Dead or Alive singer and queer English personality Pete Burns is no forgotten gem, of course. Though, while his later years of celebrity full of reality TV gigs and bad faith tabloid shots are easily brought to mind, his primary work as an artist has become less and less properly remembered.
While every glam rocker and synth band of the era was using queer aesthetics to model for their record covers, Burns was the real deal. He played with gender presentation, sexuality, and the perception thereof while putting out dozens of high energy, adrenaline-hit dance tunes.
While their most enduring video “You Spin Me Round” is campy and colorful with its share of makeup and flag-twirling, the band had much more overtly queer projects. The music video for the equally fun and lovelorn “I’ll Save You All My Kisses”, featuring heavy leather and a bejeweled codpiece, was allegedly banned from MTV for its blatant homoeroticism.
His eccentric presentation eventually led the band’s music to be pigeonholed and written off by the industry as exclusively queer music. In a 2012 interview with Retro Pop, the singer recalled the moment their label relegated their marketing.
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“When my ‘Greatest Hits’ came out in 2003, my record company had greatly changed,” he said. “They said, ‘We’re not going to advertise this in any of the ordinary, straight papers; we’re going to put it in gay news, and we’ll fly post in Compton Street, because it’s gay music.’”
Burns and his band were always bold enough to try to market their flamboyant image to general audiences, even when label execs couldn’t say the same.
Check out the bedazzled, bombastic “I’ll Save You All My Kisses” video:
Neoprene
Synth crap.
BigFloridaBear
Music so good it makes losers sign on to bitch about it.
Den
You have no idea how sad and pitiful you seem to everyone, do you “neoprene”?
LumpyPillows
Neoprene…SMH.
Stan H
He had a much better voice than most pop stars.
PhillyProud
I’ve recently been re-listening to their work. I was a fan from 1985 onward. Not only did he have an amazing voice, but a set of lungs to couple it with. It was seriously longwinded.
michel_banen
He suddenly died october 24th 2006. Dead or alive made some amazing albums: Youthquake and Mad, bad and dangerous were the commercial hits but they remained huge in Japan after those albums.
LumpyPillows
2016
ShiningSex
Dead or Alive were great even up to their last album.
Saw them live back in the early 90s. Amazing!
Miss him. His bitchyness was great and spouted truth about others whether they wanted to hear it or not.
A LEGEND.
Huron132
Something in my House is one of my all time faves from Pete. He had a great voice and a joy to see live. He is/was one of the 80’s performers where I cried when he passed. He was an always changing butterfly. ??
LumpyPillows
You Spin Me Round – one of my personal anthems from back in the day.
abfab
Good times for sure. Just did a little research….I love this…..I would do the same thing!!!! Retail can really suck.
While building his career, Burns worked at a Liverpool record shop, Probe Records, which became a meeting place for local musicians. Burns was notorious for his maltreatment of customers, sometimes throwing their purchases at them because he disapproved of their selection.[14][15]
Burns first performed as a member of the short-lived punk band Mystery Girls, which included Pete Wylie and Julian Cope, who gave only one performance, supporting Sham 69 at Eric’s Club in November 1977.[16] Cope stated that Burns’s performing style drew on that of the transgender punk performer Wayne County.[17]
wiki
Max
RIP Pete. your music still fills my playlist, especially the Nude album.
amandayorke36
pete burns was my second gay crush xxxx
ggore
Dead or Alive put out some great music, but at the end, Burns was just a grotesque shell of a human being, after far too many plastic surgeries and silicone injections left him a scarred, horrific looking mess. So sad.
LegionKeign
Back in the day when Blockbuster was the shit, my Mother and I rented his concert VHS tape and got drunk watching it. She absolutely loved it!
Thad
That’s called “Rip It Up.” It’s amazing. I saw it while riding a bus charter to Provincetown! My favorite feature: the guitarists turn into go-go boys halfway through.
PhillyProud
I got to see them on that tour at Pulsations Night Club in Glen Mills, PA on November 13, 1987. It was a great show.
Strangely
Hooked on Love is one of the better songs. A bit of a sad end, but then, different strokes…
lykeitiz
The “Mad, Bad & Dangerous To Know” album still makes it into my rotation.
PhillyProud
I remember being at a bar in Philadelphia in 1984 ish. I can’t remember the name. It was on Juniper Street, near Locust. They had a video screen that would drop once in a while with a song they were playing. Lover Come Back and My Heart Goes Bang Bang would play. I remember almost being unable to dance because I was so mesmerized with him. I had heard You Spin me Round, but those two songs were incredible. Sophisticated Boom Boom was on my list during any long drive. It’s an incredible album
Twenty or so years later, I would be listening to Nukleopatra CD (title track or Sex Drive) while walking around Center City, on repeat. They were STILL good. It was all because of him.
Recently, I’ve been listening to their entire catalog. After watching and reading some interviews with Pete (near the end), it marveled at how he never compromised. The plastic surgery was a bit much, but that was his choice and he did it proudly. He never apologized for anything.