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Siouxsie Sioux

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Siouxsie Sioux

Susan Janet Ballion (born May 27, 1957 in Bromley, London), better known by her stage name, Siouxsie Sioux (IPA: [suːzi suː], is the lead singer of both the influential rock band Siouxsie & the Banshees and of its splinter group The Creatures.

She is considered to be one of the most important British singers of her era, influencing The Cure, Tricky, Massive Attack, LCD Soundsystem, Shirley Manson of Garbage and Ana Matronic of Scissors Sisters among others.

Teenage wildlife

She was the youngest of three children, born at Guy's Hospital in South London. She attended Mottingham Secondary Modern School for Girls in Kent. Her mother was a bilingual secretary, her father a laboratory technician who milked serum from poisonous snakes.

When Sioux was 14, her father died from complications of alcoholism. At age 15, she suffered ulcerative colitis, an experience she described later as "surreal": "it completely de-romanticised the body for me."

While growing up, Sioux was often left to look after herself in an undisciplined atmosphere. Even before his death, her father's alcoholism kept him incapacitated, forcing her mother to work full time. The garden at their home north of Petts Wood grew into a jungle, with high hedges and rambling roses, until the neighbours complained.

During her teens, she was a self-confessed loner and started getting into the music of David Bowie, Lou Reed, T. Rex and The Stooges and started visiting the local gay discos. She became very well known in the London punk scene for her outrageous glam, fetish and bondage attire, which became staples of punk fashion.

In the mid-1970s, Siouxsie Sioux was a member of the Bromley Contingent, a group of teenagers devoted to the Sex Pistols. Other members included fellow Banshees founder Steven Severin and Billy Idol.

Sioux's first gig was as an unrehearsed fill-in at the 100 Club's "Punk Rock Festival" - two nights in September 1976 - organised by Malcolm McLaren.

In 1976 the Bromley Contingent followed the Sex Pistols to France, where Siouxsie was punched by someone for wearing a cupless bra, black vinyl stockings and a black armband with a swastika on it. Sioux later said that the armband was intended as a campy joke and that she did not at that time appreciate the implications of wearing a swastika. Siouxsie said this in a 1999 interview for Attitude magazine:

"I've always been fascinated by symbols, whether it's the crucifix, the hammer and sickle or the Star of David. And it wasn't just me that brandished the swastika around. When I was growing up, it was always (adopts old codger voice) 'The youth of today... I fought the Second World War so bums like you can loaf around on the Social security,' so it was a way of antagonising that generation. In those days there wasn't so much information about the war or the Holocaust, and I didn't realise what vandals the Nazis were: all the art, the books they destroyed. Their aim was not only to promote Aryan purity, but to erase anything that might have competed with their superiority, like the Greeks. Wearing that armband was much more in the spirit of The Producers - you know, Springtime for Hitler - an amazing movie. That was camp, rather than death-camp. I was appalled that anyone would take it [seriously]..."

One of Sioux's first public appearances was with the Sex Pistols on Bill Grundy's television show in December 1976 as part of the Bromley Contingent. In the course of Grundy's interview with the members of the Sex Pistols, he tried to flirt with her:

Grundy: "Are you worried, or are you just enjoying yourself?"
Sioux: "Enjoying myself."
Grundy: "Are you?"
Sioux: "Yeah."
Grundy: "Ah, that's what I thought you were doing."
Sioux: "I always wanted to meet you."
Grundy: "Did you really?"
Sioux: "Yeah."
Grundy: "We'll meet afterwards, shall we?"

In reaction to this exchange, Pistols guitarist Steve Jones called Grundy a "dirty sod" and a "fuckin' rotter", leading to a media furore that had a major impact on the Pistols' subsequent career.

Professional career

In 1976, Siouxsie formed Siouxsie and the Banshees with fellow Bromley Contingent member Steven Severin on bass.

The first album, 1978's The Scream was described by Nick Kent in the NME in the following terms [1] : 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.

Other key albums are Kaleidoscope and Juju. Siouxsie in 1981 also formed The Creatures with the band's drummer, Budgie.

