Kaleidoscope is the third studio album by British rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released in 1980 by record label Polydor. With the departure of John McKay and Kenny Morris and their replacement by two new musicians, Budgie on drums and John McGeoch on guitars, the band changed their musical direction and offered an album containing a wide variety of colors. 'It was almost a different band', said Siouxsie.^[1]

'Once Upon A Time' is essential for all Siouxsie and the Banshees fans due to its inclusion of four non-LP tracks, but more importantly functions as an initiation to any neophytes looking to be exposed to their influential post-punk hit singles 'Happy House' and 'Christine'.

1. Kaleidoscope is the third studio album by British rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released in 1980 by record label Polydor.With the departure of John McKay and Kenny Morris and their replacement by two new musicians, Budgie on drums and John McGeoch on guitars, the band changed their musical direction and offered an album containing a wide variety of colors.
2. Once upon a time (at the dawn of the eighties to be exact), the ironically named Psychedelic Furs were a hard-boiled, dark as fuck Post-Punk band harboring semi-secret fetishes for Punk-Rock aggression and Kraut-Rock-inspired experimentation as heard through the prism of David Bowie's 'Berlin Trilogy.'
3. Siouxsie And The Banshees - Once Upon A Time/The Singles OK, I might lose a few of you out there today, but dammit I like this release. A collection of tracks from (obviously) their 1st 9 singles, as well as one album track.

The album was preceded by the hit singles 'Happy House' and 'Christine'. In the UK, Kaleidoscope quickly became their most successful album to date, climbing to No. 5 in the albums chart.

Background and music[edit]

Following the departure of McKay and Morris, the band regrouped and redirected their sound for their third record. Departing from their previous work, the Banshees incorporated synthesizers and drum machines for the first time. They particularly experimented in electronic music on a couple of tracks: the electro-dance minimalism of 'Red Light' and the atmospheric, synth-based piece 'Lunar Camel'. The album also contained what could be described as a ballad, 'Desert Kisses'. Kaleidoscope marked the debut of guitarist John McGeoch and new drummer Budgie. Siouxsie saw it 'like a new lease of life'.^[2] The songs had been demoed at Warner Chappell studios with only a bass and a synthesizer played by Siouxsie and Steven Severin. After the 1979 tour, Siouxsie had been ordered to take one month of rest by doctors; she used this time to learn to play guitar and compose music for the first time.

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Release[edit]

Kaleidoscope was released on 1 August 1980 by record label Polydor. The album peaked at No. 5 in the UK Albums Chart, the highest position the band has achieved to date.^[3] A 180 gram vinyl reissue of the album, remastered from the original ¼” tapes and cut at half-speed at Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell, was released in December 2018.^[4]

Critical reception[edit]

Melody Maker's Paulo Hewitt gave the album qualified praise, summarising it as 'a kaleidoscope of sound and imagery, new forms, and content, flashing before our eyes'. Singling out the tracks 'Paradise Place' and 'Skin', Hewitt called them 'classic Banshee pieces. Hypnotic, relentless and incisive'.^[6] Writing for ZigZag, Kris Needs hailed it as 'probably the most varied, diverse and adventurous offering yet to shimmer under the Banshees' banner', praising the band's new musical direction: 'If anything, it makes its two predecessors, seem a trifle one-dimensional now. Tracks veer from the lightest electronic backdrop pulse to surging soundwalls as mesmeric and powerful as anything they've done. But the subtlety evident in 'Happy House' and marvellous 'Christine' are the pointers to the main content of 'Kaleidoscope'. Needs noted that Siouxsie's voice 'gained new strength and depth, but she's also widened beyond singing and writing to include synth, piano and a spot of guitar'.^[7]

The band's work on the singles 'Happy House' and 'Christine' was hailed shortly after their release by peers the Jam; singer-songwriter Paul Weller said that both songs used 'some unusual sounds', while drummer Rick Buckler qualified them as 'innovative'.^[8]

