Pat Geary speaks to Pete Burns on September 17th, 2000. Recorded in the UK. A RIGHT STUFF exclusive!!

Pat: Pete, I presume that at some point we can look for this album to come out in other countries besides Japan.

Pete: Unfortunately, Avex wanted to sign us worldwide, and we told them they had to hurry, because I don't really want a deal in England. But if one comes as a package with other things, fine. We ain't going shopping to record companies anymore. The success of that in Japan, and the import levels, and the Internet website, will hopefully make some person at a record company aware.

Because I do feel I've got more to offer than Kylie Minogue. Let's look at how many cracks of the whip she's had.

Pat: That's right.

Pete: "I'm Spinning Around"...oh, what a great idea!

Pat: (laughs)

Pete: You know, I don't respect those artists like Britney and Kylie. They're not artists, they're puppets. They don't write it...

Pat: Well, I guess the game plan would be to concentrate on Japan first, though...

Pete: It gives me a hell of a lot of finance, I don't need that finance out of greed. I need it to bring security around me. My ambition is to make Lynne particularly secure and Steve particularly secure, and myself and my father. And to carry on doing this job.

And I want to do it on my 64th birthday; I want to be doing a show somewhere. It's not that I have a love of show biz. I don't enjoy the performance that much while I'm doing it, but I enjoy it once I'm through it, because I never think I can actually start. And once I'm up and running...

Pat: You've done it.

Pete: I've done it. And it's like, wow! That's an achievement!

Pat: Yes, it's like loading up the dishwasher and getting the dishes done.

Pete: Well, the other thing, I'll walk on a route around London by myself, trapped in the middle of a park, with no means of getting a taxi and have to walk home. And it's like, I gotta do it, and I fucking hate it and think I'm going to break down and scream. And when I get home, I think, "I did it!".

And I always look for a certain amount of achievement.

Pat: Pete, when you were in Australia, how did that go? Were you disappointed or did that live up to your expectations?

Pete: Oh, I was thrilled with the fan base. I was EXTREMELY (and that's a mild word) disappointed with the record company. Unfortunately, they're very young, which is great. Ecstacy has just hit there in a big way. They're having parties, and then recovery parties, and they simply can't get the job done.

And I wouldn't go back to Australia. Sorry to the fans. But I wouldn't go back to the Australian market at all, unless they did it my way. Because it's a big country, it's small record sales, it's party party party all the time.

They just thought we were a miserable load of humbugs, you know, because we did not want to go to acid house raves and drop E. And the record company expected Marilyn Manson to get off the plane. And when they realised what a lady I actually was...

Pat: They were disappointed?

Pete: They were quite horrified that I was more likely to be in the bedroom wearing a face pack than be snorting a line of coke, and it just caused friction. And it just simply wasn't worth it.

I mean, the fans were wonderful, and I hope they obtain my albums on import. It was great...we were doing signings in record stores, and there were people around the block, it's the first time I've done anything like that. People were traveling from all the suburbs and from all over Australia. And meeting all those and exchanging phone numbers and making friends, and like girls were making friends with boys and queens were making friends together.

And it was really good, and I did my bit there and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very disappointed in the record company. They could have capitalised on it, but they had us categorised as a drag band. Everything we did promotionally was "London's premiere drag queen".

Pat: Oh, dear...

Pete: And we just said, "You've made a big mistake".

Pat: Yeah, they missed the point there.

Pete: Well, the TV wouldn't put us on. They didn't want drag on the TV. And it was like, you really got it all wrong. You shot yourself in the foot.

Because profit-wise, I couldn't really make enough to keep me in mascara in Australia. But I could have had a career there and reached the fans more easily.

Pat: Now from over here in the UK, it looked like in America VH-1 was seeming to try and do their bit for Dead or Alive.

Pete: Oh, they still are. VH-1 have been very, very supportive. Unfortunately, the record company...it's just not their time yet. Steve went and had meetings with these people, he'd already sent material, and they hadn't even listened to it, and stuff like that.

It was just like, this is really negative, so let's take a breather. We got ripped off with alarming frequency in America by promoters.

Pat: Yeah, I think a lot of people over there Pete, a lot of the fans were so disappointed at some of the shows that didn't come off that they started to think that maybe it's the band's fault.

Pete: Oh, no, I'm really sorry, but when you've got no plane tickets to get from one town to the next, your luggage has been sent ahead, you've got no hotel when you arrive in the town, you have to take a fucking bus to the venue, and they've already let fans in before the sound check...it just ain't gonna work out. You know, it gutted me sometimes, but had I done it once, it would have been like a boomerang. It would have been always.

I did that, I did a tour of America on my own. Steve said I was a fool, and I said I've got to find out what this is like. And I found an ugly side of it. And he didn't believe how ugly it was. He thought maybe it was the organisation around me. And then when he came on the tours, he realised it was actually worse than the picture I painted. We took a back seat and decided that we ain't going back to America until we have a proper agency representing us, we have the money upfront, flight tickets are booked, hotels are specified, the schedule is all printed and approved beforehand. All of those small details.

Pat: So hopefully one day that will come again, but people just have to be patient. I think their disappointment sometimes spills over into this bitterness. And at the website we have to keep explaining to them that you've gotta keep the faith. Because a lot of these things are out of your hands and out of our hands.

Pete: Well, you know, try one of them to walk a mile in my shoes in this career, for the amount of years I've been doing it without record company support. Even when we were with a record company and had success, we didn't have any support, we had obstacles. Because they didn't want us to be what we were.

It's too complicated to explain. And the fans in America...I can't describe the affection I feel for the Americans in general and their eagerness to learn, because it's a new country.

I do love them, from every territory of America. I love meeting them, they're all so very very different. I mean, we speak the same language, but we're foreign. And they're a great nation, it's a wonderful, wonderful nation.

I don't say that to be a creep. I love America, I really really do love America. But the business side of America is really ugly. And I'm afraid that, although I haven't achieved a hundred million record sales, I've certainly kept going and going a lot longer than some of the American-hyped acts...I can't even remember their names. Oh, Tiffany, Information Society, Jody Watley...all the people who got big. I'm still here!

TO BE CONTINUED

Copyright (c) 2001 by Pat Geary. Not to be reprinted or reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.