Siouxsie Sioux
Susan Janet Ballion, known professionally as Siouxsie Sioux, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer.
She is best known as the lead singer of the rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. They released 11 studio albums and had several UK Top 20 singles including "Hong Kong Garden", "Happy House", "Peek-a-Boo", plus a US Billboard Top 25 hit "Kiss Them for Me".
Siouxsie also formed a second band the Creatures. With the Creatures, she recorded four studio albums and the hit single "Right Now". After disbanding the Creatures in the mid-2000s, she has continued as a solo artist, using the name Siouxsie, and released Mantaray in 2007.
AllMusic named Siouxsie as "one of the most influential British singers of the rock era". Her songs have been covered by Jeff Buckley, Tricky and LCD Soundsystem. Her records have also been praised by artists such as PJ Harvey and TV on the Radio. In 2011, she was awarded for Outstanding Contribution to Music at the Q Awards and in 2012, at the Ivor Novello Awards, she received the Inspiration Award.
Biography
Early life (1957–1976)
Siouxsie was born Susan Janet Ballion on 27 May 1957 at Guy's Hospital in Southwark, England. She is ten years younger than her two siblings, who were born while the family was based in the Belgian Congo. Her parents met in that colony and worked there for a few years. Her mother, Betty, was of Scottish and English descent and was a secretary who spoke both French and English. Her father was a bacteriologist who milked venom from snakes, and hailed from Walloon, the French-speaking part of Belgium. In the mid-1950s, before Siouxsie's birth, the family moved to England.The Ballions lived in a suburban district in Chislehurst, Kent. Siouxsie was an isolated child, being unable to invite friends to her house due to her alcoholic, unemployed father. Despite his issues, Siouxsie regarded him as intelligent and well-read, and sympathised with his inability to fit in with a "rigid, middle-class society". During moments of sobriety, her father shared with her his love for books. Siouxsie was aware that her family was different; the Ballions were not involved in the local community and Siouxsie, aware that her family's house differed from the neighbours', would later state that "the suburbs inspired intense hatred."
At the age of nine, she and a friend were sexually assaulted by a stranger. The assault was ignored by both her parents and the police, and was not spoken of in the family. The incident and its later treatment would lead Siouxsie to distrust adults. Years later, she stated:
"I grew up having no faith in adults as responsible people. And being the youngest in the family I was isolated – I had no one to confide in. So I invented my own world, my own reality. It was my own way of defending myself – protecting myself from the outside world. The only way I could deal with how to survive was to get some strong armour."
Her father died of alcoholism-related illness when Siouxsie was 14 years old, resulting in a decline in her health. Siouxsie lost considerable weight and missed school. After several misdiagnoses, she was operated on and survived a bout of ulcerative colitis. During the weeks of recovery in mid-1972, she watched television in the hospital and saw David Bowie on Top of the Pops.
At 17, she left school. It was during this period that she began frequenting the local gay discos where sister's friends went, later introducing her own friends to that scene. In November 1975, the Sex Pistols performed at the local art college in Chislehurst. Siouxsie did not attend, but one of her friends told her how they sounded like the Stooges and that singer Johnny Rotten, had threatened students attending the gig. In February 1976, Siouxsie and her friend Steven Severin went to see the Sex Pistols play in London. After chatting with members of the band, Siouxsie and Severin decided to follow them regularly. In the following months, journalist Caroline Coon coined the term "Bromley Contingent" to describe this group of eccentric teenagers devoted to the Sex Pistols.
Siouxsie became well known in the London club scene for her glam, fetish- and bondage-inspired attire, which later became part of punk fashion. She would also heavily influence the later development of gothic fashion with her signature cat-eye makeup, deep red lipstick, spiky dyed-black hair, and black clothing.. In early September 1976, the Bromley Contingent followed the Sex Pistols to France, where Siouxsie was beaten up for wearing a cupless bra and a black armband with a swastika on it. She claimed her intent was to shock the bourgeoisie, not to make a political statement. She later wrote the song "Metal Postcard ".
Following the DIY ethos and the idea that the people in the audience could be the people on stage, Siouxsie and Severin decided to form a band. When a support slot at the 100 Club Punk Festival opened up, they decided to make an attempt at performing, although at that time they did not know how to play any songs. On 20 September 1976, the band improvised 20 minutes of music while Siouxsie sang the "Lord's Prayer".
For critic Jon Savage, Siouxsie was "unlike any female singer before or since, commanding yet aloof, entirely modern". Viv Albertine from the Slits said:
"Siouxsie just appeared fully made, fully in control, utterly confident. It totally blew me away. There she was doing something that I dared to dream but she took it and did it and it wiped the rest of the festival for me, that was it. I can't even remember everything else about it except that one performance."
