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In
the past, the Banshees have never had any difficulty in thinking of a
suitable name for their albums, it's something that they usually decide
on when the album they are recording is only half complete. With
their latest offering it was different, in the main due to the fact that
they found it harder to grasp how the collection of songs worked
together. Eventually it was Steve who conceived the title whilst
watching a t.v. detective programme centered around a place called the
Castle Of Dreams, a house of ill repute within the confines of which, a
person could spend the evening with a double of the film star of their
choice.
Recording for the then untitled
album began on May 5th, when the group recorded 'Cascade'. On the
6th, overdubs were added to the backing track and John played the
clavinet (not the clarinet as I wrongly stated in the last issue).
On the 7th they began work on 'Greenfingers', with contributions from
John on guitar and Steve on organ. The following day guitars and
percussion were added to the 'Cascade' track, and Siouxsie provided
vocals for 'Greenfingers'. On the 9th work began on 'Painted Bird'
with an organ contribution courtesy of Steve.
The group then took a break from
the recording studio, but on the 13th they found themselves in the BBC
radio studios, recording a session for the Kid Jensen show - which
produced versions of 'Painted Bird', 'Greenfingers', 'Coalmind' and
'Cascade'.
No sooner had they finished, when
they flew off to Sweden to begin a Scandinavian tour. They
returned the following month, and on the 17th June they went back into
the studios and started work on 'Circle', by experimenting with a
backwards tape of the string section from 'Fireworks' accompanied by
Budgie on drums. Steve and Budgie also contributed a somewhat
unorthodox basstrack which was recorded with Steve forming and moving
chords on the fretboard of a bass guitar, whilst Budgie hit the strings
with a bit of wire. The following day John added piano and
synthesizer, and Siouxsie vocals. On the third day (19th), the
group continued running through new ideas based on tapes that had been
recorded during soundchecks, from whence 'Cannibal roses' first saw the
light of day courtesy of a jam session between Steve and Budgie.
The following day they were forced to switch studios from Playground to
Abbey Road, due to the fact that Playground's desk had ceased to
function. Once inside Abbey Road, they found themselves working in
the confines of studio two, the very room in which The Beatles recorded
a lot of their material. First of all the guitar tracks were
recorded for 'Cascade', then Siouxsie and Budgie began working on
'Obsession', a strange track indeed! Siouxsie and Budgie found
themselves confronted by a vast studio that was literally cluttered with
various forms of percussion. Not being the type to overlook the
opportunity to delve, they took full advantage of the equipment.
Siouxsie began tinkering with the tubular bells, while Budgie took up
his position on the drum riser (but without any drums), and began
banging out a beat with his feet and hand percussion. In the
control room the tape started rolling, and the whole exercise was
captured, with the addition of handclaps and heavy breathing by
Siouxsie, and her use of a mic swung around her head to produce an eerie
whooshing sound (the extra track on the 12" version of 'Slowdive'
called 'Obsession II' (though Steve wanted to call it 'Obsession 2'), is
a completely instrumental version on which the peculiar sounds can be
heard to full effect. Although there were no drum or bass tracks
recorded for 'Obsession', John did contribute a guitar track, at which
time things started getting weird... as he was playing, what was being
recorded mysteriously slowed down, then returned to its normal speed
without explanation, strange eh? perhaps Mr. Lennon knows something
about it?
On the 21st the group returned to
Playground studios, recorded the vocals for 'Obsession', then edited
bits of the lengthy backing track to fit the vocal pattern.
There followed a five day break,
then they returned to Abbey Road where Steve and Budgie accompanied by
John on piano began work on 'Melt!'. This particular track
originated from rehearsals, when Steve would play, every now and then,
play one particular bassline in order to get some kind of reaction from
the others; eventually his persistence was rewarded when Budgie latched
onto what Steve was playing and provided a suitable drumbeat.
Steve then wrote the lyrics, and worked further on it with John during
breaks in recording the Kid Jensen session.
On the 2nd July, back to
Playground, where they sat down and started writing and arranging the
psycho string section for 'Obsession' on keyboards, the main contributor
in this instance being John. Later that day Siouxsie recorded the
vocals for 'Painted Bird' and 'Melt!'. Even later that evening
'Slowdive' was invented. It all began with the arrival at the
studio of The Cures Robert Smith with a six - string bass for
Steve. Not having used one before, Steve began messing about with
it, whilst Mike Hedges and Budgie listened to Steve's ramblings from the
control - booth. Inspired by the sounds Steve was producing,
Budgie left the booth and accompanied him on drums. Siouxsie
listened to the duo's performance, wrote a set of lyrics, recorded them
and the whole track was completed in about two hours, all that remained
to be recorded was John's guitar part (because he had been absent at the
time 'Slowdive' was written and recorded).
