Siouxsie & the Banshees

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Siouxsie & the Banshees
Siouxsie & the Banshees, left to right: Steven Severin, Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie
Siouxsie & the Banshees, left to right: Steven Severin, Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie
Background information
Also known as Janet and the Icebergs
Origin London, England
Genre(s) Punk rock
Post-punk
Gothic rock
Alternative rock
Years active 1976–1996
Label(s) Polydor
Geffen
Sanctuary
Associated acts The Creatures
The Cure
The Glove
Website www.siouxsie.com
Members
Siouxsie Sioux
Steven Severin
Budgie
Former members
Sid Vicious
Marco Pirroni
Kenny Morris
Peter Fenton
John McKay
John McGeoch
Robert Smith
John Valentine Curruthers
Martin McCarrick
Jon Klein
Knox Chandler

Siouxsie & the Banshees were a British rock band which formed in 1976. Led by Siouxsie Sioux (vocals) and Steven Severin (bass), the band's only constant members, the Banshees formed in the wake of the punk rock band Sex Pistols and soon became one of the major bands in the post-punk movement. After an enforced change of musical direction leading to a redefining of their image, together with new drummer Budgie and a procession of guitarists including Robert Smith (also of The Cure) and John McGeoch, the Banshees also became instrumental in the creation and development of gothic rock into the next decade. The group released several successful albums and singles throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including "Cities in Dust", "Peek-a-Boo", and "Kiss Them for Me", while its members also dabbled in side projects. The Banshees disbanded in 1996, with Sioux and Budgie continuing to record music as The Creatures, a side project they had started in the 1980s. The band reunited briefly for a tour in 2002.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Formation and early releases

Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin were members of the Bromley Contingent, a group of Sex Pistols fans from the Bromley region of London that attended the band's shows. Severin said, "The Sex Pistols inspired us all. For the first time in my life I saw that anyone could do it. You didn't have to be able to play your instruments."[1] When one of bands scheduled to play the 100 Club Punk Festival organised by Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren pulled out from the bill, Sioux suggested that she and Severin play, even though they had no band name or additional members.[2] Siouxsie & the Banshees played their first show at the festival, held at the 100 Club in London on 20 September 1976. With two borrowed musicians, Marco Pirroni on guitars and John Simon Ritchie, later famous as Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, on drums, their set consisted of a 20-minute improvisation based around "The Lord's Prayer".[3]

While the band intended to split up right after the gig, several people asked the band to play again. Sioux and Severin recruited guitarist Pete Fenton and a drummer named Dixon, who was soon replaced by Kenny Morris.[4] Fenton was subsequently replaced in July by John McKay. While the band was able to obtain a publishing deal, they still did no have a record contract. Sioux speculated, "All I can think of is that record companies saw no future in the concept of a woman fronting a band - at least a woman with attitude . . . Perhaps they thought if they didn't sign us we'd go away."[5] The only label that offered the band a recording contract was Polydor Records, which signed the band in June 1978.[6] Polydor released the Banshees's first single, "Hong Kong Garden", which reached the top ten in the UK.

The band released their debut album The Scream in November 1978. Nick Kent wrote in the NME about The Scream: "the band sounds like some unique hybrid of the Velvet Underground mated with much of the ingenuity of Tago Mago-era Can, if any parallel can be drawn." At the end of the article, he added this remark : "Certainly, the traditional three-piece sound has never been used in a more unorthodox fashion with such stunning results."[7] The band had managed in one year to forge a particularly new style. "Pure", one of the most original songs of the record, definitely placed them as pioneer of the post-punk movement. Nick Kent pointed it in the following way : "Pure takes the sound to its ultimate juncture, leaving spaces that say as much as the notes being played."[8]

[edit] Lineup changes

The Banshees's second album, Join Hands, was released in 1979, and included a version of "The Lord's Prayer". The Banshees embarked on their first headline tour to promote the album that August. A few dates into the tour, Morris and McKay left an in-store signing and quit the band.[9] In need of replacements to fulfill tour dates, the Banshees's manager called Budgie (real name Peter Clarke, formerly of The Slits) and asked him to audition. Budgie was hired, but the band had no success auditioning guitarists.[10] Robert Smith of The Cure offered his services in case they couldn't find a guitarist, so the band "held him to it after realising everyone else was rubbish", according to Sioux.[11] The tour resumed in September 1979. After the completion of the tour, Smith had to deal with his obligations to The Cure, so the Banshees hired John McGeoch, formerly of Magazine, to replace him.[12]

Siouxsie Sioux in concert, 1980
Siouxsie Sioux in concert, 1980

The lineup soon went into the studio and recorded the "Happy House" single. The Banshees then recorded their third album Kaleidoscope (1980) with Police producer Nigel Gray. The group had a concept of making each song sound completely different, without regards to whether or not the material could be performed in concert.[13] During the recording of the album Budgie and McGeoch were officially hired as full-time members of the band.[14] For their fourth album, Juju (1981), the band practised the songs in concert first before recording them.[15] Juju, according to Severin, became an unintentional concept album that "drew on darker elements". The album would later be classified as the band's first gothic rock album.[16] During the tour for the album Sioux and Budgie secretly became a couple.[17] At the same time they began a side project called The Creatures.

