Ridiculous? Yes, but true. Bellowing loudly and crudely this satanic vision thrusts his huge thighs forward, shakes his gargantuan mane of matted dreadlocks (that would shock the little golden plaits off Marilyn) and lunges for the heights like a lion bringing down preying falcon.

"I can have anything I want!" he screams in the opening number. And we believe it. Pete Burns has the kind of image that puts Marilyn and Boy George in the shade. And you will soon all be adoring him for it. Another home-grown hero- but one with strength.

For not only does his outrageousness of style arrest your beating heart, but the sheer velocity and incision of the whole band's material does too. "What I Want" and "I'd Do Anything", both previous singles, bare a rock-solid heaviness to the funk and stomp of their glamour. Rock experience pays off in the end - and in the funk turn of Dead Or Alive's fashionable sound the benefits will sweep the credibility stakes.

So. Touting the sinewy hardness of style and content, Dead Or Alive ground through their musical past with a sharpness of tone and vibrancy of brass accompaniment before really hammering home their vital relevance to an avant garde disco floor with numbers like "That's The Way I Like It" and "Misty Circles".

A sure-fire dance beat like a quickening pulse seemed to shoot through the first bars of these songs, an electronic edge that, pitched with Burns' glowering vocals set against the backing girls' soul chorus fired life, potency and spontaneity rather than he repetitive dirge-like coldness of material from such names as Blancmange.

If anything, however, the spirit and perfection of this blend showed up the previous material to be stodgy and conventional in comparison, and in this perverse twist Burns seemed to come to total odds with the crowd. Shouts of "Say something ! " "Say that you're a human not a VIDEO!" proved a rising frustration to the infallible enigma onstage.

This Colossus had put a foot wrong, or maybe shown his heart was not so mighty after all, for a total lack of communication with his audience killed any empathy that might have existed and brought the finale to an undeserved paltriness by the weak and pathetic cries for one measly encore.

The fans will be fickle, but the fame is still inevitable. Whether dead or alive in the eyes of a cult following - I come to praise Pete Burns, not to bury him.

Melody Maker 1984