Susan Ballion first came to everyone’s attention when Bill Grundy made sleazy comments on the famous Sex Pistols television appearance prompting Steve Jones to start his tirade against Grundy that put the Sex Pistols on the front page of the papers the next morning. The classic line “What a fucking rotter.”
Susan Ballion was Siouxsie Sioux one of the most charismatic and influential singers this country has produced.
Siouxsie and bassist Steve Severin formed the Banshees to play a one-off gig with Marco Pirroni and Sid Vicious, wonder what happened to them?
By the time of this release John McKay and Kenny Morris were in. McKay’s guitar cuts through all the songs on this album and the drums are an essential tribal part of the songs as they were throughout the Banshees career.
Siouxise dominates, a fantastic vocal performance throughout. They had already established themselves on the live circuit this album showed they were not jumping on the bandwagon but would lead us all away from the two-minute thrash along of the early punk bands.
Its worth listening to from start to finish and Overground, Carcass, Mirage and Switch are taking us on a new journey.
An important release by a criminally underrated band.
8/10
GIVE IT A STREAM: Mirage