The following day (still in
Playground) Steve recorded a couple of bass tracks for 'Melt!', the
first of which was recorded at normal speed, whereas the second tracks
was recorded at half - speed so that when the recording is played back
at normal speed it sounds higher pitched, creating a strange guitar
sound. That afternoon (and evening) the group were joined by three
girls (Caroline Lavell on cello, Anne Stephenson on violin and Virginia
Hewes on viola), who provided strings on 'Slowdive' and
'Obsession'. On the 4th, Siouxsie recorded the vocals for 'Painted
Bird', and on the 5th additional percussion was recorded for 'Slowdive'
which Budgie rounded off with a spell on harmonica. Later, that
evening, Steve, Siouxsie and Budgie began recording the original backing
track for 'She's A Carnival', which originated during a soundcheck jam
between Steve, Budgie and John in Karlshamn in Sweden, to which Steve
wrote the lyrics. The following day Siouxsie continued work on
'She's A Carnival', by recording a total of eight different vocal
tracks. The evening came, and with it 'Cocoon' one of oddest (when
compared to their other material) Banshees' offerings to date. The
whole thing originated from a mess about on the piano a couple of days
earlier, which Steve and Budgie had recorded. Siouxsie already had
a set of lyrics written which she tried pairing with a tune of Steve's,
but unsuccessfully. At this point, man at the controls Mike Hedges
suggested that the group attempted something sleazy, Steve agreed and
suggested something jazzy with a walking bass line. So by suing
the same notes that had been played on the piano, Steve transferred them
to a walking bass line, and although he played the same notes the
resulting sound was totally different. So Budgie (brushes firmly
in hand) and Steve worked it out from there, tongues pressed firmly in
cheeks at the thought of a jazzy Banshee track! The session went
well, into the night, and with the atmosphere thick with smoke and their
veins full of alcohol, 'Cocoon' was recorded in two takes.
on the 7th, guitars and percussion
were added to 'She's A Carnival', and on the 8th everything ground to a
halt when Budgie exploded a bottle of champagne into the recording
desk! The 9th didn't prove to be a very productive day
either. Due to Budgie's mishap with the champagne, they spent the
whole of the day waiting patiently for the desk to dry out, and for
someone to come and repair it - which didn't happen until 5am on the
10th, at which point everyone gave up and went home to bed!
Later that day Siouxsie returned
to the studios alone, and recorded the vocals for 'Cocoon' and
'Melt!' On the 11th, the group started the days/nights session by
going for a meal, during which time they consumed a fair amount of
alcohol. It was in this condition that, they, they entered the
studio, and Siouxsie recorded the vocals for the original version of
'Cannibal Roses' (which was somewhat different to the one eventually
released as the flipside of 'Slowdive').
There followed a day off, then on
the 13th, 14th and 15th John entered Playground and recoded guitars and
piano for 'Cocoon', guitar for 'She's A Carnival' and speeded - up
guitar for 'Melt!' (which when played back, sounds more like a mandolin
than a guitar). On the 16th the group began doing a rough monitor
mix of everything that had been recorded and they began sorting out a
suitable running order for the album.
They then went off to Italy, and
returned on the 26th, when they mixed 'Melt!' and 'Cocoon'. The
following day they mixed 'She's A Carnival' and 'Greenfingers', and on
the 28th they mixed 'Circle'.
On the 29th, they took a break
from recording studio and entered the rehearsal studio in preparation
for the Elephant Fayre on the 31st July. At 10pm that same
evening, they returned to Playground and mixed the long version of
'Slowdive'
That Saturday (31st), they
performed one of their best ever concerts in front of 4,000 people at
the Elephant Fayre in Cornwall - truly a night to remember!!
Following their triumph at the
'Fayre, they were unable to get straight back into the studio, so they spent
the time participating in interviews and sorting out artwork for the
single and album.
Eventually on August 17th they
were able to return to Playground, when they mixed 'Painted Bird'.
On the 18th they remixed 'Melt!', and on the 19th they mixed 'Obsession'
and 'Obsession II' and started mixing 'Cascade'. The following day
they finished mixing 'Cascade' and edited 'Slowdive' from its long
version to its 7" format, which is a complete reversal of the usual
proceedure, whereby a single (7") version is recorded and an
extended version is mixed from that. In total, the extended
version had two minutes edited from it before the three minute thirty
second single version was suitable for release. This all went on
until 2am the following morning, when they finally rearranged the
running order of the tracks, and rewarded themselves by getting
mindlessly drunk!
Although the album was finished,
there was still one recording that remained to be done. On August
31st the group entered Marcus studios, and recorded a new version of
'Cannibal Roses' - in one take! This was produced by the whole
group jamming around the original version (recorded on 11th July at
Playground), whilst submitting new ideas as they did so.
So there you have it, a complete
run down of how both the new single and album were recorded.
You'll have to wait until the 29th October to hear the complete results
of the 'A Kiss In The Dreamhouse' sessions, but that's not far
off. I should warn you though, don't expect anything predictable
from the group on this one, in fact you're in for a whole heap of
surprises as the Banshees are about to unleash some of their most
diverse recordings to date, full marks to them for doing so!!
Billy 'Chainsaw' Houlston
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