A Spark From a Hong Kong Garden Quiz

Answer: Xylophone

Siouxsie and the Banshees arrived in the first wave of punk rock but could not get signed to a record label. The labels were scared of them - they were scared because they only saw them as a one trick pony, they were scared because they couldn't see a future for them and they were scared of Souixsie because she brandished a swastika armband and was branded by the tabloids as a "punk shocker".

This was despite critical acclaim for their sessions with John Peel on the BBC and a flurry of articles proclaiming them as "Britain's best unsigned band".

It was Polydor that finally gathered up the nerve and signed the band. They were rewarded when "Hong Kong Garden", the band's first release, rose to number seven on the UK Singles' Charts in August of 1978.

The track was inspired by incidents involving skinheads at their favourite Chinese restaurant and, apart from the xylophone intro, utilizes a very clever Oriental style hook pieced together by their guitarist John McKay. All the while Siouxsie delivers the lyrics with a voice like ice, adding depth and dimension to the final product. Time has not been unkind to the track and it is now recognized as both a post-punk classic and one of the songs that helped launch the genre into the mainstream.

Answer: The Scream

The Banshee's debut album was met with rave reviews. Record Mirror and Sounds magazines each gave it a five-star rating, Zig-Zag labelled it "magnificent" and NME called it a "unique hybrid". Add to that it was commercially successful, climbing to number twelve on the UK Album charts and, in time, it has been hailed as one of the stone tablets of post-punk, influencing a range of artists such as the Savages and Florence & the Machine.

The killer tracks include "Pure", "Jigsaw Feeling" and "Mirage" but it is the album's closing track, "Switch", which illustrates just how solid and tight a unit the band had become. Souixsie is in fine form extolling the issues that arise when personalities collide, her voice drifting from anguish to melancholy while the Glitter drums pound away in the background.

In the midst of all this John McKay's saxophone drifts in to add a suitably droning wild-card to bring a touch of theatre to the piece.

Answer: Drums

In September of 1976 Siouxsie Sioux and Steve Severin were at the 100 Club Punk Festival in London. An act had cancelled and, despite having no band, no name and no songs, the pair decided to "have a go". They dragged in Sid Vicious to play drums and a guitar player by the name of Marco Pirroni and for twenty minutes did an improvisation of "The Lord's Prayer". They were invited back for a second gig and the rest...

On the album however, the song was described by critic David Cleary as "a failed experiment". Running for fourteen minutes and eight seconds it starts with the devotional text and then runs off, as a stream of consciousness, into a maze of pointless directions. The album, which was released early to build on the momentum generated by their debut, feels rushed, spews forth a stream of very bleak lyrics and is endowed with an air of grimness. The use and the length of "Lord's Prayer" only serves to highlight this, making it more of a filler track than a genuine attempt at artistic growth. As if to emphasize this, during the tour to promote the album, John McKay and drummer, Kenny Morris, walked out on the band, acrimonious that the Banshees had drifted away from their "original ideals". How prophetic the closing track, "Switch", from their debut album now seemed.

Answer: Happy House

If "Join Hands" was bleak, "Kaleidoscope" was colour. The hint arrives with the cover art and its daubs of red, green and blue in the top left corner. With the introduction to the band of a new drummer, Budgie from The Slits, and former Magazine guitarist John McGeoch, the opportunity was there for the band to reinvent themselves.

There are still bleak lyrics within this set but now they're lifted by reggae polyrhythms, drum machines and pianos as the Banshees drift toward a form of "twisted pop". "Happy House" uses its African rhythms to good effect and the song became the first single to be released from the album.

It would become the band's second Top Twenty hit on the UK Singles' charts and help propel the album to number five on the same nation's album charts.

Answer: Israel

This track fills a gap between the albums "Kaleidoscope" (1980) and "Juju" (1981). Despite peaking at a lowly 41 on the UK Singles' chart this remains one of Siouxsie and the Banshees' finest moments on vinyl. A haunting number made beautifully disturbing by Siouxsie's improving vocals and an infectious bassline.

