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Siouxsie & the Banshees
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Siouxsie & the Banshees were a British rock band formed in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bassist Steven Severin, the only constant members.
Initially associated with the British punk rock scene, Siouxsie & the Banshees quickly evolved to create "a form of post-punk discord full of daring rhythmic and sonic experimentation"."
The Times cited Siouxsie & the Banshees as "one of the most audacious and uncompromising musical adventurers of the post-punk era."
The group also became inspirational in the creation and development of gothic rock and their style also combined elements of pop and avant-garde.
xsie Sioux and Steven Severin met at a Roxy Music concert in September 1975.
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Encyclopedia
Siouxsie & the Banshees were a British rock band formed in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bassist Steven Severin, the only constant members.
Initially associated with the British punk rock scene, Siouxsie & the Banshees quickly evolved to create "a form of post-punk discord full of daring rhythmic and sonic experimentation"."
The Times cited Siouxsie & the Banshees as "one of the most audacious and uncompromising musical adventurers of the post-punk era."
The group also became inspirational in the creation and development of gothic rock and their style also combined elements of pop and avant-garde.
History
Formation and early releases
Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin met at a Roxy Music concert in September 1975. Severin remembered : "At one time, you could see something every week New York Dolls, Can, but that was changing. Glam rock has faded. Roxy and Bowie were getting too big. There was nothing new coming through that we could identify with." From February 1976, Sioux, Severin and some friends began to follow the Sex Pistols at their early stage of their career. Journalist Caroline Coon dubbed them the Bromley Contingent as most of them came from the Bromley region of London. Severin later despised the label. "There was no such thing as the 'bromley contingent', said he. "It was just a bunch of people drawn together by the way they felt and they looked." Severin explained why they were interested by this new group yet un-signed. "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." 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. 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".
While the band intended to split up after the gig, they were asked to play again. Sioux and Severin recruited guitarist Pete Fenton and a drummer named Dixon, who was soon replaced by Kenny Morris. The band realized that Fenton didn't fit in because he was "a real rock guitarist". John McKay finally took his seat in July. While the band was able to obtain a publishing deal, they still did not 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." The only label that offered the band a recording contract was Polydor Records, to which Siouxsie & the Banshees soon signed with. 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 of NME said of the record: "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."
Lineup changes
The Banshees's second album, Join Hands, was released in 1979 and included a version of "The Lord's Prayer". In the Melody Maker, Jon Savage described "Poppy Day" as "powerful" and "Placebo Effect" as "stunning"." The Banshees embarked on a major 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. In need of replacements to fulfill tour dates, the Banshees's manager called Budgie (real name Peter Clarke, formerly with The Slits) and asked him to audition. Budgie was hired, but the band had no success auditioning guitarists. 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. The tour resumed in September 1979. When the tour culminated, Smith was obligated to continue with The Cure, so the Banshees hired John McGeoch, formerly of Magazine, to replace him.
The new lineup soon went into the studio and recorded the 1980 single "Happy House". Their third album Kaleidoscope, released later that year, saw Sioux & Severin exploring new musical territories with the use of other instruments like sitars, drum machines and synthesizers. The group initially had a concept of making each song sound completely different, without regards to whether or not the material could be performed in concert. Melody Maker described the result as "a kaleidoscope of sound and imagery, new forms, and content, flashing before our eyes". Kaleidoscope was a commercial success, peaking at number five in the UK album chart. This lineup, featuring McGeoch on guitar, toured the United States for the first time in support of the album, playing their first shows in New York City in November 1980. For Juju (1981), the band had a different approach and practised the songs in concert first before recording them. Juju, according to Severin, became an unintentional concept album that "drew on darker elements". Sounds magazine hailed it as "intriguing, intense, brooding and powerfully atmospheric." The album later peaked at number 7 in the uk album charts and became one of their biggest sellers. During the accompanying tour, Sioux and Budgie secretly became a couple. At the same time, they also began a side project called The Creatures releasing their first EP "Wild Things".
The Banshees followed in 1982 with the experimental A Kiss in the Dreamhouse. 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." The record, featuring strings on several numbers, was an intentional contrast to their previous work, with Sioux later describing it as a "sexy album". 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. Severin asked Robert Smith to take over guitarist duties again; Smith accepted and rejoined the group in November 1982. During 1983, the band members worked on several side projects; Sioux and Budgie composed the first Creatures album, while Severin and Smith recorded as The Glove. Smith then insisted on documenting his time with the Banshees, so the group released a cover version of The Beatles' "Dear Prudence" in September 1983; it became their biggest hit, reaching number three on the UK Singles Chart. They also captured a live album, Nocturne and completed their sixth studio album, Hyæna. Shortly before its release in May 1984, Smith left the group, citing health issues due to an overloaded schedule of being in two bands at once.
Ex-Clock DVA guitarist John Valentine Carruthers replaced him. 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". The new Banshees lineup spent much of 1985 working on their new record 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. Tinderbox was finally released in April 1986. Sounds magazine noted : "it's a refreshing slant on the Banshees' disturbing perspective and restores their vivid shades to pop's pale palette". Due to the length of time spent working on Tinderbox, the group desired spontaneity and decided to record an album of cover songs. releasing Through the Looking Glass in 1987. Mojo magazine later especially praised their version of "Strange Fruit" After the album's release, the band realized Carruthers wasn't fitting in anymore and decided to work on new material as a trio.
