Reproduced from Nukleopatra's Kiosk, 1995

The last 2 years has been like a cleansing period for Pete which began after a disastrous Club Tour of America at the end of 1992 which towards the end saw Pete at his wits end, sinking into a bout of deep depression, "I was actually convinced I was ill, I was very unhappy and all because of that tour. Pete temporarily split from band member Steve Coy and wife Lynne and moved out of the house into a hotel, I became unbearable to live with, I had to find myself, I was hanging around with some undesirable people, clubbing and living the high life."

That tour" as Pete describes it began in October 1992, "I had picked a small entourage, the same people as I used for the few dates I did in England prior and when we arrived in the States the troubles began, I realized my management was shit and the promoters not much better, it was not unusual for us to turn up at a venue with a tiny stage, at some venues there werent even any changing rooms. I was doing track dates which means no band, music on tape, some dancers though best of all reasonably sized venues which means more energy from your audience.

Most of the dates were OK once we got ourselves sorted, it was getting to and from that was the problem. It required superhuman skills in time travel and a capacity to perform with no microphone (sometimes New York) or worse still, no stage! About 1 month into the frightmare I realized it was a big mistake, I freaked out!! I was in to deep to cancel, so I carried on, we did seventy five percent of the gigs, the promoters vanished with the money, and my manager ran of with the remaining cash, leaving us stranded with no cash, no tapes, no credit cards, no passports and our luggage impounded by the hotel we were in. I do not thrive on sympathy but this was beyond a mere inconvenience, we were stranded up shit creek but still I carried on, irresponsibly I admit and it all ended in tears, I came home to the UK, slightly the worse for wear, furious, vowing never, ever again. You see its not audiences that are the problem, its all the sick twisted crooks that manage acts, its agents, promoters and club managers, you see, they dont care about the paying customer who come to see people like me, they care about selling drinks at the bar, therefore they want you on and off, quickly. You, the fans had waited so long, I felt I owed you more than 20 minutes. Consequently at the end of some gigs we had to compensate the club owners for estimated loss of drink sales, some of these fines implied that you must all be hopeless alcoholics. I did the best I could under the circumstances, Im sorry it became impossible".

Early in 1993 Steve Coy returned this time as Petes manager and the two began negotiating with various record companies, to sign Dead or Alive to a new label after 3 years of being without representation outside of Japan. The years of absence from the music scene did not mean life stuck at home, says Pete, "we actually never stopped working after we left Epic/Sony, there was lots to do, demoing new songs to play to prospective new record labels, re-recording some tracks from Fan The Flame to make them less orchestral and old fashioned to a more dance oriented up to date sound. Even though bands are not in the public eye there is a lot of work and preparation going on in the behind the scenes. The negotiating process was very difficult when we decided there was no future for us with Epic/Sony. Epic were determined to keep us, as we always made money for them and were quickly recouped on release of any records. We were actually forced to leave Epic after a prospective American manager soured our relationship with Epic (U.S.A) by threatening to take us to a new U.S label if they didnt get their act together and chart the Nude album and those singles from that album. Record labels do not take kindly to ultimatums from any artist and it soon became apparent that it was decided to "put us on ice". We then had to leave!"

After negotiations with several record companies Dead Or Alive were signed to PWL, a surprise to many and some article suggested Dead Or Alive must have been desperate to have signed to this label, far from it. "It was no surprise to us when we were signed to PWL and decided to sign with PWL because we felt we needed a smaller label with a smaller artist roster in order for us to get the attention to detail that was so lacking at Epic/Sony. At PWL we have total artistic freedom to look, sound, and be exactly what we want to, they respect us and it makes a nice change to be in an environment where people love dance music and still get excited about he records. We chose PWL because they want to sell records, so do we! - watch the charts this year as Dead Or Alive burn em up".

However one song which did not "burn up the charts" was the come back single Rebel Rebel presented to the world via International Chrysis, disaster had struck as the single flopped at No. 76 in the UK chart, did this leave Pete surprised, "No, not really, Rebel Rebel didnt get a fair shot, the radio and T.V pluggers let us down badly, they couldnt get the video shown on T.V because of my outrageous (yawn! yawn!) looks and performance. We also wanted people to listen with no prejudice and also show PWL that the records do require heavy promotion to sell and that the records arent gonna waltz into the charts all by themselves. Rebel Rebel is just one of many cover versions I have always wanted to do, there will be more in the future. The song was a kind of anthem for me as I was growing up as a teenager, experimenting with make up and hairstyles, everywhere I went the most often repeated comment was "is that a boy or a girl?" and the final reason was Courtney Love, never in the history of pop music has there been anybody who embodied the words of this song. She is a very strong person who I admire".

