Chart entered : 22 July 1989
Chart peak : 62
In the same week that Ian Broudie chalked up his first hit , another denizen of Eric's was making his final mark with a new song.
Dead or Alive had been on a steadily downward trajectory since "You Spin Me Round ( Like A Record ) " reached number one in March 1985 broken only by "Something In My House" reaching number 12 in the post Christmas lull at the start of 1987. Later that year bassist Mike Percy and keyboard player Tim Lever quit the band to work as a production team leaving the band as a duo of singer Pete Burns and drummer Steve Coy. The band's relationship with Stock, Aitken and Waterman also came to an end and their 1988 album "Nude" was self-produced. Its lead single "Turn Around and Count 2 Ten" only reached number 70 ( though it was a megahit in Japan ) in September 1988 and the album didn't chart. ( Possibly the cover picture of Pete in just a loincloth didn't help ).
"Come Home With Me Baby" was the belated second single from the album. Departing from their usual Hi-NRG sound, the band opt for an electro-funk backing track that ends up sounding very similar to Taylor Dayne's Tell It To My Heart. Pete's stern baritone is in god nick and as usual he's singing about lust but neither the chorus nor the main keyboard riff has a memorable melody and the record's just very average when they needed a strong song to rescue their fortunes here. It's actually their third biggest hit ( but also their last ) in America where it reached number 69.
The duo got to work on their next album "Fan the Flame Part 1" with producer Tim Weidner but Epic would only sanction its release in Japan. That's a minor shame as it does have one great song in "Gone 2 Long" and most of it is a listenable attempt at a more thoughtful dance pop in the Pet Shop Boys vein. It has to be said that all the tracks go on too long with only the dreary closer "Blue Christmas" clocking in at under 4 minutes. It maintained their popularity in Japan where it reached number 18 and yielded three hit singles.
They recorded a "Fan The Flame ( Part 2 ) " but it was never released. In 1992 Pete performed some acoustic numbers on a personal appearances tour of the States and they were bootlegged under that title.
By 1995 they had picked up a new keyboard player Jason Alburey who played on their album of that year "Nukleopatra". As the cover revealed, Pete had had substantial plastic surgery in the intervening years. The inclusion of two re-worked tracks from the previous album , covers of "Rebel Rebel" and "Picture This" and a re-recording of "Sex Drive" a song Pete had previously recorded with Italian house act Glam indicated that inspiration was running a bit dry by now. The band now embraced a European techno sound with the title track owing a lot to No Limits. The new songs range in quality from the playful "I'm A Star" with its pop at George Michael to the interminable "Getting It On". The album was initially only released in Japan again but when a remix of "You Spin Me Round" by the Sugar Pumpers was a hit in Australia in 1996 it was added to the album which then got an international release. "Sex Drive" was also a minor hit in Australia.
After that their account with Epic was closed despite their popularity in Japan remaining buoyant. They released their last album containing new material there in 2000 with "Fragile". Apart from covers of U2's Even Better Than The Real Thing and Nick Kamen's I Promised Myself , there are only four new songs, all of them listenable dance pop efforts including their last hit in Japan "Hit and Run Lover".
Two years later Pete appeared on Never Mind The Buzzcocks. After over a decade out of the limelight in the UK, his otherworldly appearance was a considerable shock, not least to his team captain Sean Hughes who looked genuinely scared by him. This kickstarted his new career as a reality TV star. The following year "You Spin Me Round 2003" reached number 23 in the UK but the compilation it was promoting didn't chart.
In 2004 he teamed up with the Pet Shop Boys for his only solo hit "Jack And Jill Party " a muted slice of electronica musing on the pitfalls of fame. It was the most minor of hits, spending a single week at number 75.
2006 was a red letter year for Pete. His media career reached its height with his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother alongside George Galloway and Michael Barrymore. Another remix of "You Spin Me Round" reached number 5 on the back of the programme and he published his autobiography "Freak Unique". However he also separated from his wife of 26 years and was arrested for assaulting his future civil partner in a gay bar. He also became embroiled in a law suit against one of his plastic surgeons.
Pete's last recording was a valedictory download single "Never Marry An Icon" in 2010 released on Steve's Bristar label. It's not a bad tune but abuses Autotune to such an extent it doesn't sound the work of a human being at all. It didn't chart. He blamed that on the song being leaked onto YouTube in an ngry press release that gave out the email address of the perpetrator.
Although the TV work continued, it wasn't enough to keep the wolves from the door financially and Pete was declared bankrupt in 2014. The following year he was evicted for rent arrears. In October last year he died of a heart attack definitively bringing Dead Or Alive to an end,
As mentioned above, Steve manages the Bristar Record label but it appears to be only a vehicle for releasing Dead Or Alive or Pete Burns product.
By contrast, Mike and Tim achieved real success with their company One World Productions doing remixes for Phil Collins, Rozalla, Danii Minogue, Soul II Soul and The Pasadenas amongst others in the nineties. At the end of the decade they started achieving even more success as songwriters under the name Steelworks with hits for S Club 7, Billie Piper, Hear'say, Five and Robbie Williams to name to name but a few. Steelworks Studios in Sheffield is still a going concern but Mike and Tim seem to have retired from active involvement in recent years.
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