Part Five

Pat: You embody glamour and mystique to the fans.

Pete: Well, the great thing is, recently I've become neighbours with Madonna, and that's highly amusing.

Pat: (laughs)

Pete: She's got her own space and the fans gathered outside for a little while, but they've gone away now. She goes around bodyguard-free. And there's no bother for her. And you think, God, she's so lucky to get to that position, really.

You know, you see people in the neighbourhood I live in...don't put in the name of it, because recently I've had a few lunatics rolling up, a few real pesky varmints, I have to say.

Pat: Uh-oh.

Pete: And people just walk around here not in their whole stage gear...You know, I saw on the fucking internet, I couldn't believe it, "Anyone got a photo of Pete Burns without his makeup?", and they're all quibbling back and forth, "Please get a photo of Pete Burns without his makeup". If they really want it that bad, I'll give them one.

Pat: No, don't give them one.

Pete: But then let me see them without their makeup.

Pat: Yeah, exactly.

Pete: I mean, fucking hell, grow up. But I have the privilege of seeing a lot of people around here without their makeup, and in the gym without their clothes, and we're all just ordinary people. But there's something we manage to do in the public's perception that makes us extra-ordinary.

And I'm not going to take that away, or become friends with all the fans. And I've been very interested in certain parts of the website. I communicate with Rose on a daily basis. And she certainly doesn't give me any pointers, "hey, go and read the message boards, such and such has said this."

In fact, she discouraged me from ever going on it.

Pat: Yeah, good advice, I think.

Pete: She was like, "Oh, don't go on there". And she said some really witty things. I'm in communication with her daily, and keeping her informed with basic little things that are going on.

And it's great to have that internet site and all the other ones that branch off it and connecting websites that people do. But I don't want to look at it too much. I'll just keep her informed and occasionally put interviews and what we're doing or opinions on what's going on on there.

Pat: Yeah, you know something that's really bothered me lately, Pete, I don't know if you're aware of this or if it's come to your attention, but a lot of people in radio, where I work, are concerned because the younger people coming up today don't seem to be as interested or excited about music in general.

One of the big radio guys in America was quoted in a trade magazine, he was in the Virgin megastore in LA, and there was this early 20's or late teens guy and his girlfriend or a female looking at CD's. And the guy is looking through them, and he says to the girl, "You know, I don't think I'm into music anymore".

And the radio guy said a lot of kids are starting to reflect that. There's other things that are becoming...

Pete: Like what?

Pat: People spend their money now on mobile phones, which they talk into ALL day.

Pete: (laughs)

Pat: They're interested in video games and DVD's, watching and collecting films on DVDs. And, Pete, I was in LA for two weeks just earlier this month..

Pete: And what kind of town is that where you can't get Jayne County's record [I had been trying to get a copy for Pete].

Pat: Terrible! I'm still looking; I haven't given up.

Pete: (laughs)

Pat: But, Pete, I went to the beach, and it only was later that it struck me, I didn't hear or see one fucking radio. Now when I was a kid hundreds of years ago and I went to the beach, EVERYBODY had a radio. There were so many radios they were all interfering with each other. Everybody had their music.

But now, there weren't even any CD players. It was very, very quiet. And the beach was crowded. And I'm wondering, is the relationship of music to the public at large, are we starting to lose some of that? Do you sense anything?

Pete: That's a scary thought, isn't it, really.

Pat: It is, very scary.

Pete: It is a scary, scary thought. But there are, I suppose, if you look at people's financial position, there are so many other things to buy. And from what I can judge in youth culture, drugs are the first one. The mobile phone bill's the second one. And then whatever designer clothes they want or designer trainers. That's what I can see from what I'm aware of here.

And I don't really expect teenagers to buy MY records. But I know also, with the prominence of video on TV, maybe they just want the same training shoes as Brittney Spears, and forget her records, you know. Because they hear that on TV all the time.

There are a couple of records that have popped up at the moment that I particularly love. And I've gotta eat my hat...Kylie Minogue's just done a record, and it's the best record, it's the best record I've heard for ten years.

Pat: Which one is this now?

Pete: "Can't Get You Out of My Head". I nearly rolled out of bed and vomited when I heard it, I couldn't believe it, it's just a FAN-TASTIC fucking record. And even the video is fantastic, and the production's fantastic, and the song's fantastic.

