Freak Unique: My Story by Pete Burns

by Pete Burns

Pete Burns has found a new audience with his outrageous antics on Celebrity Big Brother. Whether being berated for wearing an alleged 'gorilla' coat, or destroying any one of his housemates with a withering putdown, he's the undoubted star of the show. But there's much more to Pete than meets the eye - and what with his extraordinary features and sense of fashion, that really saying something. He became a star with the band Dead Or Alive, who had a huge hit with "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" in the mid-80s, but until now he has never told his own amazing story. It includes frank details of his affairs with major rock stars, his long-time marriage, how he had to sell his GBP 2m house to pay for the plastic surgery that went wrong and caused horrific injuries to his lips. He's had an amazing career and still commands a huge global following. When it came to going into the Big Brother house, Pete declared he was not going to be a team player - and this sensational book about his life shows how he's always been a true individual and a born star.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Memoir, Autobiography, LGBT

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Bonnie Morse · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so excited to read this book and ended up having to skim a lot to get through it without losing all respect for the author. How much space could he really dedicate to talking about obscure British fashion labels and makeup brands? The entire first 25% of the book, it turns out. With frequent revisits as he returned again and again to the magic of his unique fashion while name dropping the twenty thousand people he was proudly copying. (Seriously, if superficial name dropping is your jam, this is 100% your book.)

As unbearably shallow and pretentious as his early life is, it gets even worse when he actually starts making music. This was the most interesting part for me because he knew Julian Cope at one point, although he quickly dismisses him for his lack of talent and style and basically for not copying the right people. Absolutely everything is beneath Pete Burns, which you learn in great detail because he will spend several pages comparing himself to every aspect of another singer--for example Jim Morrison--before declaring that he never listened to that person's music, but does have a similar, although better, voice, more talent, more style, more ambition, less interest in drugs--which he's never seen before and can't identify, or has tried and is all up above, depending on what best fits the version of the story he's telling on a given page--and so that person is less than nothing to him. One thing I know for sure about Pete after compiling all the different versions of his interest/indifference/superiority is that he cares A LOT about things and people that mean less than nothing to him.

I could also write an entire review just based on his feelings toward David Bowie. "He's a poser, an imitator, I was always being compared to him and it was so unfair, I was wearing dresses in every day life before he wore one on an album cover, he was totally copying me, everything he did I did first as a little kid, he's boring, Ziggy Stardust was a terrible record, I never listened to Ziggy Stardust, his only good song was Lady Stardust, I hate all of his songs, all of his records are terrible, I wouldn't look like him for anything, I'd never look like him, he was copying my look, I got shut out of all the cool clubs because you had to look like Bowie to get in and I was too punk", and just on and on and on. Just so you don't have to look it up, Pete Burns was maybe 10 years old when Ziggy Stardust came out, so make of that what you will.

Really, the whole book seems to be his expression of love for things that he immediately dismisses as meaningless. Even his own motives change from page to page. First he's wearing outlandish clothes and heavy makeup because it's who he is, his own organic self, and he doesn't care what anyone thinks. Is, in fact, unaware of public opinion. Then he's doing it to imitate a dozen women I've never heard of but whom he believes are well-known enough to need no introduction. It's also a shield to prevent people from looking at and noticing him, because he hates that. Two pages later it's a deliberate affront to society, because what is he, a shrinking violet trying to escape notice behind wild clothes and makeup? And this isn't an evolution. It's not the changing feelings of a teenager growing into his twenties. It's all presented as happening at one time, when he's about 15 years old. Ultimately it comes off looking like he doesn't know himself very well at all and is just saying whatever occurs to him during that day's writing session.

It takes him forever to get to the music, and when he does, it's still about the clothes and the makeup and the clubs, how the interiors are decorated and what the musicians look like, just as his stories of childhood record buying are all about the album covers. The music, the sound and the message, are all strictly secondary. Even in his own career, he uses the phrase "sound and vision" constantly (with an apparent lack of irony; perhaps he genuinely doesn't know that was the name of a David Bowie song, and massive world tour?), but it's clearly only the "vision" aspect that he's interested in. Perhaps that lack of attention to "sound" is what led to him hating his own music as soon as it was recorded. Maybe a little less time in front of the mirror would have made a difference?

It's such a crushing disappointment because I was a fan. I own Sophisticated Boom Boom on vinyl. I wore out two copies of Youthquake on cassette before buying the CD. I'm forty five years old and the record is over 30 and I still listen to it. Or I did. Now that I know Pete hates it, it doesn't feel the same. He loathes and resents You Spin Me Round, and has nothing at all nice to say about the rest of the tracks except that two of them became tolerable as remixed singles. The album as a whole, he informs us, is absolute garbage. Total shite. Not even worth a second listen. So I feel pretty stupid. At this point I've probably heard it more often than he has and I thought it was great.

