abstract
| - The band was created by vocalist Pete Burns, a young, sexually confused hair stylist who decided to swop his blow waves for the chance to front a band and get his jollies back stage afterwards. He was joined by his friend, hippie keyboardist Martin 'Magneto' Healy. The two of them previously played in a very poor band called Nightmares in Drag. They were soon recruited by drummer Joe 'I-can't-hit-that-fucking-snare-drum-so-I-hit-toms' Musker, guitarist Adrian 'Mitch' Mitchley and bassist Sue Bangton-James. After first two singles (I'm Falling and Number Eleven), Sue and Mitched were sacked (rumours said, that it was because they didn't want to have sex with Pete, but Sue later recalled, that her father threatened her, that if she would not leave that horrible band, he would shoot her) and replaced by Mike 'Slap-that-string-and-break-it' Percy and Wayne 'Wank' Hussey. The following release was EP It's Been Hours Now. After this release, Joe Musker's limited musical abilities were even too much for Burns so he replaced him with his closest friend (read - only friend) Steve Coy. However, apart from few songs, the drums on later records would be actually pre-recorded by drum machine, while Steve would only play some additional beats to it (this is exemplified in some of band's television appearances). At this point also, since gay marriages were prohibited then, Burns married Lynne Corlett, who is said to be the only woman (but not the only person) Burns actually had sex with. Dead or Alive went on to record the The Stranger after which Healey was sacked for going out of fashion. His successor on the keyboards was Tim 'Very-busy-playing-three-instruments-at-once' Lever who helped move the band from playing to an audience of perfumed New Romantics to start playing dance music. Lever would actually record pretty much all the instruments since 1984 to 1989 (except bass, drums and lead vocals, though some say, he had done even some of that). Dead Or Alive then signed a record contract with Epic Fail Records.
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