The Mad, Bad and Dangerous Guide to Dead Or Alive and Pete Burns

Fronted by the androgynous Pete Burns, Dead Or Alive achieved their big break in 1984 with their UK Top 30 single That's The Way (I Like It) and its equally successful parent album Sophisticated Boom Boom. They would be the first two of eleven UK Top 30 records for the band, including following year's Lover Come Back To Me (#11), In Too Deep (#14) and You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) (#1). All three 1985 hits were yielded from their Gold-certified UK Top 10 album Youthquake.1986 saw the band score one of their five hit singles on the US Hot 100, with Brand New Lover (#15) - also a #1 on the US Dance Club Songs Chart - before they achieved further UK Top 20 hit Something In My House. Both were lifted from their Transatlantic hit album Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know.

Pete turned down a chance to tour with Madonna and stepped away from the spotlight to help his mother, who was given just months to live. Meanwhile, compilation/remix LP Rip It Up was issued to become a Top 5 success in Japan - a market which Dead Or Alive saw great success in throughout their career, including next single Turn Around & Count 2 Ten, which spent 17 weeks at #1 on the country's International singles chart. Follow-up Come Home With Me Baby became another US#1 dance hit. Both hits were from their fourth Billboard 200 hit album, and second Japan Top 10 album, 1988's Nude.

The 1990's saw Dead Or Alive release just two studio albums, both initially exclusive in Japan: 1990's Fan The Flame (Part 1) was a Top 30 hit, whilst 1995's Nukleopatra eventually became the band's fourth hit album in Australia and yielded three hits there - namely Rebel Rebel, the Top 30 You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) (Sugar Pumpers Radio Remix) and Sex Drive.Dead Or Alive continued to have hits into the 2000's... Hit and Run Lover hit #2 on Japan's International Singles Chart as its parent album Fragile became yet another Top 50 hit in the country. You Spin Me Round 2003 provided the band with another UK Top 30 hit and became their fifteenth hit single in Australia. It was lifted from their Evolution: The Hits collection - their ninth hit on Japan's main album chart.

After spending almost all his life-savings and 18 months in Italy to fix a devastating botched lip augmentation, Pete went straight into the UK celebrity Big Brother house in 2006, where much of the UK public witnessed his quick-wit, frankness, unique fashion style, and - during a performance of You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) - his masculine powerful singing voice. Unsurprisingly, a re-issue of the song shot straight into the Top 5 once again.In 2016, the world lost one its most intriguing, mesmerising and underrated music front-men, as, shockingly, Pete Burns passed away at just 57 years old.

The Mad, Bad & Dangerous Guide To Dead Or Alive & Pete Burns is the first of its kind: A tribute to Pete Burns. With Pete Burns quotes scattered throughout, the book showcases Dead Or Alive's - and Pete's - career successes with a condensed biography of their musical output, Pete's colourful personal life, and his television successes, before detailing their records a little more with a career-spanning discography from Nightmares In Wax's Birth Of A Nation to Pete's solo Never Marry An icon.