PRINCESS PETER BURNS ON IMAGE & AESTHETIC
Cream in your panties, wild horses! Wild horses can not be tamed! This is the anthem for the wild horse in us all + look at his hair (long locks, that perm!), and his lips (and lip gloss!), and his earrings (great choice!), and his hips shaking. I do not believe there were many men as beautiful as Peter Burns was.
"Brand New Lover" (1986) is one of Dead or Alive's Billboard hits, more popular in the US and Japan than in their native UK. Of course the group was most well known for '80s staple "You Spin Me Round", but "Brand New Lover" remains a favorite due to its foreshadowing of early '90s dance music to come. Heavy on themes of sex and desire, Burns was a proponent of fierce sexuality and flamboyant imagery. This Dead or Alive song in particular was a more emotionally liberating tome expressing what it is to leave behind a stale relationship that exists within safety instead of passion. Burns has a way of musing on connections between two people that is often refreshing, though sometimes cynical.
Peter Burns is well known in England as an androgynous New Wave front person (and later reality TV star). He was raised by a German mother who supported and encouraged his colorful personality and grew up proudly separate from the norm. In the late '70s, he worked at Liverpool's punk record shop, Probe Records, half selling crazy clothes and dodging groupie Courtney Love. At Probe, he met Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Paul Rutherford and Julian Cope. Burns and Cope had a short-lived band called Mystery Girls; later Burns began a Goth-influenced band called Nightmares In Wax. Peter Burns was incredibly drawn to goth aesthetic, always incorporating black leather into his wardrobe (even today!). By 1980, Dead or Alive formed and gained commercial success very quickly, cranking out 4 LPs during the decade.
Even though Burns didn't like going to clubs, he was a popular part of the '80s British New Wave scene, specifically within the "New Romantic" crowd (Visage, Bow Wow Wow, Flock of Seagulls, Soft Cell, Adam and the Ants, Spandau Ballet, Alphaville, etx). He hated being lumped in with other British "cross dressing" pop singers like Boy George, but due to their similarities and visibility during that time frame, the two were brought up together in the media often (much to his dismay). He was a proud supporter of Vivienne Westwood's Sex boutique in the late '70s and though he was fronting dance music, his affinity for the punk and Goth was sacred to him. Most male '80s pop stars just starting to wear make-up and create personas for themselves were ingenuine poseurs in his eyes, following another fad.
Only the serious, talented ones will stick in the same way that Siouxsie and The Clash are still around from the punk movement whereas lots of the hangers-on have faded without a trace"). He also thought it was a shame that great groups like The Normal never gained commercial success due to the lack of "marketing appeal" (Burns is a huge fan of "Warm Leatherette"). Burns did have the aesthetic and personality to be a cultural icon yet he remained intelligent on matters of society, condemning "style over substance" while still able to look like a New Wave dream. His exploration of image as an idea were always met in a spiritual philosophical sense. You can be glamorous and play dress-up while having a soul and a purpose.
"It's a natural self-expression. I think too many people are repressed about their image or they just don't get the chance to have that form of self-expression. If I couldn't look the way I do, I'd be an incredibly unhappy person or an alcoholic or drug addict. I decorate my homes all the time, as soon as I get bored with things I change it and that's what I do to myself. What you see on the outside is what is on the inside, my body is merely a vehicle for is the real me. If you own a car, you change that every few years, and that's just what I'm doing with my appearance."
His appearance also brought to light his sexuality. At the time common society believed any man who wore make-up and lady blouses had to be gay (obviously untrue i.e. Phil Oakey from Human League and a ton of other artists). Burns was not straight, though. He liked boys AND girls and was even married to a woman named Lynne for a while (below). Then again Lynne was his stylist. Later on, he married and divorced a younger man quite recently. Burns has never been afraid to express himself or his love for men. It was easy to see how some may have seen him as "overtly gay", but Peter Burns has been very much soulfully above labels and the limits on who a person can love:
"I have never had a reason to separate gender. Everyone's in drag of some sorts, I don't give a fuck about gender and drag. I'm not trying to be a girl by putting on a dress - gender is separated by fabric. I was brought up with an incredible amount of freedom and creativity. Society has put certain constraints on things."
He expressed intense love for both his wife and his husband, claiming they have been the only two true loves of his life. Sadly, his past relationship with Michael Simpson ended in divorce, due to apparent infidelity on his partner's behalf:
"I view marriage as a sacred institution. I think two men naturally are predators. Gay relationships are a commercial break, not a whole movie. The relationships I'm aware of, apart from one ... it's as though there's some kind of emotional inadequacy or narcissism, where they feel emotionally inadequate and need more validation, from either a father figure or a mirror image of themselves. I'm not condemning it, I think it needs researching and help."
An emotional being, even if fierce, Peter Burns has always expressed soulful human ideas about life and love and it has gained him many close friends and also some enemies. And at some point he was even frienemies with Morrissey.
Pete: It's great to find a friend you can row with. I phone him up from Italy and everywhere, don't I? Even my own mother doesn't hear from me...
Morrissey: I think he means to phone his mother but he gets confused and dials my number instead. And he doesn't realise until we're half way through the conversation that I'm not actually his mother.
Pete: He's not my mother...
Morrissey: As long as I don't have to breast feed, I don't mind.
Pete: Oh, that was a sharp one, Joan Rivers!
Morrissey: He sends me flowers lots of times...
Pete: If I hear that he's down or depressed, I'll send him a bunch of flowers. Nothing brings him out like a bunch of flowers. Send him a bunch of daisies and he's anybody's. It's true, we have these little Interfiora men running between our flats, don't we, eh? He's anybody's for a lupin. When we were in Italy we had to have all these armed military police to guard us which was so stupid and it was freaking me out and so I phoned him up and he was making a piece of toast in Manchester. It really brought me back down to earth -- you know, 'What are you doing?', 'Oh, I've got a piece of toast on the stove and I'm watching Brookside'. It makes you realise it's still the same world. That's why our friendship is really important. I know it's more important to me than it is to him because he'd gladly go off and be a recluse.
Morrissey: No, that's not true. He sent me 26 roses when it was my birthday and I sent him 48 naked sailors.
- Smash Hits, October 22, 1985
As far as his relationship with his own image, he used to be...
Now he has undergone multiple operations to enhance his physical self... though unfortunately a lot of this has backfired. Plastic surgery is a bitch.
Check out this amazing interview with Burns that touches on his identity with his image and plastic surgery: http://ponystep.com/features/issue-2-the-inimitable-mr-burns/
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