472 Hello Dead Or Alive - That's The Way ( I Like It )

Chart  entered :  24  March  1984

Chart  peak : 22

Number  of  hits : 10

Test  yourself  here. Can  you  name  any  of  their  other  hits  besides  this  one  and  their  chart topper  a  year  later ?  Or  alternatively  can  you  name  any  other  member  of  Dead  Or  Alive.  There  is  sometimes  a  gulf   between  being  a  great  pop  star  and  making  great  pop  music  to  justify  that  position  and  I  think  Pete  Burns  and  co   fall  into  it.

Pete  was  born  in  Bebington  in  1959.  He  became  a  habitue  of  the  Liverpool  punk  scene  around  Eric's  and  joined  Julian  Cope, Pete  Wylie  and  Phil  Hurst  in  a  band  called  The  Mystery  Girls  who  were  one  gig  wonders  in  1977.  He  next  found  employment  in  a  band  called  Nightmares  in  Wax   in  1979  at  the  same  time  as  working  in  a  record / clothes  shop  called  Probe.

Pete's  now  pretty  dismissive  of  the  group   who  made  just  one  single  , the  EP  "Birth  of  A Nation"  on  the  Inevitable  label   in  March  1980. The   lead  track  "Black  Leather "  is  an  unambiguous  ode  to  being  shafted  on  a  motorbike  delivered  in  a  guttural  punk  snarl  by  Pete  over  a  rough  facsimile  of  Simple  Minds'  I  Travel.  There's  a  simulated  orgasm  mid song  just  in  case  any  daytime  jock   was  tempted  to  play  it   and  it  segues  into  KC  and  the  Sunshine  Band's  That's  The  Way  ( I  Like  It  )  towards  the  end. The  other  two  tracks  are  "Girls  Song" , a  macabre  synth  ditty  reminiscent  of  Mute  stalwarts  Fad  Gadget  and  the  tuneless  Goth  rock  of  "Shangri-la".

In  mid  1980  Pete  and  his  chief  collaborator, keyboardist  Martin  Healy  changed  the  name  of  the  band  to  Dead  Or  Alive. Their  first  single  under  the  new  name  was  "I'm  Falling"   in  March  1981  which  was  produced  by  Ian  Broudie. It's  a  pounding  Goth  rock  number  about  nothing  in  particular  with  doomy  keyboards  and  Pete  doing  a  near-perfect  impersonation  of  Jim  Morrison.  By  the  time  of  their  second  single, "Number  Eleven "  in  August  that  year  the  line  up  had  almost  completely  changed  with  Pete  the  sole  survivor. Coming  in  at  this  point  were  drummer  Steve  Coy, bassist  Mike  Percy , keyboard  player  Timothy  Lever  and  guitarist  Wayne  Hussey . "Number  Eleven"  is  in  much  the  same  vein  as  the  previous  single  sounding  not  unlike  Hussey's  future  employers.

Their  third  single  "The  Stranger", released  on  their  own  Black  Eyes  label  ( named  after  Pete's  penchant  for  wearing  black  contact  lenses ) in  1982   is  so  similar  to  their  Liverpool  contemporaries  Echo  and  the  Bunnymen  you  think  it  must  be  a  tribute  of  some  sort  but  it  did  well  enough  on  the  independent  chart  to  get  them  a  record  deal  with  Epic  who  thought  they  had  their  own  Boy  George  with  Pete.

Their  first  single  for  Epic   "Misty  Circles"   in  May  1983  rather  strangely  seems  to  be  about  their  lack  of  success  and  consequent  crisis  of  confidence. It's  also  their  poorest  to  date, swapping  the  goth  rock  sound  for  juddery  electro-funk  but  it's  completely  tuneless.  Wayne  left  the  group  by  the  time  the  next  single  was  released  but  he  had  a  big  hand  in  the  writing  of  their  debut  album  and  played  on  the  next  three  singles.  The  follow  up  "What  I  Want  " is  so  slavishly  in  thrall  to  Blue  Monday   they  must  have  been  taking  the  piss.   It  makes  the  title  of  their  next  single  "I'd  Do  Anything"  all  too  appropriate. That's  a  spiky  chant   over  a  robotic  electro-funk  backing  that's  all  production  and  no  song.

With  three  flops , and  the  release  of  the  album  "Sophisticated  Boom  Boom"  held  over  for  want  of  a  hit.  the  band  were  in  last  chance  saloon  when  this  one  was  released. The  song  was  of  course  the  signature  hit  for  KC  and  the  Sunshine  Band  in  1975  epitomising  that  mid-seventies  hedonistic  excess,  topping  the  US  charts  and  reaching  number  4  here. Few  songs  evoke  that  period  better,  particularly  because  of   the  similarity  - noted  at  the  time -  between  the  backing  singers'  refrain  and  the  music  that  accompanied  the  Pearl  and  Dean  trailer  for  cinema  ads  throughout  the  seventies.

Dead  Or  Alive's  version  keeps  the  horns  and  the  female  backing  singers  but  substitutes  a  sludgy  electro-dance  backing  track  for  the  original  funk  rhythms   and  adds  a  male  chant  of  "Keep  that , Keep  that  body  strong"  over  that  iconic  refrain  like  an  all-too-eighties  jackboot  trampling  on  a  hallowed  piece  of  memorabilia. Having  destroyed  the  best  bit  of  the  song , Pete  barks  out  the  lyrics  in  his  stentorian  snarl  and  it  becomes  a  charmless  grind.  He  appeared  on  Top  of  the  Pops  wearing  what  appeared  to  be  a  female  swimming  costume  which  emphasised  his,  erm,  package , aided  and  abetted  by  the  camera  man. Boy  George  didn't  miss  the  opportunity  to  bitch  saying  his  mum  thought it  was  disgusting  and  suggesting  Pete's  thighs  were  a  bit  wobbly. The  viewers  may  have  agreed  it  was  a  bit  much  as  the  single  only  climbed  three  places  after  the  performance.