WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE
Let's not kid
ourselves. If it wasn't for bands like Dead Or Alive the present pop scene would suffocate
in prissy little pop bands only to eager to be decent. Let's not forget that Rock'n Roll
set out to Shock'n Roll rather than to console.
So it happens that Pete Burns and the boys make a rather pleasant change in a business
which has been dominated for far too long by hands whose only intent was to please, both
their parents and the record companies.
But let's come back to the man
himself and the band he fronts. Pete Burns has been around for an awful long stretch of
time. Always expected to be the face of the oncoming year, always on the brink of public
recognition, he has bided his time in Liverpool, waiting for the right moment to arrive.
During that time he almost single-handedly invented 'the white boys on dreadlocks' image
and took lots of stick for that. He had several appearances in the independent charts,
married... and signed a major deal with Epic at last.
"It was only last year that I thought that our music and the feeling was just right.
When every year you've got the choice to do that leap, if you don't feel confident enough
it is better not to do it."
This spring Dead Or Alive had a
top-twenty single and an equally successful album. Suddenly Burns has become a media
personality, his countenance appears on almost all the trade papers, he's being
apostrophized as 'sex kitten' or 'gender bender' and almost every conceivable microphone
waits for yet another innuendo from the lips of one of our most outspoken, 'popstar'
around.
For sure his flamboyant appearance contributes to the fact that cameras and newspapers go
crazy. But what is behind this 'artistic facade'?
"I'm more interested in our musical identity than in our visual one. Because if I was
gonna be a visual person I'd become a model. My visual appearance is only for my private
life. It is something I'd do regardless of the music industry but" (he admits)
"they go, of course hand in hand."
He quite strongly rejects the
idea that the way he looks is important at all and stresses the music as the medium the
band wants to be renowned for. 'Sophisticated Boom Boom', their LP, conveys indeed what
the band stands for and delivers ideally the musical completion for their pronounced
sexual image. Burns' voice, that was tutored by the man who taught Sting and Bowie to
sing, mounts titanically over the hard and fast rhythm provided by Mike Percy, Tim Lever
and Steve Coy. Not unusually for bands who stimulate your dancing shoes, Dead Or Alive's
hard-edged music comes alive on stage, rather than on record, when it provides the ideal
backdrop for Burns' stage antics or rather the other way round.
"A lot of dance-music is about sex, so why bury it in silly innuendoes. All our songs
have a certain two meaning thing. And that's the way we like it, because it conveys a very
honest feeling. It's not particularly drowned in production, it's quite raw, it's rhythmic
and it's honest as well."
Burns explanations come in a
flurry of words. He belongs to that group of people who like to talk. After ten minutes of
the interview I actually manage to utter the first question. But don't get the wrong
impression. He doesn't talk gibberish, his words are making sense, he is very witty and
innuendoes asked for the juicy bits to be censored. Better check the other music press.
He is very much a star and very much in control, especially concerning the band's future
fate with their record company. And he can tell a story or two about how difficult it is
for a young band starting out to remain master of their own destiny.
"But I can handle
it", (he smiles). "You see, I'm very strong character and I'm getting tougher
and tougher all the time." Strength and common sense are two qualities that have
overcome almost all the odds and dangers that are inherent in the music business. Both
qualities are quite an integral part of Burns' persona. So what does he think about
stardom?
"I don't know if I enjoy it so much. When people scream at me it's no magical
experience, it's rather a shock. Why should people who've seen you around for years
suddenly scream at you. People who once hated you suddenly want to kiss you! It's very
silly."
As for his own personality?
"I've never pretended to be a particularly easy to get along person. I never
pretended to live a normal life because I don't. But there is nothing I have ever done
that I'm ashamed of. And when people ask me I tell them and that can be a mistake. There
is nothing that could happen or that I could do or say, that would make me embarrassed,
because I'm comfortable in myself and a lot of people in the business are very
insecure."
Dead Or Alive are a much needed
enrichment in the not any longer so rich tapestry of pop. They certainly add spice to the
otherwise boring chart-soup, the girls have something to look at again and Dead Or Alive
might even bring some sleaze back into our clean-up and white-washed, sexually indifferent
music-carousel. That is a sane attitude towards what they are doing. Burns describes the
whole system in a simple equation:
"My job is doping records. The record company's job is promoting them. The public's
job is to decide if they want them or not."
That's the way they like it.
Words: Wolfgang Lorenz. (Debut LP/Magazine, Issue 13)