Budgie | |
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![]() Budgie in Oakland, California, in 1986 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Peter Edward Clarke |
Also known as | Blister, Budgie |
Born | 21 August 1957 |
Origin | St Helens, Lancashire, England |
Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
Instruments | Percussion, drums, guitars, keyboards |
Years active | 1977–present |
Labels | Polydor, Geffen, Sioux Records |
Member of | Juno Reactor |
Formerly of | |
Spouse(s) | Siouxsie Sioux (m.1991; div. 2006) |
Website | Official site Curiouscreaturespodcast.com Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee |
Peter Edward Clarke (born 21 August 1957), known professionally as Budgie, is an English drummer best known for his work in Siouxsie and the Banshees. He is also the co-founder of the Creatures.
He was the drummer of the Slits in 1979. He was then a member of Siouxsie and the Banshees from 1979 to 1996 and a member of the Creatures from 1981 to 2004. Budgie worked with other musicians including John Cale, Leonard Eto (formerly of the Kodo Drummers), John Grant and Anohni with Hercules and Love Affair. In 2023, he released the album Los Angeles with Lol Tolhurst and Jacknife Lee.
Spin rated him one of "the 100 Greatest Drummers of Alternative Music".
Budgie grew up in St Helens in the north west of England. He then lived in Liverpool in the 1970s, studying at an art school while being part of the local music scene. He rehearsed with other musicians at Eric's Club when there was no concert billed for the evening. He debuted as a drummer with the Spitfire Boys and Big in Japan [1] before playing with the Slits on the 1979 album Cut . Years later in 2010, Slits singer Ari Up commented:
Budgie could play anything. [...] Sting loved the Slits album Cut and what he said about it was that the drumming, he was fanatic about the drums. A lot of people at the time were raving about the drums. They knew that he had a lot of technique but he had a sensitivity, you know, and a variation about him. He could go from reggae to punk to funk to jazz, you know, all over the place, but still very steady. [2]
In September 1979, he joined Siouxsie and the Banshees on their Join Hands tour. Initially he was intended to be a temporary replacement for Kenny Morris, who had left the band two days into a tour, but Budgie remained with the group. He first performed with renowned guitarist John McGeoch on the album Kaleidoscope : Budgie became a permanent member of the band until they split up in 1996. [3] He released nine studio albums with the Banshees. In 1981, he formed a second group with Siouxsie Sioux, named the Creatures. Their music was based more on drums and percussion, with marimba and vibraphone. The 1981 Wild Things EP and 1983 full-length Feast were their first releases.
On subsequent Creatures albums, Budgie also played keyboards, guitars and harmonica. He conceived brass arrangements with Peter Thoms on 1983 single "Right Now" and 1989's Boomerang album. [4] Within the Banshees, he wrote the lyrics of several songs, including "She's Cuckoo", "Silver Waterfalls", "Staring Back", "Sick Child", "Hang Me High" and "Return" (the latter was co-written with Siouxsie). He also read the text on the 1992 b-side "Hothead". [5] For the Creatures, he wrote the lyrics for several Boomerang-era songs, including "Willow", "Morriña" and "Pluto Drive" (the latter was co-written with Siouxsie).
In August 2002, Budgie first collaborated with Japanese taiko player Leonard Eto (formerly of the Kodo Drummers), recording spontaneous drum-duet improvisations in Tokyo for the fourth Creatures album, Hái! . The drum performances were then edited, and the rest of the sessions took place in France. Budgie was the sound engineer of the album, and he mixed it near Toulouse before its release in 2003. After recording four studio albums as the Creatures, Budgie's final performance with Siouxsie (featuring Eto and the Millennia Ensemble) was filmed in 2004 at the Royal Festival Hall in London for the DVD Dreamshow . This was Budgie's last concert and collaboration with Siouxsie.
