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Prior
to the appearance of Robert Smith and the resumption of the 'Join Hands'
tour, the band had drawn up a list of possibilities that might be
suitable, temporary replacements. Amongst those on the list were,
Robert Fripp, Chris Spedding and John McGeoch - with a definite preference
for McGeoch, they attempted to contact him through the usual record
company channels, but discovered that he was unavailable, due to touring
commitments in the U.S.A with 'Magazine'.
During the Christmas festivities
whilst attending 'The Blitz', McGeoch was informed by a friend that
Steve was attempting to contact him. He obtained Steve's phone
number from the informer, and on New Years Day telephoned Steve, and a
meeting was arranged for the following day. So Siouxsie, Steve,
Nils and McGeoch met, and (over a drink) casually discussed the
possibility of him appearing as their guitarist on future recordings and
tours. Although at the time McGeoch was in the middle of
rehearsals with 'Magazine', in preparation for their 'Correct Use Of
Soap' album, he agreed to do some recording with them. Rehearsals
time was booked for 5th and 6th January, and to say that things went
well would be a gross understatement! By playing along with, and
adding his own individual intricacies to the bass and drums that Steve
and Budgie had worked out during the intervals in auditions, McGeoch
aided the band in writing 'Happy House', 'Drop Dead', 'Hybrid' and
'Desert Kisses'. It had already been decided that 'Happy House'
was to be the first Banshees' single without the aid of Morris and
McKay, so preparations began on the sleeve's artwork.
Things were really gaining
momentum now, and the next weekend following two more rehearsals with
John (to tie up lose ends), they entered Polydor Studios, and with the
aid of Dave Moore, did demo tapes of the four tracks mentioned.
With the demos 'in the can', they
rehearsed together once more, then on 22nd January they entered Phil
Manzanera's (guitarist with 'Roxy Music') studio, and with Nigel Gray at
the controls recorded 'Happy House' and 'Desert Kisses'. Although
the tracks were recorded on 22nd January, they weren't actually mixed
until 4th and 5th February (during which time John was totally committed
to rehearsing and recording with 'Magazine', and they decided to use the
demo tape of 'Drop Dead' for the flip-side of the 'Happy House'
single. They were pleased with Nigel's work on the single, but
still kept an open mind as to who would produce their future material,
hence the name of Norman Smith cropped up in conversation. The
main reason for this was (at the time), the band were pondering over
doing a cover version of the 'Pink Floyd' classic 'Arnold Layne' as a
single. Well Norman Smith was the producer for the 'Pink
Floyd' during the Syd Barrett days. Unfortunately nothing ever
came of the suggestion, pity really, it could have been an interesting
combination. By February 14th, Siouxsie and Steve had begun
working in 'Chappells' studio, on demos of material in preparation for
an album; and began composing in a fashion that had previously been
alien to them. Aided by her new toy, a synthesizer, Siouxsie
worked out a tune they chose to give the working title of 'Arabia',
which later became the track 'Lunar Camel' on the album
'Kaleidoscope'. As a duo, with Steve on bass and drum machine, and
Siouxsie providing the vocals 'Christine' was composed; also with
Siouxsie on piano accompanied by Steve on bass and drum machine, they
worked on another piece of music, but that was shelved and has never
been worked on since.
The duo return again to 'Chappells'
on 19th February where with Siouxsie on piano, and Steve on bass and
drum machine, they worked out 'Eve White/Eve Black, which aptly emerged
as the flip-side of the 'Christine' single.
Following their stint in 'Chappells',
rehearsals were arranged with Budgie and John, and the groundwork for
'Trophy' was laid down (but it bore little (if any) resemblance to the
track that appeared on the album). With the demo as a guide, they
also worked out 'Christine'.
Two days later, satisfied with
what they had achieved so far, the band returned to Phil Manzanera's
studio, and did backing tracks for 'Christine' and 'Hybrid'. The
following day, they did various overdubs, and a new backing track for
'Desert Kisses'. On 29th February, 'Happy House' received an
airing on national radio via the BBC's 'Roundtable' programme, which
prompted the stations disc-jockeys into playing the single for a good
two weeks before its actual release.
With the impending date of the
single's release drawing ever closer, the band began a series of
interviews with the music press, and the week following its release (7th
March) they appeared on 'Top Of The Pops', their premier performance
with Budgie and John in their ranks - but only just. When it was
first suggested that John appear in the 'T.O.T.P's recording, Virgin
weren't at all pleased, but they eventually gave him permission to
appear. The day prior to the actual television recording, as it's
standard proceedure for all bands that are scheduled to appear on the
programme, the band had to spent time in the studio recording a backing
track (to which they later mime to on the show), in order to prove that
it is actually them playing on the record; but the Banshees had other
plans! Instead of re-recording the backing track, they chose to
put the free studio time to further work on 'Trophy'. In order to
make it possible for them to do so, the bands record company
representative had to keep the BBC rep occupied (usually with the aid of
a drink or two), after which time, the studio tapes are switched, and
the original backing track used in its place (incidentally, this is a
proceedure undertaken by many of the groups that appear on T.O.T.P's).
