Pete Burns

Burns performing in 1980

Burns did not have ambitions to be a singer. He said that he hated the sound of his voice,[17] and wished he had been able to sing falsetto like Sylvester.[17][18] He had an uncomfortable relationship with the corporate music industry, and expressed disgust at the way it functioned. He always refused to allow record company staff to hear his music before it was completed, which "didn't make [the executives] very pleased".[17]

In 1977, Burns formed a band with contemporaries Julian Cope, Pete Wylie, and Phil Hurst, calling themselves The Mystery Girls. They only had one performance (opening for Sham 69 at Eric's in Liverpool in November 1977) before disintegrating. Cope stated that Burns's performing style drew on that of the transgender punk performer Wayne County.[19] Burns continued in early-1979 with a new band, Nightmares in Wax, featuring a gothic post-punk sound, with backing from keyboardist Martin Healy, guitarist Mick Reid, bassist Rob Jones (who left soon afterwards to be replaced by Walter Ogden), and drummer Paul Hornby (who also exited soon after the band's formation to be replaced by Phil Hurst).[20]

The group played their first gig supporting Wire at Eric's in July 1979,[21] and recorded demos which included a cover of the Simon Dupree and the Big Sound song "Kites", a feature of their early shows. Although signed to the Eric's Records label, their only release, a three-track 7-inch EP entitled Birth of a Nation, appeared in March 1980 on Inevitable Records. A 12-inch single featuring two of the tracks from the EP, "Black Leather" and "Shangri-La", was released in 1985.[22] The EP featured "Black Leather", which halfway through turned into K.C. & the Sunshine Band's "That's the Way (I Like It)".[20]

The band went through several line-up changes over the next three years while recording a series of independent singles.[23] In 1980, after replacing several members, Burns changed the band's name to Dead or Alive.[20] Dead or Alive's singles started charting on the UK Indie Chart, beginning with 1982's "The Stranger" reaching No. 7.[24] This prompted major label Epic Records to sign the band in 1983. Their first release for Epic was the single "Misty Circles", which appeared at No. 100 on the major UK Singles Chart in 1983. Two more singles, "What I Want" and "I'd Do Anything", attracted club play, but mainstream success continued to elude the band. The band's debut album, Sophisticated Boom Boom, was released in May 1984 and featured their first Top 40 UK single, "That's the Way (I Like It)", a remake of the 1975 hit by KC and the Sunshine Band.[23] The single peaked at No. 22 in the UK and the album at No. 29.[25]

The band released its second album Youthquake in May 1985, produced by the then-fledgling production team of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman, known as Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW). Recording of the first single "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" was plagued by arguments between the band and producers,[26] but became the band's only song to reach No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart[27] after lingering outside the Top 40 for over two months. The song also proved to be SAW's first chart-topping single.[26] The track also hit No. 11 in the US and No. 1 in Canada.[28] Other album tracks released as singles included "Lover Come Back To Me", "In Too Deep", and "My Heart Goes Bang" which all reached the UK Top 30.

In late-1986, Dead or Alive released their third album, Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know. Production of the album was marred by more fights between the band and SAW, with the latter frustrated by the band's refusal to branch into House music,[29] and Burns being unwilling to hand over songwriting duties to the producers.[30] Burns expressed frustration with his record company's reluctant attitude towards his single choices, complaining the label only relented on scheduling "Brand New Lover" for release after Bananarama had a hit with their Dead or Alive-inspired cover of "Venus", and alleging they also refused to give "Something In My House" a Halloween release date.[29][31] A fight over mixes for the album's third single, "Hooked On Love" escalated to such a degree that Burns refused to film a video, accusing the label of "fucking up" the release.[32]

The lead single "Brand New Lover" became a modest UK hit, peaking at No. 31, but was more successful in the US where it reached No. 15 on the US Hot 100, and No. 1 on the US Billboard dance chart.[28] Burns blamed the relative underperformance of the single in the UK on the record company's failure to press and distribute enough copies of the single to meet customer demand.[29] Three more singles from the album were released, the most successful in the UK was "Something in My House". A highly controversial 12-inch white label mix, known as "Naughty XXX",[33][34] was released to club DJs, featuring a series of stronger dialogue clips from The Exorcist – with the track described as "unique" in its capacity as the only known example of a "filthy, obscene [and] sexually explicit" Stock Aitken Waterman record.[31] A third single, "Hooked on Love", failed to make the UK Top 40 amid Burns' battle with the label over their refusal to prioritise his preferred mix, which featured a "Gothic" overtone.[35]

After the release of the album, Tim Lever and Mike Percy left the band to form careers as mixers and producers. The pair owned and operated Steelworks Studios in Sheffield.[36] Lever and Percy experienced success writing and mixing songs for acts like S Club 7, Blue, and Robbie Williams. Lever and Percy have since left the studio, with the former being now a guitar luthier.[37] In 1987, Dead or Alive released their greatest hits album Rip It Up, and a concert tour of the same name with dates in Europe, the United States, and Japan.

