Former Siouxsie and the Banshees bassist Steven Severin is working on a 20-disc “mega” box set that is intended to include all 11 of the band’s studio albums, plus singles, non-BBC live recordings and various TV appearances — including a DVD of a John McGeoch-era show broadcast on German TV in 1981 and possibly the group’s appearance at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas show in 1991.
Severin recently posted a YouTube clip of “Regal Zone” from that 1981 Banshees performance on Facebook, writing, “‘Shees Mega Box back on the agenda. 20 discs! Including a DVD of this bastard show. Excited but a LOT of work to be done diving for unknown pearls.”
As for what else might appear on the box, Severin wrote:
“It’s intended as the ‘complete’ box. All the studio albums plus singles plus non BBC live recordings & TV clips. So, if you have this plus At the BBC plus Downside Up you will have EVERYTHING bar the promo videos which I presume will surface as a stand-alone set eventually.”
He later posted a link to Rhino Records’ recently released Smiths box set — featuring newly remastered editions of all of that band’s studio albums and compilations — noting, “Not saying we would go this route. It’s a bit excessive considering they only made 4 studio albums BUT… Universal want to tap into this particular niche so who knows?”
Severin’s reference to Universal being behind this box set is notable, since he took to Facebook last year to complain that the label had stopped the Banshees’ reissue program mid-stream, canceling plans to re-release expanded versions of the band’s’ final four albums (1987′s Through the Looking Glass, 1988′s Peepshow, 1991′s Superstition and 1995′s The Rapture).
The only other hints Severin dropped as to the box’s content were that including a complete recording of the KROQ show “is on the cards,” and that, “One thing for sure is NO REMIXES! Consigned to the dustbin of history where they belong :)”
And, finally, with fans clamoring for a Banshees reunion to promote the box, Severin gives an emphatic response: “There is more liklihood of Peter Hook touring a Banshees tribute band than there is of seeing the real thing tread the boards again. It’s over. Done. Dusted.”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Milestones: Siouxsie and the Banshees play 1st concert 35 years ago today (audio)
- Milestones: Siouxsie Sioux is 54 today; watch the Banshees’ 1983 ‘Nocturne’ concert
- Milestones: Siouxsie and the Banshees’ ‘Tinderbox’ released 25 years ago today
- Steven Severin: Robert Smith says ‘it’s just a matter of time’ until 2nd Glove album
- Milestones: Siouxsie Sioux is 53 today; watch a complete concert from 1981
- Steven Severin: Siouxsie and the Banshees’ reissue program dumped by Univeral
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24 Comments
If its over, done dusted-why get excited over another re-re of old material? Even the record label couldn’t care less. Sioux is a fashion label / icon. Budgie drums for other bands-Klein and Mckarrick are doing their thing and Steven is chiefly working on his own projects. The Banshees are a strange one-there is def the energy and ability to produce one last hurrah, but as long as petty squabbles continue nothing meaningful will occur.
Its like old friends who fall out and then don’t ever patch it up. You look back and think, what was all that spleen over?
Back to the re-re 20 disc set, as a fan of the band since 1986, I won’t bother with it-a sweetner would have been the new album released only with the previous material-sales would have sky-rocketed!! Alas no –
Re-unite the Banshees now !! (Geldof accent thrown in !)
Sounds exciting. I’m lucky to only have Singles (Once/Twice…)/Best Of(Bonus Disc Of Remixes)/Downside Up and BBC Sessions… so I’m ready to go!
Would not mind complete set of remixes though. They might date quickly, but always good to hear a new spin on classic tunes and cool to drop into a set.
it would be phenomenal if there was a DVD included in this set with all of their videos. that would make me very happy. :)
Exactly what I was thinking Kelly! They need a career spanning DVD with ALL videos.
Maybe Universal halted the reussue series because the last 4 Banshees recs SUCK.
That is not a universally held view (pardon the phun) in fact Superstition was the peak of the band -its a non disputable fact.
Cue all the im a bigger fan than you and i think it was crap comments….
