Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168003 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-21
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Synopsis
If Johnny Rotten was the father of punk, then Siouxsie Sioux was its mother. One of the seminal bands of the punk era that have survived whilst contemporaries like The Clash and The Sex Pistols have ceased to record years ago, Siouxsie & The Banshees tell their story on their own terms. From the band's unsteady birth through to their creative high with 1991's "Superstition" album, "Siouxsie & The Banshees" is the complete authorized story told in each member's own words. Despite its official tag, no punches are pulled in discussions about the band's split in 1996, the years of in-fighting and arguments and the reasons behind their recent reunion to launch their "Best Of" album. Featuring photographs and memorabilia from Siouxsie and co's personal collections, the book should appeal to all music lovers and to anyone who was there in 1976.

Customer Reviews

From The Cradle Bars
From the suburbs they came, as followers of the Sex Pistols not even Siouxsie or Severin could have guessed that their "ragdoll dance" would have lasted nearly 20 years.

The Siouxsie & The Banshees biography is a must read for anyone who followed the band,a band that reckoned they'd only last one gig and go off into obscurity.

If you're looking for a book of photos to titillate, forget it, this book is more about hard facts than glossy pictures!
It truely follows the highs & lows of a band who should never have been labled Punk & most certainly were never Goth'.From the headines of the early days to the rangles that helped end it all.

The book is inspirational in that Siouxsie & Severin had never picked up a mic' or bass up until that fateful night in the 100 club,yet they progressed,proved and outlived most bands of their time.
And as a women Siouxsie most certainly proved that you can succeed in a male orientated enviornment.

This is the book that I've waited 20 years for & the wait was worth it.Prepare to be amazed and even shocked as you enter the world that was Siouxsie and the Banshees.

a kiss in the happy house
long, long awaited, this book is clearly the definitive guide to THE band that provided the sound-track for my youth (and beyond!).

It's fascinating to see how songs that are really age-old friends came into being, and also what the band were thinking of when they recorded them.

Die-hard fans will love every page, as I did, although I think there's a lot there for anyone less directly involved too. Just how much the Banshees were at the centre of new music is laid bare, quite possibly for the first time. Their creative shifts (one minute 'punk', then the inventors of 'goth', then experimenting with 'ethereal' ...) also benefit from being explained in context.

This book made me, at least, very very happy.

Whether a Siouxsie fan or just an observer... read this!
Ok so I had a fixation with Siouxsie. Always did and proud of it. However this is about Souxsie AND the Banshees which is exactly how it should be and not just a story of Siouxsie Sioux.
Based on interviews with most of the major characters in the creation & development of the Banshees this is a clear and informative story. It does not appear that there has been too much censure by each member; disagreements (for example between Sioux & Severin) are apparent at certain points in the history and come out as gripping narrative in the way the interviews have been cut together, so you feel you are getting a true picture of what the Banshees were like.

If you have ever read John Lydon's autobiog there are references to the Bromley Contingent (which I have since learned was a term disliked by Sioux & Stephen) and comments from Sioux etc in there too. What strikes me more than anything is how so many of the great British bands of that era were intertwined/friends/hung out/grew up together during the Punk/Goth/Althernative/pop era's, Marc Almond, Robert Smith (of course), Malcom Mc.., Richard Jobson, Patricia Morrison ... the list goes on.

Gripping book. Read it in one shot somewhere over the Atlantic. Read this, dig your copy of Nocturne out of the CD collection and relive your youth...