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. Q magazine included John McKay's guitar playing on "Hong Kong Garden" in their list of "100 Greatest Guitar Tracks Ever", while Mojo rated guitarist John McGeoch in their list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" for his work on "Spellbound". The Times called the group “one of the most audacious and uncompromising musical adventurers of the post-punk era".
The cassette culture refers to the practices associated with amateur production and distribution of music and sound art on compact cassette that emerged in the mid-1970s. Whilst the cassette was used by fine artists and poets for the independent distribution of new work, this article focuses on the independent music scene associated with the cassette that burgeoned internationally in the second half of the 1970s.
New Musical Express (NME) is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a free publication, before becoming an online brand which includes its website and radio stations.
Closer is the second and final studio album by English rock band Joy Division, released on 18 July 1980 by Factory Records. Produced by Martin Hannett, it was released two months after the suicide of the band's lead singer and lyricist Ian Curtis. The album reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart and peaked at No. 3 in New Zealand in September 1981. Closer was also named NME Album of the Year. It was remastered and re-released in 2007.
Faith is the third studio album by English rock band The Cure, released on 14 April 1981 by Fiction Records. The album saw the band continuing in the gloomy vein of their previous album Seventeen Seconds (1980), which would conclude with their next album Pornography (1982).
Cultural Amnesia (CA) are an English post-punk music group, first active between 1979 and 1983 as participants in the so-called cassette culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s in the UK. During this first period the band released three cassette albums: Video Rideo (1981), The Uncle of the Boot (1983) and Sinclair's Luck (1983) on English and German record labels, and contributed to a number of compilation albums. Early on in his career, CA worked with the late Geff Rushton of Coil, who wrote a handful of songs for them and who was an important supporter and enabler due to his contacts as editor of Stabmental magazine, arranging most of their releases and providing constant encouragement. The band has become more widely known since 2000 following release of a number of compilations of their early '80s music in which the members of the group have been fully involved. Since the late '90s the band has also been occasionally active in the recording of new music and there have been a number of releases of new material since the early 2000s.
In the early 1980s, English band The Insane Picnic were one of the pioneering D.I.Y. cassette bands, composed of members Peter Ashby, Barry Douglas Lamb and Owen Turley. They recorded several releases for the English independent record label Falling A Records. As well as regularly appearing in many fanzines, they were also often featured in the mainstream music papers with favourable reviews in Melody Maker, Sounds and NME, also featuring on several occasions in the Sounds Obscurist chart and Psychedelic chart and were favourites of pirate radio stations Liverpool City Radio and Andromeda.
Isn't Anything is the debut studio album by Anglo-Irish rock band My Bloody Valentine, released on 21 November 1988 by Creation Records. Its innovative guitar and production techniques consolidated the experimentation of the band's preceding EPs and would make the album a pioneering work of the subgenre known as shoegazing. Upon its release, the album received rave critical reviews and reached #1 on the UK Independent Albums Chart.
Soul Mining is the debut album by British post-punk/synth-pop band the The. After a bidding war between major record labels which resulted in the group signing with CBS Records, Johnson began recording the album in New York City, but the initial recording sessions were aborted after the album's first two singles and Johnson returned to London where he wrote and recorded the rest of the record. Musically, Soul Mining is a post-punk and synth-pop album with influences of the early 1980s New York club scene, while Johnson's lyrics focus on relationship insecurities and social alienation, with imagery derived from dreams.
The Sound were an English post-punk band, formed in South London in 1979 and dissolved in 1988. They were fronted by Adrian Borland, and evolved from his previous band, the Outsiders.
Juju is the fourth studio album by English 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 record label Polydor. Two singles were released from Juju: "Spellbound" and "Arabian Knights".
A Kiss in the Dreamhouse is the fifth studio album by British rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released on 5 November 1982 by Polydor Records. The record marked a change of musical direction, as the group used strings for the first time and experimented in the studio. Guitarist John McGeoch played more instruments, including recorder and piano. For Julian Marszalek of The Quietus, the release proved the Banshees to be "one of the great British psychedelic bands."
Record Collector is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide.
Roy Carr was an English music journalist, covering pop, rock and jazz. He joined the New Musical Express (NME) in the late 1960s, and edited NME, Vox and Melody Maker magazines.
From the Lions Mouth [sic] is the second studio album by English post-punk band The Sound, released in November 1981 on record label Korova. Following the release of their previous album Jeopardy, keyboardist Belinda "Bi" Marshall left the group and was replaced by Colvin "Max" Mayers. For their new album, The Sound worked with producer Hugh Jones, as well as co-producing the album themselves. The album's sound was more polished than previous efforts.
The Honeymoon Killers were a Belgian experimental rock band originally formed in 1974 by Yvon Vromman, with J.F Jones Jacob, and Gérald Fenerberg. In its first incarnation, the band played mostly in Brussels, was arrogant and funny, and performed massacres on all musical genres, from rockabilly and punk to marching band music, French chanson and free jazz.
Storm Bugs are an English post punk band formed in 1978 in Deptford, London, England, by Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball who had met in the Medway Towns, England. The band have been linked to a number of genres including: cassette culture, industrial music and DIY. Storm Bugs were initially active between 1978 and 1982 and reformed in 2001.
1978–1990 is a 1990 compilation album by Australian band The Go-Betweens. The album draws together music spanning the band's career from their beginnings in Brisbane to their 1989 breakup, including singles, B-sides, songs recorded for broadcast and previously unreleased material.
Songs to Remember is the debut album by the British pop group Scritti Politti. The album's recording had to be delayed for nine months due to frontman Green Gartside's collapse and illness, and then after completion its release was delayed for a further year at the band's request. It was eventually released on Rough Trade Records on 3 September 1982, peaking at No. 12 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was heavily influenced by disco, reggae, and soul music, and marked the beginning of Scritti Politti's move from their underground DIY post-punk sound towards commercial pop music.
Hip Priest and Kamerads is a 1985 compilation album by British rock band The Fall, containing tracks taken from their releases on the Kamera label together with a previously-unreleased live track from the same era. It was subsequently reissued with a further four live tracks added.
