Siouxsie Sioux Siouxsie Sioux Siouxsie Sioux

MP3 of the week: Siouxsie Sioux

    Have you heard... Siouxsie Sioux?

  • Everyone likes Siouxsie Sioux. She's the queen of the New Wave. Some call her goth, some call her punk... she's influenced everyone from indie rock to trip hop. Find out more.
  • Musical style: New wave gothpunk
  • Website: www.vamp.org/Siouxsie/

    • Siouxsie & the Banshees were one of the most successful, groundbreaking post-punk new wave bands. The First Lady of Goth left her iconic post-punk beginnings in 2007 to go solo with a new album which - although Siouxsie devotees might not approve - gives us a picture of an eternal artist with true integrity and creative honesty. You can't knock this woman's ability to mesmerise, both in her dark harlequin style and her music, which ranges from pop-rock with catchy riffs to angry articulation to broken modern cabaret.

    During her teens, Siouxsie Sioux 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.

    Siouxsie & the Banshees were one of the most successful, groundbreaking post-punk new wave bands. They had a strong impact on trip-hop acts. Their work has been covered and sampled by Tricky, Massive Attack, LCD Soundsystem, the Mars Volta, Jeff Buckley, the Beta Band and (nearly) Arcade Fire.

    We all love Siouxsie:

    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.

    Shirley Manson of Garbage stated that her all time favourite singers are Siouxsie and Frank Sinatra. She said: "I learned how to sing listening to The Scream and Kaleidoscope. (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. Today, I can see and hear the Banshee'influence all over the place."

    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.

    Siouxsie is considered to be one of the most important British singers of her era, influencing The Cure, Massive Attack, Garbage, and LCD Soundsystem among others.

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