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Musicians:
Siouxsie:
Steven Severin:
Music Lessons:
- Steven
Severin
refused to attend Dulwich College when he discovered that
music lessons were mandatory.
When Siouxsie Met Severin:
The Bromley Contingent:
-
Christened 'The
Bromley Contingent' by Melody Maker journalist Caroline Coon. Source:
Source: Uncut 01/05.
Consisted of Siouxsie
Sioux, Steven
Severin, Sharon Hayman, Simone Thomas, Billy
Idol and Berlin.
-
Siouxsie was then known as Candy Sue.
Bill Grundy:
- Siouxsie's involvement in
the notorious Bill
Grundy Show (02/12/76)
resulted in her being fired from her
current job in a West End club.
- In the 'Green
Room'
immediately after the infamous Bill
Grundy Show, Malcolm McLaren claims he found Siouxsie & Steven answering some of the
complaints via phone by saying "This is Thames, get off the
fucking phone you stupid old prat". Source: The
Guardian 14/01/95.
First Cover Version:
- The first
song Siouxsie and Steve ever committed to tape was in 1976. It
was recorded on an old tape machine with Billy Idol on guitar and
was a cover of the Velvet
Underground song 'What Goes On'.
100 Club:
- On September 20 & 21 of
1976, various punk bands played a music festival for about 600 other
punks or those who identified with the so-called 'punk movement.' On
September 20th, the Sex
Pistols, Siouxsie & the Banshees, & The
Clash played, each band possessing its own individual set of
songs. Siouxsie & the Banshees played a 20 minute anarchistic
version of 'The
Lord's Prayer'
with 'Twist
& Shout'
& 'Knocking
on Heaven's Door'
spliced into the main song. Siouxsie & the Banshees were
described as "unbearable & pure noise for anyone's
ears." The band intended to play longer but Siouxsie said
"It was a mistake, we were going to keep playing until we were
thrown off (the stage), but we got bored before the audience
did!".
- "I don’t know why I did it, I just knew I
wanted to before I was 21, I’ve always gone around being looked at
so I thought perhaps I should go on stage and exploit it".
- First choice of guitarist for
the 100 Club gig was friend and 'Bromley Contingent' member William
Broad (AKA Billy Idol), who was convinced not to participate by his
then mentor Tony James. Source: Record Mirror
04/04/87.
Cry Of The Banshee:
Captain Scarlet:
- Rough
demo recorded at Track Records 13/03/77. Source: The
File, Phase One.
- Demo
recorded at Riverside Studios 12-14/06/77. Source:
The File, Phase One.
- Original is the theme song from the
TV
Show of the
same name.
- Live
debut 24/02/77, Red Deer Pub, Croydon. Source: The File,
Phase One.
Scrapheap:
- Rough
demo recorded at Track Records 13/03/77. Source: The
File, Phase One.
- Live
debut 24/02/77, Red Deer Pub, Croydon. Source: The File,
Phase One.
Bad Shape:
- Rough
demo recorded at Track Records 13/03/77. Source: The
File, Phase One.
- Live
debut 24/02/77, Red Deer Pub, Croydon. Source: The File,
Phase One.
Psychic:
- Rough
demo recorded at Track Records 13/03/77. Source: The
File, Phase One.
- Demo
recorded at Riverside Studios 12-14/06/77. Source:
The File, Phase One.
- Live
debut 24/02/77, Red Deer Pub, Croydon. Source: The File,
Phase One.
Unreleased:
- Captain Scarlet.
- Scrapheap.
- Bad Shape.
- Psychic.
Siouxsie Sue:
- In 1977 English band
'London' featuring future Culture
Club drummer Jon Moss released a
12" EP Summer
Of Love which includes a song entitled 'Siouxsie Sue'.
The Velvet Underground:
Swastika:
- Siouxsie was often
photographed in the early days wearing a Swastika, therefore causing
much controversy in the music press, but she only appeared on stage
once wearing a Swastika and that was during the band's 100 Club
debut.
- "It was a symbol to be used as a crucifix
could be. It was an attempt to arouse some nationalism in Britain.
It was.... childish. But we wanted to stir something up. And we were
certainly not condoning what it represented. I never saw how it
could be misconstrued as a political belief. As soon as people
thought it had a political significance and the NF started turning
up for gigs, we realised we had to do something to make it very
clear where we stood".
Ice Queen:
- Siouxsie was first dubbed
the Ice Queen on the cover of music paper Sounds issued 3/12/77.