In 1982, the British press greeted the album A Kiss in the Dreamhouse enthusiastically. Richard Cook in the NME finished his review [2] with I promise. This music will take your breath away.

Solo career

Morrissey recorded a duet with Siouxsie in the mid-nineties: they both sang on the single "Interlude", a track that was initially performed by a female torch singer of the sixties.

In 1995, she released the song "The Lighthouse" on the French producer Hector Zazou's album Chansons des mers froides (Songs from the Cold Seas). Sioux and Zazou adapted an excerpt of the poem "Flannan Isle" by English poet Wilfred Wilson Gibson into lyrics. The song included the incantations of a female Nanai shaman recorded in Siberia, and musical performers included Budgie and Mark Isham.

In 2003, Siouxsie was asked to compose and sing the title track to Basement Jaxx's album Kish Kash. One year later, she toured for the first time as a solo act combining Banshees and Creatures songs : a live DVD called Dreamshow captured the last London concert of September 2004 performed with the Millenia Ensemble. Released in August 2005, this DVD reached the number one position in the U.K. music DVD charts. Due to that success, Universal signed her on the W14 label.

Her first solo album MantaRay will be released on september 10, 2007 in Uk preceded by the "Into a Swan" single released September 3. MantaRay will be available in the U.S. on October 2.

The album has already gained critical acclaim. The influential site Pitchfork wrote 'She really is pop' before to finish the review by 'It's a success'.[3]

Concerts are now planned In London and in europe for this autumn.[4]

Influence on other artists

Siouxsie & the Banshees were one of the most successful, groundbreaking post-punk new wave bands.

They had a strong impact on trip-hop acts. All Music Guide mentions that Tricky was influenced by Siouxsie & the Banshees. [5]

Covered by :

Hailed by:

  • Shirley Manson of Garbage stated that her all time favourite singers are Siouxsie and Frank Sinatra. [13] Manson also wrote in the foreword of the official Siouxsie and the Banshees biography in 2003 by Mojo magazine journalist Mark Paytress : I learned how to sing listening to The Scream and Kaleidoscope" and "today, I can see and hear the Banshees influence all over the place. [14] The singer of Garbage also told the Melody Maker that she has a special liking for the first Siouxsie album. [15]
  • Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction also makes a parallel between his band and the Banshees: there are so many similar threads : melody, use of sound, attitude, sex-appeal. I always saw Jane's Addiction as the masculine Siouxsie & the Banshees.[16]
  • Morrissey stated in 1994: None of them are as good as Siouxsie and the Banshees at full pelt. That's not dusty nostalgia, that's fact. [17]
  • Ana Matronic of Scissor Sisters said at the 2005 Brit awards that she wouldn't be a singer without Siouxsie. She also stated in Metro that the Banshees is her all time favourite band. [18]
  • The Cure were influenced by the band[19]. Robert Smith declared in Mark Paytress's Siouxsie biography: Being a Banshee really changed my attitude to what I was doing.[20] He also talked about the band to Steve Sutherland in 1985 to describe The Head on the Door : It reminds me of the Kaleidoscope album, the idea of having lots of different sounding things, different colors. [21]
  • U2 are also fans of theband. [22] The Edge presented Siouxsie with an award at a Mojo ceremony in 2005.
  • Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood claims that while recording their song "There There", producer Nigel Godrich tried to get guitarist Jonny Greenwood to sound like the Banshees' John McGeoch. [23].
  • Arcade Fire singer Win Butler suggested covering the 1988 Siouxsie song : "The Last Beat of My Heart" to the band Devotchka. [24]

Musical Genre

Shirley Manson of Garbage stated she never considered the band as goth.

(In 1981), the press began to describe them as a goth band. I never thought of them as goth. Goth has never been particularly angry, just a little dismayed. It had a weak, submissive side to it. Siouxsie & The Banshees always had a real edge to what they did. There was so much articulated spite, humour, politics with a small 'p' there that I never felt they went down that simple, gloomy path. People try to pass them off as a goth band because they find them dangerous and don't understand them.

