| HÁI! - TOUR - PRESS RELEASE |
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| In a two hour set including classic hits
& rarities from the whole of her career, the iconic voice of
Siouxsie & The Banshees & The Creatures will be accompanied on
stage for these very special concerts by a band of musicians dynamic and
flexible enough to handle every aspect of Siouxsie's kaleidoscopic
repertoire.
From the dramatic left field pop of Siouxsie & The Banshees through to the drum & voice experimentation of The Creatures, the show will offer both die-hard fans and relative newcomers a unique opportunity to see and hear Siouxsie revel in her words & music like never before. Special guest ex-Kodo drummer Leonard Eto will also join Siouxsie & Budgie for the debut performance of songs from The Creatures' critically acclaimed album Hái! (as featured on HBO's new trailer for The Sopranos). This will be a rare chance to witness the many fascinating faces of Siouxsie Sioux - Live! (The tour will coincide with Instinct Records' US promotional campaign for the album Hái! & will also coincide with Universal's campaign for the pending release of a Siouxsie & The Banshees' box set of b-sides & rarities, DVD promo clip collection & remastered reissues of all Siouxsie & The Banshees & The Creature studio albums.) |
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| HÁI! - TOUR |
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| DATE/VENUE | ||
| DREAMSHOW | ||
| October | ||
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16/10/04
- Royal Festival Hall,
London
Say Yes! |
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15/10/04
- Royal Festival Hall,
London
Say Yes! |
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| The Independent 20/10/04 | ||
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With eight years having passed since the official demise of the Banshees, Siouxsie Sioux's return to London, without her long-time collaborator Steve Severin, was destined to be something of a creature-feature. The Creatures side-project is now the sole focus of Siouxsie and her drumming husband Budgie, and a neat side-step before the encroaching nostalgia for all things punk reduces them to dayglo figureheads from a spikier time. Siouxsie's porcupine barnet is now more geisha-knit than Robert Smith fireball, and the Eastern leanings are far more than cosmetic. As an artist who began her first album with a song called "Hong Kong Garden", Siouxsie has now recruited the sticks'n'skins of Leonard Eto, formerly of the Japanese Taiko band Kodo. With Eto complement- ing the tribal flash and splash of the vigorous Budgie, Siouxsie's Dream Show ushers in a percussive thunder that fair blows away the early winter chill with an exotic, visceral pummel. If the chill had been dispelled in the audience, the heat didn't immediately transmit itself to Siouxsie's supple 47-year-old body. Angrily decrying the Festival Hall's enervating ambience ("this tombstone of a place"), Siouxsie's exhortation to "rise up, you corpses" was unnecessary. So commanding was Budgie's polyrhythmic pulse that the alumni were on their feet by the time "Dear Prudence" had psychedelicised the percussive storm five songs in. Though augmented by the Millennia Ensemble, a 15-piece orchestra used by The Divine Comedy, the Creature/ Banshee canon retains its particular allure. Resisting the temptation to go into string-section overdrive, the orchestrations added pomp and fire to the fabulously ludicrous "Godzilla", and an autumnal resonance to "The Rapture". As if to allay Siouxsie's fears of forever remaining in the rosy embryo of her punk past, only the chant-friendly "Cities in Dust" is guitar-led, and that dates from 1986, long after even angular post-punk had given up the situationist ghost. With a set that can afford to leave out the likes of "Christine" and "Arabian Knights", the recent disappearance of Siouxsie from the radar is mystifying, particularly if the Reznor-like "Another Planet" and the strangely accessible "Prettiest Thing" are typical of recent Creature communications. And "strangely accessible" is possibly the axis on which the appeal of Siouxsie turns. Morbid obsessions revealed themselves with even a cursory scan of Siouxsie lyrics. Shapes were thrown, and poses weren't so much struck as walloped. She asked to be given her "Mickey Mouse ears for Sing-along-a-Banshee", and duly obliged with a "Happy House" that hit some giddying point between meditation and agitation. By the time Budgie joined Siouxsie at the front of the stage for an insistent "Not Forgotten", the Royal Festival Hall was in a state of exaltation. And so, too, were the wife-and-husband team. Siouxsie's earlier gripes aside, this slight return to performance was welcome not only for the faithful, but also, demonstrably, for the duo themselves. There was just enough time for the brassy swagger of "Right Now", and the torchy "Face to Face", before the band finished with another bewitching Banshee wail from the past, darkly. Spellbinding. Steve Hands 20/10/04 |
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| 100 CLUB | ||
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07/10/04
- 100 Club, London
Around The World |
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06/10/04 -
100 Club, London
Around The World |
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05/10/04
- 100 Club, London
Around The World |
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| Mojo 12/04 | ||
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When Siouxsie
Sioux kick-started her career at the 100 Club in 1976, she did so in
belligerent fashion. Fast forward to October 2004, and she's still
narked, and proved
it with three magnificent nights at the club. 'More than anything
the shows were a reminder about how revolted I feel by the industry,'
she says. 'So much seems to have changed for the worse.
