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| THIS SITE IS DEDICATED TO... "DOING THE ZOMBIERAMA!" Last update: August 27th 2009 |
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| REGAL ZONE
First there was the dramatic spacious dark expanse of the 'Scream' with enough suspence to hang you from one of John McKays taught guitar strings. Now it was time to follow up such a groundbreaking debut. So 'Join Hands' was met with much intrepidation by the record buying punk public, and myself as I tuned into John Peel playing selected tracks one summer night back in August '79. 'Join Hands' the second album by the Banshees released 30 years ago this month is still essential listening and a perfect soundtrack as im writing this editorial up and giving it yet another blast for god knows how many times since its release. Still one of my favourite punk albums with it's dark, claustrophobic, sinister and iconic audio swagger. It was all and more we awaiting from the Banshees. Funeral director organs, chiming bells, washing machines, a psychotic music box, screaming kids, yodelling, haunting gothic ghouls and humming deep, dark, chants are all essential ingrediants on this slab as the tribalistic drums beat a path and those sweeping, crunching guitars grind across this shrapnel encrusted landscape. Siouxsie's majestic vocals paint a dark Bodacea Ice Queen overlooking her poisoned kingdom of twisted blood soaked decay. Often overlooked as it was released within weeks of the Banshees imploding on themselves. 'Join Hands' was also apparently surrounded by their own real life demons and twisted fortunes. Which resulted in their last great musical legacy left at our feet like a reef at Flanders. Hated by Sioux and punched by Mr Severin for acts of treason and desertion to duty, the often referred to 'Blackheads' - guitarist Mckay and drummer Kenny Morris were (in my opinion) the best two collaborators, to flaunt a Banshees line-up in all the bands decades of music. I think that's why Siouxsie was so upset at the perpetraitors. Not so much when they scarpered on the 'Join Hands' tour to promote this album leaving the band in dissaray. Nor cos they landed the remaining Banshees with half a band and an almighty debt for an exspensive tour loss. But cos she must've realised she'd never regain such a distinctive guitarist and drumming ambience within the Banshees sound ever again! Sometimes personalitys fail in a band, but bad vibes can sometimes create some brilliant artistic masterpieces and 'Join Hands' is a great example. I'll leave you with a an excellent review from my archives to savour the moment in case you hadn't already, so pull out 'Join Hands' from the depth of the grave once more and give it another play..... QUEEN OF THE NEW ESTABLISHMENT WHADDA YA mean, is it extreme? Can you honestly imagine the Banshees doing anything - whether it be throwing shapes for a camera, getting dressed for a night on the town or making a record - by halves? They are, after all, the self-appointed prophets of the outer limits, superior beings sent to teach us humbler folk the futility of our ways - at least, that's the way they seem to often present themselves. For some reason the stories about John McKay getting very friendly with a bottle of vodka and passing out in a cinema while trying to watch a film without subtitles in a language he doesn't speak seem to slip from the memory when placed alongside headlines that draw attention to the Ice Queen of New Musick. Still, that's the price you pay if you insist on fitting the word 'catalepsy' into a song as they do on 'Premature Burial'. If you talk it, other people are sure as hell gonna make you walk it. And at the moment, the Banshees are very much in the unenviable position of becoming everybody's favourite whipping boys and girls. After two years hustling in the wilderness they attained the dizzy heights of a major record deal and probably surprised a lot of people (including said record company, possibly) with the self-assured poise of their debut album and the chart success of 'Hong Kong Garden' - I can't think of anybody outside the band and their manager who thought the Banshees would become Top Of The Pops regulars with their first single. Then came the relative failure of the follow-up singles, a failure made all the worse by the unexpected achievement of 'Hong Kong' and the band's rapid blossoming from cult status to second division attraction (ie they're no ELO but they're no UK Subs). Obviously I've no idea of the internal machinations at Polydor, but I suspect that the record company ceased viewing the Banshees as their new wonderkids sometime around the week 'Staircase' failed to leap up the charts from its position tucked into the middle of the twenties. In this straitened economic climate what else can a poor record company do but concentrate on the acts which make vast amounts of money? (In Polydor's case this probably means Jimmy Pursey and the Bee Gees.) Added to that was the change in the press attitude to the band. The Banshees had simply become boring. There was little left to say once they'd established their own domain and carved out their own little patch of the rock 'n' roll universe (which quite likely includes hating being referred to as being rock 'n' roll). Why think of the Banshees when you can thrill to the exciting world of Joy Division or, at the other extreme, the whole new mod movement? Much as they hate the idea, the Banshees are now established, in much the same position as, say, Whitesnake. There's no longer anything particularly exciting or original about them - if you've heard the first album and the singles, you'll know, with only maybe one exception, what this album will sound like even without listening to