Star Hits ('87)

Siouxsie and the Banshees

New York

Siouxsie: Our debut concert for our last American tour, we played Music City Hall or whatever, it had a name like that (She means Radio City Music Hall). I had a submarine before we went on, a hoagie.

Steve: Tuna sub.

Siouxsie: No, it was meatball. I was so nervous. I'm afraid the bass drum came in quite handy! Onstage, I hewed it (She means she threw up). But of course everyone thought I was wonderful. "I love that dramatic bit where you threw yourself over the drum riser and writhed and wriggled."

Steve: The terrible thing about America is what it does to your hair. It takes me about two hours to dry my hair because as soon as you dry it you start sweating and then it just doesn't do it. The same with makeup--it just falls off as soon as you put it on.

Los Angeles

Siouxsie: The last time we played there, there was a mad knife woman in the audience that was dancing and slashing people in the process. She had to be restrained and ejected. John McGeoch got arrested in Pasadena. Some girl was getting beaten up in the audience. And John, being a fiery Scotsman, just went and whacked the man on the head with his guitar. The man had the nerve to file a complaint against him for assaulting him with the guitar! It was an acoustic guitar as well, it wasn't a *heavy* one.

Sydney

Siouxsie: Horror of horrors. Me and Budgie thought, "Well, let's see Sydney" and walked down this Oxford Street. Then we were in a taxi. By then I started to think that we're sticking out like sore thumbs here and people aren't liking it. We stopped at some red lights and a car pulled up and there were these people going purple and red in the face, screaming.

I thought, "Perhaps he's having a heart attack, he's ill, the poor dear." Then all of a sudden the guy got out of his car and was trying to get into the taxi going "AAAAARRRGHGHGHGHG!!!!" screaming bloody murder. We drove off. Steve ended the night trying to defend a lady who was being insulted in a bar. After he ended up talking to her he thought they were *right* in the first place to talk to her like that! He'd wasted his time nearly getting punched out to save this woman's dignity. That was Sydney. We were only there for three days and everyone I know has been and has had a wonderful time. I didn't enjoy the concert either.

Dallas

Siouxsie: Dallas. Hoo-ston! I love Hoo-ston! We played the Hot Club in Dallas, which lived up to its name temperature-wise.

Turin

Siouxsie: Oooo yes! The last time we played there, there was a strange stinging sensation.

Steve: It was a really good concert. It was in this square within a mental asylum. Opposite the stage was a permanent disco, an open-air fun fair disco. The whole idea was, were supposed to finish about midnight, then everyone would go out and come back in for this disco. *Thousands* of people came. There's a strange thing in Italy that a lot of people think that rock music should be for free. So they go to these outdoor concerts and refuse to pay, trying to get in for nothing. We were about halfway through the concert and everybody started getting stinging faces.

Siouxsie: Then I noticed people were crying. *I* was streaming down. I went "What's HAPPENING?"

Steve: Apparently what happened was a lot of people had turned up not wanting to pay and the carabinieri (Italian police) had decided to tear-gas the lot of 'em.

Siouxsie: This tear-gas cloud had come over the audience in the concert. I accused the Italians of being over-emotional.

Steve: All the roadies had wet handkerchiefs over their faces. Everybody was getting water at the front. Of course we were just crying...

Siouxsie: ...singing "Melt," "woo-hoo-hoo..." We didn't go "Boo-hoo, I can't play with tears in my eyes." The whole crowd must've gone "good old Banshees!"

Wiesbaden

Steve: We were booked into this toilet of a club in Wiesbaden on a really badly organized German tour. The dressing room was a toilet, you could smell it all the way through the set.

Siouxsie: I got electrocuted on stage. It was a stage which had two metal pillars and, as one who puts a little effort into what one's doing, I was rather wet. With the microphone I leaned , I used these pillars as a prop and I ZZZZZZZCRKALCKLECKALEZZZZ!!!!!

Steve: Bride of Frankenstein.