320) Siouxsie & the Banshees - Join Hands

It was all going so well for Siouxsie and the Banshees, Hong Kong Garden was a top ten hit and the debut album The Scream had been a commercial and critical smash. What could possibly go wrong?

How about starting a tour in Aberdeen on the day of the release, which sounds okay does it not? Why not agree to sign copies of the record at a local shop, the problem is that some members of the band handed them out for free and guitarist John McKay removed the record and played The Slits Cut instead, cue an argument and McKay and drummer Kenny Morris walking out.  Ah well, the band would make up and play the gig later that night. Oh no they were gone, for good. Siouxsie and Severin were on their own.

So this was the end of the Banshees who had recorded their first two records and clearly the record shop incident was the tipping point as McKay and Morris felt detached and were no fans of the Banshees manager, Nils Stevenson and the decision to install him as producer for Join Hands added to the tensions, McKay and Morris were correct as Stevenson’s production seems to work against Siouxsie’s vocals.

So how does Join Hands sound in these difficult, trying times for the band, not bad at all would be my opinion.

Church bells welcome us in, and McKay scratches out a tune as Severin and Morris provide a solid backdrop, Siouxsie appears briefly and it’s all over after two minutes, my kind of start. Saxophone leads us into Regal Zone which builds to a hypnotic chorus. This is McKay’s record, as he has recently shown on Sixes and Sevens (314) John McKay - Sixes and Sevens) he is an immense guitarist (what a shame we have not had more from him through the years) and listen to him riff away on Placebo Effect and Premature Burial.

Icon leads us in slowly just McKay hitting out, the odd beat from Morris and then at one minute thirty the drum patterns develop, and Severin underpins the song with a rumbling bass, an intense listen. Playground Twist was the single, we have church bells back and a swirling guitar and the sax reappears, and Siouxsie is out-front on this one, excellent single from a band who throughout their career knew how to release a single.

So far so good, now what can I say about Mother/Oh Mein Papa where Siouxsie sings over one of those music boxes my sister had when we were children that you opened and the plastic ballerina twirled, is it any good, well if the plan was to unsettle us then yes it is but you won’t rush to hear it again.

Then we finish with the fourteen minute The Lord’s Prayer made famous from their first ever gig. It goes on to long, could have been halved but any song with the line “a f**king ding on the door” and a lyric “A knife, a fork, a bottle, and a cork. That’s the way you spell New York,” deserves to be listened to at least once.

Inner tensions, a lack of strong production and maybe struggling for songs but for the first six songs alone this is worth the price of admission.

7/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Playground Twist