it. Any band that puts 'catalepsy' into a song (sorry to repeat myself but I was struck by the self-conscious intellectualism of it) must have a distinct individual style, and you hardly expected the Banshees to turn round and start penning hymns to a brave new youth, calls to action for rude boys now did you? Almost inevitably, the album bears the same relationship to 'The Scream' as 'Give 'Em Enough Rope' did to 'The Clash'. Where the first album represented the collected efforts of a year's writing, the second had to be written almost to order and what it loses from not having been kicked around the brain cells for a year, it gains in thematic cohesion. In the Banshees case, this means tightening up the fear, loathing, pain, alienation, desperation and all the jolly things like that and adding - just as The Clash did on 'Give 'Em Enough Rope' - a healthy does of military chic. They've got soldiers on the cover and 'Poppy Day' in the first groove. Ringing in the new album with a peal of bells, 'Poppy Day' sets the tone for the whole forty six minutes - about as cheerful as Chesterfield. But, like all the Banshees stuff, its doesn't somehow make you feel like cutting your wrists any more than watching 'Dirty Harry' makes you feel like shooting people. Guitars dominate as ever, prowling around like caged lions, swaying with Siouxsie's arm swinging. The mix is different to the last album. No longer does the bass thud around the bottom of the sound, giving you the impression that it was distorted when it wasn't. Now there's a new clarity which frames Sue's voice like it was a thing of treasure. A short fragment of a song it's still echoing in your head as it snaps into 'Regal Zone', the second, more aggressive, more neurotic, more dynamic and even more demonic offering. If songs were ever min-epics, this would be - it both frightens and reassures. A few loose slaps around the kit and Kenny Morris leads the band into 'Placebo Effect', a winding tortuous thing in the mood of 'The Switch' with added pacing. 'Icon' has Sue wailing from the depths of a grave - if there isn't wind whipping around the sound, there should be. 'Premature Burial' is even eerier, coming as it does from the background of an Edgar Allan Poe short story (which was turned into a Roger Corman flick which bore absolutely no relation to the Poe original). Moody as an Elvis Presley staring down a photographer, it has Siouxsie's voice double tracked with devastating effect. 'Playground Twist' you know and it's apparently here because it didn't sell too well and the band wanted everybody to have a chance to hear it because they don't get any airplay and it has bells. 'Mother' is the exception I mentioned earlier. Sue sings soft and quiet backed by a music box. Placed as it is between 'Playground Twist' and the storming inferno 'The Lord's Prayer, its very delicacy displays a touching confusion. The record company sheet attached to the album mentioned that it contained the band's original version of 'The Lord's Prayer'. That's original as in very weird, not as in normal. It'll undoubtedly raise a few hackles - Dylan certainly won't cover a Banshees song on his next album and I doubt if Cliff Richard will put it in his Star Choice. It's fourteen minutes of rage and twisted bitterness which includes Sue 'quoting' from the likes of 'Twist And Shout' and the 'Yodeley-ee' song in 'The Sound Of Music'. Both frightening and absorbing, it'll probably get them in the News Of The World. It deserves better. The final paragraph advises you to buy it if you liked the last album and run as fast as you can in the opposite direction if you didn't. It's probably best you don't ask yourself why you like the Banshees. I'm sure in my case its an aberration. PETE SILVERTON - (Sounds September 1st 1979) Sadistically Yours Peter Don't Care (August 2009) |
| LATEST UPDATES REVIEWS - (GIGS) CHOCKING SUSAN IN BIRMINGHAM...27/8/09 REVIEWS - (GIGS) $HAME ACADEMY IN BELFAST...13/8/09 REVIEWS - (GIGS) DON LETTS IN BELFAST...14/7/09 REVIEWS - (RECORDS) WORLDPOWER OR RUIN....3/7/09 REVIEWS - (FANZINES) GABRIEL'S HOUNDS...11/6/09 |
| This Months Playlist SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES - 'Join Hands' CD RUNNIN RIOT - 'Boots & Ballads' CD SNAZZY BOYS - S/T LP THE FALL - 'Rowche Rumble' 45 RUDI - 'I-Spy' 45 This Months Punk In Print EVERLONG #10 2008 MAXIMUMROCKNROLL 312 MAY 2009 EVERLONG #11 2009 NETWORK OF FRIENDS 2008 MAXIMUMROCKNROLL 313 JULY 2009 MAXIMUMROCKNROLL 314 JULY 2009 This Months Backdrop This months backdrop is Siouxsie & The Banshees circa August 1979 with an Iconic look to match their iconic piece of work they had just unleashed. Born July 27th 2001, conceived 1977. A Cult Status Production © 2009 |
| Important Announcement "GeoCities is closing on October 26, 2009. On October 26, 2009, your GeoCities site will no longer appear on the Web, and you will no longer be able to access your GeoCities account and files." WEBSITE UPDATE: Time is definitely ticking by and now I have a site deadline for OCTOBER 26TH 2009 from Geocities. Everything will be deleted by then. I have found a new FREE squat without annoying side banners and more space to bring you the pages how they were meant to look without feeling so cramped. Check out PUNK ROCKER for a fuller explanation of events as this will be the new portal for future reference and launched in October. So if anyone has a link maybe you could update it for then. Im still working on page transfers as there's nearly a decades worth of information and material to transfer. However a whole new era and name change will be in order but with the same trusted format and definitely the same attitude! Peter Don't Care (August 2009) |
 
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