One of Siouxsie's first public appearances was with the Sex Pistols on Bill Grundy's television show, on Thames Television. Standing next to the band, Siouxsie made fun of the presenter when he asked her how she was doing. She responded: "I've always wanted to meet you, Bill." Grundy, who claimed he was drunk, suggested a meeting after the show, which provoked Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones to respond with a series of expletives. This episode created a media furore on the front covers of several tabloids, including the Daily Mirror, which published the headline "Siouxsie's a Punk Shocker". The event had a major impact on the Sex Pistols' subsequent career, and they became a household name overnight.
Aware of the press surrounding both herself and the Sex Pistols, Siouxsie began to distance herself from the scene and stopped seeing Sex Pistols shows, instead focussing her energy on her own band, Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Creatures (1977–2003)
In 1977, Siouxsie began touring in England as Siouxsie and the Banshees. One year later, their first single, "Hong Kong Garden", reached number 7 in the UK Singles Chart; With its oriental-inflected xylophone motif, Melody Maker deemed it "a glorious debut All the elements come together with remarkable effect. The song is strident and powerful with tantalising oriental guitar riffs plus words and vocals that are the result of anger, disdain and isolation. No-one will be singled out because everyone is part and parcel of the whole. It might even be a hit".Their debut album, The Scream, was one of the first post-punk records released. It received 5-star reviews in Sounds and Record Mirror. The latter said that the record "points to the future, real music for the new age". The music was different than the single; it was angular, dark and jagged. The Scream was later hailed by NME as one of the best debut albums of all time along with Patti Smith's Horses. Join Hands followed in 1979 with war as the lyrical theme.
The 1980 album Kaleidoscope marked a change in musical direction with the arrival of John McGeoch, considered "one of the most innovative and influential guitarists" by The Guardian, and drummer Budgie, the latter of whom would continue to perform and record with Siouxsie throughout her career until 2004. The hit single "Happy House" was qualified as "great Pop" with "liquid guitar" and other songs like "Red Light" were layered with electronic sounds. Kaleidoscope widened Siouxsie's audience, reaching the top 5 in the UK charts. Juju followed in 1981, reaching number 7; the singles "Spellbound" and "Arabian Knights" were described as "pop marvels" by The Guardian. During recording sessions for Juju, Siouxsie and Budgie formed a percussion-oriented duo called the Creatures, characterized by a stripped-down sound focused on vocals and drums; their first record, the EP Wild Things, was a commercial success.
In 1982, the Siouxsie and the Banshees' album A Kiss in the Dreamhouse was widely acclaimed by critics. Richard Cook of NME depicted it as "a feat of imagination scarcely ever recorded". The single "Slowdive" was "a violin-colored dance beat number". They included strings for the first time on several songs. However, the recording sessions took its toll, and McGeoch was forced to quit the band.
In 1983, Siouxsie went to Hawaii to record the Creatures' first album, Feast, which included the hit single "Miss the Girl". It was her first incursion into exotica, incorporating sounds of waves, local Hawaiian choirs and local percussions. Later that year, Siouxsie and Budgie released "Right Now", a song from Mel Tormé's repertoire that the Creatures re-orchestrated with brass arrangements; "Right Now" soon became a top 20 hit single in the UK. Then, with the Banshees, she covered the Beatles' "Dear Prudence", which reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart. Two albums followed with Smith: Nocturne, recorded live in London in 1983, and 1984's Hyæna. In 1985, the single "Cities in Dust" was recorded with sequencers; it climbed to number 21 in the UK charts. Entertainment Weekly noted that it was the first of a handful of Alternative rock radio hits in the U.S. 1986's Tinderbox and the 1987 covers album Through the Looking Glass both reached the top 15 in the UK.
In 1988, the single "Peek-a-Boo" marked a musical departure from her previous work, anticipating hip hop-inspired rock with the use of samples. The song was praised by NME as "oriental marching band hip hop with farting horns and catchy accordion" and hailed by Melody Maker as "a brightly unexpected mixture of black steel and pop disturbance". The Peepshow album received a five star review in Q magazine. The ballad "The Last Beat of My Heart" issued as a single, saw her exploring new ground with accordion and strings.