Outside the Banshees and Creatures, Budgie played drums and harmonica for a Annie Hogan song called "Vixo", featuring Nick Cave on lead vocals which was recorded in October 1983: the track was released in 1985 on the 12" inch vinyl "Annie Hogan – Plays Kickabye". [6] Budgie also worked with the Indigo Girls in 1992 on Rites of Passage , and briefly toured with them in the US and Europe at the end of that year. In 1994, Budgie recorded percussion on Hector Zazou's Chansons des mers froides , including a song for Jane Siberry. He later played drums for former Velvet Underground member John Cale on a US 1998 tour with The Creatures. Budgie played two sets each night, one with Cale and one with The Creatures. [7] In 2009, he toured Europe with Juno Reactor and moved to Berlin. Later that year, he also recorded drums for Jessie Evans' Is It Fire? album. [8]
In 2010, he teamed up with two other drummers, Eto and Mabi, plus multi-instrumentalist Knox Chandler and guitarist Sugizo, for a programme called "The Butterfly Effect: East-West Percussive Parade." It was described as a "drumming extravaganza, featuring Western kit, Japanese taiko and African drums, that will launch the musicians into a new sonic galaxy!". [9] The programme's world première took place in Hong Kong in November 2010 as part of the New Vision Arts Festival. "The Butterfly Effect" featured improvised solos and ensemble works as well as new pieces and arrangements specially created for the festival, inspired by the pace, rhythm and character of Hong Kong. [10]
He served as the drummer for Efterklang on their worldwide tour in 2012. They were accompanied by an orchestra. The premiere at the Opera House in Sydney was praised by Time Out. [11] His last concert with Efterklang took place in Brussels in November. [12] The Piramidia Concert, a live album recorded in Copenhagen, was issued in 2013. [13]
Budgie and Eto performed live material from Hái! in Tokyo, 11 years after conceiving the drum parts in that city. The concert took place at the Studio Coast as part of Juno Reactor's set. [14] He also played drums for CocoRosie at several shows. [15]
He played drums on John Grant's third solo album, 2015's Grey Tickles, Black Pressure , [16] playing in November with Grant on the accompanying tour. [17] He performed again with Grant in the UK in 2015 at the latter's March concerts. [18] That year, he also played with tabla player Talvin Singh for the first time since their collaboration on the Siouxsie and the Banshees' 1991-92 Superstition tour: Singh and Budgie gave a one-off performance at the "100 Years of Beat" festival in Berlin. [19]
He recorded percussion for Peaches for her cover version of Marc Bolan's "Solid Gold Easy Action" in 2020. [20]
In October 2021, Budgie and Lol Tolhurst launched the Curious Creatures podcast, in which they talk about "post punk’s enduring legacy and contemporary relevance". [21] The second season of the Curious Creatures podcast started in March 2022, with a new episode uploaded every week. [21]
On a suggestion of Anohni who admired the percussion work on the Creatures' records, [22] Budgie contributed to Hercules and Love Affair's album In Amber : they contacted him "to derail some of the arrangements for more impact". [23] In Amber was released in June 2022 on vinyl. [24] The lead single "Poisonous Storytelling" featured a collaboration with Anohni on lead vocal. [25]
He featured on Thomas Truax's album Dream Catching Songs, "A Wonderful Kind Of Strange" was out in 2022. [26]
Budgie, Tolhurst, and Jacknife Lee released their album Los Angeles in November 2023. [27] They recorded it with guest musicians and singers including LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, U2 guitarist the Edge, Primal Scream vocalist Bobby Gillespie, and Modest Mouse singer Isaac Brock. [28] Mojo praised it as "thrilling", saying that "Los Angeles lands with a visceral impact, rich texturing and smart distortions adding a destabilising wobble". [29] The album was issued on vinyl, CD and digital. After touring in spring 2024, Budgie and Tolhurst added a US extra-date in Seattle at Bumbershoot festival on September 1st. [30]
NME readers voted Budgie the best drummer of 1983. [31] Spin rated him at No. 28 in their list of "The 100 Greatest Drummers of Alternative Music", [32] writing: "Post-punk introduced a lot of amazing drummers, but none more influential than Budgie. With the Banshees, Budgie didn't just play rhythms—he played hooks and leads, brilliant parts that set the songs on fire. His tom-tom-intensive approach, [was] enlightened by his awareness of world music". Spin considered his "most booming moment" to be "Into the Light", from 1981's Juju , saying: "Budgie drums up a marvel of kinetic syncopation and invention". [32]
Stewart Copeland of the Police described Budgie's playing as "very economical and offbeat", adding, "Budgie didn’t play your standard hi-hat–kick–snare; there were a lot of tom-toms and a big throb." [33] Ari Up of the Slits felt that he was "a very sensitive drummer", saying, "He could go from reggae to punk to funk to jazz [...] but still very steady." [2] Music journalist David Cavanagh commented that "Terry Chambers was, along with Budgie of Siouxsie and the Banshees, the outstanding English drummer of the post-punk era". [34] Ian McCulloch said that Echo & the Bunnymen's drummer "Pete de Freitas loved his drumming". [35] Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters said: "I discovered Juju in my early 20s:... The way Budgie played drums was so influential – the tribal thing he was doing was so innovative." [36]
Budgie married Siouxsie in May 1991. In 2007, the pair publicly announced their divorce. [37] Budgie has remarried and he is the father of two children: a daughter born in 2012 and a son born in 2014. [38]
Siouxsie and the Banshees were a British rock band formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. They have been widely influential, both over their contemporaries and with later acts. The Times called the group "one of the most audacious and uncompromising musical adventurers of the post-punk era".
