Dead Or Alive Frontman Pete Burns Dead At 57

Robbie Daw | October 24, 2016 2:42 pm

Pete Burns, the flamboyant, iconic frontman of pop act Dead Or Alive, has died at the age of 57, the BBC reports. The British singer’s cause of death was noted as being a heart attack.

A statement posted to  Twitter by Burns’ manager noted the following: “It is with the greatest sadness that we have to break the tragic news that our beloved Pete Burns of (Dead Or Alive) died suddenly yesterday of a massive cardiac arrest.”

Burns’ contemporary, Boy George, tweeted today, “Tearful about the passing of @PeteBurnsICON he was one of our great true eccentrics and such a big part of my life! Wow. Hard to believe!”

Following a stint in couple short-lived English bands in the late 1970s, Liverpool-based Burns struck gold by forming Dead Or Alive in 1980. After achieving minor success abroad with a cover of KC & The Sunshine Band‘s “That’s The Way (I Like It)”, their international breakthrough came when the band partnered up with the then-fledgling British production trio of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman to record sophomore album Youthquake. Lead single “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” went on to cement the careers of all involved when it topped the UK chart and became a smash around the globe. Stateside, the single reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Dead Or Alive’s 1987 follow-up album Mad, Bad And Dangerous To Know was another collaboration with Stock Aitken Waterman, and yielded further Hi-NRG/pop hits like “Brand New Lover” and “Something In My House.”

“Trying to take in such sad news about Pete Burns,” Mike Stock tweeted this afternoon. “I want to avoid cliches out of respect for his uniqueness.Remembering those 80s moments”

The band closed out the ’80s with the release of Nude, their last album to dent the major charts of the world.

Following a series of lineup changes, Burns continued to occasionally put out music under the Dead Or Alive moniker. He achieved a comeback in his home country 10 years ago by appearing on the UK series Celebrity Big Brother, and by opening up publicly about his personal struggles with the plastic surgery he’d undergone.

Ironically, a career-spanning, 19-disc Dead Or Alive box set, titled Sophisticated Boom Boom MMXVI, is due to be released this Friday (October 28).

Farewell, Pete. You were an original in every sense of the word.

Keep up with more pop music news by hitting us up on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.