Peter Jozzeppi "Pete" Burns (5 August 1959 – 23 October 2016) was an English singer-songwriter and television personality. He founded the band Dead or Alive in 1980, in which he was vocalist and songwriter, and which rose to mainstream success with their 1985 single "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)". He later rose to further celebrity status in the British media following his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother 4, in which he finished in fifth place. He appeared on further television reality shows, including as a presenter.

Early life

Burns was born in Bebington, Cheshire on 5 August 1959. His mother, Evelina Maria Bettina Quittner Von Hudec (1913–1987), was born in Heidelberg, Germany. As her father was Jewish, she moved to Vienna to escape the anti-Semitic laws of the Nazis. It was in Vienna that she met Burns' father, Francis Burns (who is from Liverpool), then a British soldier, at a soldiers' tea dance.

Burns wrote of his childhood in his autobiography Freak Unique. He described his mother's alcoholism and her suicide attempts, but maintained that she was "absolutely the best mother in the world".

I lived, I know now, a very solitary childhood. I had nothing to compare it with, so it seemed fine to me. I rarely left the house. I didn't need to; I had a secret world I shared with my mother. In those early years, I couldn't possibly have wished for a better friend. [...] She gave me the power to dream, the power to remove myself from where I might not be having any fun, and go inside my head and be somewhere else.

According to an interview, Burns dropped out of school at the age of 14 after being summoned to the headmaster's office because of actions that were not in line with the Catholic school's rules.

Career

While building his career, Burns worked at a Liverpool record shop, Probe Records, which became a meeting-place for local musicians. Burns first performed as a member of the short-lived Mystery Girls, and then Nightmares in Wax, a proto-Goth group that formed in Liverpool in 1979. Nightmares in Wax released a 12" single, "Black Leather", and a 7" single, "Birth of a Nation", each containing the same three songs, but never produced an album. In 1980, after replacing several members, Burns changed their name to Dead or Alive.

After a minor hit in 1984 with a cover version of "That's the Way (I Like It)", the band had a number one hit in the UK in 1985 with "You Spin Me Round".[12] The song went on to become a hit all over the world, including making the US Top 20.

In December 2003, the BBC apologised to its viewers after Burns swore repeatedly on its pre-9pm watershed Liquid News show when asked about his views on the Michael Jackson trial.

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 because 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 or '40s, before it became illegal to import colobus fur in 1975.

Burns 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.

On 7 September 2010 Burns' 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.

Personal life

Burns married Lynne Corlett in Liverpool in 1980. They separated in 2006. He married Michael Simpson shortly afterwards.

On the topic of his sexuality, Burns stated that "[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."

Burns was known for his ever-changing, often androgynous appearance, which he freely admitted was greatly modified by cosmetic surgery. Burns had extensive polyacrylamide injections into his lips, cheek implants, several rhinoplasties and many tattoos. Burns at one time accused fellow pop star Boy George of appropriating his unique image.

In early 2006, Burns revealed in an interview that he had spent most of his life savings on eighteen months of reconstructive surgery after a cosmetic procedure on his lips went wrong. In January 2007 Burns announced that he was planning to sue the cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Maurizio Viel, who performed his faulty lip surgery, for £1 million.

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.

Paparazzi followed Burns around after his arrest for assault in 2006 (the charges for which 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. In April 2015 he was evicted from a rented flat for non-payment of over £34,000 in rent.

Death

Burns died following a sudden cardiac arrest on 23 October 2016 at the age of 57. People who paid tribute to Burns after his death included Boy George and George Galloway.