Peter “Pete” Byrne, the English singer and co-founder of the new wave duo Naked Eyes, died peacefully in Los Angeles on September 14, 2026, after a brief illness, the band’s manager told Billboard. He was 74.
The death was announced September 23, in a post carried on the band’s official website. The cause of death has not been made public, and beyond his manager’s brief account, little about his death has been disclosed.
News of the death drew tributes from listeners who came of age with the duo’s singles. Byrne, a vocalist with a warm, high-set tenor, took Naked Eyes onto radio playlists and into MTV rotation with the 1980s hits “Always Something There to Remind Me” and “Promises, Promises.”
A Private Service for Family
“A private service will be held for the family,” the announcement on the Naked Eyes website said. The post asked those wishing to pay respects to support his music and to post condolences in the blog’s comment section. As of September 28, the post carries 55 comments.
Byrne is survived by three children, Merlin, Dylan and Chloe, and by four siblings, Eileen, Sandy, Carol and Steve. He is also survived by his ex-wife, Elena.
Four Top 40 Hits
The band’s announcement lists four Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hits across the duo’s two albums: “Always Something There to Remind Me,” which reached No. 8; “Promises, Promises,” at No. 11; “When the Lights Go Out,” at No. 37; and “(What) In the Name of Love,” at No. 39.
“Always Something There to Remind Me,” a synth-pop remake of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song, climbed to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983. “Promises, Promises” followed as a second hit and peaked at No. 11.
The duo’s debut album was released in the U.K. as “Burning Bridges” and in the U.S. as “Naked Eyes.” It reached No. 32 on the Billboard 200.
From Bath to MTV
Byrne was born June 9, 1952, in Islington, North London, and grew up in Bath, England. He began his career in Bath in the 1970s, working with a range of different artists, and he met keyboardist Rob Fisher in Bath at the end of the 1970s.
Byrne and Fisher formed the band Neon in Bath in 1979. Neon’s lineup at times included Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, who went on to form Tears for Fears. The pair launched Naked Eyes in 1982 and signed with EMI.
Byrne also sang backing vocals on Stevie Wonder’s 1985 hit “Part-Time Lover.”
A Duo That Never Toured
Byrne and Fisher split in 1984, the year of their second album, “Fuel for the Fire.” The group’s commercial life was short, but the songs have proved more durable than the partnership. Naked Eyes ranked among the most popular British new wave acts of MTV’s golden era, and among the most fleeting.
The two men never toured together. The hits were never performed on the road by the men who made them, an unusual footnote for a band with a hit record.
Fisher later had success with Simon Climie in the duo Climie Fisher. He died in 1999 at 42 after surgery for cancer, closing off any possibility of a reunion of the original pair.
The Song Tied to His Name
Byrne revived the band in the mid-2000s, more than two decades after the 1984 split. The revived group built on songs the two men recorded in a collaboration that lasted barely two years. He released the album “Fumbling with the Covers” in 2007 and “Disguise the Limit” in 2021.
The band’s announcement also credits Byrne with a 2001 solo album, “The Real Illusion,” and a 2025 remaster of the original Naked Eyes album.
Naked Eyes last performed on June 6, 2026, at the Totally ’80s Pool Party in Las Vegas, according to Setlist.fm.
Songs from the duo’s catalog have remained fixtures of ’80s retrospectives and nostalgia programming, and Byrne’s vocal is the element listeners most readily identify. Of everything Byrne recorded, “Always Something There to Remind Me” remains the record most closely tied to his name.