However the reality cannot be altered – it was the only album which was perfect all songs could be released as a single. Not a single duff track on it-even Juju had some crap songs…Monitor pour example?
ummm.no.”superstition” was nowhere close to the best banshees album. beyond the untouchable perfect single/lead track “kiss them for me,” there was really only two or three other good songs on the album. the rest was under-written and over-produced. looking back i just can’t believe that they released it like it was. the three or four good songs could’ve been a killer ep, but the album is full of filler.
In my preference -I have to say Kiss Them for Me was boring. Cry and Fear plus Ghost in you were simply incredible.
How can any album be over-engineered? It’s like saying an old master with too much paint on it!
The albums with filler? Hyaena, Join Hands and even Peepshow(unfortunately) all had duff tracks. The ones you press “skip” on to get to the good tracks.
Superstition is great to listen to, is Join Hands?
Or Kalaedoscope-the most disjointed album I have ever heard-not that its bad…clockface and lunar camel shine, so does red light and happy house…until you hit tenant and hybrid-oh boy!
I will take Juju over Superstition anytime. There were a few tracks on Superstition that I liked but none of them stood up to Juju’s power. The weakest track on Juju was Arabian Knights. The rest, including Monitor (a powerful statement for those of us who were aware of what Thatcher an Reagan were up to), were brilliant. (And no, I am not engaging in one of those chest thumping “I am a bigger fan than you” rants you referenced.)
However, in terms of commercial sales, yes, Superstition was their most successful record. However, Juju was their breakthrough record in the UK (and much of the rest of the world).
while the set is intriguing, the price is what will determine whether i get it or not(20 discs? my wallet shudders)…i own everything they’ve done to date, including the reissues. However, unlike Clyde, the final 4 reissues were what i was looking forward to…the unreleased stuff from those would get me to buy them again.
The last four are the best, and yes Juju was amazing, so was Nocturne etc…but its like I say, with no new material to boost sales or act as a sweetner how can this be really successful outside of a few die-hard fans?
As I wrote on another blog, I fully trust Steven and Siouxsie, but I cannot buy – and this time for certain albums it will be the 6th version on CD – records I already own.
Someone remembers Voices On The Air and then having the first two John Peel Sessions again in the expanded The Scream?
And how comes no-one thinks about an official version of incredible double bootlegs such as the Japanese Halloween (was it the London Hammersmith Palais December 30, 1980 gig openend by Altered Images and The Associates?) or the one (they made at lest 3 versions) of the benefit concert at St. James Church in Piccadilly on April 10, 1985?
See I follow them since 1977, I saw my first concert in 1978, hence I have some memories.
A reunion? No thanks unless we are talking of a proper Banshee guitarist like John McKay (or Marco Pirroni or Daniel Ash)? Never say never
Stefano
Jon Klein forever!! The true survivor and BEST guitarist they ever had.
The 1987-1995 line up was truly the best.
Jon Klein’s a decent guitarist, but better than John McGeoch? Seriously? Now you’re just looking for a fight!
Yes, John McGeoch was one of the most influential guitarists of the 80′s, even if he’s not a household name. He’s sorely underrated. I liked his work with PiL too.
Severin’s a hero in my book with that last comment, dissing Hooky in the same breath.
I can only imagine the cost. Talk about flogging a dead horse. Would they not be better off doing a box set of the singles like The Clash, Blondie, The Buzzcocks, and The Stranglers have done plus issuing the extras (i.e. the concerts and such) as separate releases? Yes, this band was influential and still carries some weight today, but there is such a thing as over doing it when it comes to marketing a band that broke up years ago.
As for a reunion, Siouxsie’s voice is shot and I have a feeling that neither Severin or Budgie would have their heart in it. Playing the oldies circuit just to cash in on past fame would only cheapen their name and ruin it for long time fans.
Oooh I don’t know..Siouxsie can still deliver to my ears. Budgie in an interview not so long ago refrerred to the Kalaedooscope three as the core that need to settle differences.
It is really flogging a dead horse…the bbc releases were 10 years too late, had they been released a decade earlier they would have made more impact. Severin is hardly selling it to us either with his closing doom and gloom comment. I really hate to be negative re the band -but this time round -why bother with this boxset?