External video
Dead Or Alive - Rip It Up 1987
Dead Or Alive - Disco In Dream 1989

Film footage was recorded at two shows at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan on 9 October and at Osaka's Osaka-jō Hall on 11 October 1987, and released on video cassette (VHS) and Laserdisc that same year under the title Rip It Up Live. During this time, Burns turned down an offer to tour with Madonna for her Who's That Girl World Tour to be with his mother when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She died shortly afterward. In mid-1988, Dead or Alive, now pared down to a duo of Burns and Coy, released the self-produced Nude, which featured the single "Turn Around and Count 2 Ten". It was followed by "Come Home with Me Baby" which was a US club hit, reaching No. 1 on the US dance charts.[28]

In 1990, the band produced their next studio album, Fan the Flame (Part 1), although their only successful record deal was in Japan. The band had begun to produce Fan the Flame (Part 2), however the album was shelved until it was finished in 2021.[38] Some tracks were later re-recorded for the band's 1995 Nukleopatra album which was the band's sixth and final studio album. In 2000, Dead or Alive released Fragile, a collection of remakes with several new tracks and covers including U2's "Even Better Than the Real Thing" and Nick Kamen's "I Promised Myself". A new remix album, Unbreakable, was released in 2001. This was followed by a greatest hits album entitled Evolution: the Hits; both of them enjoyed, for the first time since Nude, a UK release, with "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" re-entering the Top 40.[39]

Burns performing at the Carling Academy Liverpool in 2008

In the mid-1990s, Burns collaborated with the Italian Eurodance duo Glam to produce the single "Sex Drive", which was later re-recorded for Dead or Alive's sixth studio album Nukleopatra. In 2004, Burns enjoyed solo success with the Pet Shop Boys-produced track "Jack and Jill Party". The track reached No. 75 in the UK singles chart. On 7 September 2010, Burns's solo single "Never Marry an Icon", produced and co-written by the Dirty Disco, was released to the iTunes Store. The single was released by fellow Dead or Alive member Steve Coy's label, Bristar Records.[40] Burns's final musical appearance was on Big Brother's Bit on the Side, where he sang "You Spin Me Round". His last public appearance itself was on Celebrity Botched Up Bodies in September 2016.

In December 2003, the BBC apologised to its viewers after Burns swore once on its pre-9pm watershed Liquid News show when asked about his views on the Michael Jackson trial.[41] Burns also appeared in the first episode of the ninth series of the UK version of Celebrity Wife Swap. His partner Michael Simpson went to live with former Page 3 model Leah Newman, while Burns lived with Newman's partner, the footballer Neil Ruddock.[42] Burns was featured in a documentary, with a medium, exploring his rough and harmful childhood.[43]

In January 2006, Burns appeared on Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother 4, eventually reaching fifth on the show's final episode. It was on this show that he declared that one of his coats was made out of gorilla fur – this caused outrage amongst animal rights activists[44] and unlicensed gorilla fur is illegal in the United Kingdom. Police subsequently confiscated the coat and tests were performed on it that revealed that it was not gorilla, but was made out of the fur of colobus monkeys. Colobus monkeys are also an endangered species whose fur requires a licence, although experts believed that the fur had been imported in the 1930s, before it became illegal to import colobus fur in 1975.[45]

Burns married Lynne Corlett in Liverpool on 8 August 1980[46] after he met Corlett in a hair salon where they both worked. Discussing the wedding, Burns said: "The only thing that spoiled it was that the man in the registry office had to go and make a feeble joke by asking which one of us was the bride".[47] They divorced in 2006 and Burns entered a civil partnership with his partner Michael Simpson shortly afterward in 2007.[48][49]

On the topic of his sexuality, Burns stated, "[People] always want to know – am I gay, bi, trans or what? I say, forget all that. There's got to be a completely different terminology and I'm not aware if it's been invented yet. I'm just Pete."[50] He also said that he always identified himself as male and never had intentions of being a woman: "It freaks me that someone could think I was a woman. Don't get me wrong – I love women; I love men, too, and I'm very proud to be a man."[51]

Burns was known for his addiction to cosmetic surgery.[4] Burns had extensive polyacrylamide injections into his lips, cheek implants, several rhinoplasties and many tattoos. In early-2006, Burns revealed in an interview that he had spent most of his life savings on 18 months of reconstructive surgery after a cosmetic procedure on his lips went wrong.[4] In January 2007, he announced that he was planning to sue the cosmetic surgeon, Maurizio Viel, who performed his faulty lip surgery, for £1 million.[52] Surgery-related health problems experienced by Burns included pulmonary embolisms and near-fatal blood clots.[6] In March 2009, Burns was admitted to a London hospital after collapsing from a kidney ailment. He was diagnosed with seven large kidney stones, which were removed with laser surgery.[53]

Paparazzi followed Burns around after his arrest for assault in 2006[54] (the charges were later dropped) and his attempts to revive his career premiered in the documentary Pete Burns Unspun on Living TV. Burns was declared bankrupt in December 2014 and was evicted from a rented flat in April 2015 for non-payment of over £34,000 in rent.[55]

• Burns, Pete (2006). Freak Unique: My Autobiography. John Blake Publishing. ISBN 978-1844-542-987.