Siouxsie and the Banshees "JuJu" LP US OOP The Cure &

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Siouxsie and the Banshees "JuJu" LP PVC Records (US) 

Vinyl is NM, Jacket is VG+

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Siouxsie and the Banshees were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. Initially associated with the English punk rock scene, the band rapidly evolved to create "a form of post-punk discord full of daring rhythmic and sonic experimentation". The Times cited Siouxsie and the Banshees as "one of the most audacious and uncompromising musical adventurers of the post-punk era."

Their music combined elements of pop and avant-garde. The Banshees also became inspirational in the creation of the gothic rock genre. They disbanded in 1996, with Siouxsie and drummer Budgie continuing to record music as The Creatures, a second band they had formed in the early 1980s. In 2004, Siouxsie began a solo career.

Formation and early releases

Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin met at a Roxy Music concert in September 1975. Severin remembered : "At one time, you could see something every week New York Dolls, Can, but that was changing. Glam rock has faded. Roxy and Bowie were getting too big. There was nothing new coming through that we could identify with." From February 1976, Sioux, Severin and some friends began to follow the Sex Pistols at their early stage of their career. Journalist Caroline Coon dubbed them the Bromley Contingent as most of them came from the Bromley region of London. Severin later despised the label. "There was no such thing as the 'bromley contingent', said he. "It was just a bunch of people drawn together by the way they felt and they looked." Severin explained why they were interested by this new group yet un-signed. "The Sex Pistols inspired us all. For the first time in my life I saw that anyone could do it." When one of bands scheduled to play the 100 Club Punk Festival organised by Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren pulled out from the bill at the last minute, Sioux suggested that she and Severin play, even though they had no band name or additional members. Two days later, the pair appeared at this festival held in London on 20 September 1976. With two borrowed musicians on their sides, Marco Pirroni on guitars and John Simon Ritchie, later famous as Sid Vicious on drums, their set consisted of a 20-minute improvisation based around "The Lord's Prayer".

While the band intended to split up after the gig, they were asked to play again. Two months later, Sioux and Severin recruited drummer Kenny Morris and guitarist Pete Fenton. After playing several gigs in early 1977, the band realized that Fenton didn't fit in because he was "a real rock guitarist". John McKay finally took his seat in July. While the band was able to obtain a publishing deal, they still did not have a record contract. Sioux speculated, "All I can think of is that record companies saw no future in the concept of a woman fronting a band - at least a woman with attitude . . . Perhaps they thought if they didn't sign us we'd go away." The only label that offered the band a recording contract was Polydor Records, to which Siouxsie & the Banshees soon signed with. Polydor released the Banshees's first single, "Hong Kong Garden", which reached the top ten in the UK.

The band released their debut album The Scream in November 1978. Nick Kent of NME said of the record: "the band sounds like some unique hybrid of the Velvet Underground mated with much of the ingenuity of Tago Mago-era Can, if any parallel can be drawn." At the end of the article, he added this remark : "Certainly, the traditional three-piece sound has never been used in a more unorthodox fashion with such stunning results."

Lineup changes

The Banshees's second album, Join Hands, was released in 1979 and included a version of "The Lord's Prayer". In the Melody Maker, Jon Savage described "Poppy Day" as "powerful" and "Placebo Effect" as "stunning"." The Banshees embarked on a major tour to promote the album that August. A few dates into the tour, Morris and McKay left an in-store signing and quit the band. In need of replacements to fulfill tour dates, the Banshees's manager called drummer Budgie, formerly with The Slits, and asked him to audition. Budgie was hired, but the band had no success auditioning guitarists. Robert Smith of The Cure offered his services in case they couldn't find a guitarist, so the band held him to it after seeing too many "rock virtuosos". The tour resumed in September 1979. When the tour culminated, Smith was obligated to continue with The Cure, so the Banshees hired John McGeoch, formerly of Magazine, to replace him.

