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Glamour Without The Blitz

Writing about Dead or Alive without mentioning Pete Burns is like writing about the Mo-dettes without mentioning that they’re all girls.

It shouldn’t make any difference, but it can’t be avoided. Pete is one of a new breed (I hope) to bring back excitement and (dare I say it) glamour to a music business that’s been taking itself far too seriously again.

He’s also in some people’s eyes, a bit of a freak. But it should be stated straight away that he’s many miles away from the Blitz movement, geographically or spiritually.

Peter lives and works in Liverpool, and it was there, almost exactly a year ago, that I witnessed one of the most exciting gigs I would see that year. A band of misfit musicians creating a wall of noise that was gloriously unmusical, and over the top of it a big voice that was gloriously and amazingly musical, a voice that made all other Jim Morrison comparisons redundant, and this voice was emanating from some sort of monster. I forget what he was wearing that night (this is important) but I’ll never forget the performance.

The group was Nightmares in Wax, the singer Peter Burns, and since that time he’s found a band worthy of his talent as a performer, a new mane for the Dead or Alive, and an audience that appreciates what he is doing. Nightmares in Wax had a little attention.. An EP was released on Liverpool’s Inevitable records, and a track lifted from it appeared on the "Hicks from the Sticks" compilation album. But the A side, "Black Leather" wasn’t really representative and didn’t help do anything about Pete’s misunderstood image. A lot of people missed the humour in the song, and tongue in cheek, Pete described himself as a "transvestite sex symbol."

In the course of a year, a change took place, and Dead or Alive were born. It was a slow process, and there were times when it seemed the group would never be more than star (plus sidekick) and a transient collection of unsuited musicians and ambitions in the Liverpool school for procrastination and clashing egos.

But somehow, Dead or Alive evolved. They took shape, when Pete Burns and Marty Healy (keyboards) met up with Sue and Mitch, American Bass- and guitar-players respectively.

The two newcomers couldn’t have been more unlikely with their youthful fresh-faced normality and their backgrounds in various Wirral bands like Stopouts and the Upsets, and at first, its seems that their approach was totally at odds with what Pete and Marty were doing.

"We rehearsed next door to them," recalls Sue, " and we used to scream laughing at them and they used to laugh at us." So how did they ever get together?

"Our electricity was off one day, so we went in their room. Three of them rolled up - the ex-drummer, Marty and Pete - so we jammed with them. They didn’t have a bass player or guitarist..."

"And we were without work," continues Mitch. "We split up the Upsets and were just hanging around looking for a job. We weren’t in a band at the time and there was an offer, simple as that."

The hand of fate was even more prominent in the case of drummer Joe Musker, who had previously been playing cabaret with the Fourmost and literally bumped into the other members of the band by accident, wandering into the wrong room.

"It’s the only way to learn, in cabaret," says Joe, "but you’re limited to what you can play - every night for a year, the same show for years doing the same thing.|" Money and travel weren’t enough to keep him doing this. "When I left, everyone said you’re stupid. But I love this, and I’m going to stay as long as I can."

It’s an unlikely combination of unlikely people, but it seems to be working. Suddenly things are moving for the band. Their new single "I’m Falling"/Flowers", again on Inevitable, is selling steadily. They’ve made their first TV appearance , on Granada TV’s arts programme, "Celebration, and recorded a session for John Peel. And their fans in their home town are growing fast.

Image has been a problem in the past, where people have thought of Dead or Alive as simply "Pete Burns’ group", and Pete Burns as some kind of monster. Some people were attracted by this, but mostly it had the opposite effect.

Says Mitch, "The band isn’t together because of weirdness or anything like that. Pete is what he is, he’s been like that for years, but we’re not going to change for Pete. The band isn’t that big, and each member has their own identity. Everybody appeals to somebody in the audience somewhere.

"I think the audience notices everyone," says Pete, "because I spend so much time on the floor." Pete cavorts on stage, he sweats, he rolls on the floor - the last thing he does is worry about his appearance. Like a cross between Bette Midler and Jim Morrison, he introduces a combination of outrage and arrogance, camp self-parody and aggression, ugliness and sex appeal, and above all drama.

When Dead or Alive are on stage, you realise that fun hasn’t totally been squeezed out of music. The group has recently taken to playing surrounded by lighted candles. At their last gig Pete ate two of them (still lighted). The first by accident (he claims), the second to prove to himself he couldn’t possibly have eaten the first. At the same gig Marty’s keyboards caught on fire. Marty carried on playing. I don’t think he’d noticed.

This group insists on breaking down barriers. It’s something Pete’s always been aware of and something he’s always had to struggle against. Because his particular personal flamboyance has always tended to magnify the barriers that already exist in every human relationship, he tries harder than most people to destroy them. It’s something the rest of the band appreciates.

Pete: "I never did want to shock. I just thought ‘You’ve got some kind of hangup so I’m going to make it worse.’ If people dislike you because of something you’re doing on stage they’ve all got really bad hang-ups because you’re pissing on their religion for some reason. "If people get hang-ups, instead of trying to numb them they should magnify them out of proportion to where they become hilarious.

"I’m not making a statement by looking the way I do. I just really do like to look and see what I want to see, if I want something and it pleases me to see that in the mirror, then I’d do it - say I wanted to look like a table, by some way I’d look like a table.

Pete’s a cult figure now, at least locally. But he swears that, though fashion may be smiling on him now, he’s part of no movement. "The weirdos are so faddy, you know, one week you’re trendy, the next week you’re not. The ordinary people that aren’t just coming because its fashionable, they’re going to be the ones who will keep you, they’re going to be the ones who’ll be loyal." The rest of the band are equally strong in their rejection of identification with certain movements.

"One thing I really despise," says Mitch, "Is when people dress up for stage, to look weird for the sake of the cameras. It’s commercial cashing in, being freaky for the sake of being freaky." There’s a lot that happening now, but this band’s no part of it, that’s one thing we’re not."

Melody Maker, Feb. 28, 1981

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