The band followed with A Kiss in the Dreamhouse (1982). The album was an intentional contrast to the "creepy" Juju, with Sioux later describing it as a "sexy album".[18] The British press greeted it enthusiastically. Richard Cook in the NME finished his review with this sentence: "I promise. This music will take your breath away."[19] At that time McGeoch was struggling with alcohol problems, and was hospitalized on his return to a promotional trip to Madrid. The band fired him shortly thereafter.[20] Severin asked Robert Smith to take over guitarist duties again; Smith accepted and rejoined the group in November 1982.[21] Smith insisted on documenting his time with the group, so the Banshees recorded a live album, Nocturne (1983), and began work on its sixth album, Hyæna (1984).[22] During 1983 the band worked on sideprojects; Sioux abnd Budgie recorded another Creatures album, while Severin and Smith recorded as The Glove. The band released a cover version of The Beatles' "Dear Prudence" in September 1983, which became their biggest hit, reaching number three on the UK singles charts.[23] Smith left the group once again in early 1984 before recording on Hyæna was complete, citing health issues as the result of massive drug use and exhaustion.[24]

Ex-Clock DVA guitarist John Valentine Carruthers replaced Smith. The Banshees then reworked four numbers of their repertoire with a section of strings for The Thorn EP. The NME praised the project at its release : "The power of a classical orchestra is the perfect foil for the band's grindingly insistent sounds".[25] The new Banshees lineup spent much of 1985 working on Tinderbox. The group finished the song "Cities in Dust" before the album, so they rushed its release as a single prior to their longest tour of the UK ever.[26] Tinderbox was finally released in April 1986. Due to the length of time spent working on Tinderbox, the group desired spontaneity and decided to record an album of cover songs,[27] releasing Through the Looking Glass in 1987. After the album's release, the band decided Carruthers wasn't fitting in and fired him.[28]

Following a lengthy break, the rest of the band recruited Martin McCarrick and the ex-Specimen guitarist Jon Klein and recorded Peepshow in 1988. The first single "Peek-a-Boo" used harsh hip-hop sounds over a pop texture : it was their first real breakthrough in the United States.[29] After an elaborate tour to promote the album and sorting through band tensions, the band decided to take a break, with Sioux and Budgie recording a new Creatures album and Severin and McCarrick working on material together.[30]

[edit] Superstition, The Rapture, and breakup

In 1991, the Banshees returned with the single "Kiss Them for Me", mixing Beatles strings over a dance rhythm. This single peaked in the U.S. singles charts at number 23, allowing them to reach a new audience.[31] That same year the group toured the US as part of the first Lollapalooza tour. The following year the Banshees recorded "Face to Face" as a single for the film Batman Returns.

In 1993, The Banshees showed their new album The Rapture to Polydor, which didn't think the record was finished.[32] After some tour dates, the band hired former Velvet Underground member John Cale to produce the record.[33] The band fired Klein over contract disputes;[34] he was replaced on the band's last tour in 1995 by ex-Psychedelic Furs guitarist Knox Chandler. Days after the release of The Rapture in February 1995, Polydor dropped the band from its roster.[35] While touring to promote the album, Sioux suggested to Severin that they end the band; Sioux told the bassist, "It's not doing anyone any good and it's not any fun".[36] The band split up after playing the final date of the tour at the Beach Festival in Belgium on 21 July 1995.[37]

After the Banshees broke up, Sioux and Budgie carried on recording as The Creatures. In 2002, Sioux, Severin, Budgie and Chandler reunited briefly for the Seven Year Itch tour, which spawned the 2003 Seven Year Itch live album and DVD. The year after was published the long awaited Downside Up box set which collected all of their B-sides and the out-of print The Thorn EP.

[edit] Musical style and influences

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Sioux saw rock music as "flaccid and perverted", and the band expressed the "rock is dead" philosophy of the post-punk movement. Many of their musical traits were determined through negation. Severin said, "It was a case of us knowing what we didn't want, throwing out every cliche . . . Never having a guitar solo, never ending a song with a loud drum smash." Sioux wanted a guitar sound that sounded like "a cross between the Velvet Underground and the shower scene in Psycho", Severin said, and the band added flanger effects to the instrument. Music critic Simon Reynolds described Sioux's "ice queen voice" as "forbidding, piercing the listener's flesh like a lance".[38]

[edit] Influence on other artists

The band in their twenty years influenced many musicians of all kinds and genres.