But what do I know? I also think David Bowie was a brilliant musician and fashion icon, and Julian Cope is a goddamn lunatic genius. Not that it matters. If he was still alive, I'm pretty sure Pete wouldn't want someone of my no-class, low-rent taste as a fan anyway.

[Taralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pete Burns is my favorite musical artist of all time; he's a fascinating performer and 80s icon.
Freak Unique really showed me what a complex person Pete is. The best way I can sum him up is that he is both a wise man and an idiot. There's really no way to call him just one thing, that's something I find really likeable about him. How exactly is he wise and stupid? Well to put it simply, his philosophy about a lot of stuff is very fascinating. He makes very valid and honest comments about how he sees things and people. Unfortunately, Pete also admits his flaws with handling money; he often found himself broke and desperately needing money even at the peak of his career. But we also get to see a lighter side of Pete, such as when he described how much he did for AIDs patients and his mother who was dying of cancer. His personal life, especially when he describes his surgery disaster, is very interesting. I always got hooked when he really dove into things he had to go through or did because some of it's just so wacky and interesting, like when he was at the mental hospital.

Unfortunately, for most of the beginning of the book Pete's teenage life is described through his description of others at the time. He makes a lot of references of other musical artists and iconic figures of the era to the point where it just really drags. I would have liked if he focused more on himself in those passages. Pete also jumps around on topics a lot, making it sort of hard to follow just when certain events took place. For example, in the chapter "plastic fantastic", Pete suddenly goes on to talk about Michael. Personally I think he should have lumped his relationships with his partners (Lynne and Michael) all into one chapter or to split them up per person. Instead he just jumps around and disperses his experiences with them throughout many chapters. He also sadly doesn't really go into a whole lot about his ex-wife or why they really got divorced, nor does he really talk about Michael's personal life aside from what he does with him. If he bothers to include a picture of Michael's daughter, why doesn't he talk about her? What's Pete's relationship to her? What sort of things do Lynne, Michael and Pete do together? These are questions among many never answered or brought up in his writing.

I like this book but more details and coherency in the writing would have bumped it a higher score. It just needed to be organized better and probably longer so we could really see his life's story unfold like... Well a story. The book honestly just feels as if Pete were right here with me rambling his heart away on a lot of things--it doesn't feel like the ideas were organized in a way that made it more interesting and consistent to read in print.

I'd recommend this book to Dead or Alive or Pete Burns fans. It's very intriguing when it goes into his personal life but be warned of the numerous typos and topic jumping--it's crazy like the man himself!

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Individual and one of a kind

Pete Burns , flamboyant and beautiful with a sense of style that puts most women to shame....... yes Pete you had a movie star glamour . The book isn't the best in terms of writing style , I think Pete was better at putting make up than as an author but he does describe his early years well and his relationship with his mother . A good description of the 80s and clubbing. The book finishes abruptly but don't know if it was to do with Pete's health and latest financial crisis . He wasn't always the sweetest of men but he was certainly the one who stood out as unique . Was sad to hear of his recent death.

[Allison Floyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, I'm sorry to say, is a hot mess: meandering, disjointed, and fragmented to the point of verging on incoherence. It started out auspiciously enough, with the following quote emblazoned on the electric pink of the back of the book jacket: "I don't use makeup anymore. I use knives." Fans of course know what he's talking about. And I am a pretty hardcore Dead or Alive/early Pete Burns fan. But, man, while it appears this was written with the intervention/assistance of someone else, lamentably, this individual did little to earn his crust. I think it's safe to say Burns' insight, eloquence, and intelligence translate much better in spoken interview format. That said, for every specious argument about the fur trade and red flag that perhaps someone has surpassed caustic in favor of heading straight for corrosive in his comportment/worldview and/or perhaps overestimates his celebrity currency, there are inspired musings on gender presentation, freakdom, and Courtney Love. So all is not in vain—although it's a shame he's keeping mum about his (erstwhile?) friendship with Morrissey.

[Ben Cooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Considering the things this man has seen and been part of I would have expected a much more detailed and better written account of a very interesting life. The book felt (and evidently was) rushed out with little attention to detail in order to cash in on Pete's short lived reality TV fame. As someone interested in him before this I found the book a little insulting. It is riddled with errors and skims through anything that you didnt already know at such a pace that you dont really feel like youve learned much. A wasted opportunity for such a good, creative person to have told a much more detailed, interesting story.

