Q (March '98)

Group Sex

The band that plays together, ahem, lays together. Boredom, artistic empathy, animal attraction, drugs and booze, they all play a part and - invariably - it all ends in tears. Steve Malins gets out his "long lens" to zoom in on the other bands who can't keep their hands off each other.

Siouxsie & the Banshees

Who shagged who? Siouxsie Sioux (vocals) & Budgie (drums)

How did they get together? Budgie joined Siouxsie & the Banshees in 1979 and they started to see each other on and off for the next decade. Early on Siouxsie and bassist Steve Severin also saw each other for a while and the ex-waitress still describes Severin as "the third person in our relationship. We could never leave him completely behind."

What did the rest of the band think? For the first decade the pair treated it as a casual affair, so it was hardly a source of jealousy for Severin. "It was years before Budgie and myself admitted to each other we were boyfriend and girlfriend," says Siouxsie. By the end of the '80s they were a fully-fledged couple who "haven't been apart from each other for more than two days in all of this time," and they married in India at the start of the new decade. Siouxsie insists that Budgie's 1992 tour with the Indigo Girls was "the longest time we've been apart".

What was the fallout? The band split in 1996, leaving the couple to continue working together as The Creatures, a spin-off project which began in 1981. There were many tensions in various Banshees line-ups, but their relationship wasn't a factor in any of the walk-outs and sackings.

And now? For the last five-and-a-half years they've lived in a small 14th century cathedral town, an hour from Toulouse. Days are spent swimming in a lake close by, trying new French recipes and local wines, and recording a new Creatures album, "Mount Venus." Siouxsie "loves children" and the pair now want to adopt.