Siouxsie and Budgie then went to Andalusia in Spain to record the second Creatures album, Boomerang. The songs took a different direction from previous Creatures works, with backing music ranging from flamenco to jazz and blues styles. It featured brass on most of the songs. The first single was "Standing There". NME hailed Boomerang as "a rich and unsettling landscape of exotica". Anton Corbijn visited the group during the recording near Jerez de la Frontera, and Siouxsie convinced him to take photographs in color, unlike his prior work which was in black-and-white: the photos used for the promotion showed Siouxsie and Budgie in fields surrounded with sunflowers. In 1990, she toured for the first time with the Creatures, in Europe and North America.
On 1991's dance-oriented "Kiss Them for Me" single, Siouxsie and the Banshees used South Asian instrumentation, which had become popular in the UK club scene with the growth of bhangra. Indian tabla player Talvin Singh took part in the session and provided vocals for the bridge. With Kiss Them for Me, the Banshees scored a hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 peaking at number 23. After the release of Superstition which received enthusiastic reviews, the group co-headlined the first Lollapalooza tour, further increasing their American following.
In 1992, film director Tim Burton requested that she write a song for Batman Returns, and the Banshees composed the single "Face to Face".
In the mid-1990s, Siouxsie started to do one-off collaborations with other artists. Suede invited her to a benefit concert for the Red Hot Organization. With guitarist Bernard Butler, she performed a version of Lou Reed's "Caroline Says". Spin reviewed it as "haughty and stately". Morrissey, ex-lead singer of the Smiths, recorded a duet with Siouxsie in 1994. They both sang on the single "Interlude", a track that was initially performed by Timi Yuro, a female torch singer of the 1960s. "Interlude" was released under the name of "Morrissey and Siouxsie".
The last Banshees studio album, The Rapture, was released in 1995; it was written partly in the Toulouse area of France, where she had recently moved. After the accompanying tour, the Banshees announced their split during a press conference called "20 Minutes into 20 Years". The Creatures de facto became her only band. At the same time, she released the song "The Lighthouse" on French producer Hector Zazou's album Chansons des mers froides, with jazz trumpetist Mark Isham. Siouxsie and Zazou adapted the poem "Flannan Isle" by English poet Wilfred Wilson Gibson.
Her first live performance in three years was in February 1998 when former Velvet Underground member John Cale invited her to a festival called "With a Little Help From My Friends" at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. The concert was shown on Dutch national television and featured an unreleased Creatures composition, "Murdering Mouth", sung as a duet with Cale. The collaboration between the two artists worked so well that they decided to tour the US from June until August, performing "Murdering Mouth", and Cale's "Gun" together as the encores of a Creatures and Cale double bill.
The following year, Siouxsie and Budgie released Anima Animus, the first Creatures album since the split of the Banshees. It included the singles "2nd Floor" and "Prettiest Thing". The material diverged from their former work, with a more urban sound from art rock to electronica. Anima Animus was described by The Times as "hypnotic and inventive". Also in 1999, Siouxsie collaborated with Marc Almond on the track "Threat of Love".
In 2002, she was rated as one of the 10 best female rock artists by Q. That same year, Universal released The Best of Siouxsie and the Banshees as the first reissue of her back catalogue.
In 2003, Siouxsie and Budgie released the last Creatures album, Hái!, which was in part recorded in Japan, collaborating with taiko player Leonard Eto. Peter Wratts wrote in Time Out: "Her voice is the dominant instrument here, snaking and curling around the bouncing drumming backdrop, elegiac and inhuman as she chants, purrs and whispers her way around the album". He termed the record a "spine-tingling achievement". Hái! was preceded by the single "Godzilla!". That year, Siouxsie was featured on the track "Cish Cash" by Basement Jaxx, from their album Kish Kash, which later won Best Electronic/Dance Album at the Grammy Awards.
Solo (2004–present)
2004 was a pivotal year for the singer. She toured for the first time as a solo act combining Banshees and Creatures songs. A live DVD called Dreamshow was recorded at the last London concert, in which she and her musicians were accompanied by a 16-piece orchestra, the Millennia Ensemble. Released in August 2005, this DVD reached the number 1 position in the UK music DVD charts.Her first solo album, Mantaray, was released in September 2007. Pitchfork wrote, "She really is pop", before finishing the review by declaring, "It's a success". Mojo stated: "a thirst for sonic adventure radiates from each track". Mantaray included three singles: "Into a Swan", "Here Comes That Day" and "About to Happen". In 2008, Siouxsie performed vocals for the track "Careless Love" on The Edge of Love soundtrack by composer Angelo Badalamenti, a frequent collaborator with director David Lynch. She performed another Badalamenti number, "Who Will Take My Dreams Away", at the annual edition of the World Soundtrack Awards. After a year of touring, the singer played the last show of her tour in London in September 2008. A live DVD of this performance, , was released in 2009.