Following a lengthy break, the band recruited keyboards player Martin McCarrick and the ex-Specimen guitarist Jon Klein and recorded the 1988's Peepshow with non-traditional rock instrumentation including cello and accordion. Q magazine praised the album in its five-star review : "Peepshow takes place in some distorted fairground of the mind where weird and wonderful shapes loom." The first single "Peek-a-Boo" used abrasive sounds over a pop texture : it was their first real breakthrough in the United States. 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.
Superstition, The Rapture, and breakup
In 1991, the Banshees returned with the single "Kiss Them for Me", mixing strings over a dance rhythm. This single peaked in the U.S. singles charts at number 23, allowing them to reach a new audience. The album Superstition followed shortly after and the group toured the US as second headliners of the inaugural Lollapalooza tour. The following year the Banshees were asked to compose "Face to Face" as a single for the film Batman Returns.
In 1993, The Banshees recorded new songs based on strings arrangements but quickly stopped the sessions to play some festivals abroad. On their return at home, they hired former Velvet Underground member John Cale to produce the rest of the record. At its release, the 1995's The Rapture was described by Melody Maker as "a fascinating, transcontinental journey through danger and exotica." Yet, a few weeks after its release, Polydor dropped the band from its roster and Klein was replaced on the band's last tour in 1995 by ex-Psychedelic Furs guitarist Knox Chandler. In June, 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". The band split up after playing the final date of the tour at the Beach Festival in Belgium on 21 July 1995.
After the Banshees broke up, Sioux and Budgie carried on recording as The Creatures.
2000s
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 Downside Up, a box set that collected all of the band's B-sides and the out-of print The Thorn EP, was released. The Times wrote in its review : "for here is a group that never filled B-sides with inferior, throwaway tracks. Rather they saw them as an outlet for some of their most radical and challenging work."
In 2006, the band's first four records were remastered and compiled with previously unreleased bonus tracks.
Several recordings made for the John Peel radio show from 1978 to 1986, were put together on Voices on the Air: The Peel Sessions. Allmusic described the first session as "a fiery statement of intent" and qualified the other performances as "excellent".
The next batch of remasters, concerning the 1982-1986'era, are set to be released on April 6, 2009 : it will include four other re-issues (including the 1982's A Kiss In The Dreamhouse considered as their masterpiece). The At The BBC box set containing a dvd with all the U.K. television performances of the band and several cds with in concert recordings, will also be out on May 25.
Legacy and influence
Siouxsie & the Banshees influenced many musicians of different genres. The Banshees had a strong impact on two main trip hop acts. Tricky covered the b-side "Tattoo" to open his second album Nearly God; the original version of that song helped Tricky in the creation of his style. Another trip hop group Massive Attack sampled "Metal Postcard" prior to record Mezzanine : one of their leaders 3D also explained that for this album, his band "let the sounds of the new wave acts like Siouxsie get in their music".
Popular solo musician Morrissey stated in 1994 that "none [...] are as good as Siouxsie and the Banshees at full pelt. That's not dusty nostalgia, that's fact." Another ex-member of The Smiths, Johnny Marr mentioned his liking for Banshees'guitarist John McGeoch. Shirley Manson of Garbage wrote in the foreword to Paytress's Banshees biography, "I learned how to sing listening to The Scream and Kaleidoscope. Today, I can see and hear the Banshees' influence all over the place." She also stated that her all-time favourite singers are Siouxsie and Frank Sinatra. Guitarist Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction also made 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." 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." 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." Other famous acts named the Banshees. Radiohead cited John McGeoch'era Siouxsie records when mentioning the recording of the song "There There". U2 selected "Christine" for a Mojo'compilation and The Edge was the presenter of an award given to Siouxsie at the Mojo ceremony'2005 .
Siouxsie & the Banshees's music still continues to be an influence in modern music today. LCD Soundsystem leader James Murphy was marked by certain Banshees albums during his childhood. Later in 2005, his band LCD Soundsystem LCD Soundsystem covered "Slowdive" as a B-side to the single "Disco Infiltrator". Santogold based one of her songs on the music of "Red Light". "'My Superman' is an interpolation of a Siouxsie Sioux song, 'Red Light,'" she explained. "The only reason I'm calling it an interpolation is because we have to." "I have no problem with it because I love her song and I love this song." The Beta Band sampled "Painted Bird" on their track "Liquid Bird" from the Heroes to Zeros album. Devotchka covered "The Last Beat of My Heart" on the suggestion of Arcade Fire singer Win Butler : it was released on "The Curse Your Little Heart" EP. The Mars Volta covered "Pulled to Bits", b-side of "Playground Twist" single, on their single "Wax Simulacra" (released on November 18, 2007).
Discography
External links
- A comprehensive website with an array of information.
- A site with several articles and interviews published about the band from 1977.
- Contains singles chart positions in the United States. Chart information courtesy of Billboard.com
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