Surrounded by the bizarre 'crooked
house' set specially constructed for the band, and with Siouxsie wearing
a rather stunning Harlequin costume, the weekend following their 'T.O.T.P's'
appearance, the band recorded the 'Happy House' video. This time
as a trio, due to the intervention of 'Virgin' preventing John
from appearing. As was the case with the 'Playground Twist' video,
'Happy House' was never screened on 'T.O.T.P's'. Instead the BBC
chose to repeat the footage they shot of the band 'miming' to the
backing track in the television studios. (nonetheless, the single
remained in the charts for eight weeks and climbed to the number
seventeen position, proving to be more successful than their previous
two single, when McKay and Morris were still Banshees). There was
one minor consolation regarding the 'Happy House' video, it was screened
as a musical interlude during afternoon television, on the commercial
station, but that was after it had dropped out of the charts.
Around this time John's
commitments with 'Magazine' allowed him to give Nils notification of a
period during when he would be able to tour as the Banshees'
guitarist. So four days of rehearsals were immediately booked, and
the foursome began preparing a selection of both old songs and new
songs, to take on the road and perform 'live' for the first time in
almost six months!
With the successful mini-tour
behind them, and with 'Christine' already chosen as the next single, the
immediately began getting the sleeve artwork together. Then on 5th
April, the band went to 'Surrey Sound, studios, and with Nigel Gray at
the controls yet again, they started getting the single together.
On 27th April, in order to prepare
demo tapes of material for the forthcoming album, Siouxsie, Steve and
Budgie went into Polydor studios. Steve and Budgie arrived at the
studios ahead of Siouxsie that day, and immediately began a somewhat
unorthodox (to their usual methods) 'jam' session. Steve had
rigged up a drum machine to play through an amp, whilst he played lead
guitar, accompanied by Budgie on bass guitar and flanger. Whilst
all this was going on, Siouxsie had arrived at the studio, and was
listening to their efforts from the control room. Interested by
the sounds they were creating, she instructed the engineer present, to
switch on the tap and record it all. She then waited silently and
patiently until they'd finished playing (a duration of about 30
minutes), then played the tape back to them. Discovering the
potential of the track, they cut it up, and generally messed about with
it (adding an extra drum track played by Budgie), and the result was two
versions of the backing track for 'Tenant'.
During the same session they also
recorded a demo of 'Eve White/Eve Black', which in turn became the
flip-side of the 'Christine' single.
On 8th May, a return visit to 'Chappells'
studio by Siouxsie, saw the emergence of an extremely raw version of
'Paradise Place'. Raw, because it only consisted of her singing
and playing guitar.
With sufficient tracks on demo
tape, on May 13th, Siouxsie and Steve returned to Surrey Sound studios,
and with Nigel Gray as the chosen producer for the task, they began
recording their third album, 'Kaleidoscope'. They decided on a
totally different approach to the album, which was also partly dictated
by the situation that they were in at the time, minus a permanent
guitarist. Whereas in the past when it came to album work, every
track would be recorded consecutively, and only after that would they be
mixed. For 'Kaleidoscope' they chose an alternative method, in
that each individual track was mixed immediately after it was recorded.
The process was as follows:-
Day 1: Siouxsie and Steve recorded
'Lunar Camel'
Day 2: They mixed 'Lunar Camel'
and recorded 'Red Light'
Day 3: Budgie joined them
and the trio recorded 'Tenant'
Day 4: (the following
Monday), Join McGeoch joined them, for what was to be his one day
contribution throughout the whole 'Kaleidoscope' session, and together
they recorded 'Trophy'. The reason for John's limited studio time
during the session, was due to the fact that besides 'Trophy', the only
other tracks that feature him on the album are 'Happy House' and
'Christine' which had already been released as singles, and 'Desert
Kisses' and 'Hybrid', which had previously been recorded during the
session at Phil Mansanera's studio on 25th and 26th February, and they
only needed to be mixed, which John helped to do.
Day 5: With John off on his
travels in the direction of France, Siouxsie, Steve and Budgie recorded
'Skin', and a track with the working title of 'Kaleidoscope' (which they
had planned to use as the opening track on the album), both without a
lead-guitar track.
Day 6: They started work on
'Paradise Place', but left it unfinished over the weekend.
Days 7 & 8: The band did some
mixing.
Day 9: Steve Jones joined them on
guitar, for the recording of 'Paradise Place' and 'Clockface' (the track
that had previously gone under the working title of 'Kaleidoscope').
Day 10: The band mixed the
tracks that Steve Jones had played on the previous day (the only track
that required even further mixing was 'Clockface'). Then all that
remained was for the band to decide on the running order of the album.
So having recorded the album
virtually track by track, it finally reached completion on May 30th, the
very same day that 'Christine' was released ('Christine' stayed in the charts
for five or six weeks, and peaked at number twenty two).
Billy 'Chainsaw' Houlston
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