early-1990s, Burns and Coy signed with Pete Waterman's PWL Records and recording was started on new tracks co-written and produced by Mike Stock, but the sessions were aborted when Stock abruptly quit over his dissatisfaction with his share of publishing royalties on the new material.[52] Work on new material recommenced with PWL staffer Barry Stone taking over co-production duties.[52] The band released a new single in 1994, a cover version of David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel", under the name International Chrysis, named after the late transsexual nightclub performer. An initial demo of the track, which featured new lyrics written by Burns, was blocked by Bowie – who legally denied permission to use new lyrics, and also unsuccessfully requested the track not be covered by Burns at all.[52]
Remixed versions of tracks from Fan the Flame (Part 1) were later re-recorded for the band's 1995 Nukleopatra album which was their sixth studio album. While the album was released as scheduled in Japan, the planned European release was pulled when Burns left PWL Records after Pete Waterman refused his request to use Paul Oakenfold and other remixers to work on further singles, and instead insisted he wanted to write and produce for the band himself.[52] In 1997, Burns claimed that some of the song covers were included as "album fillers" after studio time to write new material was cut short when "the record label started to fall to bits".[24]
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.[54] 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.[55] On 21 December 2012, Burns and Coy performed at the Pete Waterman concert Hit Factory Live at London's O2 Arena.[56][57] Burns died of a cardiac arrest on 23 October 2016, at the age of 57, ending the band.[58]
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."[59] 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.[60][61]
Personnel
Members
Pete Burns– vocals, tambourine[62](1979–2016; his death)
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