Having been ‘discovered’ working in Liverpool’s Probe Records during the punk rock explosion, Pete Burns found himself fronting his own band, Nightmares In Wax who mutated into the more familiar Dead Or Alive, eventually bringing Pete into the UK pop mainstream, and a star was born.
Bringing together early singles by both Nightmares In Wax and Dead Or Alive, Peel sessions and previously unheard demos and live recordings, ‘Let Them Drag My Soul Away’ shines a light on the pre-fame Burns and a revolving cast of bandmates and collaborators, many of whom were mainstays of both the Liverpool and broader British post-punk scene.
From the disco punk funk of ‘Black Leather’ through proto-Gothic singles ‘It’s Been Hours Now’ and ‘The Stranger’, and into early versions of hi-NRG tracks which would eventually find their way onto the band’s debut album, this is both an invigorating exploration of an emerging talent and a valuable time capsule of an important figure in both the 80s pop and gay club scenes. While so many pop stars hid their homosexuality for the sake of record sales and middle America, Burns stuck up two fingers and sang loudly about both his own inner world and his desire for large, leather clad boys!
Featuring sleevenotes by Electronic Sound magazine’s Mat Smith (with new interview contributions from Wayne Hussey, Joe Musker and Francesco Mellina), and a plethora of previously unheard recordings, this is a must for fans of Pete Burns, post-punk and pop enthusiasts and those with an interest in British pop culture in the aftermath of punk’s liberation.