In June 2013, after a hiatus of five years, Siouxsie played two nights at the Royal Festival Hall in London during Yoko Ono's Meltdown festival. She performed 1980's Kaleidoscope album live in its entirety, along with other works from her back catalogue, and her performance was hailed by the press. She also appeared at Ono's Double Fantasy concert, to sing the final song, "Walking on Thin Ice".
In October 2014, she and fellow Banshee Steven Severin compiled a CD titled It's a Wonderfull Life for the November 2014 issue of Mojo magazine, in which she appeared on the cover. The disc included 15 tracks that inspired the Banshees.
"Love Crime", her first song in eight years, was featured in the finale of the TV series Hannibal, broadcast in August 2015. The song was then included on both CD and vinyl editions of Hannibal Season 3 – Volume 2.
Songwriting
Journalist Paul Morley noted that Siouxsie's songs topics dealt with "mental illness, medical terrors, surreal diseases, depraved urges, sinister intensity, unearthly energy, sexual abuse, childhood disturbances, sordid mysteries, unbearable nervous anxiety, fairytale fears, urban discontent and the bleak dignity of solitude". Many of her songs are about damage; her childhood marked her profoundly. She said, "Damaged lives, damaged souls, damaged relationships. Most of the damage I sing about first happened when I was younger and I am still feeding off it and working it out. Early experiences are what create a lifetime of damage. The songs you write can help you fix the damage. And just the environment you are in is so important and can waste potential and corrupt something. For me, there was neglect. An alcoholic father who is not there because the most important thing for him is just to get alcohol and your mother is trying to compensate for the non-existent second parent so she's never there because she's working all the time and when she is around she's stressed out. Being isolated and not having anyone to connect with, there was just no physical touching back then".Legacy
Siouxsie has been praised by artists of many genres. She had a strong impact on two trip-hop acts. Tricky covered 1983's proto trip-hop "Tattoo" to open his second album, Nearly God, and Massive Attack sampled "Metal Postcard " on their song "Superpredators " for the soundtrack to the film The Jackal.Other acts have covered Siouxsie's songs. Jeff Buckley performed "Killing Time" several times, he first recorded it during a radio session for WFMU in 1992. LCD Soundsystem recorded a cover of "Slowdive" for the B-side of "Disco Infiltrator", their version was also released on Introns. Santigold based her track "My Superman", on the music of "Red Light". In 2003, the Beta Band sampled "Painted Bird" and changed the title to "Liquid Bird" on their Heroes to Zeros album. Red Hot Chili Peppers performed "Christine" at the V2001 festival and introduced it to their British audience as "your national anthem". "Christine" was also revisited by Simple Minds. Indie folk group DeVotchKa covered "The Last Beat of My Heart" at the suggestion of Arcade Fire singer Win Butler in 2007. The Weeknd sampled "Happy House" on the title track of his first mixtape "House of Balloons" in 2011.
Morrissey said that "Siouxsie and the Banshees were excellent. They were one of the great groups of the late 70s, early 80s". In 1994, discussing modern bands, he also stated: "None of them are as good as Siouxsie and the Banshees at full pelt. That's not dusty nostalgia, that's fact". Another ex-member of the Smiths, Johnny Marr, said: "Really my generation was all about a guy called John McGeoch, from Siouxsie and the Banshees. He was a great player". Marr hailed McGeoch for his work on Siouxsie's single "Spellbound". Marr qualified it as "clever" with "really good picky thing going on which is very un-rock'n'roll". Radiohead also cited McGeoch-era Siouxsie records when mentioning the recording of "There There". Their singer, Thom Yorke, said: "The band that really changed my life was R.E.M. and Siouxsie and the Banshees ...". "My favourite show I ever saw then was Siouxsie and she was absolutely amazing. ... She's totally in command of the whole audience". Yorke added that she "made an especially big impression in concert, she was really sexy but absolutely terrifying." Sonic Youth singer and guitarist Thurston Moore named "Hong Kong Garden" as one of his 25 all-time favourite songs.