The eerie latter half of the single is dominated by a ghostly chanting that dredges up visions of the misty moors and monsters that lay in wait. All in all, an apt way to introduce the song that marks the start of the period when the band were at their imperious best.

Answer: Spellbound

Prior to this album Siouxie's lyrics had been dark, here they rush headlong into blackness. The witches brew the band had concocted in prior years was now scaled to something toxic. These new songs seep psychological terror, voodoo, murder and prostitution. (Have I put you off the album yet?) The redeeming feature here, the one that lifts this recording beyond "great" to the realms of "classic" are the melodies produced by the band - without doubt, the best of their careers to that point. "Spellbound" opens the album bristling with menace and dynamic energy. From within a dense layer of John McGeoch's guitar renderings Siouxsie's voice emerges like a ghost ship from the fog before Budgie's tribal drums pound out a call to war that sweeps the listener up in a tidal wave of sound, voice and exhilaration.

Answer: Monitor

Growing, expanded, evolving... whatever, we dig deeper into the 1981 album "Juju" and see that Siouxsie has set her eyes on another heady direction, shaking the corners of the local disco in the process. Now don't be fooled and don't get me wrong because this track still sweats "goth" through its many pores, but on this occasion Budgie (the drummer) injects a healthy dose of funk into his work, McGeogh produces a deliciously distorted little riff and Siouxsie sounds imperious as she peers through the victim's eyes that stare at the camera and rail against the watcher for being the cause of her pain.

Answer: Night Shift

With barely a second's break from the hyperactive "Monitor" the album, "Juju", shifts its mood on this song and comes up with an uncomfortable and brooding intensity. That eerie intro in the question then gives way to a sparse bass-line and a fractured guitar lick. That early simmer develops a creeping tension that eventually surrenders to a raw release of power by McGeogh and one almighty hook.

In the build up to this Siouxsie bleeds sinister as she sings of her sisters (prostitutes) waiting for "the man in black".

The picture she paints of a killer on the loose ends up being too close to truth. (Footnote) Peter Sutcliffe, alluded to as "the man in black" in the song's lyrics, was responsible for the murder of thirteen women between 1975 and 1980.

Answer: Slowdive

The Banshee's 1982 album "A Kiss in the Dreamhouse" was a deliberate step away from the darkness that had prevailed in their previous album "Juju". Enter colour/exit night, appeared to be the motto, as they went from a brooding rock band to purveyors of psychedelic pop.

In some respects, this album harked back to the form and avant-garde stylings of their 1980 disc "Kaleidoscope". With the release of the album's first single, "Slowdive", you get the impression that the band was starting to yearn for some mainstream recognition.

At this point, McGeogh's guitar work was being described by critic Julian Marszalek as "seamless beauty" and Siouxsie's voice had matured to such a degree that she was able to apply imaginative shadings to the band's creations. Critics were not shy in praising this album; NME magazine ranked it at number eleven in their year end charts, Melody Maker claimed it was an "intoxicating achievement" and David Cleary announced that it was "the crowning achievement of their experimental phase".

Answer: Peek-a-Boo

Whilst the Banshees continued to produce strong albums they were now starting to generate the same issues other bands, who'd been together for a long period of time, had experienced. The territory they were exploring with their new songs was now the ground that they had covered before, new horizons were now a frontier that was a little too far and relationships within the band were starting to fracture. Adding to their woes, one of their creative dynamos, John McGeogh, had developed an alcohol dependency, suffered a breakdown and was let go by the band.

The Banshees had always set their bar high and by 1988 they were not only unable to clear it, they were struggling to reach it. In saying that, they were still producing great music and "Peek-a-Boo" proved to be one of their few (new) aces in the hole. Siouxsie's vocals are spectacular on this track and the song is assaulted with little stabs of brass and a series of fast edits that drew praises from both indie rockers and rap artists. The key for the Banshees is that it also drew the American audience, with the song peaking at number fifty three on Billboards' Hot 100 and was number one on Billboards' Alternative charts.