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THE FILE ON: Pete Burns
of Dead Or Alive

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The early '80s was the heyday of so-called 'gender bending' pop. If Boy George was Queen of the Castle, there were quite a few pretenders to the throne such as Marilyn and Tasty Tim. Pete Burns was the odd-one-out. Every bit as outrageous as any of the others, with his deep voice and strident image he came across as surprisingly 'butch'. At least, as these lifelines show, he had a sense of humour. This is derived from an interview I did with Pete which produced various fact files for magazines such as Blue Jeans, My Guy, Jackie and Jackie Pop Special.
Name: Peter Jezzeppi Burns
Date of Birth: 5th August 1959
Place of Birth: Clatterbridge Hospital, Bebington, England
Previous jobs: Fashion shop owner
Which was your happiest day? August 8th, 1980. That was the day Lynn and I got married. The only thing that spoilt 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...
Which was your most embarrassing day? Embarrassed? If I was the sort of person who got embarrassed, I wouldn't have survived this long.
What will you be doing when you are 65? Having face lifts and plastic surgery. I want to look like Mae West.
Have you ever appeared nude in public? Practically every time I do a gig!
Is your sun tan natural? It's as natural as the rest of me!
What's your favourite type of fishnet tights? You'd never catch me dead in a pair of fishnets! For one thing, they are not practical. And for another thing, it's just like a tacky drag queen.
Are you as trashy as you seem? How trashy do I seem? I like deliberate Trash. I collect items like Elvis Presley clock radios and '50s memorabilia. It inspires a lot of my imagery. I like tasteful trash.
If you could play a part in a film, which would you choose? The Bette Davis part in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?
Are you a gender bender? What??? ...I think all this so-called gender-bending is hilarious. I've always been like this and until I got into pop music, nobody thought of putting me in a gender-bender category. It used to be that people would just say "You're a queer". Now it's all got nice and respectable. I don't think I approve of gender bending.


SEE ALSO...
PETE BURNS INTERVIEW

 

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