Dead or Alive – Here’s Looking at You

A limited edition photo book of 1,000 individually numbered copies of stunning images by Paul Cox from his photographic work with Dead or Alive, 1984-1990. Featuring 314 rare and some previously unpublished images by music photographer Paul Cox. “Photo shoots with Pete Burns and Dead or Alive were fun, chaotic and always a challenge,” says Paul. “Between Pete and me, we created some visually striking images.” The book features not only an exclusive interview with Paul about his time working with Pete Burns and the band, but we are delighted to announce that Lynne Burns, Pete’s former wife and long-standing creative collaborator, is writing the book’s foreword and will contribute quotes to go alongside many of the images. The final word in the book comes from friend and former sparring partner Boy George. Other contributors include fashion designer Dean Bright and designer / former London clubland icon David Cabaret. The book is published at a time when there is a renewed interest in excavating the British ’80s pop scene and coincides with the 40th anniversary of ‘You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)’ reaching number one in the UK charts and becoming a smash worldwide. Paul Cox photographed the band from the start of their success and through his lens we see the evolution of Pete Burns’ decades-ahead style, which mirrored his singular vision for the band. From Westwood to Galliano and Gaultier – the book also stands as a document to the more radical designers of the day, a time when fashion was rule-breaking – still inspired by punk – and had yet to be swallowed up by corporate economics and a safer aesthetic. Pete Burns lived for the camera and was at once feminine, masculine, vulnerable, fierce and beautiful. Post-New Romantic, with roots in Goth and Punk, but all glamour – his shape-shifting and visual inventiveness within the mainstream predated identity politics and the deconstructing of identifiable gender norms by decades. His acid wit and steely persona combined with his personal style created something absolutely unique, and never seen since. Paul’s extensive range of work in the book ranges from exclusives from the video sets to live shots, through to album campaigns and Smash Hits cover shoots – where “The Very Odd Couple” Pete Burns and Morrissey posed together. There are also photos of Pete with his parents, never-before-seen notes scrawled on the back of contact sheets and unpublished press shots. This is a document of a fascinating time in cultural history featuring a rule-breaking artist. Paul Cox has worked with a plethora of incredible artists from the late 1970s onwards including Echo and the Bunnymen, Motorhead, Dionne Warwick, David Bowie and Marc Bolan, Scott Walker, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cocteau Twins, Boy George, Van Morrison and Mick Jagger. He has previously published THE CURE, “Stills”, also with Moonboy Publications, and “Simply Tina: Tina Turner Photographs” with Omnibus Press. He lives and works in South West London.