In 1979, several years before their global success with "You Spin Me Round ( Like A Record ) ", Liverpool's own Dead or Alive , Pete Burns got down and dirty with his audio/visual assault on the underground Liverpool scene with Nightmares In Wax.
After the demise of the Mystery Girls Burns returned in February 1979 with Nightmares In Wax, whom he described as ´´pure rubbish - one-note songs for ten minutes´´. Nightmares In Wax sol aim was to be the worst group in history. ´´We started the group because we had a stolen keyboard and thought we had to do something with it´´, Burns recalls. Despite its continually changing line-up, the group was asked by Pete Fullwell to record a single, ´´Black Leather´´ - a rather suspect homage to leather-clad motorcyclists - for his Inevitable label.
Unfortunately, it sold only moderately, and Nightmares In Wax began to disintegrate as its members left to join other budding Liver-Liverpool bands. Two limited 12´´ formats of the song later appeared on the KY label in 1983 and 1985.
Pete Burns and co, made this dark disco stomper "Black Leather" under the name "Nightmares In Wax" . They paid homage to not only the gay leather scene but to a disco classic by KC & The Sunshine Band "That's The Way I Like It". Years later, as Dead or Alive , they would revisit this idea and do a killer cover version for their debut album "Sophisticated Boom Boom".
BLACK LEATHER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQY8LOVpZ5I
TURN AWAY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaBI5lMEl8Q
This is a not great quality recording of a Nightmares In Wax track called Turn Away. It was recorded in the band's rehearsal space, a basement in Ullett Road, Liverpool in 1980. The musicians were: Pete Burns (vocals), Michael Reid (guitar), probably Ambrose Reynolds (bass) Martin Healy (keyboard) Phil Hurst (drums). The photo was taken at a Nightmares In Wax gig at Eric's Club in Liverpool in March 1980 and shows (l to r) Michael Reid, Pete Burns and Peter Alan Lloyd (Courtesy of Michael Reid).
COULDN'T CARE LESS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkiVW3YRpWs
This is a recording made in the basement rehearsal space in Ullet Road, Liverpool, in 1980, of Nightmares in Wax playing 'Couldn't Care Less'. In spite of the sound quality, it gives a good indication of the music output of the band, renamed a few months later as Dead or Alive. The photographs were actually taken in the same basement by photographer David Bailey (in a photo session for the Birth Of A Nation EP cover) and are copyrighted to, and used with kind permission of, the photographer. I can't be 100% sure of the musicians but I believe they were Pete Burns (vocals), Mick Reid (guitar) Phil Hurst (drums) Peter Alan Lloyd (bass) and Martin Healy (keyboards).
SHANGRI- LA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBMo7THIuvs
GIRL'S SONG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9XPqJ8vWOc&index=3
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