Laurence Hedges
In 1980, with their highest charting album to date, Kaleidoscope and two successful singles, ’Happy House’ and ’Christine’, and a packed tour schedule, Siouxsie and The Banshees are at the top of their game. Swimming in their own stream, the Banshees defy musical categorisation and are head and shoulders above their peers, with one objective: to be the best band in the world. The band’s 1981 90-gig tour included 25 dates in the US, showcasing the exhilarating ’Spellbound’, grotesque ’Night Shift’ and the clandestine frisson of ’Into The Light’, forming the sonic backbone of what is considered to be the Banshees’ magnum opus, Juju, their fourth studio album, released in June 1981. Ushering in a new chapter in Siouxsie and The Banshees’ evolution the opulent fifth studio album A Kiss In The Dreamhouse, marks another change in direction, and sees producer Mike Hedges superseding Kaleidoscope and Juju producer Nigel Gray. Released 5th November 1982, several days after guitarist John McGeoch is ousted from the band after two near calamitous performances at the Rock-Ola Club in Madrid, it was the album that marked a potential dip in the band’s fortunes. However the Banshees regroup, calling again on the services of The Cure’s Robert Smith, whose fractured relationship with his own band made the offer of becoming a touring Banshee too attractive to refuse. As for what happens next, this in-depth and authoritative account of one of the most original, creative, imaginative and mercurial bands in the history of rock music surveys the twists, turns and episodes of brilliance that define Siouxsie and The Banshees’ evolution from 1980 to 1987, including ancillary ventures ’The Creatures’ and ’The Glove’, and the making of the albums Juju and A Kiss In The Dreamhouse, as well as Nocturne, Hyaena, Tinderbox and Through The Looking Glass.