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In his retrospective review, David Cleary of AllMusic described Kaleidoscope as a 'strong record' with 'extraordinarily imaginative production values, featuring intricate synthesizer-flecked arrangements; psychedelic touches in 'Christine', spaceship synthesizer swoops in 'Tenant' and rhythmic camera clicks in 'Red Light' all enliven their respective songs'.^[5] The 2004 edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide gave a 3 out 5 rating saying that with the change in personnel, Kaleidoscope refined 'the Banshees' attack, diversifying the sound without losing its swirling impact'.^[9] In 2020, Rolling Stone included Kaleidoscope in the top 40 of their '80 Greatest albums of 1980' list, praising McGeoch as 'one of the Eighties’ unsung guitar masters' and Siouxsie's 'vocal charisma'.^[10]

Legacy[edit]

Kaleidoscope later influenced several critically acclaimed musicians including the Cure frontman Robert Smith, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, Radiohead and their guitarist Ed O'Brien, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream and the Weeknd.

Robert Smith cited the album when describing The Head on the Door to the press in 1985: 'It reminds me of the Kaleidoscope album, the idea of having lots of different sounding things, different colours'.^[11] During a TV interview to promote The Head on the Door, Smith also included Kaleidoscope in a selection of his 'Top 5 all-time favorite albums.^[12] In a February 2008 interview on BBC Radio 2, Johnny Marr discussed McGeoch's contribution to 'Happy House': 'What it is about 'Happy House' from a guitar playing point of view, is for a start it's modern. It's not got any of the sort of creaky old rock'n'roll aspects to it and it still sounded like the Banshees, almost more so. That's when I really began to become a fan of John McGeoch. It was an extra bonus for me that they'd got a great guitar player who had left another band and came in as a ringer and joined and not surprisingly, that to me was a very good scenario. I've always liked that. It was like getting George Best on the guitar'.^[13] Radiohead stated in 2008 interviews that they had rehearsed 'Happy House' before going on tour. O'Brien added: 'We've been doing all this [...] stuff, [...] which is our youth, really. You know, when we were teenagers. They were very formative years, and those bands'.^[14] Bobby Gillespie was inspired by both 'Happy House' and 'Christine' because they were pop songs with dark subject matter. He stated: 'That's the idea, yeah—to use the conventional way of constructing a pop song to communicate what I feel about the world and my take on relationships. It's a twist that makes it darker than it seems. When we were growing up, Siouxsie and the Banshees were doing this kind of stuff—they were getting in the charts with songs about mental hospitals! 'Happy House'? That was nearly number fucking 10 in the charts! 'Christine, the strawberry girl, Christine, banana split lady'—they were writing about a girl with schizophrenia! They were getting in pop magazines and on TV; they were getting played on daytime radio. It's fucking subversive! They were outsiders bringing outsider subjects to the mainstream'.^[15] Santigold took inspiration from the song 'Red Light', explaining, 'My Superman' is an interpolation of a Siouxsie Sioux song, 'Red Light'... I love her song...'^[16] Santigold also later sampled another song from Kaleidoscope, 'Lunar Camel', on her Top Ranking remix album. Jeremy Jay covered the same song on his Airwalker EP.

Kaleidoscope was also praised by the singer of Suede, Brett Anderson.^[17]Erasure's Andy Bell cited it as one of his favourites :'More commercial offering from Siouxsie was much more up my street - and consequently, as with all my favourite teen angst albums, I learnt all of the songs inside out and backwards'.^[18] The Weeknd sampled and used the chorus of 'Happy House' on his track 'House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls' in 2011.^[19]

Cultural references[edit]

In the 2006 film Notes on a Scandal, the sleeve of Kaleidoscope is shown in one of the scenes: the character played by Cate Blanchett tells her lover that it is her favorite album, calling it 'a masterpiece', and that listening to the album as a teenager made her feel 'invincible'.^[20]

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Track listing[edit]

Original release[edit]

All tracks written by Siouxsie and Steven Severin (lyrics by Siouxsie) except where noted

Side one

1. 'Happy House' - 3:53
2. 'Tenant' - 3:43
3. 'Trophy' (Sioux/Severin/John McGeoch) - 3:20
4. 'Hybrid' - 5:33
5. 'Clockface' - 1:55
6. 'Lunar Camel' - 3:03