Where's the spontaneity, the attitude, the adventure, the
imagination? People still ask me, 'What do you think about Kylie
and Madonna? For fuck's sake, don't ask me about those fucking
frauds. Why don't you ask me about Peaches or P.J. Harvey,
Diamanda Galas? Send Robbie Williams to Butlins - now!'
As the opening act on the first night of the Punk Rock Festival, on September 20, 1976, 19-year-old Siouxsie and her untrained Banshees - including Sid Vicious on drums - were there primarily to make up the numbers. Their improvised set - a 20-minute 'pink sermon' based around The Lord's Prayer - polarised the audience, setting the tone for a career that has long belied its accidental beginnings. Now 47, Siouxsie remembers that night 'pretty much like a dare, a baptism of fire'. Today, with a vast catalogue to choose from and a baying audience open-mouthed at seeing her at close quarters, all that had changed. But her set - mainly Creatures songs, interspersed by the occasional Banshee hit - remains an exercise in tightrope walking. At the 100 Club, she and husband/drummer Budgie were joined by Japanese kodo drum master Leonard Eto, guitarist Knox, a keyboard player and two backing singers. Within a week, a newly configured Dreamshow, featuring expanded string and percussion sections, performed two rapturously received shows at the Royal Festival Hall. A solo album is planned for next year. Siouxsie's creative energies seem in full operation. 'Another 20 years?' she ponders. 'Why the fucking hell not?' Mark Paytress |
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| AN EVENING WITH SIOUXSIE | ||
| September | ||
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27/09/04
- Vancouver, BC, The
Commodore Ballroom
Say Yes! |
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26/09/04 -
Seattle,
CA, The Showbox
Say Yes! |
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24/09/04
- San
Francisco, CA, Warfield Theatre
Say Yes! |
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23/09/04
- West
Hollywood, CA, House Of Blues
Say Yes! |
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22/09/04
- West
Hollywood, CA, House Of Blues
Say Yes! |
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20/09/04
- Anaheim,
CA, House Of Blues (Orange County)
Say Yes! |
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19/09/04
- Anaheim,
CA, House Of Blues (Orange County)
Say Yes! |
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18/09/04
- KROQ
Inland Invasion
Say Yes! Complete show was webcast |
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15/09/04
- Dallas,
TX, Gypsy Ballroom
Say Yes! |
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14/09/04
- Austin,
Texas, Stubbs Bar
Say Yes! |
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12/09/04
- New
Orleans, LA, House Of Blues
Say Yes! |
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11/09/04
- Atlanta,
GA, Variety Playhouse
Say Yes! |
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09/09/04
- Washington,
DC, 5.30 Club
Say Yes! |
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07/09/04
- New
York, BB Kings
Say Yes! |
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06/09/04
- New
York, BB Kings
Say Yes! |
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05/09/04
- New
York, BB Kings
Say Yes! |
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03/09/04
- Detroit,
MI, The Majestic Theatre
Say Yes |
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02/09/04
- Chicago,
IL, House Of Blues
Say Yes |
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| August | ||
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30/08/04
- San
Diego, CA, 4th & B's
Say Yes! |
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