Adele Bertei

Bertei was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1955. She is the oldest of three children born to Katherine (née Murphy) and Umberto Bertei. Her father was an Italian immigrant and her mother was of Irish and French Canadian descent.

Bertei and her brothers became wards of the state of Ohio, resulting in a childhood spent in foster homes, a Catholic convent school for wayward girls, and a reformatory in Ohio. Bertei never completed a formal education and is an autodidact.{{citation needed|date=March 2015}}

She began writing poetry at a very young age and was discovered as a singer by legendary Cleveland musician Peter Laughner,{{cite book|last=Hell|first=Richard|title=Hot and Cold|publisher=Powerhouse Books|pages=47–48}} who mentored her and convinced her to pursue a career in music.

Bertei began her career playing guitar and singing in the Wolves, her first band with Laughner. She left Cleveland for New York City in 1977 shortly after Laughner died prematurely of complications due to alcoholism.

Bertei quickly became a prominent figure in the no wave art and music scene in NYC, playing Acetone organ and guitar in the original line up of the Contortions fronted by James Chance.{{cite book|last=Heylin|first=Clinton|title=From the Velvets to the Void-Oids|pages=295, 297, 317, 318, 319}}{{cite book|title=No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976–1980|pages=27,34,36,62,74,120–121,126|author=Moore, Thurston|author2=Coley, Byron}}{{cite book|last=Reynolds|first=Simon|title=Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984|date=2 April 2009 |pages=51, 56|publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=9780571252275 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dK-F43T8V0wC}}{{cite book|last=Savage|first=Jon|title=England's Dreaming, Revised Edition: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond|pages=441–442, 517}}{{cite book|last=Masters|first=Marc|title=No Wave|pages=83–84, 86–87, 89–90, 93}} While working as personal assistant to Brian Eno in 1978,{{cite book|last=Sheppard|first=David|title=On Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times of Brian Eno|pages=297}} Bertei took him to a series of concerts at Artists Space in New York, which resulted in Eno producing the iconoclastic LP No New York{{cite web|title=No New York Album on Amazon.com|website=Amazon |url=https://www.amazon.com/No-New-York-Various-Artists/dp/B000B63ISE}} for the Virgin/Antilles label, featuring the Contortions and three other no wave bands.

The artist Martin Kippenberger brought Bertei to Berlin in 1980 to perform solo at his SO36 club and upon her return to the U.S., Bertei started the all-girl punk-funk band The Bloods with guitarist Kathy Rey.{{cite web|title=The Bloods play "Bad Time" and the Peppermint Lounge, 1980| website=YouTube | date=28 July 2007 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_l7JjSll-8}} The Bloods are considered the first rock and roll band of gay women who were publicly out of the closet.{{Cite journal|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=d2IEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA87|title = Girls + Guitars|last = McDonell|first = Evelyn|date = April 2000|journal = Out Magazine|page = 87}} The band toured internationally, opened for the Clash in New York and released the single "Button Up,"{{cite web|title=The Bloods' album Button Up on Discogs.com|website=Discogs |date=2 April 1982 |url=http://www.discogs.com/Bloods-Button-Up/release/943660}} a John Peel favorite on the Au Pairs' label Exit Records in 1981. "Button Up" was re-released on the British label Soul Jazz Records as part of the compilation New York Noise, Volume 1, released in 2005.{{cite web|title=Description and track list for New York Noise, Volume 1|date=29 September 2008 |url=http://wigidsoundwaves.blogspot.com/2008/09/new-york-noise-vol-1.html}}

After The Bloods disbanded, Bertei worked as a DJ in Amsterdam, and upon returning to New York was one of the first solo acts to be signed to Geffen Records in 1981. Thomas Dolby produced her first hit dance single "Build Me a Bridge,"{{cite web|title=Adele Bertei's Single "Build Me a Bridge" on Beatelectric Blog|url=http://beatelectric.blogspot.com/2008/09/build-me-bridge.html}}{{cite web|title=Adele Bertei's Single "Build Me a Bridge" on Discogs.com|website=Discogs |date=1983 |url=http://www.discogs.com/Adele-Bertei-Build-Me-A-Bridge/master/49521}} and the success of the single led to an album deal with Geffen, but the company had alienated Dolby. Says Bertei of this period in the early 1980s: "Back then, female performers couldn't be too wild, and certainly not outspokenly gay, even a little. Defying the rules had its consequences. This was exacerbated by the horrid reputation I had in the 1980s, some of it hyperbole but not all of it completely unfounded. Half-Piaf, half-Hemingway… singing and brawling. Wrestling in public with quite a few demons that I should have dragged to a therapist."{{cite web|title=Adele Bertei Personal Blog |url=http://www.adelebertei.com/blog/files/archive-jan-2011.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130419051755/http://www.adelebertei.com/blog/files/archive-jan-2011.html |archive-date=2013-04-19 }}

Dolby invited her to sing backing vocals on his next LP, The Flat Earth. Bertei sang a duet with him on the single "Hyperactive!"{{cite web|title=Thomas Dolby and Adele Bertei performing "Hyperactive!"| website=YouTube | date=15 September 2007 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdvIpen8iAs}} which became an international pop hit for Dolby. She performed the song live on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1984. During her years in London, Bertei sang backing vocals with various groups live and in the studio, including Culture Club and The Passions. She has written songs for artists as varied as The Pointer Sisters, Sheena Easton, Thomas Dolby, Arthur Baker, Jellybean Benitez, The Anubian Lights, Lydia Lunch and Matthew Sweet.