The Spitfire Boys were the first Liverpool punk band to release a single. The Spitfire Boys were mainly notable for including in their line-up Peter Clarke, who went on to drum for the Slits and later Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Creatures as Budgie, and Paul Rutherford, later better known for being a member of 1980s pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Jones went on to join the Photons, which also included Steve Strange (Visage) and Vince Ely.
Robert James Smith is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and the co-founder, lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the Cure, an alternative rock band formed in 1978. His unique guitar-playing style, distinctive singing voice, and fashion sense, often sporting a pale complexion, smeared red lipstick, black eye-liner, unkempt wiry black hair, and all-black clothes, were highly influential on the goth subculture that rose to prominence in the 1980s.
Nocturne is a live double album and video by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released on 25 November 1983 by Polydor Records. Co-produced by Mike Hedges, Nocturne features performances recorded at two shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London, on 30 September and 1 October 1983, featuring Robert Smith on guitar.
The Creatures were an English band formed in 1981 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and drummer Budgie of the group Siouxsie and the Banshees. The Creatures released their first EP Wild Things in 1981. They recorded four studio albums: Feast in 1983, Boomerang in 1989, Anima Animus in 1999 and Hái! in 2003.
Susan Janet Ballion, known professionally as Siouxsie Sioux, is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. She came to prominence as the leader and main lyricist of the rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, who were active from 1976 to 1996. They released 11 studio albums, and had several UK Top 20 singles including "Hong Kong Garden", "Happy House" and "Peek-a-Boo", plus a US Top 25 single in the Billboard Hot 100, with "Kiss Them for Me".
The Glove was a 1983 English musical collaboration and recording project by the Cure's Robert Smith and Siouxsie and the Banshees' Steven Severin. They released one studio album, Blue Sunshine, in 1983 as part of Severin's solo deal with Polydor. The latter came up with the band name, the album title and the blue/yellow sleeve concept, as Smith had to leave the project before completion due to prior commitments with the Cure.
Efterklang is a Danish art pop, indie rock band from Copenhagen, formed in December 2000. Efterklang emerged in the front half of the 2000s with an enchanting blend of atmospheric pop and lushly arranged orchestral rock elements. The band found an audience, especially in Europe, after releasing their first two albums on England's the Leaf Label; the attention led to a deal with 4AD. The band has recorded five studio albums and are currently signed to City Slang.
The Scream is the debut studio album by British rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released on 13 November 1978 by Polydor Records. The album is considered a landmark recording: its innovative combination of angular and serrated guitar with a bass-led rhythm and machine-like drums played mostly on toms, made it a pioneering work of the post-punk genre.
Kaleidoscope is the third studio album by British rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released on 1 August 1980 by Polydor Records. 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.
Juju is the fourth studio album by British rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was recorded at Surrey Sound studio with Nigel Gray as co-producer, and was released on 19 June 1981 by Polydor Records. Two singles were released from Juju: "Spellbound" and "Arabian Knights".
Laurence Andrew Tolhurst, known professionally as Lol Tolhurst, is an English musician, songwriter, producer, and author. He was a founding member of The Cure, for which he first played drums before switching to keyboards. He left the Cure in 1989 and later formed the bands Presence and Levinhurst. He has also published two books and developed the Curious Creatures podcast. This has led him to collaborate with Budgie and Jacknife Lee and the release of an album, Los Angeles (2023).