Simone:
- "We had a violinist as
well, called Simone, but she left after our second gig."
(Siouxsie) Source: The Face 08/80.
Pete Fenton:
- The
Banshees' second guitarist was actually fired on stage! Source:
Q 11/88.
TV Debut:
- 'Make
Up To Break Up'
was the song chosen for Siouxsie & The Banshees debut UK TV
appearance on So
It Goes.
The Scream:
Pure:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
STEVE: "For 'Pure', you can also substitute 'essence'. That
song wasn't written - it just happened." It happened during a
sound check in France some time ago. "Also it summed up all
that we were going through back in those days. It happened on stage
and we just called it 'Pure'. That's like what happens when the band
lets loose." Source: Melody Maker 21/10/78.
- Recorded
at RAK and mixed at De Lane Lea Studios 31/07-25/09/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
Jigsaw Feeling:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
SIOUXSIE: "It's the wrong things doing the right things for you. It started out as a self-disgust song and evolved from that. "
Source: Unknown 1978 .
SIOUXSIE: It's when your limbs won't do what your brain wants them to. You're so confused that you can't co-ordinate your limbs to do something positive, and you just twist yourself in knots."
Source: Melody Maker 21/10/78.
- Record
demo at Pathway Studios 06/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Recorded
at RAK and mixed at De Lane Lea Studios 31/07-25/09/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
Overground:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
SEVERIN: "It was written at a time when we were all getting desperate for a contract... and it's really to do with why we wanted a major record deal."
Source: Record Mirror 09/12/78.
SEVERIN: "it's another one about choice. You can either go along with the way things are or... It's very personal to the band on one level. The whole things about the uncompromising Banshees. It's saying that we can change to go overground but at the same time we know we'd be worse than ourselves."
Source: Melody Maker 09/12/78.
- Recorded
at RAK and mixed at De Lane Lea Studios 31/07-25/09/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Covered by Curve.
- Recorded for a BBC Session
06/02/78 at Maida Vale 4, aired 23/02/78.
- Live
debut 28/01/78, Barton Hill Youth Club, Bristol. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Live
debut with string section 18/11/82, Futurist Theatre, Scarborough.
Source: The File, Phase Two, Issue Three.
- First
choice as debut single, but later rejected in favour of Hong Kong
Garden. Source: The File,
Phase One.
Carcass:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
SIOUXSIE: "It's a love song really. You read about how love's
supposed to be, but in the papers you see all these other things
that people do to get their certain kicks. More people seem to have
those sort of kicks than meeting the girl next door. It's an angle
of looking at things and they are there - it's not purely
fictional." Source: Melody Maker 09/12/78.
SIOUXSIE: "Yeah Carcass - it's about a butcher's assistant who
can't get girls and so he falls in love with a lump of meat on the
slab and so that he can be like the object of his affection - he
cuts off his own arms and legs." Source: Zigzag
10/77.
STEVE: "People always miss out on the humorous aspect of what
we do, or rather the facetious aspect..." Source: Sounds
24/06/78.
SIOUXSIE: "There's also 'My mother had her son for tea'. But
when you think about it, every day can be really cruel yet so
laughable." Source: Sounds 24/06/78.
- Demo
recorded at Riverside Studios 12-14/06/77. Source:
The File, Phase One.
- Recorded
at RAK and mixed at De Lane Lea Studios 31/07-25/09/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Recorded for a BBC Session
06/02/78 at Maida Vale 4, aired 23/02/78.
Helter Skelter:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
SEVERIN: "It's more than a song now. We felt there was a need
to re-do it after all that happened." Source: Melody
Maker 21/10/78.
SIOUXSIE: "The Beatles had done it... quite innocently with
just the intention of a helter skelter, a child's playground or
other insinuations - like sexual ones." Source: Melody
Maker 21/10/78.
- Recorded
at RAK and mixed at De Lane Lea Studios 31/07-25/09/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Recorded for a BBC Session
06/02/78 at Maida Vale 4, aired 23/02/78.
- Original by The
Beatles - The White album.
- The original version by The
Beatles is rumoured to
have been an inspiration to Charles
Manson.
- Private
live debut 09/07/77, Shad Thames, Butler's Wharf, London (Private
party hosted by Derek Jarman and Andrew Logan). Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Live
debut 11/07/77, The Vortex Club, London. Source: The File,
Phase One.
Mirage:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
MORRIS: "It's more the idea of blindness and
screens rather than taking it down to TV. It's about walls, screens,
inhibitions, inabilities, expressing oneself in public." Source:
Melody Maker 21/10/78.
