{"title":"Laurence Hedges","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"into-the-light-siouxsie-and-the-banshees-1980-1987","title":"Into The Light: Siouxsie And The Banshees 1980-1987","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1980, with their highest charting album to date, Kaleidoscope and two successful singles, ‘Happy House’ and ‘Christine’, and a packed tour schedule, Siouxsie and The Banshees are at the top of their game. Swimming in their own stream, the Banshees defy musical categorisation and are head and shoulders above their peers, with one objective: to be the best band in the world. The band’s 1981 90-gig tour included 25 dates in the US, showcasing the exhilarating ‘Spellbound’, grotesque ‘Night Shift’ and the clandestine frisson of ‘Into The Light’, forming the sonic backbone of what is considered to be the Banshees’ magnum opus, Juju, their fourth studio album, released in June 1981. Ushering in a new chapter in Siouxsie and The Banshees’ evolution the opulent fifth studio album A Kiss In The Dreamhouse, marks another change in direction, and sees producer Mike Hedges superseding Kaleidoscope and Juju producer Nigel Gray. Released 5th November 1982, several days after guitarist John McGeoch is ousted from the band after two near calamitous performances at the Rock-Ola Club in Madrid, it was the album that marked a potential dip in the band’s fortunes. However the Banshees regroup, calling again on the services of The Cure’s Robert Smith, whose fractured relationship with his own band made the offer of becoming a touring Banshee too attractive to refuse. As for what happens next, this in-depth and authoritative account of one of the most original, creative, imaginative and mercurial bands in the history of rock music surveys the twists, turns and episodes of brilliance that define Siouxsie and The Banshees’ evolution from 1980 to 1987, including ancillary ventures ‘The Creatures’ and ‘The Glove’, and the making of the albums Juju and A Kiss In The Dreamhouse, as well as Nocturne, Hyaena, Tinderbox and Through The Looking Glass.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wymer books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":50427074117963,"sku":"2215876","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/416Xw9EuDYL._SY445_SX342__bfeae5fb_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726821303"},{"product_id":"siouxsie-and-the-banshees-the-early-years","title":"Siouxsie and the Banshees - The Early Years","description":"\u003cp\u003eMonday 20th September 1976 saw one of the most unexpected moments in music history when what was to become one of the most iconic, important and mimicked bands of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s took to the stage at The 100 Club in Oxford Street, London. A last-minute addition to the '100 Club Punk Special' that included The Clash, Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks and The Damned, an unknown Siouxsie and The Banshees, comprising Sid Vicious, Steve Severin, Marco Pirroni and Siouxsie Sioux, unleashed twenty minutes of 'performance art' improvisation, featuring fragments of 'Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles', 'Twist And Shout' and 'Satisfaction'. 'The Lord's Prayer', which was to become a staple of Siouxsie and The Banshees' early live repertoire, was a white-noise assault on the senses and a barometer of the alienation many teenagers felt from the bloated nature of mid-1970s 'arena rock'. Several line-up changes later, in 1978, Siouxise and The Banshees were propelled into the pop stratosphere. Signed to a major record label, the band released 'Hong Kong Garden' and wrote one of the most influential post-punk albums of all time, The Scream, a savage critique of curtain-twitching suburbia, the cheap titillation of the tabloids, and the dangers of believing and following any one doctrine. 1979's Join Hands, influenced by the political landscape in Britain and further afield, and the catastrophic loss of life in World War One, was a milestone of the band's increasing maturity, from the adrenaline-fuelled stomp of 'Icon' to the phased guitar, saxophone and bells of 'Playground Twist'. After a tour fraught with fractiousness, a new line up with Slits' drummer Budgie and Magazine guitarist John McGeogh, together with Siouxsie Sioux and Steve Severin, released the band's most experimental album, Kaleidoscope, which was a heady mix of psychedelia and sonorous adventures including the singles 'Happy House' and 'Christine'. Siouxsie and The Banshees The Early Years explores the adventures, trials and tribulations of a band defying categorisation. Their uncompromising brilliance is exemplified by three unique albums, which are chronicled in the pages of this authoritative survey.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wymer Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":50470876348747,"sku":"2011011","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/41JbGrkatJL._SY346__bf90a090_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727384549"},{"product_id":"journey-s-end-siouxsie-and-the-banshees-1987-1996","title":"Journey’s End - Siouxsie and The Banshees 1987-1996","description":"\u003cp\u003eWith Jon Klein and Martin McCarrick now full-blown members, Siouxsie and The Banshees embarks on one of its most creative and ambitious odysseys, culminating in the multidimensional complexities of the 1988 album Peepshow. Both lyrically and musically, the Banshees continue to confound expectation with their progressively sophisticated and erudite artistry, yielding the groundbreaking single ‘Peek-A-Boo’ and propelling the Banshees to number one on the American Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Live, the Banshees continue to be a breathtaking entity; the theatricality of their stage shows paralleling the grandiosity of their songs. However, the revolving door of personnel changes again threatens to derail the band, this time in the form of their (mis)management, until Tim Collins starts to unpick and stabilise the Banshees’ shambolic financial affairs.\u003cbr\u003eAmplifying the strained relations, the first major rupture between founder members Siouxsie and Steven Severin, while on tour, leads to the Banshees’ hiatus between the end of the Peepshow gigs in December 1988 and the release of ‘Kiss Them For Me’ in May 1991, reaching the Modern Rock Tracks number one slot for the second time; a noticeable divergence from their volatile chart fortunes in the UK.\u003cbr\u003eThere is a resurgence of The Creatures’ activity, and the album Boomerang is released in 1989. At the same time, Severin composes the film score for director Nigel Wingrove’s Visions Of Ecstasy film. Invited to play the inaugural Lollapalooza tour in July and August 1991 alongside bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction and Butthole Surfers, the Banshees consolidate their growing popularity in the USA and go down a storm! Convening for two more studio albums, Superstition (1991) and The Rapture (1995), as well as the 1992 Twice Upon A Time: The Singles compilation album, the Banshees go to Hollywood, co-writing the song ‘Face To Face’ with composer Danny Efman for the 1992 Tim Burton-directed film Batman Returns. With tranches of time between activities becoming increasingly prolonged, it begs the question: have Siouxsie and The Banshees, a band that have stayed the course against often insurmountable odds since 1976, finally reached their journey’s end?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wymer Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":56360887419211,"sku":"R6533-0556","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/9781918419061JourneysEnd.jpg?v=1769076054"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/laurence-hedges.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}