Dead or Alive were an English pop band formed in 1979 in Liverpool by Pete Burns (vocals). After several unsuccessful indie singles, they signed to Epic Records in 1983, achieving their first chart placement with "Misty Circles" from their first album Sophisticated Boom Boom (1984). At that time, the band consisted of Burns, Steve Coy (drums), Tim Lever (keyboards), Mike Percy (bass), and Wayne Hussey (guitar). Burns and Coy remained the core of the band for the rest of its history, with Hussey leaving in 1984, while Lever and Percy both left in 1988.