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Sunday, August 2, 2009

Dead Or Alive: I'm Falling

Pete Burns first band was an outfit he formed
with friends Julian Cope, Pete Wylie, and Phil
Hurst. Dubbing themselves The Mystery Girls, they
played only one gig in Liverpool in November 1977,
before disintegrating.

In 1979, Pete Burns formed Gothic rock band
Nightmares in Wax. Their 7" EP titled "Birth of a
Nation" was released in 1980 by Inevitable Records.





In 1980, after several line-up changes since the
start of the year, Burns changed
the name of the band to the more marketable
Dead Or Alive.

"I'm Falling" was released in 1980 on the Inevitable
Music label with the b-side "Flowers".

Bass - Sue
Drums - Joe Musker
Keyboards - Martin
Vocals - Pete

Thanks to my friend Carlos for supplying the sources for these songs.

More info on Dead Or Alive recordings can be found over at Discogs.com.

Dead Or Alive: BBC John Peel Session




After releasing the first single in 1980
"I’m Falling", the same line-up of:

Joe Musker - Drums
Sue Bagton-James - Bass
Marty/Mandingo Healy - Keyboards
Adrian Mitchley - Guitar
Pete Burns - Vocals

recorded their first BBC ONE Peel Session
(recorded 04/02/1981, broadcast 17/02/1981).

The tracklist for that session was:
"Nowhere To Nowhere"
"Running Wild"
"Flowers"
"Number 11"

Dead Or Alive: Number Eleven






The band went through several different lineup
changes over the next three years while recording
a series of independent singles.

Their next single, was released only a few months
later, in May, 1981. "Number Eleven" was released
on the Inevitable Music label.

Dead Or Alive: It's Been Hours Now





With future Mission U.K. guitarist Wayne Hussey and
bassist Mike Percy; the band released the "It's Been
Hours Now" EP on Black Eyes Records in 1982.

Wayne Hussey was an early member of the band who
wrote most songs in 1982-1983.

Pete Burns
Martin Healy
Wayne Hussey
Mike Percy
Joe Musker

"It's Been Hours Now"

"Nowhere To Nowhere"

Dead Or Alive: The Stranger





At this point, the band was a five-piece consisting
of Burns, Mike Percy (bass), Tim Lever (keyboards/sax),
Steve Coy (drums), and Wayne Hussey (guitar).

The follow-up single to their EP was "The Stranger,"
released in 1982 on Black Eyes Records. Dead Or Alive's
singles started placing high in the UK Indie Chart, with
"The Stranger" reaching number 7.

A series of singles on their new label Epic, appeared
over the course of 1983."Misty Circles", appeared at
number 100 in the Gallup charts of June, 1983.





Two more singles, "What I Want" and "I'd Do
Anything", were club hits, but mainstream success
continued to elude the band. Their debut album,
"Sophisticated Boom Boom", was released in 1984 and
featured "That's the Way (I Like It)".





Hussey departed Dead Or Alive just before the album's
release, despite writing much of the material that
appears on it, plus the singles "Misty Circles" and
"What I Want".





Hussey left in early 1984 to join The Sisters of
Mercy
for one year, and then formed The Mission in
late 1985.