Shirley Manson, excerpt of the Foreword of the Siouxsie & The Banshees biography by Mark Paytress (2003)


Personal events

Sioux married Budgie in 1991. The following year, ostensibly "fed up with fans staring through the windows of their basement flat" in west London, she and Budgie moved to France. They lived in a converted farmhouse in a small village in south west France, where they had "a garden, cats and mountains of books."

In June 2005, she won the Icon Award at the Mojo Honours in London.

In 2007, Siouxsie appeared in advertising materials for a line of false lashes from cosmetics company, Shu Uemura. She recently announced on BBC Radio 2's The Weekender that she and Budgie are not music partners anymore. In an interview with The Sunday Times in August 2007, she clarified that they had divorced.[25] In an interview with The Independent, she said, "I've never particularly said I'm hetero or I'm a lesbian. I know there are people who are definitely one way, but not really me. I suppose if I am attracted to men then they usually have more feminine qualities."[26]

Discography

Siouxsie & the Banshees

The Creatures

Collaborations with other artists

Film appearances of songs include The Punk Rock Movie (Don Letts, 1977); Jubilee (Derek Jarman, 1977); Out of Bounds (Richard Tuggle, 1986); Batman Returns (Tim Burton,1992); Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven, 1995); The Craft (Andrew Fleming, 1996); (Grosse Pointe Blank) 1997.The Filth and the Fury (Julien Temple, 2000); 24 Hour Party People (Michael Winterbottom, 2002); Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola, 2006); Monster House (Gil Kenan, 2006); Notes on a Scandal (Richard Eyre, 2006)

References

  1. ^ elogious article of Nick Kent published in the NME for the release of "The Scream"
  2. ^ dithyrambic reviews of A Kiss In the Dreamhouse published in the NME and the Melody Maker
  3. ^ pitchforkmedia Mantaray review
  4. ^ Mantaray tour dates
  5. ^ AMG mentions Siouxsie & The banshees in the artists that influenced Tricky
  6. ^ Tricky covered "Tattoo" for the opening track of his second album "Nearly God" in 1996
  7. ^ Massive Attack sampled & covered "Metal Postcard" in 1997 on the movie soundtrack "The Jackal"
  8. ^ track listing of The Jackal with Massive Attack's "Superpredators (Metal Postcard)"
  9. ^ LCD Soundsystem covered Slowdive on this CD
  10. ^ Jeff Buckley covered live "Killing Time", a Siouxsie song composed with The Creatures
  11. ^ review of The Beta Band's Heroes to Zeros album where the siouxsie sample is mentionned
  12. ^ setlist of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers' concert performing "Christine" at the V2001 festival
  13. ^ biography of Shirley Manson on M&C people
  14. ^ Mark Paytress, foreword by (the singer) Shirley Manson 'the Siouxsie & The Banshees official biography', Sanctuary 2003, page 9
  15. ^ Shirley Manson's Garbage interview in the Melody Maker
  16. ^ interview of Dave Navarro in Mark Paytress 'the Siouxsie & The Banshees official biography', Sanctuary 2003, page 199
  17. ^ Morrissey talks about the band in this interview for Q in April 1994
  18. ^ Ana Matronic from Scissor Sisters talked about her favourite band
  19. ^ AMG mentions the bands that influenced the cure
  20. ^ Interview of Robert Smith in Mark Paytress 'the Siouxsie & The Banshees official biography', Sanctuary 2003, page 96
  21. ^ "A suitable case of treatment" interview of Robert Smith by Steve Sutherland in Melody Maker 17 August 1985
  22. ^ U2 selected "Christine" for the track listing of a compilation made for Mojo's readers
  23. ^ Jonny Greenwood was inspired by John McGeoch
  24. ^ DeVotchka biography mentions that Win Butler from Arcade Fire suggested them to cover a banshees song
  25. ^ The Sunday Times, 26 August 2007
  26. ^ Eyre, Hermione (September 1, 2007), the punk icon, The Independent. Retrieved September 1, 2007 [1].
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