SIOUXSIE: " 'Mirage' is about 'the image is no images, it's
not what it seems' It's about people seeing us and taking what we do
superficially." Source: Sounds 03/12/77.
- Demo
recorded at Riverside Studios 06/09/77. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Recorded
at RAK and mixed at De Lane Lea Studios 31/07-25/09/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Recorded for a BBC Session
29/11/77 at Maida Vale 4, aired 05/12/77.
- Recorded for a Capital One
Nicky Horne session 02/79.
- Live
debut 25/08/77, Tiverton Hotel, Devon. Source: The File,
Phase One.
Metal Postcard:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
Dedicated to the celebrated photomontage artist of the
Twenties/Thirties, John
Heartfield, the original title for this song
was 'Letter To Heartfield'. The chorus is taken from one of
Goerring's speeches during the Second World War.
SIOUXSIE: "It's a warning song. The whole propaganda of the
Nazis at that time was very dangerous and it could easily creep its
way in without there being all the hysteria of killing the Jews.
Their whole propaganda could easily fit in today." How does she
see this Metal Metropolis? "Not being able to get away from the
commands of the day, not being able to escape, the idea of having
cameras in your room and having people watching you..." Source:
Melody Maker 21/10/78.
SIOUXSIE: "What lies around the swastika I hate, but I also
don't identify with blind patriotism either. I couldn't write a song
based around Heartfield
if I had that attitude." Source:
Melody Maker 17/02/79.
- Recorded
at RAK and mixed at De Lane Lea Studios 31/07-25/09/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Recorded for a BBC Session
29/11/77 at Maida Vale 4, aired 05/12/77.
- Covered by Ciril
- The original title for this song was going to be
'Letter
To Heartfield'.
- The re-recorded German
language version was sampled on the Massive
Attack song 'Suerpredators
(Metal Postcard)'
- The
Jackal soundtrack .
Nicotine Stain:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
SIOUXSIE: "That song started off when I had both my hands full
and I had a cigarette. I had to hold on to it and I could feel the
fumes all around my face. I had to look in the mirror to see that my
face hadn't gone brown. I just got to thinking how nicotine could
soak up all your body." Source: Melody Maker
21/10/78.
KENNY: "It's about everyday things that you really don't need
to do, that you don't want to do but you just find yourself doing
them. Because you have to." Source: Melody Maker
21/10/78.
SIOUXSIE: "It's that habits are very disgusting and you realise
how addicted you are to them. You try to find the usefulness of your
habits, you try to justify them." Source: Melody
Maker 21/10/78.
Suburban Relapse:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
SIOUXSIE: "It's committing a crime under the stresses of everyday life. Being so confused and... I don't know how anyone can be a judge, an actual one in court".
Source: Melody Maker 21/10/78.
-
Recorded
at RAK and mixed at De Lane Lea Studios 31/07-25/09/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Recorded for a BBC Session
29/11/77 at Maida Vale 4, aired 05/12/77.
- Live
debut 20/09/77, Gibus Club, Paris. Source: The File,
Phase One.
Switch:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
SIOUXSIE: ""I had in mind that it was going to be very fragmented with three different sections. That's all."
Source: Melody Maker 21/10/78.
SEVERIN: "The scientist becomes the doctor and applies science to medicine - that kind of thing."
Source: Melody Maker 21/10/78.
SIOUXSIE: "The vicar becomes the scientist and he applies his religion to science and the doctor becomes the religious person and applies his medicine to religion."
Source: Melody Maker 21/10/78.
SEVERIN: "It all comes down to the same thing - the hypocrisy of it all."
Source: Melody Maker 21/10/78.
-
Recorded
demo at Pathway Studios 06/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Recorded
at RAK and mixed at De Lane Lea Studios 31/07-25/09/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Live
debut 20/07/78, The Factory, Manchester. Source: The File,
Phase One.
Hong Kong Garden:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
SIOUXSIE: "I’ll never forget, there was a Chinese restaurant in Chislehurst called 'The Hong Kong Garden'. Me and my friend were really upset that we used to go there and like, occasionally when the skinheads would turn up it would really turn really ugly. These gits were just go in on mass and just terrorise these Chinese people who were working there. We’d try and say ‘Leave them alone’, you know. It was a kind of tribute."
Source: Punk Top Ten Interview 08/06/01.
