Siouxsie & the Banshees
Background information
Also known as	Janet and the Icebergs
Origin	Bromley, London, England
Genre(s)	Punk rock Post-punk Gothic rock
Years active	1976–1996, 2002 (reunion tour)
Label(s)	Polydor Geffen Sanctuary
Associated acts	The Creatures The Glove
Website	http://siouxsie.com/ Siouxsie Sioux and The Creatures official website. Also features news regarding current Siouxsie & the Banshees developments.
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 and the Banshees were a British rock band that formed in 1976. Led by the singer Siouxsie Sioux and the bassist Steven Severin, the band's only constant members, the Banshees formed in the wake of the Punk scene and soon became one of the major bands in the post-punk movement. Their eclectic music influenced a large range of very diverse bands over the years amongst them The Cure, Tricky and more recently Lcd Soundsystem. The group released a total of eleven studio albums from 1978 to 1995. The Banshees remain cult today.

Contents 1 Formation 2 Style and notoriety 3 History 4 Influence on other artists 5 Discography 6 Miscellanea 7 See also 8 Sources of the citations 9 External links

Formation

The band was originally formed to fill an empty space on a bill at the first UK based "international punk rock festival". This show was organized by Malcolm McLaren at the 100 Club on London's Oxford Street on September 20, 1976.

The initial line up consisted of "Bromley Contingent" members Siouxsie Sioux, Steven Severin (real name Steven Bailey aka Steve Spunker/Havoc), Marco Pirroni (later of Adam and the Ants and Rema Rema) and John Simon Ritchie, later infamous as Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, on drums. On this occasion their set consisted of a lengthy and chaotic improvisation based around "The Lord's Prayer", which also included lines from songs such as "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles", "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", "Smoke on the Water" and "Twist and Shout".

Style and notoriety

Siouxsie courted much controversy in the band's early days with her dress, often wearing bondage clothes and fetish wear. She was also heavily criticized for wearing swastika armbands, although she always maintained that this was intended to be for shock value and not for political reasons. (To avoid controversy, she wrote two songs : "Metal Postcard" to the memory of the anti-Nazi artist John Heartfield and later the single "Israel").

Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones' infamous "you dirty bastard...what a fuckin' rotter?" comment during the band's December 1976 interview with Bill Grundy, which helped to fuel their notoriety, was sparked when Grundy attempted to "chat up" Siouxsie on prime time TV.

History

By February 1977 the Banshees were taking themselves seriously as a musical unit. They recruited Kenny Morris and Pete Fenton to their line up, which was by now gigging regularly and had attracted a solid fan base. Fenton was subsequently sacked and replaced in July by John McKay. It was not until 1978 that they finally obtained a record contract with Polydor Records, whereupon they released their first single "Hong Kong Garden" (which reached the top ten in the UK), followed soon after by their first album.

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".

Their second album, Join Hands, was released in 1979, and included a lengthy version of the aforementioned "Lord's Prayer" track. However, two days into a tour promoting this album, Morris and McKay quit the band. They were hastily replaced by Robert Smith (whose band The Cure were supporting the Banshees during the tour) on guitar and Budgie (real name Peter Clarke, formerly of The Slits) on drums. After the completion of the tour, Budgie stayed on as the Banshees' permanent drummer, whilst John McGeoch, formerly of Magazine, joined as guitarist.

McGeoch played on the albums Kaleidoscope including the pop seminal singles "Happy house" and "Christine" singles and in 1981 on Juju with the classic "Spellbound". His third album with the band, 1982's A Kiss in the Dreamhouse greatly impressed the British press.

Richard Cook in the NME finished his review by this sentence: "I promise. This music will take your breath away". But the guitarist, worn by the recording process of these songs, was hospitalized on his return to a promotional trip to Madrid. He was replaced on tour by Robert Smith, who became a full-time member between 1982 and 1984. Smith contributed to the live album and dvd Nocturne and to the studio album Hyæna as co-composer, but quit the following year to concentrate all his energy on fronting The Cure.