Bertei signed with Chrysalis Records in 1985 and recorded the song "When It's Over",{{cite web|title=Adele Bertei's "When It's Over"| website=YouTube | date=18 July 2007 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLqX5ccp_xU}} produced by David Gamson and Fred Maher of Scritti Politti and John Potoker, with Green Gartside providing guest vocals. The concept for the music video was a performance in a women's prison. Her anti-apartheid anthem "Little Lives, Big Love"{{cite web|title=Adele Bertei's "Little Lives, Big Love"| website=YouTube | date=15 January 2012 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVDoiyfoypQ}}{{cite web|title=Adele Bertei on allmusic.com|website=AllMusic |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/adele-bertei-mn0000599999}} charted high in Germany. During this period she joined Jellybean Benitez for his LP Just Visiting This Planet, co-writing several songs and singing lead on the international pop hit "Just a Mirage"{{cite web|title="Just a Mirage" music video| website=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4rOATW58zM}} in 1987. She performed the song with Jellybean on the UK's Top of the Pops that year.

Bertei continued to work as a backing vocalist, most notably for Tears for Fears' Sowing the Seeds of Love tour in 1990 where she also sang backing vocals for the opening act, Blondie's Deborah Harry. After a brief stint touring with Sophie B. Hawkins as a backing singer, she moved to Los Angeles in 1993 and took a long hiatus from music to write and study directing. Since then her only musical outing has been with The Anubian Lights as lead singer in 2005 and Phantascope,{{cite web|title=Anubian Lights' album Phantascope|website=Amazon |url=https://www.amazon.com/Phantascope/dp/B00122FTZQ}} a CD of co-produced and co-written songs on Nona Hendryx's label Rhythmbank.

Striking a punk-waif look and attitude, Bertei was heavily involved in the underground film scene of the time, collaborating and appearing in films by the Irish filmmaker Vivienne Dick, Scott & Beth B., and in the feminist sci-fi film Born in Flames,{{cite web|title="Born in Flames" on IMDB|website=IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085267/}} directed by Lizzie Borden.

In the 1990s, Bertei directed several period pieces for the Showtime series Women: Stories of Passion,{{cite web|title=Women: Stories of Passion" on IMDB| website=IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126179/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast}} and a soft-core comedy feature for Playboy, Secrets of a Chambermaid,{{cite web|title="Secrets of a Chambermaid" on IMDB| website=IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0155150/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1}} which she directed in super-16 mm with an ensemble cast (featuring Mary Woronov of Warhol/Chelsea Girls fame) and a minuscule budget in seven days. Bertei directed a 35 mm teaser for her original screenplay The Ballad of Johnny Jane.{{cite web|title="The Ballad of Johnny Jane" on IMDB| website=IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0260721/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1}}

Bertei has been awarded a writing fellowship at the [http://borchardfoundation.org Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation] fellowship for the Tomales Bay Workshops, specifically to work with Dorothy Allison in 2010.

Bertei has worked as a U.S. contributing editor-at-large for the Caribbean arts and culture magazine [https://web.archive.org/web/20130801180948/http://www.6carlos.com/ 6 Carlos]. Bertei launched a [http://www.adelebertei.com website] in 2011 and based on writing featured there, has been approached to pen her memoirs. She also blogs for [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adele-bertei/ the Huffington Post].

Bertei has written three books. Published in 2013, Bertei’s first book is “Peter and the Wolves” about her friendship with musician Peter Laughner and their journey through the 1970’s underground punk scene. The book was rereleased in 2021.{{Citation | last1 = Rabinowitz | first1 = Amanda | last2 = Nader | first2 = Brittany

| title = Author Adele Bertei Rewrites the Legacy of One of Cleveland's Underground Punk Icons | newspaper = WKSU | date = 28 January 2021 | url = https://www.wksu.org/arts-culture/2021-01-28/author-adele-bertei-rewrites-the-legacy-of-one-of-clevelands-underground-punk-icons | access-date = 22 October 2022}} Bertei’s second book, Why Labelle Matters, is about the cultural and musical progress achieved by Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles in the 1960’s.{{Citation | last1 = University of Texas Press | title = Why Labelle Matters | newspaper = University of Texas Press | date = March 2021 | url = https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477320402/ | access-date = 22 October 2022}} The newest book by Bertei is a memoir titled “Twist: An American Girl.” The release date is set for spring of 2023 with publisher ZE Books.{{Cite web |title=Twist: An American Girl - Adele Bertei |url=https://www.zebooks.com/products-1/twist-an-american-girl |access-date=2022-10-22 |website=ZE BOOKS |language=en-US}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.adelebertei.com Adele Bertei Official Website]
• {{discogs artist|Adele Bertei}}
• {{imdb name|0077855}}

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Category:1955 births

Category:Living people

Category:American people of Italian descent

Category:American people of Irish descent

Category:American people of French-Canadian descent

Category:American women singer-songwriters

Category:Singers from Cleveland

Category:Singer-songwriters from Ohio

Category:James Chance and the Contortions members

Category:21st-century American women