NOCTURNE - TOUR

 
 
  Support acts during 1983:  
     
  Fad Gadget  
     

 

     
  DATE/VENUE  
     

 

     
  October  
 
 
  01/10/83 - London, Royal Albert Hall

Royal Albert Hall Program - Click Here For Bigger Scan

Royal Albert Hall 01/10/83 - Click Here For Bigger Scan

Israel
Green Fingers
Dear Prudence
Cascade
Running Town
We Hunger
Night Shift
Sin In My Heart
Slowdive
Blow The House Down (Live debut)
Christine
Painted Bird
Head Cut
Eve White/Eve Black
Voodoo Dolly
Spellbound
Helter Skelter
Happy House

 
     
  Record Mirror 1983  
     
 


I sat there counting all the cute little boxes in the Albert Hall - very pretty, a very neat way of curing boredom.

I wanted to enjoy this show so badly, but as much as I love Banshees' 45s, I have yet to see Sioux's crew turn in a really convincing live set.  I sat counting those boxes waiting for something to happen.....  it didn't.

The Banshees' strength lies in the tension between a darkly driven mystery and a beautiful shimmering light.  In such a contrast they produce an ecstatic sexual pop.  At the Albert Hall the Banshees were all dark rumble.  One big turn off.  One involved mystery.

Sioux was game.  Trouble was, she played most of the show on her own.  Playing voodoo dolly to a statuesque Smith and Severin is no way to treat a voice.  Siouxsie handles her vocals well, but by the time those lovely 45s were wheeled out she seemed unable to handle the sublime highs and lows of the Banshees' greatest moments.

Similarly, Robert Smith has yet to acquire the dexterity of John McGeoch, his guitar lacking the sketch and shade Banshees' music requires.  Able, but unable but unable to stir.

The crowd sensed all this.  In comparison to the last Albert Hall show I saw, a wild Spandau pop night, this was a lukewarm affair.  Atmosphere?  You'd get warmer standing on the terraces at Luton.  OK, Sioux is hardly the most communicative front person, but that wasn't the problem.  Her group simply weren't doing the business.

Along with Weller, Costello and Madness, Siouxsie & The Banshees are one of the most consistent outfits in British pop.  So what goes wrong when they take the stage?

Jim Reid

 
     

 

     
  September  
 
 
  30/09/83 - London, Royal Albert Hall

Royal Albert Hall 30/09/83 - Click Here For Bigger Scan

Halloween
Cascade
Running Town (Live debut)
Paradise Place
Melt!
We Hunger
Red Over White
Night Shift
Sin In My Heart
Pulled To Bits
She's A Carnival
Tattoo (Live debut)
Arabian Knights
Happy House
Voodoo Dolly
Dear Prudence
Helter Skelter
Switch

 
     
  NME 08/10/83  
     
 

YOU MAYBE A NIHILIST BUT YOU AIN'T NO F*@!KIN'

Seven years have passed since that first bleak inter of punk; in seven years Sioux's harsh monochrome has melted into myriad golds, the dark horror of love in a void is now a light kiss in the dreamhouse.  The years turn, the punk worm turns into a butterfly.  We might marvel at the change, but the butterflies in our stomach have long since flown.

Seven years!  Dare Siouxsie And The Banshees last so long?  Here is a group who once embodied others' obsolescence, a black star sucking off others' energy, using it to convert fake comfort and hollow warmth into grotesque caricatures of suburban existence.  Through immense strength of character, tempered by those first years left out in the cold, they melded arrogance and naivety, sombre wit and an extraordinary sensitivity into superbly wrought metal waltzes.  Music channeled through narrow, airless corridors lit in hard black and white.

The post-split explosion into kaleidoscopic colour, since diverted through the psychedelic leanings of Steve Severin and present guitar player Robert Smith and underlined by the switch from Kenny Morris's tom tom/tympani tunnel visions to Budgie's more gymnastic approach, might have introduced more variety, but it also marks a diffusion, a slight yet unsightly loss of focus.

This loss is compensated for by a few constants: the initial shock of Sioux cannot easily be forgotten.  It still informs what they do, just as it serves to them a salutary reminder of the fat they despised.  And their immaculate conceit is still intact.  Why else the Royal Albert Hall (apparently designated as their local gig for some 'stars and their environment' special coming soon Channel 4)?

