Dead Or Alive singer Pete Burns dies aged 57 after sudden cardiac arrest

Pete Burns of Dead or Alive admitted to having more than 300 cosmetic procedures. Photo / Getty

Singer Pete Burns has died aged 57, his manager has confirmed.

In a statement on Twitter, his manager said: "It is with the greatest sadness that we have to break the tragic news that our beloved Pete Burns of (Dead Or Alive) died suddenly yesterday of a massive cardiac arrest."

Burns, from Wirral, Merseyside, founded band Dead or Alive in 1980 but went on to feature in several reality television shows in later life.

In the statement, his manager added: "All of his family and friends are devastated by the loss of our special star.

"He was a true visionary, a beautiful talented soul, and he will be missed by all who loved and appreciated everything he was and all of the wonderful memories that he has left us with.

"We have no more words, we will make a further statement when we have had a chance to come to terms with our devastating loss."

The post was signed by "Lynne, Michael and Steve", referring to Burns's ex-wife Lynne Corlett, with whom the singer had remained on good terms after their 2006 divorce, his partner Michael Simpson, and Dead or Alive's manager Steve Coy.

Earlier this year Burns admitted he has endured more 300 procedures to fix botched surgery on his face, which left him depressed and fighting for his life.

The star - who likened himself to Frankenstein's monster - vowed to never stop going under the knife in the pursuit for physical perfection.

He declared: "The number of surgeries I've has is probably 300. I hope when I'm 80 and I get to heaven God doesn't recognise me."

Pete Burns in earlier days.

Burns said his obsession with changing his face started more than two decades ago at the time of his chart success with You Spin Me Round.

"I realised I was going to be a visual entity and that I had to look good", he said.

"I had a broken nose. In the punk days somebody head butted me in Liverpool and it went over to one side."

The star went under the knife in the quest for the perfect nose, but knew when he woke up "covered in blood" that things had gone wrong.

The reconstructive surgery that followed was the first of dozens of corrective treatments, including four nose jobs, two sets of cheekbone implants and lip plumping.

But his lip augmentation also went badly wrong - and the filler injected into his pout began spreading all over his face.

He said: "I started to develop holes in my skin and if I so much as touched my face there would be an audible hissing and out onto the mirror would vomit this yellow fluid."

After suing the surgeon and receiving £450k ($770,000) in compensation, Pete underwent around 200 surgeries over the space of two years to fix the problem.

He said: "I've had a major operation a week for two years to remove it from my cheeks where it had migrated, my Adam's apple, the back of my eyes.

"They couldn't do anything about the liver and the kidneys. I had to excrete that out."

The large amount of medication he was taking had a massive effect on his health, and he ended up being rushed to hospital.

He said: "I developed blood clots and pulmonary embolisms in my legs, heart and lungs."