Dead or Alive’s Pete Burns dead at 57
The androgynous singer was best known for 1980s hit You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) and Celebrity Big Brother.
Burns was best known for being a vocalist and songwriter with the band Dead or Alive which he founded in 1980. The band enjoyed success throughout the 1980s and had seven Top 40 UK singles and three Top 30 UK albums.
He died on Sunday (23 October) at the age of 57.
“It is with the greatest sadness that we have to break the tragic news that out beloved Pete Burns of (Dead or Alive), died suddenly yesterday of a massive cardiac arrest.
“All of his family and friends are devastated by the loss of our special star. He was a true visionary, a beautiful talented soul, and he will be missed by all who loved and appreciated everything he was and all of the wonderful memories that he has left us with.” – Pete Burns management team
The singer was fixated with altering his appearance through the use of cosmetic surgery, which he recently spoke about on Channel 5 series Celebrity Botched Up Bodies, noting: “The number of surgeries I’ve had is probably 300. I hope when I’m 80 and I get to heaven God doesn’t recognise me.”
The origins of his obsession with plastic surgery date back to when Dead Or Alive’s 1985 hit ‘You Spin me Round (Like a Record)’ was storming up the charts.
“I realised I was going to be a visual entity and that I had to look good. I had a broken nose. In the punk days somebody head butted me in Liverpool and it went over to one side. When you’re young, self-conscious and standing in front of a camera and the photographers are whispering, ‘Can we turn his head to the left?’ you think, ‘I’ll do something about it’.” – Pete Burns
However, a £750 procedure to correct his nose didn’t go as planned and Burns later had to go under the knife again to put it right – the first of many corrective procedures.
In 2006 he appeared on series four of Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 4 and made headlines for his fiery outbursts at other contestants. His stint on the reality show also saw him at the centre of controversy when producers removed a fur coat from among his possessions which had upset viewers and the housemates.
No charges were brought against the star over the incident as the coat, made from colobus monkey, had been imported before the importation of colobus fur was outlawed in 1975. He made the series final coming fifth.
Other TV appearances include his own reality series in Pete’s PA and Celebrity Wife Swap.