The hall certainly wasn't chosen to favour support Fad Gadget - a flea to Siouxsie's  butterfly.  Tonight, his normally sharp bite was blunted by the building's acoustic time traps and sound delays, which bounced his slow, evenly tempered rhythms and melodies into barely recognisable shapes.  His brave move to a predominantly non-electric line up was thus ruined, leaving Frank Tovey scrambling to draw an uninterested audience's attention with a series of self-flagellations, gambols and leaps.  Unfortunately nobody looked his way, let alone wonder why he did what he did.

The turbulent sandstorms of present day Siouxsie And The Banshees more readily competed with the hall's faults, though they too were blighted for an early stretch.  With nothing to listen to but a numb blast of neutered yellow noise you were forced to concentrate on looking, ponder the questions raised earlier, or puzzle over Siouxsie's present taste for Carnaby bazaar black skirt and ankle bells, her odd pony canter of a dance step and the group's predilection for Turkish Delight projections and lighting effects.

And just when you were getting to thinking maybe seven years was too long for such a group to survive with their terrorist's sensibility intact, that any sense of threat was bound to mellow into mock hallowe'en kitsch 'n' treats, Robert Smith restored a genuine chill to the night by meshing the simple guitar motif of 'Night Shift' with a great hectoring Siouxsie vocal.  Thus wrestled back into present time, you were held there until they chose to hurtle you into the past with an encore of The Beatle's 'Dear Prudence'.  An inevitable 'Helter Skelter' reminded that Siouxsie And The Banshees always had a macabre understanding of Manson's evil and its attraction.

If anybody were to ask during these dying moments:  "How many nihilists does it take to fill the Albert Hall?" you could quite honorably answer:  "Two.  Siouxsie and Severin."

I think this is compliment enough.

Chris Bohn

 
     

 

     
  12/09/83 - Tel Aviv, Kolnoadan Club  
   
  11/09/83 - Tel Aviv, Kolnoadan Club  
   

 

     
  10/09/83 - Tel Aviv, Kolnoadan Club

Dear Prudence (Live debut)

 
   

 

     
  06/09/83 - Modena, Ex-Autodromo

Overground
Green Fingers
Paradise Place
Cascade
Melt!
She's A Carnival
Red Over White
Night Shift
Sin In My Heart
Christine
We Hunger
Arabian Knights
Happy House
Spellbound
Voodoo Dolly
Halloween
Israel

 
     

 

     
  03/09/83 - Arbon, Open Air Festival

Overground
Halloween
Green Fingers
Cascade
Melt!
Pulled To Bits
Night Shift
Sin In My Heart
We Hunger (Live debut)
Happy House
Christine
Dear Prudence
Arabian Knights
Head Cut
Voodoo Dolly

 
     

 

     
  02/09/83 - Rotterdam, Pandora's Music Box  
   

 

     
  July  
 
 
  09/07/83 - Stockholm, Langholmen  
   

 

     
  02/07/83 - Copenhagen, Roskilde Festival

Rosklide - Click Here For Bigger Scan

 
     

 

     
  February  
 
 
  24/02/83 - Sydney, Capitol Theatre  
   
  22/02/83 - Melbourne, Astor Theatre  
   

 

     
  21/02/83 - Melbourne, Astor Theatre

Overground
Halloween
Green Fingers
Red Over White
Melt!
Cascade
Night Shift
Sin In My Heart
Slowdive
Arabian Knights
Happy House
Head Cut
Voodoo Dolly
Spellbound

 
     
  BOOTLEGS  
     
 

WAIL DOWN UNDER

Wail Down Under LP Astor Theatre, Melbourne 21/08/83  - Click Here For Bigger Scan

 
     

 

     
  19/02/83 - Sydney, Capitol Theatre  
   
  18/02/83 - Sydney, Capitol Theatre  
   
  16/02/83 - Wellington, Town Hall  
   
  14/02/83 - Aukland  
   
  10/02/83 - Osaka, Koseinenkin Hall  
   
  08/02/83 - Kyoto (Played Two Shows)  
   
  06/02/83 - Tokyo, Shibuya Kokaido  
   

 

     
  05/02/83 - Tokyo, Shibuya Kokaido

Japan Tour Program 1983 - Click Here For Bigger Scan