SIOUXSIE: "I remember wishing that I could be like Emma Peel from The Avengers and kick all the skinheads' heads
in, because they used to mercilessly torment these people for being foreigners. It made me feel so helpless, hopeless and ill."
Source: Uncut 01/05.
SEVERIN: "That was freaky. A very strange period. We'd finished it a month before it came out, and we'd pushed it away - and it was just a very strange feeling having people rush up and say how great it was."
Source: NME 23/12/78.
- Record
Albertine demo at Olympic Studios 06-07/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Recorded
at Island Studios and mixed at RAK 07/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Recorded for a BBC Session
06/02/78 at Maida Vale 4, aired 23/02/78.
- Filmed
promo video 16/08/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Video
aired on Top
Of The Pops 31/08/78.
- Voted No. 37 in the October
2001 issue of Mojo magazines' Top 100 Punk Scorchers.
- Live
debut 28/01/78, Barton Hill Youth Club, Bristol. Source: The File,
Phase One.
Voices:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
The
Haunted Palace by Edgar Alan Poe & On
Wine & Hashish by Baudelaire.
- Record
Albertine demo at Olympic Studios 06-07/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Remixed
by Steve Lillywhite at RAK 07/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- In the late 70s if a pub needed to empty at closing
time the landlord would put Voices on the juke box and watch the
customers leave in droves.
- The only song from the aborted Bruce Albertine
sessions for 'Hong
Kong Garden'.
- Live
debut 29/12/82, Hammersmith Odeon, London. Source: The File,
Phase Two, Issue Three.
Make Up To Break Up:
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
The lyric 'just like the devil's rain' is a
reference to the film of the same name. "Devil's
Rain was a cheapo cash in movie on the same lines as the Exorcist
etc; an actress called Ida Lupino (beautiful name) was in it -
Ernest Borgnine was the Devil - William Shatner the guy from Star
Trek was the hero. The film was about this rain that melted
people - their faces went like putty and if you squeezed their
eyeballs all pus came oozing out." Source: Zigzag
10/77.
- Demo
recorded at Riverside Studios 12-14/06/77. Source:
The File, Phase One.
The Staircase (Mystery):
- Inspiration/Influence/Band
Comment:
SIOUXSIE: "There's something about a staircase. It's so unpredictable and exciting at the same time. That feeling of displacement, vertigo when you're at the top looking down or at the bottom looking up."
Source: Melody Maker 17/02/79.
SIOUXSIE: "That's more a song about curiosity and fear, it's not a great political statement or anything."
Source: Sounds 07/04/79.
SIOUXSIE: "The song's just taking a very day-to-day thing, and the nature of that thing is very... mysterious."
Source: NME 31/03/79.
SIOUXSIE: "Yeah it's very much a memory of them. Especially in my house, people were always falling down the stairs in it."
Source: Sounds 07/04/79.
SEVERIN: "Sioux had written the lyrics and she knew what it was about but they had a different interpretation and they wanted a different sleeve. So me, Nils and Sioux wanted to go one way and they wanted the other... and that was the democracy of it."
Source: Sounds 15/09/79.
- Record
demo at Pathway Studios 06/78. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Recorded
at Air Studios 24/11/78. Additional handclaps and a new vocal
recorded 01/79 Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Filmed
promo video 01/79. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Video
aired on Top
Of The Pops 26/04/79.
- The video was partly
inspired by the staircase murder of private eye Arbogast in the film
Psycho.
Source: Melody Maker 17/02/79.
- Having
discovered an article (via a friend) in the Observer Magazine
concerning the case of multiple personality victim Christine
Sizemore, Kenny thought a picture of a 10 year old Christine with
the eyes and mouth blacked out would make the perfect cover for
forthcoming single 'The Staircase (Mystery)'. Upon further
discussion it was decided that there really wasn't any connection
between Christine Sizemore and the song 'The Staircase (Mystery)'
and a still from the video was used for the cover of The
Staircase (Mystery)
Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Live
debut 20/07/78, The Factory, Manchester. Source: The File,
Phase One.
20th Century Boy:
- Recorded
at Air Studios 01/79. Source: The File,
Phase One.
- Original by T.
Rex - Greatest Hits.
Sign The Banshees:
- Prior to the Banshees
signing to Polydor
Records in 1978, an over zealous fan started a 'Sign
The Banshees Do It Now' graffiti campaign. Most of the major
record companies in London were daubed with this slogan.
Siouxsie says: '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'.
Record Contract:
Radio On:
- The
band were offered a part in the film Radio On (Chris Petter) but
declined.
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