Siouxsie has influenced other bands ranging from contemporaries Joy Division, U2, and the Cure, to later acts like the Jesus and Mary Chain, Jane's Addiction and TV on the Radio. Joy Division co-founder Peter Hook said that The Scream inspired them for the "unusual way of playing" and cited the Banshees as "one of our big influences". U2 frontman Bono named her as an influence in the band's 2006 autobiography U2 by U2. He was inspired by her way of singing. With his band, he selected "Christine" for a compilation made for Mojo
Siouxsie has been hailed by many female singers. When asked if there was any figure who connected with her when she was just a listener, PJ Harvey replied: "It's hard to beat Siouxsie Sioux, in terms of live performance. She is so exciting to watch, so full of energy and human raw quality". Harvey also selected in her top 10 favourite albums of 1999, the Anima Animus album by Siouxsie's second band the Creatures. Sinéad O'Connor said that when she started, Siouxsie was one of her main influences. Tracey Thorn of Everything But the Girl wrote in her autobiography that Siouxsie was one of her heroines. Thorn paid homage to Siouxsie in the lyrics of her 2007 song "Hands Up to the Ceiling". Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins used to have a Siouxsie tattoo on her arm, and mentioned her liking for "Metal Postcard" to the members of Massive Attack in 1998. Sharleen Spiteri of Texas grew up listening to tracks such as "Hong Kong Garden" and was hooked by the Asian vibe present in the song; she stated that Texas' single "In Our Lifetime" was "our tribute to" "Hong Kong Garden". Garbage singer Shirley Manson cited her as an influence: "I learned how to sing listening to The Scream and Kaleidoscope". Manson also declared that Siouxsie embodied everything she wanted to be as a young woman. Manson would later write the foreword to Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Authorised Biography. Beth Ditto, of Gossip cited her as one of their influences for their 2009 album Music for Men. Ana Matronic of Scissor Sisters named Siouxsie as a source of inspiration and the Banshees as her favourite band. Siouxsie was also hailed by Romy Madley Croft of the XX, Kim Deal of the Pixies and the Breeders, and also by Josephine Wiggs of the Breeders, and namechecked by Karin Dreijer Andersson of the Knife. Kate Jackson of the Long Blondes said that Siouxsie was a part of her musical background, thanks to her "sharp lyrics" on Creatures' tracks like "So Unreal". Rachel Goswell mentioned her as a major influence: "From a singing point of view, I was inspired by Siouxsie Sioux, who I just adored. She's amazing. I've never seen anyone else quite like her" ; her band Slowdive was named on a suggestion of Goswell, inspired by the Banshees' single of the same name. Lush were initially named "the Baby Machines", which the band culled from the lyrics of "Arabian Knights". Courtney Love of Hole wrote Siouxsie in her favourite records' list when she was a teenager in her diary. While talking about the band Savages, Love also stated: "They are amazing. ... It's kind of very Siouxsie Sioux". Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth said: "Initially I was really inspired by Siouxsie, Patti Smith". FKA twigs named her as a main influence: "Every bit of music that I made sounded like a pastiche of Siouxsie but through that I discovered myself". Róisín Murphy named Siouxsie when asked who were her biggest influences.
Other female artists have been quoted expressing admiration for her work, including
Charli XCX, Hayley Williams of Paramore, Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries, Jennifer Charles of Elysian Fields, Ebony Bones, Toni Halliday of Curve, Chan Marshall a.k.a. Cat Power, Gillian Gilbert of New Order, Alison Goldfrapp, Jehnny Beth of Savages, Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine, Chelsea Wolfe, Brody Dalle of the Distillers, Dee Dee of Dum Dum Girls, Joan As Police Woman, Lou Doillon, and Jenny Lee Lindberg of Warpaint. Santigold said: "I keep a Rolodex of the women that vocally inspire me. There aren't that many, but she's definitely one of them. I remember one of the first times I heard "Red Light" it was at a party, and I remember going up to the DJ and being like, "Who's this?". It was that good. I kind of stopped and was like ... wow. There's not a tremendous amount of women who are bold and forward thinking as artists. I feel like her music, at the time especially, was pretty unique in the way that it sort of matched her style. The freedom of experimenting with this dark place that doesn't have a place often in modern music".
Personal life
Siouxsie married drummer Budgie in May 1991. The following year, they moved to the southwest of France.In an interview with The Sunday Times in August 2007, she announced that she and Budgie had divorced. 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."
Discography
For her works with Siouxsie and the Banshees, see Siouxsie and the Banshees discography.For her works with the Creatures, see the Creatures discography.
Solo album
Solo singles
Collaborative singles
DVD
- 2005 Dreamshow No. 1 UK
- 2009 No. 4 UK
Collaborations with other artists
In studio
- Morrissey: "Interlude"
- Hector Zazou: "The Lighthouse"
- Marc Almond: "Threat of Love"
- Basement Jaxx: "Cish Cash"
- Angelo Badalamenti: "Careless Love"
- Brian Reitzell: "Love Crime"
Live
- Suede: "Caroline Says"
- John Cale: "Murdering Mouth"
- Yoko Ono: "Walking on Thin Ice"