The new lineup soon went into the studio and recorded the 1980 single "Happy House". Their third album Kaleidoscope, released later that year, saw Sioux & Severin exploring new musical territories with the use of other instruments like sitars and drum machines. The group initially had a concept of making each song sound completely different, without regards to whether or not the material could be performed in concert. Melody Maker described the result as "a kaleidoscope of sound and imagery, new forms, and content, flashing before our eyes". Kaleidoscope was a commercial success, peaking at number five in the UK album chart. This lineup, featuring McGeoch on guitar, toured the United States for the first time in support of the album, playing their first shows in New York City in November 1980. For Juju (1981), the band had a different approach and practised the songs in concert first before recording them. Juju, according to Severin, became an unintentional concept album that "drew on darker elements". Sounds magazine hailed it as "intriguing, intense, brooding and powerfully atmospheric." The album later peaked at number 7 in the uk album charts and became one of their biggest sellers. During the accompanying tour, Sioux and Budgie secretly became a couple. At the same time, they also began a side project called The Creatures releasing their first EP "Wild Things".

The Banshees followed in 1982 with A Kiss in the Dreamhouse. The record, featuring strings on several numbers, was an intentional contrast to their previous work, with Sioux later describing it as a "sexy album". The British press greeted it enthusiastically. Richard Cook in the NME finished his review with this sentence: "I promise. This music will take your breath away." At that time McGeoch was struggling with alcohol problems, and was hospitalized on his return to a promotional trip to Madrid. The band fired him shortly thereafter. Severin asked Robert Smith to take over guitarist duties again; Smith accepted and rejoined the group in November 1982. During 1983, the band members worked on several side projects; Sioux and Budgie composed the first Creatures album, while Severin and Smith recorded as The Glove. Smith then insisted on documenting his time with the Banshees, so the group released a cover version of The Beatles' "Dear Prudence" in September 1983; it became their biggest hit, reaching number three on the UK Singles Chart. They also captured a live album, Nocturne and completed their sixth studio album, Hyæna. Shortly before its release in May 1984, Smith left the group, citing health issues due to an overloaded schedule of being in two bands at once.

Ex-Clock DVA guitarist John Valentine Carruthers replaced him. The Banshees then reworked four numbers of their repertoire with a section of strings for The Thorn EP. The NME praised the project at its release : "The power of a classical orchestra is the perfect foil for the band's grindingly insistent sounds". The new Banshees lineup spent much of 1985 working on their new record Tinderbox. The group finished the song "Cities in Dust" before the album, so they rushed its release as a single prior to their longest tour of the UK ever. Tinderbox was finally released in April 1986. Sounds magazine noted : "it's a refreshing slant on the Banshees' disturbing perspective and restores their vivid shades to pop's pale palette". Due to the length of time spent working on Tinderbox, the group desired spontaneity and decided to record an album of cover songs Through the Looking Glass in 1987. Mojo magazine later especially praised their version of "Strange Fruit" After the album's release, the band realized Carruthers wasn't fitting in anymore and decided to work on new material as a trio.

Following a lengthy break, the band recruited keyboards player Martin McCarrick and the ex-Specimen guitarist Jon Klein and recorded the 1988's Peepshow with non-traditional rock instrumentation including cello and accordion. Q magazine praised the album in its five-star review : "Peepshow takes place in some distorted fairground of the mind where weird and wonderful shapes loom." The first single "Peek-a-Boo" used hip-hop sounds over a pop texture : it was their first real breakthrough in the United States. After an elaborate tour to promote the album and sorting through band tensions, the band decided to take a break, with Sioux and Budgie recording a new Creatures album and Severin and McCarrick working on material together.

Tinderbox is the seventh studio album released by the English post-punk band Siouxsie & the Banshees. It was the first effort with new guitarist John Valentine Carruthers.

Sounds magazine praised the album at its release. Kevin Murphy wrote, "Tinderbox romps and swoons with all the majesty of Dreamhouse", and added, "it's a refreshing slant on the Banshees' disturbing perspective and restores their vivid shades to pop's pale palette."

Allmusic described it as "rocking drumming, drivingly aggressive yet fully textured guitar playing, and masterful, gutsy singing. The songs here are intense and unfold slowly, some starting off less vigorously but becoming hard rockers further along. There is of course a fine line between consistency and lack of contrast, but this album stays firmly on the side of the former; in fact, there's a certain satisfying feel to the musically uniform wall of sound here. The arrangements are less complex than in immediately preceding albums, but there are still plenty of subtle, effective production touches to be found throughout."

This album was re-issued remastered and expanded in 2009, featuring in the bonus tracks an unreleased version of the 1987's "Song from the Edge of the World" and an unreleased song with lyrics of Steven Severin called "Starcrossed", recorded in May 1985.

The b-sides of Cities in Dust and Candyman, initially included as bonus tracks on the 1986'CD are now part of the Downside Up b-sides box set.

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