When I first heard it, the week before I went to Japan, I thought, "I can't wait till that record comes out on September 17th, because I'll be the first in the shops to buy that", because it's a genuinely good record. And then, over the past couple of days since I've been back, I've thought, "I don't even need to buy it, because I'm seeing it on MTV every three seconds".

Pat: Yeah.

Pete: And I'm not saying everything that you see is good, but all the things you're exposed to, you're exposed to them SO often.

Pat: Yes.

Pete: And records I've bought, that Toni Braxton, "He Wasn't Man Enough For Me", that record that was out 18 months ago...God, I was so sorry I bought it, because I never stopped hearing it on MTV and I'm still hearing it on the radio. Maybe there's something about overexposure of a select group of things that stops people buying records.

Pat: I think there definitely is. And also, what happens is, radio will take one or maybe two songs off the album and those are the hit singles They play those till nobody wants to hear them again because your ears are bleeding. And then they don't play any of the other ones. So people go to the record store, they look at the CD and say, "OK, there's ten songs on there or twelve songs on there, two of them I'm fucking sick of, and the other ten I've never heard of!" So, who's going to buy it?

Pete: So nobody invests the money in them!

Pat: Exactly.

Pete: People don't need to look for things anymore, because anything that is deemed worthwhile having by the media, and the media does rule the roost now, will be overexposed. It was like that record by Wet Wet Wet that we used to laugh about. You know, I nearly bought the thing to stop them playing it. Just so there was one less left of them when they wore them all out at the radio station.

Pat: Is this, "I feel it in my fingers, I fell it in my toes"?

Pete: Yeah... I mean the poor guy [Marti Pellow], it drove him to God knows what. But it was on ALL the time. And what's the other one...Geri Halliwell's "It's Raining Men". Oh my God...it was on telly every 35 seconds. And she's got a new one out, and it's on telly every 35 seconds.

So there's no need to go and buy them even if you did like them. If you hear a record on the radio in passing that sounds interesting, as the Kylie Minogue one did, and I thought, just for a bleary moment before I'd had coffee, "I've got to buy that record". There's really no need. Like today, it's on eight or ten times a day.

Pat: Well, the media people will tell you you have to play it that many times, because people only listen to the radio for ten minutes. I think that's bollocks. Most people, most sane people, if they like music, they don't listen for only ten minutes. They listen for slightly longer than that. And they WILL hear the record too many times.

Pete: There's a plot to kill us with a certain record. Honestly, we've got MTV downstairs in the living room, and then on the top floor of the house there's a radio, and I swear to God, there's some kind of thing going on. Sophie Ellis Bextor. I love the song. Why did she bother? Why didn't they get Cher to re-record the song? That was a big mistake on Rob Dickens' part. Cher should have re-recorded that track.

Why is Sophie Ellis Bextor around? We had Swing Out Sister, we don't want another one, thank you very much.

Pat: She was in this indy-schmindy band called the Audience.

Pete: I know!

Pat: And they basically bombed out, and she happened to do the vocal for the Spiller dance track, a totally flukey thing, she didn't like dance music, and I don't think she even liked that song, but she did it. And it became this huge thing and it beat out, I think it was Geri Halliwell, for #1, when it came out.

Pete: No, it beat Posh Spice.

Pat: That's right, Victoria. So it beat her, and then all of a sudden they thought she was going to be the new diva. I don't think it's going to happen.

Pete: She's got the charisma of a used Tampax.

Pat: The song was only #2, and that was considered a failure, because they had spent so much money and done so much hype to make that #1, and it didn't happen.

Pete: This "Take Me Home" record was going to be #1?

Pat: That's what they thought.

Pete: Well, they've still got a plot, I tell you, because it's on every time you turn over, everywhere, on the TV, on the radio, even when you pick up the phone, somebody plays it down the telephone.

Pat: (laughs)

Pete: And I like the record, I just hate the production of it, I hate her vocal, I hate the video, I just like the song, when it was Cher's song. And it was a good idea, and that's where it stopped. But if it was possible for records to be #1 based on the amount of exposure they had, that would be #1.

TO BE CONTINUED...

(c) Copyright 2002 Pat Geary. Not to be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.