[Lisa Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a bit higgledy piggledy at times, the way he jumps from one thing to another mid sentance, like he's got verbal diarrea, but it's a fab book otherwise, and really interesting, when he talks about his reconstructive surgery and how he met Michael etc, really great reading. You need a strong stomach for the surgery section though, it's pretty descriptive. Read read none the less.

[eLwYcKe · Rating 1 out of 5]

I always thought Pete Burns was an amazing creation. Great singer, great character, self aware with a level-headed charisma and a visual flare that could stop trains.
None of this is evident in this terrible book. It sounds dictated and published verbatim. Mildly humorous moments, but most of it is grim and depressingly shallow.

[Mark Farley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first impression I get from this book is that I am really enjoying it and halfway through it, I’m zipping through the childhood growth and quesyioning of his own desires and feelings upto some great music industry and touring anecdotes, and I find that I don’t have a bad thing to say about the book.

Pete is, as you can imagine from his stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house in early 2006 (a major focus of this book), is never relenting in his visceral honesty not only about himself but everyone else in his life and as you can imagine from this sort of book, a few people who are not part of his life.

But what the book achieves is much more than where it ultimately fails. My problem with this firstly is the length (even if I was to initially compare this book to the format of the others I have come across), that is because it is incredibly short. There is like half (if that) of what was inside other books of this genre. The book has been padded out by John Blake at the end with a filler chapter of Pete just mouthing off about other people in the media, for example. I’m allowed to describe this as purely such as that is what the final chapter is simply called. The text is quite large and well spaced and clocks in still, at a meagre few hundred pages.

As a basic result, the book feels as though after he performed so (what’s the word...) memorably on the reality show and received offers of possible sub-literary representation, he felt compelled to hurriedly complete a project already began and perhaps put on the back burner, due to unfortunate and very graphically described medical complications and negligance from what seems to be a team of inexperienced and naive professionals.

The subject very erratically and emotially delivered about his problems and severe complications under the knife and the many drugs and anesteics that have come with the joy and pain remain both sad, unfortunate but more importantly brutally graphic, to a point where the more weak willed will want to gut wrench. It is horrific, I warn you. But then again, Pete doesn’t want that sort of folk reading about and not understanding him anyway. You want to sympathise and understand how Pete constanty rationalises what he has done to himself through the years but when he compares the act of the extent of his extreme self change to something as basically simple as cutting your hair a different or having a makeover, it is hard to sympathise. But what this book never succumbs to is a selfish, grandiose plea for sympathy, which is what I expected initially. He stays completely on page and never never falters, with respect.

It’s a Marmite sort of book. You either love it or hate it. The initial reviews on Amazon were (curiously and straight away) immediately positive. Interesting as all of the positive reviews are done by people who have solely and sadly it seems, only read his book. This is suspect and in a way, not helpful to the author.

But Pete deserves to be admired though. He is sharp, he is witty, clever, intelligent, wonderfully sarcastic and this all comes out within this book. Which is, in essence, a great representaion of what he is all about. It’s just not written or edited very well. It starts out as the great autobiography it could have been and then descends into a rushed memoir pretending to be the greater former and is actually a bitter rant from someone who perhaps has slight second thoughts about what he did and also a tremendously chaotic and intense psychological situation for the sake of a sum of money that he drastically needed.

But, the effort he has put into create his chosen life’s image (whatever you may think of it) definately shows respectable allowance for his to be duly worshipped, in whatever capacity he desires. Be that sexual, androgynous or purely case of image satisfaction through genetics and the effects of a freak unique upbringing on the unforgiving, confused streets of 70’s Liverpool with a frenetically fabulous ancestral heritage and the characters you could only dream up. Then maybe he has because as with a lot of other celebrity biographies, the wealth of pictorial evidence of his early life is sadly lacking and one person very close in his life is sadly lacking in any sort of archival way, is almost non-existant and then the only childhood photo we have before he is famous is one of him as a child. There is so sign of his odd parental unit he so visciously defends sometimes, which is a shame because they seem such an integral part of what he is/has become.

Without comparing it to the likes of Ulrika and the Jades of this world (because the book deserves at least more than that) and if I was to compare it so something of a more similar life and times, the Adam Ant book (which I am sure was much more of a ghostwritten effort that Pete’s, in fact) the book really doesn’t hold up in terms of attention to detail of what fundamentally makes him an idealistic suitable subject for any sort of decent, marketable portrait of the areas that he seems to want to acheive with baring his soul in this format. That of the complicated and very hard to sympathise subject of his confusing self image and (I’m sorry, Pete) drastic measures he has gone to to gain any sort of closure and life satisfaction at all, a vital life commodity that he really doesn’t seem to work towards, even with the most heightened stage of fame, adulation he has ever come across in his long career, his final comprehensions and contemplative current ideas don’t seem enough and you get a sense that there is still something fundamentally wrong and tragically imminent.

