Dead Or Alive singer Pete Burns has suddenly died on Sunday October 23, 2016, after a cardiac arrest. 

Pete Burns rose to fame in the 1980s with the band's hit song You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) and rose to super stardom in Japan. 

A statement released by his partner, Michael Simpson, his ex-wife, Lynne Corlett, and his manager and former band member, Steve Coy, read: "All of his family and friends are devastated by the loss of our special star. He was a true visionary, a beautiful talented soul and will be missed by all those who loved and appreciated everything he was and all of the wonderful memories he has left us with."

Born in Cheshire to a Liverpudlian father and German mother who was a survivor of the Holocaust, Pete Burns described his upbringing as unconventional. His mother was an alcoholic, and attempted suicide several times when he was growing up.

"As far as parental skills go in the conventional, normal world, she certainly wasn't a mother, but she's the best human being that I've ever had the privilege of being in the company of, and I know that she had a special plan for me," he said in his autobiography 'Freak Unique'. "She called me 'Star Baby' and she knew that there was something special in me."

Never one to conform to the rules, Pete Burns dropped out of his Liverpool boys school at the age of 14 after he was summoned to the headmaster's office "with no eyebrows, Harmony-red hair and one gigantic earring". He began working in a record shop in Liverpool, where he formed his first band, the Mystery Girls, though they played only one gig. Pete Burns formed Dead Or Alive in 1980.

Pete Burns also became famous for his androgynous style and his progressive approach to gender. He often wore women's clothes and said: "Everyone's in drag of some sorts, I don't give a fuck about gender and drag. I'm not trying to be a girl by putting on a dress - gender is separated by fabric. I was brought up with an incredible amount of freedom and creativity. Society has put certain constraints on things."

Pete Burns lived out his life in the full public glare, though his most notorious appearance was on season four of Celebrity Big Brother, in which he memorably performed a dance with the former MP George Galloway, both dressed in lycra leotards.

Pete Burns married his first wife, Lynne Corlett, a hairdresser, in 1978 but the pair separated in 2006 and Pete Burns married his partner, Michael Simpson, soon after, inviting television cameras to their wedding.

He also admitted to having an addiction to cosmetic surgery, having over 300 operations in his lifetime, mainly on his face, and in 2006 almost died on the table during nose surgery.

Despite various attempts, Pete Burns's solo career never reached the mainstream success of Dead Or Alive. His last single, Never Marry an Icon, was released in 2010.

Pete Burns remained a regular on TV chat shows and reality shows and was recently promoting a box set of Dead Or Alive's LPs called Sophisticated Boom Box MMXVI. 

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