Ex-Clock DVA guitarist John Valentine Carruthers replaced Smith. The Banshees recorded The Thorn EP with Carruthers and cellist/keyboardist Martin McCarrick, who later became a full-time member.

1986 saw the release of Tinderbox and the single "Cities in Dust", followed in 1987 by the covers album Through the Looking Glass.

Following a lengthy break, the rest of the band recruited McCarrick and the ex-Specimen guitarist Jon Klein and recorded Peepshow. The hit-single "Peek-a-Boo" used harsh hip-hop sounds over a pop texture: it was their first real breakthrough in the United States. After the most impressive tour of their career, the band stopped for a while and the second band of Siouxsie & Budgie The Creatures reappeared with another album : the critically acclaimed Boomerang. One of the most languorous songs of this record 'Killing Time' was covered live by Jeff Buckley a few years later .

In 1991, the Banshees returned with the single "Kiss Them for Me" which followed the path of the bold production of peek-a-boo, mixing this time 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. Melody Maker well-received the last two studio albums Superstition and The Rapture. For their last tour in 1995, Klein left and was replaced by ex-Psychedelic Furs guitarist Knox Chandler. Morrissey recorded a duet with Siouxsie called "Interlude" during that period of time : this one-off single was published under the banner of the two artists names.

In 2002, Sioux, Steve Severin and Budgie reunited briefly for the Seven Year Itch tour, which spawned the 2003 Seven Year Itch live album and dvd. The group's 1978 single "Hong Kong Garden" features on the soundtrack of Sofia Coppola's 2006 film Marie Antoinette.

In July 2006, it was announced that Sioux had signed a record deal as a solo artist with Universal. Release of new material is expected in 2007. In the meantime Polydor Japan re-released several albums housed in miniature reproduction LP sleeves.

Influence on other artists

Out of all the bands to emerge from the original UK punk scene and later new wave, Siouxsie and the Banshees still remain one of the most influential. The band in their twenty years influenced many musicians of all kinds and genres.

They had a strong impact on trip hop acts :

• Tricky covered "Tattoo" to open his second solo album Nearly God. The original version of "Tattoo" was recorded in 1983 and is available on the Banshees Downside Up box set.
• Massive Attack covered and sampled "Metal Postcard" on their song "Superpredators (Metal Postcard)" for the movie soundtrack The Jackal

The band also influenced the following artists :

• Lcd Soundsystem covered "Slowdive" for a compilation in 2006
• 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" and "today, I can see and hear the Banshees' influence all over the place". . The singer of Garbage also stated that her all time favourite singers are Siouxsie and Frank Sinatra. Manson also told the Melody Maker that she has a special liking for the first Siouxsie album.
• 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".
• The Cure leader Robert Smith declared in Mark Paytress's Siouxsie biography : "Being a Banshee really changed my attitude to what I was doing". 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".
• 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".
• 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.
• The Beta Band sampled "Painted Bird" on their track "Liquid Bird" from the Heroes to Zeros album
• Jeff Buckley covered live a Siouxsie / The Creatures song called "Killing Time", originally composed in 1989 on the album Boomerang.
• U2 are also fans of the band and The Edge presented an award to Siouxsie at a Mojo ceremony in 2005.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers covered "Christine" live at the V2001 festival.
• Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood claims that while recording their song "There There", producer Nigel Godrich tried to get guitarist Jonny Greenwood to sound like the Banshees' John McGeoch. .
• Arcade Fire singer Win Butler suggested to the band Devotchka to cover the 1988 Siouxsie song : "The Last Beat Of My Heart".
• Sir Mix-A-Lot uses a sample from "Peek-a-Boo" in his song "The (Peek-a-Boo) Game" from his 1989 album Seminar. Part of the reason he did this was to show his influences were more eclectic than most average rappers.
• theSTART recorded a cover of "Cities in Dust" that they released on their MySpace profile and is intended to be released on the soundtrack for the third Resident Evil film.

Discography

For a complete list of albums, EPs, singles and videos see Siouxsie & the Banshees discography.

