Want a to know a sure-fire way of getting Pete Burns really annoyed? Well, if you're ready for it, we're about to tell you - fishnet tights.

“You'd never catch me dead in a pair of fishnets!” Pete snarled, when we carelessly dropped the subject into our conversation, “I've no liking at all for the fishnet tights brigade - for one thing, they're just not practical and for another thing it's like a tacky drag queen.”

And we always thought that Pete went in for a bit of tackiness himself. I mean, all that make-up, not to mention the leotard...

“All what make-up?” Pete snapped, “You may read in the papers that Pete Burns subscribes to lipstick and false eyelashes but it's just not true. I don't go in for make-up at all.”

Oh, come on, now...

“It's true . I'm not heavily made-up. I'm just sun-tanned. I've got a sun-bed which I use as often as I can, and there's nothing particularly feminine about a tan. And as for that leotard, it was an ordinary wrestler’s one, and I've never heard anybody call a professional wrestler a drag queen.”

As you may have gathered by this stage, Pete Burns is not very keen on being labelled with the 'feminine' tag. It's been said that he's just the latest in a line of 'Gender Benders', and some people have even dared to say (but not to his face) that he is nothing more than a Boy George clone.

“Anyone who's met me knows that's all a lot of rubbish,” he insists, “I'm not exactly a petite little dolly bird. I'm very masculine. I'm 6ft. tall and quite a big bloke.

“I think all this so-called Gender-Bending is hilarious. I've always looked like this and until I got into pop music nobody even thought of putting me into such a category.

“These days you get record companies that think any man with a lipstick on is a potential pop star. It isn't like that. Only the serious, talented ones will stick in the same way that Siouxsie and The Clash are still around from the punk movement whereas lots of the hangers-on have faded without a trace.

“The trouble is that people are all too ready to jump to conclusions about anybody who they think looks a bit strange. They think you must be mentally subnormal. Over the years I've had to learn how to deal with people who refuse to take me seriously. That's where I learnt the blunt side of my character.

“I've always liked dressing up, ever since the age of six. I used to wear red Indian costumes or mummy's high heels - the sort of thing every little boy does. It's quite normal and good fun, so why do people get so upset if you dress up a bit when you get older?

“People expect me to be a feminine simpering little wimp. Obviously I'm not or I wouldn't have lasted this long.”

It's certainly true that Dead Or Alive's music has a very hard-edged feel to it. And there's no way that you could say that Pete's vocals are 'simpering'.

“My stage personality is very aggressive,” Pete says, “It's a reflection of my real personality. I don't use charm to get what I want. If I want something I simply have to go out and get it, no matter what it takes.”

Pete says that he learned to cope with criticism the hard way - walking past building-sites on the streets of Liverpool - “I used to take a lot of stick from people whistling and shouting 'Hello darling', but it was a lot more good-natured than some of the bitching you get at so-called 'trendy' clubs.”

These days criticism doesn't bother him. In fact, he sometimes goes out with the intention of being controversial.

“Well, people get so easily upset about things,” he says, “Like the BBC got upset about my video for That’s The Way I Like It just because I had lots of female body-builders in it. Really that was just a send-up of the sort of videos that people like Duran Duran make with all those models.”

That song became a bit of a cult in America - especially in health clubs and aerobics classes.

Pete appreciates that kind of success, because he's a bit of a health freak himself - “I like to do some keep fit,” he says, “I have an exercise bike at home, and some weights. With all the bad things in life, I think it's good to do your best to keep your body in decent shape.

“Although,” he adds with a cheeky grin, “I don't think I'm ever going to be another Charles Atlas…”