But has Dead or Alive become too hard to sell, constantly stated in press articles is that the bands image is more feminine than ever and that the songs and video are aimed at the gay scene, is this the market for Dead Or Alive now. "The record buying public will buy anything if its crammed down their throats every hour of every day and when the media are on your side thats what happens. Our music is aimed at everybody and as for being camp, well everything is in the eye (or ears) of the beholder! Project what you want!" Despite the flop of the song Pete carried on regardless and spent many months in the studio with Steve Coy working on material for the new album. Prior to releasing Rebel Rebel when Mike Stock was still with PWL it had been suggested that the new album be co-written and produced with Stock/Waterman. We did actually attempt to co-write with Mike Stock and Pete Waterman but unfortunately it didnt work out, it was obvious that Mike Stock had drained of any creativity and any enthusiasm. You only have to listen to his work since leaving PWL and forming his own label to confirm what I am saying. Anyway, we only really went to PWL for the services of the Record Company and not for any help with writing or production. Pete Waterman decided we should be allowed to produce ourselves and has given us his approval on the new album, which was produced by Steve Coy, Myself, and co-produced by Barry Stone. Barry has since left PWL and is working as an artist in his own right - his group are called Belvedere Kane, watch out for his stuff in the near future. Good luck and thanks Barry".

Pete Burns surprised many with his appearance on the Radio 1 Roadshow and later an appearance on BBC T.Vs "Pop Quiz", whats all this, the new Pete Burns, if youd of asked him to do a quiz show appearance 5 years ago he would have said "what!, how dare they!" Recently Burns has been sporadically appearing at clubs up and down the U.K, "Ive really enjoyed the PAs Ive done so far and the reason I did "Pop Quiz" and the Radio 1 Roadshow is because I now have a record company who actually wants us to be successful and are prepared to sell who I am, not what they want me to be. You will be seeing a lot more of me and Dead or Alive this year and in the future".

Pete Burns is keen and raring to go and sees the future looking brighter than its been for quite a while, hes moved on and this is clearly reflected in the new album. "Weve made a record that we like, we havent tried to re-produce and past formulas, we just did what came naturally- hard, fast, dance music. Fan The Flame was a departure from our usual sound, unfortunately it wasnt released outside of Japan though was our second biggest selling album there. Because it wasnt released elsewhere we have included re-recordings of Unhappy Birthday and Gone Too Long on the new album, so the rest of you dont miss out completely. We have not released any singles since Rebel Rebel because apart from the U.K and a few smaller territories all of the European, American, and Japanese labels will only release a single if the album is finished and sitting on their desks ready to release as soon as a single is a hit!, now the album is completed and all singles will be released in all territories".

After re-launching himself as International Chrysis it has been announced Pete is to return to Dead or Alive, confused? Some thought he was Glam since the release of the Burns written track Sex Drive co-produced and performed with Italian dance band, Glam which ruled clubland throughout Europe last year, so why was International Chrysis so short lived?

"International Chrysis was my own little side project (like Siouxie & Budgie with The Creatures) formed in America in 1992 with some special talented artists from New York. The name International Chrysis is actually the name of a person from New York who acted as sort of a mother figure to the waifs and strays of the club/fashion scene in NYC. Chrysis unfortunately died of cancer quite recently and I wanted to do my own little tribute to her, hence the Rebel Rebel single coming out under the International Chrysis banner. It was also a good excuse to try and fool the biased T.V and radio programmers so people would by the record not knowing who it was by which was why I didnt put a photo on the sleeve and sent out promos of the song with no details of the artist, however, Im not as inconspicuous as Id hoped and the cat was out of the bag though there will be other releases maybe under the name after the new Dead or Alive album, you are gonna have to stay alert. With future single releases we will be having remixes done by top remixers, it is always a good thing to have a variety of different mixes on your record, enabling our music to be accepted by all different music fields and audiences".

So who is Nukleopatra and what is it all about? Pete Burns has one thing to say, "Listen to the songs on the album and then you will know, Im sure youll like the new album, I do and whether it be International Chrysis or Dead or Alive, its me, so suffer!".