Miscellanea

• "Peek-a-Boo" was the first number-one song on Billboard magazine's Modern Rock Tracks chart on the week ending September 10, 1988.
• Siouxsie and the Banshees used the alias "Janet and the Icebergs" for three gigs in 1980, Siouxsie's "real" middle name[1].
• The band reportedly got their name from Edgar Allan Poe's Cry of the Banshee (though there is no such work by Poe by that name) and "Siouxsie" as a tribute to the Sioux tribe because Siouxsie Sioux "hates cowboys".
• Their single "Kiss Them for Me" was their highest chart placing single on the Billboard Hot 100 and "Dear Prudence" was their highest on the UK singles chart, reaching number three.
• When Boy George was splitting up from then-boyfriend Jon Moss, he played parts of "Drop Dead/Celebration" on Moss' answering machine.
• Siouxsie and the Banshees state their influences among others as: T Rex, David Bowie, Nico, Iggy Pop, The Stooges and The Velvet Underground.
• Prior to the Banshees signing to Polydor Records in 1978, a diehard fan started a "Sign the Banshees Do It Now" graffiti campaign which was put on most of the major labels in London at the time. Siouxsie Sioux once said "It was actually a big fan of ours who'd probably be really embarrassed if he knew I told you, no no no! it was actually Les Mills who went on to manage The Psychedelic Furs. He had blonde hair, a leather jacket and studs, with SIOUXSIE on it. For those two years (prior to the Banshees signing) he was pretty obsessive about it, then he got his own band together."
• The song "Face to Face" features on the 1992 Tim Burton film Batman Returns.
• The artwork for both the album A Kiss In The Dreamhouse and its single "Slowdive" was based on Gustav Klimt.

See also

• The Glove - Steven Severin's side project with The Cure's Robert Smith
• The Creatures - Siouxsie and Budgie's side project.
• Steven Severin - Extracurricula and post-Banshee production, compositions and releases.

Sources of the citations

External links

• "Mantaray" : the new Siouxsie album. special site made around this new album. release date : 10 September 2007
• Siouxsie.com is the official Siouxsie Sioux and The Creatures (Siouxsie and the Banshees off-shoot band) website, with a shop and news section.
• The Banshees & Other Creatures U.K. A comprehensive website with lots of information, with a forum, news section, discographies and band member interviews. The ONLY unofficial site to be recommended by the official website.
• Untied Undone.com is a fan site with lots of information, images, and even some video of Siouxsie and the Banshees
• Fantazee U.K. is Vernette Butler's excellent Siouxsie site, containing a complete history, official and bootleg discographies and much more.
• Vamp.org's Siouxsie and the Banshees Site Contains lyrics, album covers and other images, and magazine articles related to SATB.
• Page about the band on Punk77.com U.K.
• All Music Guide's Siouxsie and the Banshees Chart Positions Contains singles chart positions in the United States. Chart information courtesy of Billboard.com

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
Siouxsie & the Banshees discography
Studio albums and extended plays: The Scream | Join Hands | Kaleidoscope | Juju | A Kiss in the Dreamhouse | Hyæna | The Thorn EP | Tinderbox | Through the Looking Glass | Peepshow | Superstition | The Rapture
Compilations: Once Upon a Time: The Singles | Twice Upon a Time: The Singles | The Best of Siouxsie & the Banshees | Downside Up
Live Albums: Nocturne | Seven Year Itch
Peel Sessions: Voices on the Air: The Peel Sessions
Singles: Hong Kong Garden | The Staircase (Mystery) | Playground Twist | Mittageisen / Love in a Void | Happy House | Christine | Israel | Spellbound | Arabian Knights | Fireworks | Slowdive | Melt! | Dear Prudence | Swimming Horses | Dazzle | Overground | Cities in Dust | Candyman | This Wheel's on Fire | The Passenger | Song from the Edge of the World | Peek-a-Boo | The Killing Jar | The Last Beat of My Heart | Kiss Them for Me | Shadowtime | Fear (of the Unknown) | Face to Face | O Baby | Stargazer
Siouxsie solo: Interlude (duet with Morrissey) | MantaRay | Into a Swan
Related articles
Bromley Contingent | The Creatures | The Glove | Goth subculture