Pete Burns last interview on Channel 5 offers a reflective insight into how his plastic surgery went wrong, juggling his public persona and the ultimate price he paid in his fame game
2016 is done and dusted. And what a year it’s been… how did you fair? How many of your cultural hero’s were lost at far too early an age? So many passed away due to various cancer’s and heart failure.
Including this man. I watched a documentary over the holidays, telling Pete Burns story. He was much loved and much maligned where considering his history in having plastic-surgery that went wrong especially the lip work.
His music career wasn’t forced, he didn’t pursue fame for the sake of it, he loved music. But from quite early on in his fame-game he had work done on his nose, and that went horribly wrong. He wore the eye-patch (back in the 1980’s) to cover up the botched surgery, it got corrected and he moved on to having more work done.
He fell prey to a surgeon who carried out some faulty work on his lips that would take hundreds of procedures to correct over time, due to a substitute solution that seemingly poisoned his system.
Pete Burns like many performers was an introvert and he found the demands of being under the public glare unbearable at times. He didn’t want to be called onto shows where his PR expected him to fit into an out-of-character mould. Who would blame him!
Taking control of your fame game
Are you in charge of your fame game, albeit known or aspiring? Do you have savvy representation that takes care of these matters for you? Do you handle it all yourself? Does it ever feel icky? Does the dread of having those conversations stop you from progressing sometimes?
When young artists have a massive success, like he did with You Spin Me Round (like a record), is often when someone finds themselves on a circuit of kids shows and/or wherever a representative forces them, for the sake of exposure.
Is that the right way to nurture upcoming performers and artists, if they’re going to support their emotional and psychological stability? Isn’t it enough of an adjustment anyway, without having to bend into a version of themselves that doesn’t sit well.
That’s what got increasingly tougher for Pete Burns as he aged, especially after revitalising his career through his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in 2011.
He was candid enough – in that documentary – to say he did it purely for the money, and the story goes that he intended to go in and be vile in order to bag the money and head for the door as soon as he could get evicted. Instead, the audience were gripped by his verbal antics, and then there the incident with the coat.
What is plastic surgery concealing?
It’s not a coincidence that psychologically he headed for plastic surgery, in order to hide in an endeavour to have a private life, it turned out his life was anything but. I’m old school, wedded to the authenticity of aging and all the wonderful elements it contains if you allow it in.
Let’s celebrate the wrinkles, the lines and the creases, because they show a real life sits behind them. It’s great to have lead an interesting life, and it’s more than okay to own it. I happen to think that younger people need to know it, so they can stop fearing it.
I appreciate that there’s a great deal of pressure in the arts to remain young, especially for women, but it makes it even more important to stand up for yourself and claim your right to be you.
Celebrating age
Look at the role models there are now, such as Judy Dench, Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren, who refuse to play the plastic surgery game. It hasn’t hampered them being offered some of the most interesting roles of their career’s.
Obviously it’s a given that plastic surgery has a place in terms of bad accidents where corrective surgery is imperative, but saddens me to see young people having Botox and fillers as part of a so-called beauty regime.
It. Screams. Low. Self. Esteem.
Many performers develop their craft to explore and / or escape themselves due to shyness, early life issues, etc, where for some it’s a way of building a barrier. But what if instead of hiding they could find themselves and bring a higher quality of themselves to feed back into their work.
Facelift’s. Are. Not. The. Answer.
What are the benefits of not having work
- Things can and do go horribly wrong
- It’s better to find your inner beauty through self-discovery
There are so many ways you can look after yourself by making better lifestyle choices such as:
- Making healthy eating choices
- Moving more
- Including a regular practice such as meditation or mindfulness
- Drinking more water
- Using organic products
- Taking care of your emotional wellbeing
- Getting out into nature
- Developing a healthy sleep regime
- Reducing the stressful impact of blue-screens
If you need help with any or all of that I can help you create all of that. Pete Burns was an introvert, he objected to being metaphorically poked and prodded, and when he felt backed into a corner, he reacted with a long established pattern of knee-jerk behaviour that sadly saw him pass away broke and broken.
No-one need go there, but the despair pushes people further away, until finally they’re unreachable
If along the path to being valued for your craft, and the inevitable pressures the fame game is putting on you: confusing you; pulling you one way or another; then getting some emotional stability makes an enormous difference in stopping the spinning plates.
Doing that from a self-care perspective only happens once you have developed your inner game, so that you get to play your life on your terms and keep everyone happy, especially yourself.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to emanate your inner beauty el naturelle?
Jane
Step up to the mark
PS – Directing your own destiny begins by arranging a quick 15-min chat which kick-starts having more energy to develop what you really, really want.
