Scissor Sisters have admitted they clashed with management over their choice of cover for their new album.

The US group’s new effort, ‘Night Work’, shows ballet dancer Peter Reed, who died in 1986, clenching his buttocks.

Singer Jack Shears said “nobody” wanted the band to use the photograph, originally taken by Robert Mapplethorpe.

“Management, band, label - everybody thought I was out of my mind,” he told the BBC. “But I knew the moment I saw it that that was the album over.

“There's a sense of unabashed in-your-face sexuality. It's got a sense of humour, it's playful, and it looks like someone who's just been dancing their ass off.

“And that's what this record's about. “

‘Night Work’ is released on June 28 and will be preceded by the single 'Fire With Fire' a week earlier.

The band are set to play a one-off show at London’s Roundhouse on July 1 as part of the iTunes festival.

(by Jason Gregory)