Pete Burns is a musician, singer, songwriter and leader of the band Dead or Alive. Popularity and fame brought him not only creativity. Scandalous nature, ambiguous behavior, a tendency to shock, a huge number of plastic surgeries - all this attracted general attention to Pete Burns for many years.
At the beginning of August - the 5th - 1959, Pete Burns (Peter Josephse Burns) was born. The boy was born in a place called Port Sunlight. This town is located in the county of Merseyside in the UK. The father of the future shocking musician by nationality was an Englishman, his name was Francis Burns. His mother - Evelina Maria Bettina Kuytner von Hudek - was born in Germany, in the town of Heidelberg, and was Jewish. Parents had a significant age difference: the father was 10 years younger than his wife.
Pete Burns biography: childhood and teens
Pete was a literally adored child in the family, despite having Tony's older brother. Evelina gave birth to a second son very late, at 46 years old. Parents extremely softly raised the boy, numerous pranks were forgiven to him. Mother and father did not speak out against Pete's interests and passions. Perhaps such an upbringing in the end postponed a certain imprint on the formation of Pete Burns's personality and led to a corresponding result.
From an early age, gravitating to creativity and various art, Pete Burns tried to express himself. However, often he did this in a kind of unconventional way. So, for example, the boy naturally had a very unusual - androgynous - appearance, which he began to use while still receiving school education. He borrowed her cosmetics from his mother, he could spin in front of a mirror for a long time. At school, Pete often shocked teachers and classmates with his extravagant look, choosing a peculiar and too catchy, shocking style of clothing.
Perhaps it was the desire to express oneself, always to be in the center of general attention, the desire to shock, surprise people around and brought Burns into the sphere of art and creativity. He never finished school: he was kicked out of an educational institution because of his appearance and inappropriate behavior. However, incomplete education was not an obstacle to career development.
Burns career and career
Initially, Pete began to get involved in music, getting a job as a salesman in a music store in Liverpool. A distinctive feature of Probe Records - that was the name of the music store - was that not only records were sold here, but also beginning musicians gathered, communicating, getting to know each other, coming up with new projects.
Thanks to the acquaintances that Pete Burns managed to make in Probe Records, at the start of his career, he managed to collaborate with the following music groups:
- Mystery Girls;
- Nightmares in Wax.
Both bands played punk rock. This trend in music while gaining momentum. In addition, it was the style of punk culture that allowed expressing oneself, allowing recklessness and shocking, which Pete Burns was so drawn to.
In the first team, Burns did not stay. If only because this group managed to perform on stage only once. After the conflicts and problems began. Pete decided not to waste his time and separated from the team. The group finally broke up in 1979.
Burns' collaboration with Nightmares in Wax resulted in a record of two singles, which were called "Black Leather" and "Birth of a Nation". But, unfortunately, these records were not particularly popular, they could not withstand fierce competition. This band never recorded a full-length album.
After some time, in 1980, Pete Burns, deciding not to stop there and still dreaming of becoming famous around the world, gathered some of the former members of Nightmares in Wax and formed a new music group - Dead or Alive. Having recorded the song "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)", the group released it in the form of a single and shot a video clip in its support, which immediately got into rotation on TV channels. It was a complete success. The song broke into many charts, it was actively played on radio stations. The appearance and behavior of frontman Pete Burns only added popularity to the band Dead or Alive. All this happened back in 1985. It is also worth saying that it was Pete who authored the text and music for this hit composition.
After such a dizzying success, Dead or Alive continued their activities, but they did not succeed in jumping above their heads and releasing something even more box-office than the single mentioned.
Pete Burns as a shocking personality
Having achieved popularity, becoming famous, Pete Burns realized his childhood dream. However, he was still not satisfied with life. The thing is that despite his attractive appearance by nature, Pete always wanted to make changes to his appearance. This desire prompted him to plastic surgery. In addition, Burns believed that in a similar way, combining plastics and catchy make-up, he gives his creative nature one more way for self-expression.
In addition to plastic surgeries, it is rumored that Burns had more than 300 pieces, Pete became interested in piercings and tattoos. This made him even more shocking, strange against the background of other stars. His constantly transforming appearance was an occasion for gossip and discussion. Defiant behavior was another reason why Burns was talked about a lot and often, both in the press, and on television, on the Internet. The musician and singer himself only enjoyed the situation.
Not all surgery to correct the appearance went smoothly. In 2006, Burns underwent an unsuccessful procedure to increase and correct the shape of the lips. Because of this, the singer began to have serious health problems. As Pete himself said, he had to spend a lot of money to recover. In 2007, he sued his surgeon and won a lawsuit. This process was another scandal in the biography of Pete Burns.
Over time, a musical career completely faded into the background. Pete practically gave up vocals, almost stopped writing lyrics and music. He increasingly took part in various scandalous television projects, for example, at one time he was a participant in a foreign television show, which is an analogue of the Russian Dom-2.
The personal life of a shocking star
Pete Burns never hid what is bisexual.
In 1980, he officially married. His wife was Lynn Corlett. Their relationship lasted almost 28 years. Pete filed for divorce in 2006.
In 2007, Pete Burns introduced the public to his “common-law husband, ” who was Michael Simpson. However, a year later it became known that this couple broke up.
