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Siouxsie and the Banshees - The Early Years
Siouxsie and the Banshees
(2023)
Monday
20th September 1976 saw one of the most unexpected moments in music
history when what was to become one of the most iconic, important and
mimicked bands of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s took to the stage at The
100 Club in Oxford Street, London. A last-minute addition to the '100
Club Punk Special' that included The Clash, Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks and
The Damned, an unknown Siouxsie and The Banshees, comprising Sid
Vicious, Steve Severin, Marco Pirroni and Siouxsie Sioux, unleashed
twenty minutes of 'performance art' improvisation, featuring fragments
of 'Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles', 'Twist And Shout' and
'Satisfaction'. 'The Lord's Prayer', which was to become a staple of
Siouxsie and The Banshees' early live repertoire, was a white-noise
assault on the senses and a barometer of the alienation many teenagers
felt from the bloated nature of mid-1970s 'arena rock'.
Several
line-up changes later, in 1978, Siouxise and The Banshees were
propelled into the pop stratosphere. Signed to a major record label, the
band released 'Hong Kong Garden' and wrote one of the most influential
post-punk albums of all time, The Scream, a savage critique of
curtain-twitching suburbia, the cheap titillation of the tabloids, and
the dangers of believing and following any one doctrine. 1979's Join
Hands, influenced by the political landscape in Britain and further
afield, and the catastrophic loss of life in World War One, was a
milestone of the band's increasing maturity, from the adrenaline-fuelled
stomp of 'Love In A Void' to the phased guitar, saxophone and bells of
'Playground Twist'.
After
a tour fraught with fractiousness, a new line up with Slits' drummer
Budgie and Magazine guitarist John McGeogh, together with Siouxsie Sioux
and Steve Severin, released the band's most experimental album,
Kaleidoscope, which was a heady mix of psychedelia and sonorous
adventures including the singles 'Happy House' and 'Christine'. Siouxsie
and The Banshees The Early Years explores the adventures, trials and
tribulations of a band defying categorisation. Their uncompromising
brilliance is exemplified by three unique albums, which are chronicled
in the pages of this authoritative survey.