“Jon Klein forever!! The true survivor and BEST guitarist they ever had.
The 1987-1995 line up was truly the best.”
LOUIS XVI ROI DE FRANCE must be smoking some high grade crack. Everyone knows that John McGeoch was not only the best Banshees guitarist, but probably the best of his generation. Jon Klein’s claim to fame is being in Specimen, while McGeoch pioneered in Magazine, PIL and Visage, to mention a few. Not surprising, considering that you think the last four Sioxsie albums rate above JuJu, Kaleidoscope or A Kiss In The Dreamhouse.
Yes, I do rate the last four albums more highly than the first four-of course, their sound had evolved-not changed that much -but was much richer. The dream team was Siouxsie,Budgie,Severin, Klein & Mckarrick.
Sure the sound of Mcgeoch was great on Juju & Dreamhouse, but therin lies the slight problem-staying power.
Klein was there highs and lows, Mcgeoch started I believe tail end 1980-ended 1983 ish…ok he was great but overall Klein wins hands-down.
JVC was brilliant on the 2 albums he played on, Smith was brilliant on everything he has played on Cure and Banshees, but overall, as a Banshees guitarist its Klein!
To Quote Siouxsie, “Well, it’s about bloody time!”
I’m very excited about the new releases, however, I’m hoping that the last four LPs will be released individually as well, instead of being imprisoned in a very pricey box set. I’m dying to hear Peepshow in 21st Century SHM-CD remastering…I might cry, though, I’d probably be more grinning. I’ve never heard The Rapture in its entirety,and I was waiting for it to be reissued in better form. Finally, I’ll get to hear the final album by quite possibly my all-time favorite group.
Honestly, we don’t need a reunion. I think The Seven Year Itch was the closest, and the time to have done another studio album – “Godzilla” should’ve been a Banshees single! The perfect follow-up to “Hong Kong Garden” – (which, if you folks didn’t know, Siouxsie was totally ready to revisit…I remember her being quoted as saying that, “Severin and I no longer have anything artistically in common with each other…isn’t that sad?”). Now, since 2006, Siouxsie & Budgie are no more (The Creatures RIP…God willing, there will be a box set to rival this upcoming one soon as well)…I’m still holding out hope that he may play drums on some of her solo work in the future. So, a Banshees reunion is out of the question, and totally unnecessary. Unfortunately, AND IT ABSOLUTELY KILLS ME/SADDENS ME TO SAY THIS, but, for the most part, the classic Siouxsie Sioux voice (1978-1995, and some of 2002, {just not what was preserved for posterity on the 7 Year Itch LP/DVD…if only the first 7 performances in April of ’02 had been recorded — MY GOD! WHAT A LIVE ALBUM THAT WOULD’VE BEEN…SO SAD…UNLESS IT’S SOMEWHERE IN THE VAULTS}) is forever gone. At best, we can hope for a reasonable approximation of that gorgeously-ghostly, witchy, supernal voice. However, I am looking forward to her next solo work, which HAS TO BE better than the first one, which I really had VERY mixed feelings about.
And, EVERY Banshees album was excellent. There were very few fillers – if any – on their 11 albums. I can’t wait to hear the songs that never got released like, “Typhoid Mary” (I know absolutely nothing about what this song sounds like, but I’m intrigued); and I can’t wait to hear a digitized version of, “Song From The Edge Of The World”, one of their truly best singles (and one of Severin’s best lyrics). And, Superstition was a great album…it just was different from Peepshow, and anything before it…but that was what the Banshees were about…constant growth and regrowth…the snake shedding its skin to live again as something familiar yet different. I’ll sleep much better tonight, knowing this is on the calendar for 2012 hopefully.
All Banshees albums are different, but they all follow the same formula-just reworked. They are great albums there is no doubt, but a reunion would be good-and would sell out big theaters/venues. I agree about the Creatures dvd boxset-I would love to see that one day- hopefully not ten years from now (!)
What’s with the Peter Hook quip? Is there some history of acrimony between Hooky and Steve Severin? Or was he just being random?
Gotta save up my pennies….