Side two

1. 'Christine' (lyrics by Severin) - 3:01
2. 'Desert Kisses' - 4:16
3. 'Red Light' (lyrics by Severin) - 3:23
4. 'Paradise Place' - 4:36
5. 'Skin' - 3:50

2006 remastered reissue bonus tracks[edit]

12. 'Christine' (demo version)
13. 'Eve White/Eve Black' (demo version)
14. 'Arabia (Lunar Camel)' (demo version)
15. 'Sitting Room' (unreleased track)
16. 'Paradise Place' (demo version)
17. 'Desert Kisses' (demo version)
18. 'Hybrid' (demo version)
19. 'Happy House' (demo version)
20. 'Israel' (7' A-Side)

Personnel[edit]

Siouxsie and the Banshees

• Siouxsie Sioux – vocals, acoustic (track 2) and electric guitar (track 10), synthesizer (track 6), finger cymbals (track 8), camera (track 9), melodica (track 11), production
• Steven Severin – bass guitar (tracks 1-8, 10-11), electric guitar (track 2), vocals, piano (track 5), synthesizer (track 9), electric sitar (track 2), production
• Budgie – drums (tracks 1-5, 7-11), harmonica (track 1), bass guitar (track 2), percussion, production
• John McGeoch – guitar (tracks 1, 3, 4, 7, 8), saxophone (track 4), Farfisaorgan (track 7), sitar (track 8), string synth (track 8), production

Additional personnel

• Steve Jones – lead guitar on 'Clockface', 'Paradise Place' and 'Skin'
• The Sirens (consisting of Severin, McGeoch, Budgie) - backing vocals on “Desert Kisses”

Technical

• Nigel Gray – production

References[edit]

1. ^Goddard, Simon. Mozipedia: The Encyclopaedia of Morrissey and the Smiths [Sioux, Siouxsie entry]. Ebury Press. p. 393.
2. ^'The Banshees and other Creatures'. BBC2 television. 1 hour documentary. Broadcast September 1998
3. ^'Siouxsie & the Banshees [uk charts]'. officialcharts.com. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
4. ^'Kaleidoscope 2018 black Vinyl Siouxsie and the Banshees'. Amazon.fr. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
   'Kaleidoscope 2018 black Vinyl Siouxsie and the Banshees'. Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
5. ^ ^abCleary, David. 'Kaleidoscope – Siouxsie and the Banshees'. AllMusic. AllRovi. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
6. ^ ^abHewitt, Paulo (26 July 1980). 'Siouxsie's Sketches'. Melody Maker. Retrieved 2 September 2012.(subscription required)
7. ^ ^abNeeds, Kris (August 1980), 'Siouxsie and the Banshees 'Kaleidoscope' [album review]', zigZag (104)
8. ^'Desert Islands Disc: The Jam List Their Current Favourite Records'. Flexipop (1). 1980. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
   'Desert Islands Disc: The Jam List Their Current Favourite Records'. Flexipop (1). 1980. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
9. ^Coleman, Mark; Randall, Mac (2004). 'Siouxsie and the Banshees'. In Brackett, Nathan; with Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 740–41. ISBN978-0-7432-0169-8.
10. ^'The 80 Greatest Albums of 1980 What came out of all this was, arguably, the greatest year for great albums ever'. Rolling Stone. 11 November 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
11. ^Sutherland, Steve (17 August 1985). 'A Suitable Case for Treatment'. Melody Maker.
12. ^'The Cure on 4C+' Robert Smith interview. Canal plus. 11 December 1985. Retrieved 7 June 2015 on youtube. Excerpt about Siouxsie and the Banshees from 15:24
13. ^'Spellbound: The John McGeoch Story BBC 6 MUSIC'. YouTube. 14 June 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
14. ^'Radiohead Ed O'Brien interview on 94/9 radio, San Diego radio'. citizeninsane.eu. 11 January 2008. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2016. We've kind of been rehearsing Happy House - Siouxsie & the banshees.
    Ryan Dombal (28 March 2008). 'Radiohead interview'. Pitchfork. Retrieved 16 May 2016. In rehearsals yesterday, Thom, Ed and I were running through a Siouxsie and the Banshees cover called 'Happy House'.
15. ^Seymour, Corey (24 March 2016). 'Primal Scream's Bobbie Gillespie on His High-profiles Collaborations'. vogue.com. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
16. ^Hresko, Lisa (28 April 2008). 'All That Glitters Is Santogold'. CMJ. Archived from the original on 2 May 2008. Retrieved 2 September 2012.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
17. ^'Some Current Fascinations'. brettanderson.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
18. ^'Erasure's Andy Bell Selects 13 Favourite Records'. quietus.com. 26 April 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
19. ^Neyland, Nick.'The Weeknd’s House Of Balloons'Archived 2012-07-23 at the Wayback Machine. Pitchfork. 2011-03-28.
20. ^Wilonsky, Robert (4 January 2007). 'Notes on a Scandal'. westword.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.