The band also inspired the following artists :

  • The Cure leader Robert Smith declared in 2003 in Mark Paytress's Siouxsie biography : "Siouxsie and The Banshees and Wire were the two bands I really admired. They meant something."[39] He also pinpointed what the Join Hands tour brought him musically. "On stage that first night with the Banshees, I was Blown away by how powerful I felt playing that kind of music. It was so different to what we were doing with The Cure. Before that, I'd wanted us to be like The Buzzcocks or Elvis Costello, the punk Beatles. Being a Banshee really changed my attitude to what I was doing."[40] He also talked about the band to Steve Sutherland in 1985 to describe "The Head On the Door" : "It reminds me of the Kaleidoscope album, the idea of having lots of different sounding things, different colors."[41]
  • Morrissey stated this in 1994 : "None of them are as good as Siouxsie and the Banshees at full pelt. That's not dusty nostalgia, that's fact."[42]
  • Shirley Manson of Garbage wrote in the foreword of the official Siouxsie and the Banshees biography in 2003 by Mojo magazine journalist Mark Paytress : "I learned how to sing listening to The Scream and Kaleidoscope."[43] She also stated that her all-time favourite singers are Siouxsie and Frank Sinatra.[44] Manson also told the Melody Maker that she has a special liking for the first Siouxsie album.[45]
  • Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction also makes a parallel between his band and the Banshees in Siouxsie's official biography: "There are so many similar threads : melody, use of sound, attitude, sex-appeal. I always saw Jane's Addiction as the masculine Siouxsie & the Banshees."[46]
  • Ana Matronic of Scissor Sisters said at the 2005 Brit Awards that she wouldn't be a singer without Siouxsie. She also stated in Metro that the Banshees are her all time favourite band.[47]

[edit] Discography

Main article: Siouxsie & the Banshees discography

[edit] References

  • Paytress, Mark. Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Authorised Biography. Sanctuary, 2003. ISBN 1-86074-375-7
  • Reynolds, Simon. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984. Penguin, 2005. ISBN 0-14-303672-6

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Paytress, p. 48
  2. ^ Paytress, p. 49
  3. ^ Paytress, p. 53-54
  4. ^ Paytress, p. 54-55
  5. ^ Paytress, p. 64
  6. ^ Paytress, p. 66
  7. ^ NME (8.26.78) elogious article of Nick Kent for the release of The Scream
  8. ^ NME (8.26.78) article of Nick Kent for the release of The Scream
  9. ^ Paytress, p. 81-82
  10. ^ Paytress, p. 93-94
  11. ^ Paytress, p. 95
  12. ^ Paytress, p. 97-98
  13. ^ Paytress, p. 101
  14. ^ Paytress, p. 102
  15. ^ Paytress, p. 105
  16. ^ Paytress, p. 106
  17. ^ Paytress, p. 110-11
  18. ^ Paytress, p. 124
  19. ^ 06/11/1982 dithyrambic reviews of "A Kiss In the Dreamhouse" published in the NME and the Melody Maker
  20. ^ Paytress, p. 126-27
  21. ^ Paytress, p. 129
  22. ^ Paytress, p. 134
  23. ^ Paytress, p. 137, 143
  24. ^ Paytress, p. 142-43
  25. ^ NME 25.10.84 Mark Jenkins, review of "The Thorn" EP
  26. ^ Paytress, p. 154
  27. ^ Paytress, p. 158
  28. ^ Paytress, p. 162-63
  29. ^ Allmusicguide Billboard charts position for the singles of Siouxsie & the Banshees
  30. ^ Paytress, p. 188-89
  31. ^ AMG Billboard page with the siouxsie & The Banshees us singles chart positions
  32. ^ Paytress, p. 215
  33. ^ Paytress, p. 216
  34. ^ Paytress, p. 220
  35. ^ Paytress, p. 224
  36. ^ Paytress, p. 228
  37. ^ Paytress, p. 233-34
  38. ^ Reynolds, p. 355
  39. ^ Interview of Robert Smith by Alewis Petridis in Mark Paytress 'the Siouxsie & The Banshees official biography', Sanctuary 2003, page 95
  40. ^ Interview of Robert Smith by Alewis Petridis in Mark Paytress 'the Siouxsie & The Banshees official biography', Sanctuary 2003, page 96
  41. ^ "A suitable case of treatment" interview of Robert Smith by Steve Sutherland in Melody Maker 17 August 1985
  42. ^ Q in April 1994 Morrissey talks about Siouxsie in this interview
  43. ^ Mark Paytress, foreword by (the singer) Shirley Manson 'the Siouxsie & The Banshees official biography', Sanctuary 2003, page 9
  44. ^ people.monstersandcritics.com people.monstersandcritics.com biography of shirley manson from Garbage
  45. ^ garbage.net Shirley Manson's Garbage interview in the Melody Maker
  46. ^ interview of Dave Navarro in Mark Paytress 'the Siouxsie & The Banshees official biography', Sanctuary 2003, page 199
  47. ^ metro.co.uk Ana Matronic from Scissor Sisters talked about her favourite band

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Siouxsie & the Banshees
Siouxsie Sioux · Steven Severin · Budgie
Knox Chandler · John Valentine Carruthers · Peter Fenton · Jon Klein · Martin McCarrick · John McGeoch · John McKay · Kenny Morris · Marco Pirroni · Robert Smith · Sid Vicious
Studio albums
EPs
Live Albums
Compilations
Singles
Videos
Once Upon a Time: The Singles · Nocturne · Twice Upon a Time: The Singles
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