"Happy House" is a song written by Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin and recorded by their band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released as a single in March 1980 by record label Polydor, then later included on the band's third album, Kaleidoscope. "Happy House" was the group's first record made with guitarist John McGeoch and drummer Budgie.
Hái! is the fourth and final studio album released in 2003 by British duo the Creatures, composed of Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie. The album was recorded in two parts: the drums were recorded by Budgie and Kodo drummer Leonard Eto in Tokyo in August 2002 and the rest of the recording was done in Europe. During their stay in Japan, the band was inspired and "touched by the delicate snowfall imagery of Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru (1952), absorbing the vibrancy of Tokyo's Roppongi district, and spiritualised by the ancient Shinto shrines and tranquil shores of Lake Ashi."
Wild Things is the first release by British duo the Creatures. It was issued on 25 September 1981 by Polydor Records as two 7" single records in a "double-album" style card cover, and is usually referred to as an EP. It peaked on the UK Singles Chart at No. 24, and the pair performed "Mad Eyed Screamer" on Top of the Pops. The EP was entirely remastered in 1997 and reissued as part of the A Bestiary Of CD compilation – which was also released on Spotify.
Dreamshow is a live DVD by Siouxsie, released in 2005. It was filmed at the Royal Festival Hall in London in October 2004. The songs are performed on stage with the Millennia Ensemble orchestra. The setlist incorporates music from her bands Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Creatures.
Kenneth Ian Morris, known professionally as Kenny Morris, is an English drummer, songwriter and visual artist. He was the first studio drummer of Siouxsie and the Banshees. He joined the band in January 1977; he had attended their first live appearance at the 100 Club a few months earlier and had been impressed by their performance. Morris's first studio recording with the group was in November 1977 when they recorded their first John Peel session for BBC radio. Music journalist Kris Needs said : "Like as a rhythm machine for feet and guts Kenny Morris' drumming is unorthodox, primitive and far removed from the clicking hi-hats of the fly-strength paradiddle merchants".
"Love In a Void" is a song by the English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, written by singer Siouxsie Sioux, bassist Steven Severin, drummer Kenny Morris and guitarist Peter Fenton. Originally included as the b-side to the 1979 single "Mittageisen" in West Germany, it was later released as a double A-side single in September of the same year. It was also included on the band's 1981 ten track UK Gold certified compilation album Once Upon a Time: The Singles, and on the CD reissue of the album Join Hands.
In Amber is the fifth studio album by Hercules and Love Affair, released digitally and physically on June 17, 2022, by Skint Records/BMG. The band's founder, singer and musician, Andy Butler worked again with singer Anohni : Anohni appeared on several tracks, including the singles "Poisonous Storytelling", and "One". "Grace", the first song released ahead of the album, was sung by Butler with Icelandic singer Elin Ey.
Los Angeles is a collaborative studio album by Lol Tolhurst, Budgie, and Jacknife Lee. The album was released by PIAS Recordings on 3 November 2023. Tolhurst and Budgie, the drummers of the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, respectively, wrote and composed the album with producer Lee in Los Angeles. It was recorded with guest singers and musicians, such as LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, U2 guitarist the Edge, Primal Scream vocalist Bobby Gillespie, and Modest Mouse singer Isaac Brock. The album is the solo debut of both Tolhurst and Budgie.
Budgie was brought into the picture ... He had a side-project with Siouxsie called the Creatures... We were working on the atmospheric tracks ... Anohni is very much a fan. On the atmospheric tracks he said it would be great to have a sort of percussionist player like Budgie on this.
Terry Chambers was, along with Budgie of Siouxsie and the Banshees, the outstanding English drummer of the post-punk era.
we banned hi-hats and anything else that 'tsss.' We told him to get stuck into the toms. Budgie [from the Banshees] was the only other drumming doing that stuff at the time and Pete loved his drumming. – Ian McCulloch, 1995
[Siouxsie and the Banshees] were an influence on so many people. I discovered Juju in my early 20s and went: "Oh my god". [...] The way Budgie played drums was so influential – the tribal thing he was doing was so innovative.