They are best known for the hit singles "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" and "Turn Around & Count 2 Ten".

Before Pete Burns founded Dead Or Alive he was involved with a Liverpool based band named Nightmares In Wax. The band centred around alternative music and released their only notable record, "Black Leather" in 1979/1980.

Pete Burns (1981-Present) Vocalist of the band and songwriter. His voice was once described as "a light which fills the darkness". Burns did not play any instruments but mimed with an electric guitar in some music videos.

Steve Coy (1982-Present) Drummer. The youngest member of the band, Coy wrote music for the band but did not delve into the world of lyrics. As of 1996, Coy took over the job of producing Dead Or Alive's videos starting with the David Bowie cover "Rebel Rebel" from the album Nukleopatra.

Timothy Lever (1983-1990) Keyboards, Saxophone, Guitars. The prematurely bald musician from Liverpool appeared older than he actually was. He and guitarist Mike Percy were responsible for most of the actual songwriting for the band.

Mike Percy (1983-1990) Guitars. Percy was noted for his mullet hairstyle and, along with Lever, wrote most of Dead Or Alive's songs from 1984 until 1990. Percy is a talented bass player, he wrote and performed the backing track for the hit song You Spin Me Round (Like a Record).

Jason Alburey (1996-Present) Replaced Percy and Lever in the musical department, Alburey was instrumental in the formation of Dead Or Alive's every modernising sound. Alburey appears in the 2006 video for You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) despite having nothing to do with the song itself.

Wayne Hussey (1980-1983) An early member of the band who wrote the song Misty Circles and left to form The Mission, a popular British New Wave group.

Dead or Alive (DOA for short, not to be confused with punk band D.O.A.), was founded in 1980 by Pete Burns, one of the most visible genderfuck performers and gay icons of the decade. Steve Coy, the longest standing member of the band, plays drums and percussion as well as sharing songwriting responsibilities. Former members of the band include Tim Lever (keyboards/sax) and Mike Percy (bass).

The debut album, Sophisticated Boom Boom, featured their first Top 40 single, a remake of the 1975 hit by KC and the Sunshine Band "That's the Way (I Like It)".

Former member Wayne Hussey. Pictured in 2004.In 1985 they released the album Youthquake, produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman. The single "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" went to number one on the UK charts after having lingered outside the Top 40 for over two months after release, and twenty years later is still a dance-floor favourite. Several other tracks from the album, including "Lover Come Back to Me" and "In Too Deep", also became dance hits.

In 1986, DOA released their third album, Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know, which included the dancefloor smash "Brand New Lover". Two years later they parted ways with SAW, and released the self-produced Nude, which featured the hit "Turn Around and Count 2 Ten", a single that spent seventeen weeks at number one on the Japanese charts.

1990 saw the release of Fan the Flame (Part 1), and 1995 the album Nukleopatra, which featured remakes of David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" and Blondie's "Picture This". Initially released in Japan only, Nukleopatra, unlike its predecessor, was also released in Australia, Singapore, South Africa, France and the US, and each and every release sported different art covers, tracklistings and song versions; many releases of Nukleopatra also included one or more remixes of "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)".

In 2000 DOA released Fragile, a compilation of remixes with several new tracks and remakes of U2's "Even Better Than the Real Thing" and Nick Kamen's "I Promised Myself", and another remix album, Unbreakable, in 2001. This was followed by a greatest hits album called Evolution: the Hits, released in 2003 which featured yet another remix of "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)"; both of them enjoyed, for the first time since Nude, a UK release, with "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" re-entering the Top 40.

In 2004, Pete Burns enjoyed solo success with the Pet Shop Boys produced track "Jack and Jill Party". Although only released through the Pet Shop Boys website, the track reached number 75 in the single chart and was an underground club hit.

In January 2006 Pete Burns appeared on British TV in Celebrity Big Brother. Following a live performance of "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" during the show, Dead Or Alive then went on to re-release the single the same month accompanied with an updated music video featuring original band members. Again the song charted in the UK, this time hitting number five.

After their height of success during the 1980s, the original band parted in 1990 when songwriters and musicians Tim Lever and Mike Percy left to form careers as mixers and recordists. The pair currently own and operate Steelworks Studios in Sheffield, UK . As recordists, Lever and Percy have had more chart success than they ever did with Dead Or Alive, writing and mixing number one tracks from bands like S Club 7, Blue and Robbie Williams.

Pete Burns and Steve Coy joined keyboard player Jason Alburey in 1996 and have continued to record and play venues every since. Though they have never replicated the success of 1985, Dead Or Alive still command a large international following.

In 2006, Pete Burns took part in the TV show Celebrity Big Brother in the UK. His eccentric appearance and surprising behaviour made him a staple character in the show, which received huge audiences. Following the end of the show (Burns finished in fourth place), the Youthquake version of "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" was re-released and reached the top five in the UK singles chart.