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In 1977, the bold and spectacular
20-year-old outsider Siouxsie Sioux and her deliciously intimidating
Banshees, inspired by the exquisite Velvet Underground, the theatrical
Roxy Music and the revolutionary Sex Pistols, were committed to wiping
from the face of the planet the kind of dumb, dippy, long-haired jamming
musician Banhart now pretends to be, or actually is. Siouxsie stood
for raw, ravishing beauty in an ugly world, and bearded young men limply
swapping clichéd guitar licks were quite rightly the enemy as much as
censorship, corruption, moral cowardice and conservative governments.
Thirty years later the still
powerful and exotic Siouxsie steals on to the stage at the Roundhouse
looking like the kind of vexed, menacing, silver-suited superheroine who
could reduce the mock-crazy likes of Banhart to dust with one brief,
withering look. A couple of joyous high kicks, a grave, euphoric
voice that instantly declares war on mediocrity, and she crashes back into
view as if she's never been away.
After Siouxsie's slow slide from
view since her splendid heyday as punk heroine and gothic empress, her
return as solo singer with the heady new album 'Mantaray' is irresistable.
Her earthy, tender and hostile new songs are as contemporary as anything,
and there is a kind of incandescent dignity about her enduring presence as
pop star. And pop star she is, as important as Bowie, Bolan,
Morrissey and Madonna, able to write about extreme, unsettling things that
are totally personal to her, peel open a restless, feverish, sometimes
depraved imagination, and turn it all into vivid, seductive pop.
The exultant showbiz high kicks keep
coming, her steady, nicely noisy band is perfectly poised between
anonymous and forceful, the new songs are joined by the old stinging,
twisted Banshee hits that still sound sparkling and modern. The 1977
Siouxsie mysteriously becomes the 2007 Siouxsie, travelling through time
to claim her rightful position as one of the all-time glamourous greats.
5/5
Paul Morley
Courtesy of happygoluckychap
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