The classic red paper label of Polydor Records, complete with Made in England denotation printed below the brand logo, adorns 1981’s Once Upon a Time – The Singles, by Siouxsie and the Banshees. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the back of the case is not black – it’s very dark brown, and marked with the PolyGram branding. The album title is self-explanatory. This is a compilation of the band’s singles, released between 1978 and 1981. For the record, the tracks are set in chronological order.

If any one act set the template for the gothic rock movement which climaxed in the UK during the mid 1980s, it was surely Siouxsie and the Banshees. Both Banshees singer Siouxsie Sioux, and Dave Vanian, lead vocalist of The Damned, had been setting the parameters for goth fashion from the days of punk rock – the movement out of which both acts emerged. However, whilst The Damned remained musically on a path of ‘60s-influenced rock in the post punk era, Siouxsie and the Banshees adopted a different approach, which could be seen as defining the sonic elements of goth.

More than any other band, I believe, Siouxsie and the Banshees developed and packaged British goth. When the movement hit its height in ’85 and ’86, goths could go straight back to this album, featuring singles recorded between 1978 and 1981, and instantly assimilate it into their culture, sense of fashion, and musical taste. Some of the tracks were recorded before the “gothic” term was even coined in relation to rock/pop music, and yet the entire progression featured on this audio cassette fits perfectly into a culture which didn’t really go mainstream until seven or so years later. Siouxsie and the Banshees were a classic goth act before there was any such thing. If that’s not being ahead of your time, I don’t know what is.

Even if you’re not interested in gothic rock/pop, or don’t think you are, you may well make an exception for an album like this one. Just for the fascination of hearing how the style established itself, it’s well worth a listen. But more than that, there are some really great songs. Not songs formulated to fit a musical category, like the sort of derivative and ‘manufactured’ stuff you’d find in the mid ‘80s, but songs created as songs. The style was always part of them, but in no way did it ever restrict or stifle the creativity. In fact, because much of this was breaking new ground, the style itself was creativity.

Happy House (1980) is my favourite track. Even today, in April 2012, it sounds fresh, and despite being very catchy in its own unique way, it also sounds cool. Catchy and cool at the same time is a tough one to pull off, but the feat has unquestionably been accomplished here. I remember hearing for the first time the unusual broken-chord guitar work and very oddly-accented drum beat, and being pretty well mindblown by it. I was only a school kid at the time so I couldn’t be very analytical, but today I’m amazed the band could take those liberties and still end up with a truly commercial pop song.

Even originators have influences of their own of course, but it’s very hard to pin the roots of this music into one specific area. Siouxsie’s vocals used to make me think of Patti Smith, and I often wonder how deliberate any similarities were. But Siouxsie was still unique, and instantly identifiable in her own right. This compilation also shows how important Eastern/Asian music was in the rise of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Hearing some of those Eastern progressions set into what was otherwise a very Western project really grabbed your attention as a listener.

All in all, this album charts the formative highlights of a genuinely original and defining band. Analogue recording, analogue reproduction, real musicians playing real instruments, breaking ground, creating new sounds. In short, this band contradicted every one of Simon Cowell’s ground rules for success in the music business, and they still sound totally credible and valid over three decades on. I wonder how many of the Cowell-style ‘hit factory’ regurgitations will have similar validity by the year 2040? I’ve forgotten about most of them already, so I wouldn’t expect the odds to be very high.