It is a shame because he was a wonderful breath of ignomic and enigmatic fresh air on a programme known for its often staid vacuous celebrity promotion and the way he performed, was never once failing himself of his character, so to read this in this format, is very disappointing. John Blake should have taken more of a responsibility with this and not just thought about the marketing and the rushing of this out to capitalise on what is very much (unfortunately) a temporary attention span of the average British psyche. They should have really have considered the RRP also.

At £17.99, they pretty much killed this book.

[Deity World · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel sorry for him after reading this shows you how many people don’t care about others in this world whilst Pete did and ironically this is what’s happened to me

[Kateri Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Pete Burns since I was 16 years old. I'm 31 now, bought this book after Pete's death. I always admired his honesty & the way he expressed himself. He was a talented, hard working soul and i can tell from eclectic knowledge of music & fashion, he was meant to work in show business. He had the right brain and energy for it.

However, there were moments in this book i found hard/sad to read, especially when he was talking about his mental health in the later years and dealing with the dark side of fame post Celebrity Big Brother. I'm glad I've read this because fame has always been something people glorify and chase, if you read this autobiography, you wouldn't want to touch fame with a barge pole.

RIP Pete, we all miss your quick wit and intelligence.

[MRS R BAILEY · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never read an autobiography like this one before. Its a real eye opener, its crazy, mad, happy, sad strange there are just so many words to describe this. its a little slow in the middle and the style of writing is a bit childlike at times. the first few chapters are crazy and the end is absolute madness well worth a read

[Steve Womack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was a great read, I only wish it were longer. A lot of the things Pete went through I did not know. I really admire Pete after reading this book. I would highly recommend Pete Burns fans read this one. Im ready for part 2 of his life!

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Pretty awful but fairly entertaining.

[Chris Everard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a raw, unfiltered journey through the life of a man who steadfastly refused to be anything but himself. Readers might approach this book with preconceived notions of Burns as superficial or flamboyant; they may even leave feeling the same. However, it’s actually a testament to who Pete was - just being himself. He delves unapologetically into his experiences with the eccentric world of fashion, drag, sexuality, love, trauma, addiction, his musical career, and the taboos surrounding gender and plastic surgery. His narrative isn’t crafted to win hearts or seek sympathy. Instead, it’s a bold declaration of his truth, exposing the controversies that surrounded him throughout his life. His stories are laced with a biting humour that reveals a man who saw through the façades of the world around him.

In reading his narrative, I found myself yearning to learn more about his later interactions with his family, particularly with his brother and father. There seemed to be a poignant resonance, as he inadvertently repeated his mother’s fate, living a life that in many ways mirrored hers. Despite being a figure often criticised and misunderstood, Burns emerges through his pages as a legend who makes no excuses nor seeks validation - a true iconoclast whose influence is undeniable. “Freak Unique” serves as a testament to Burns’ fearless spirit and unwavering authenticity, showcasing a life filled with both highs and lows, successes and failures. Despite the passage of time, Burns somehow managed to become more genuine than most celebrities he shared the screen with on Big Brother, inevitably making him the most relatable as well. Regardless of how much he felt he didn’t belong, it is HIS story that resonates with us the most.

[Nico · Rating 2 out of 5]

💫✨🌟: 2.2/10
~
Oh well, I read this book in hopes to learn more about a musician who's art I really enjoy consuming, but I was expecting more than this book gave me...
First of all, this book wasn't written by Pete Burns himself, but an author, to which he told his story. Knowing this it's even more "sad" that the book came out the way it did.
I think the stuff about his childhood and teenage years is just all over the place! You never really know what happened when, because structure is just completely missing.
Pete is also just saying like "here's this super traumatizing thing that happend to me, but don't ya feel bad for me! That was normal for me, I am totally fine" ---NO, you're not
~His mother and her views of beauty have influenced him tremendously and caused some of his plastic surgery issues later on.
~
Most of the book just talks about his time in the big brother house, which I think is very boring looking at how long his life was at that moment!
His stories of his mental health deteriorating and so on went really deep tho, so so sad, I nearly shed a tear!
~
Also, what he did to his boyfriend Michael is beyond crazy and I feel truely bad for Micheal!
~
In general this book was written quiet awfully and had near to no structure. Just all over the place!
~I hoped to actually learn about Pete...
💗🪷☁️✨

[Cinquantaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

All through my early childhood I wasn't aware that flowers bloomed and died. My mum had a garden in the backyard, and it was just beautiful, especially when it snowed. I used to just stare out of the window at it - roses, carnations, huge yellow sunflowers and the pinkest tulips, and sometimes the flowers were gold or silver. Even pearls grew there. I was later to learn that the flowers were all plastic, and, if ever a string of pearls broke, she'd throw those on, too. And we had movement, too - we'd paint the shells of the tortoises. I'll always remember her drawing back the curtains one day and saying, 'Look - all the snow has gone. Now we have the best garden in the village.'
I thought that was fabulous! For this one small sacrifice of reality, we had flowers in the rain, or snow, even gold ones, which no other garden could boast. And they were bigger, brighter, just more fabulous than anything anyone else had. They didn't die, we could add to them, bring them indoors, throw bottles of perfume on them, and savour the smell, then put them back again. It was pure logic to her, and still is to me. Why should things of beauty die and decay? She found a way around that, and she made me believe in the fantasy and larger-than-lifeness of her garden.

[Jo Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointed in this book. Pete Burns is my 'era', and I was looking forward to getting an insight into him as a person.

Unfortunately, this was a garbled rant in parts, and I was left none the wiser on the reason for his fabulous flamboyance..... Oh it because he wanted to 'hide'. No it was because it was the real him....no it was because he wanted to thumb up at society. Maybe it was all three but it was all very confusing.

One of many things he said that was ridiculous was that David Bowie was an imitator, and in fact it was Pete himself who was an original and wore dresses before Bowie. I think he forgot that he was a child when Bowie was in full flow.

I guess I'm most disappointed that I expected to get something from the book that gave me some insight into him as a person, but instead got a Patrick Bateman type litany of his make up routine, clothing brands and club decoration.

Came away feeling I'd read a garbled mishmash of very little; which is a shame as I had high hopes.

[Jack Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, so, this is much as you'd imagine. Pete didn't write it, he told it to a journalist, and that, I imagine, explains the conversational, episodic and sometimes meandering nature of it. It was written in the aftermath of his Celebrity Big Brother appearance (2006 - 12 years ago, blimey etc.) so there's quite a lot about that, as well as some absolutely hideous stuff about cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. The best bits (IMO) are the early years - I have been reading about Pete at Eric's and Probe for years and years, so great to hear his own take on it.

His love for Jordan (not that one - the one from Seaford who worked in Sex with Westwood and McClaren) is rather enchanting. (Who doesn't love Jordan, after all.)

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've wanted to read this book since I discovered its existence a couple of years ago. While I learned a lot about Pete's history and found it interesting, the writing style is...well, not great. I suspect it's written just like he spoke: very scattered and somewhat incoherent at times. Made it hard to get through. It was chronological, in general, but not always. He sometimes jumped around in time, making it a little difficult to follow. I think I enjoyed Holly Johnson's autobiography more.

[Janene · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was not well done, but if you love Pete, you'll enjoy it anyway. Sounds like he dictated it to a machine and they printed verbatim. Snarky speech doesn't come off well in writing. I bet he was an absolute joy to listen to, smart and hilarious, but it doesn't work to take conversation out of context and just give a transcription.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sad that I only "discovered" Pete Burns and his music and this book this year. He's an interesting character indeed. I am happy that I have discovered him. I'm also sad he died. When I got to the chapter about him being on the 2006 UK Celebrity Big Brother, of course I got on YouTube and watched all the episodes! Many people have written much about this book. I enjoyed it immensely.

[미루나 · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely powerful book. Pete Burns was and it will always be one of my favourite artists of all time so probably i am being subjective when it comes to analyzing this book. I loved every page of it and it was great to discover him step by step. If you're a fan of Dead or Alive's music you should definitely check this one out!

[Marilyn Towey · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review

This is like Pete sitting down telling his story in true Pete fashion , saying it like it is , drama laughter sadness it's all there enjoy thanks Pete and rest in peace , never to be forgotten x

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sad. Wasted opportunity. This book is a train wreck that was clearly thrown together as a cash grab. Pete Burns was a unique talent and deserved better than this. Maybe someone will write a coherent and informative biography of him one day.

[Norma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately not as good as I thought it was going to be. I had to skim over the plastic surgery bits as it was really uncomfortable reading.

[Lucy Fylaktou · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite souls.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less an autobiography than the sad ramblings of a troubled man.

[Donna Dickens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, funny buy sad life story

[SirBilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

That's The Way uh-huh uh-huh (I Like HIM) uh-huh uh-huh

[maryk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its narcissism.