But if Culture Club can make a comeback tour, so can Dead or Alive. Hoping to cash in on the current ’80s musical revival, the group will be touring the country this fall with fellow New Wavers The Human League. In addition to playing their big hits, the band will be promoting its new album, Nukleopatra.

Actually, Nukleopatra isn’t exactly new. Dead or Alive’s seventh, most trouble-plagued release was recorded nearly five years ago, but the album fell into legal purgatory when the band’s label filed for bankruptcy. Released in Europe two years ago, it has only now been belatedly released in the U.S.

"After we’d been in and out of a few nightmare record deals," says Burns, "we took our time looking for a new one."

Musically, Nukleopatra is dated. The techno flourishes on the title track betray its vintage, although Burns doesn’t apologize for assimilating dated trends. He’s done it throughout his career. After his initial Hi-NRG sound played itself out, he and bandmate/cowriter Steve Coy switched to more bass-driven house music stylings in the late ’80s. This latest appropriation is a natural progression, says Burns.

"We took sounds coming out of the techno scene and fused them with our commercial pop formats," he says. Much of the album sticks to Dead or Alive’s traditional high-octane Euro-synthpop.

"I always wanted to make disposable, pretty light, forgettable albums," he says. "I think I’ve managed that so far."

Burns, 39, founded Dead or Alive in 1980 in Liverpool, England. He was inspired by the Hi-NRG releases of Sylvester and Bobby O., who created several of Divine’s early club hits. His dance floor friendliness notwithstanding, Burns claims he was never a hard-core clubber.

"I just stumbled upon these records," he recalls, "and decided that was the kind of music I wanted to make."

His second album, 1985’s Youthquake, was a U.S. breakthrough, containing the dance hits "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)," "Lover Come Back to Me," and "My Heart Goes Bang."

Ever since, his over-dramatic, suggestive vocals and flamboyant looks -- a long mane of hair, heavy makeup, long fingernails, flashy caftans, and his once omnipresent eye-patch -- have appealed to young gays, and he credits them for his success.

"You don’t have to be gay to like the music," he says, "but gay people have always led the way in musical taste in the clubs."

Many a drag queen got her start lip-synching to Dead or Alive, and Burns, like Boy George is proud to have provided an initial nudge.

"That’s genuinely good," says Burns. "I’ve always encouraged people to experience everything."

Today, Burns remains true to his heralded suggestiveness. The new album’s tracks "Sex Drive," "International Thing," and "Sleep With You" appeal to barely contained carnality.

"Maybe I’m clinically obsessed! I don’t know," Burns explains. "Sex is still shocking. I suppose that’s why I do it."

He’s also become somewhat obsessed with transsexualism, addressing it on the new album several times. While Burns was always known for his campy androgyny, he says transsexuals are the focus of his current intrigue.

"They’re quite the thing at the moment, aren’t they?" he asks. "Our species is changing. There are going to be other genders, and it’s going to become an everyday thing."

Whether or not this comes to pass, Burns’ lyrics, his own altered physical features -- he confesses to having plastic surgery, and recommends it for all -- and his penchant for femme trappings might suggest that he’s heading for gender reassignment himself. But Burns says that despite the rumors of his own sex change that surfaced in British tabloids a few years ago, all of his plastic surgery has been strictly cosmetic.

"I’m not trying to fool anybody with tucks and tits. I’m a man. I’m married [to a woman]," he responds. "But if I had wanted to go all the way, I’d have probably gone two steps further than anybody else."

Rumors have dogged him for years around his gender and sexual identity. Burns continues to feed those rumors, but even in this era of full disclosure, he’s not making any grand pronouncements.