“ADOPTED baby, human experiment, Scouse institution, pantomime dame”, reads the intriguing blurb on the latest celebrity autobiography to hit the shelves.

Pete Price, one of Merseyside’s most ubiquitous showbiz personalities, officially released Namedropper at a launch lunch at the Living Room yesterday.

Namedropper spans his career through the cabaret bars of 1960s Liverpool to his award-winning radio talk show.

He says he found it hard to believe anyone would be interested in his story.

“I can’t explain how it feels,” he said. “The book has been two years in the making – when I was first approached, I thought to myself, ‘who wants to read about my life?’”

After some persuasion, Price was paired up with writer and journalist Adrian Butler, and together they began the process of writing the book.

“We had this incredible rapport, because he writes how I speak. We’re from two totally different worlds, and we had a few arguments, but it worked. I had a tape recorder by my bed in case I remembered anything.

“The thing is, I’m not a reader, I have never been a book person. I’ve read three books in my life – Of Mice and Men, Pilgrim’s Progress, and a book about Aristotle Onassis – and I know I’ve missed out.

“I wanted this book to be a journey, and it was the most incredible journey for me to go down.”

Mr Butler, 25, added: “At first I was terrified. Pete's hardly had a quiet life, and I didn't know what sort of skeletons I'd find in his closet.

“But the more we worked on it, the more brilliant material kept cropping up. And what shines through it all is his love of showbusiness and his work.

“In many ways he's the ideal subject. He's a natural storyteller, and he certainly isn't coy.

“The first time I gave him a few early chapters to read, he completely freaked out. I got a phone call in the morning telling me he hadn't slept. But thankfully he soon calmed down.”

Filled with anecdotes about meeting and working with show-biz idols including Shirley Bassey, as well as assessing some of his near-legendary adventures in couture (“If you think standing in front of a miserable, heckling crowd is bad, try doing it in gold knickerbockers and a matching waistcoat – you have to believe in what you’re doing,” he muses), the book deals with more trau-matic episodes that have had a profound effect on the DJ’s life, including the death of his mother, and the aversion therapy he had in an attempt to “cure” his homosexuality, which he admits is still hard for him to talk about.

The foreword to the book was written by Paul O’Grady, who pays tribute to Price as: “a survivor, an eternal optimist and what’s known in the trade as a trouper.”

PETE PRICE is signing copies of Namedropper at Waterstones in Birkenhead today from 1-2pm and on Bold Street, Liverpool, tomorrow, from 2-3pm. The book is published by Trinity Mirror NW2, publisher of the Daily Post, priced £8.99.

vickyanderson