Sorry I Disturbed Your Cat Nap

Siouxsie & The Banshees' debut album The Scream was released on 13th November 1978.

 

I was seven years old at the time and I didn't get on board until 4th album Juju in 1981 but coming back to The Scream as as adult, it was a remarkable first album which continues to unsettle after many years and repeated listens. 

 

Is it punk? Is it post-punk? I'd struggle to categorise it even now but there's something about the collision of on-point bass, frequently martial beats, squalling guitar and Siouxsie's at-times primal expulsions of words and sound that set it apart from their contemporaries and still sounds like a rage that's relevant to the times we're living through. Far from their most accessible album, it can be a difficult listen yet it's little surprise that it broke the Top 20 in the UK album charts.

 

Technically just the one single with Metal Postcard (Mittageisen) released as a double A-Side with Love In A Void, although a re-recorded version of Overground appeared on The Thorn EP in 1984.

 

Here's a selection of performances from The Scream, beginning with the opening and closing songs, Pure and Switch, bridged by a few lines from The Lord's Prayer which itself appeared on their second album Join Hands the following year. 

Steve Severin and John McKay either side of the stage, static yet relentless, Kenny Morris inevitably the next most animated performer. But all eyes on Siouxsie, white jeans, scarf and waistcoat, making full use of the stage space and a mesmerising stage presence.

Next up, one of two performances from Swiss TV show Lucarne Ovale broadcast 8th June 1979 a few months before the release of Join Hands. Jigsaw Feeling was the first of a 5-song set comprising Placebo Effect, Hong Kong Garden, Switch and - following up in this post - Suburban Relapse. Again, the band look and sound fantastic, Siouxsie and McKay almost pre-New Romantic in their respective wardrobe.

 

Back to Blighty for this performance of Overground from the Oxford Road Show, recorded on 3rd December 1982 and broadcast on BBC2. McKay and Morris were gone by now, replaced by Robert Smith and Budgie respectively. The look and sound has also evolved: Siouxsie with proto-Goth Cruella De Ville hair and dress, Severin in blousy shirt and bleached hair; the band backed by a couple of violinists, at first plucked then urgent, sweeping strings adding a grandeur and menace to the song.

Metal Postcard (Mittageisen) was showcased on The Old Grey Whistle Test (BBC2 again) along with Jigsaw Feeling on 11th July 1978. With it's marching, motorik rhythm (later used to stunning effect by Massive Attack on on their song Superpredators) it's long been one of my favourite Banshees songs. Do I need to say Siouxsie provides yet another example of why she is a superlative front person?

Closing this sample - and the TV show itself, as the end credits roll - with a return to Lucarne Ovale from June 1979 and the penultimate song from The Scream, Suburban Relapse. Siouxsie wanders up to the camera, turning it's attention to a prepared 'dressing room' set opposite the stage. Siouxsie finds a conveniently placed brick and casually lobs it at a mirror, risking seven years' bad luck. 

 

The broken mirror has the phrase "Il y a quelque chose de pourri..." scrawled across it in lipstick which, according to my D in French O Level roughly translates as "There is something rotten..." Again, another attention-grabbing show from the band, including John McKay who by now has turned his back on the main audience and seems to be playing directly to a small group of immobile men side of stage. And who is the mysterious figure at stage rear in the banana yellow polo neck and Mick Ronson-circa-72 coiffure? 

 

None of this detracts from Siouxsie of course, who builds the audience up and leads to a literal collapse at the song's climax. The credits have rolled and the backdrop screen proclaims, "C'est Fini".