When the Queen of the Goths comes down from her castle to tour the UK, given that she hasn’t played here at all in the last 10 years, people take notice. In fact, on this Summer Solstice evening, the audience at Wolverhampton’s recently refurbished Halls had fans from places as far and wide as Lincoln, Gloucester and Brighton, never mind the West Midlands, and probably even further afield – just to breath the same air and be in the presence of one of the real titans of the Eighties music scene.
The first gig of her tour brought a full house for Siouxsie Sioux’s re-emergence and aging goths packed the venue. There wasn’t much in the way of back-combed raven-coloured hair on show though. It was more a case of silver manes or bald heads – not that this caused her still-fanatical following to shy away and stand back. As Siouxsie stepped onto the stage, dressed in a white flowing trouser suit with her black-clad four-piece backing band, she was greeted like a returning super star, with many being visibly bowled over just to see her in the flesh for themselves.
Kicking off with “Nightshift” from the enigmatic Juju album, Siouxsie soon made it crystal clear just where Florence Welch has stolen the lion’s share of her particular schtick. Floating and spinning across the front of the stage, while her band ground out an icy groove, it was obvious that this show was going to be a real event. That said, the sound was initially somewhat muddy and it wasn’t until well into the performance that it got sorted out.
Such was the adulation coming from the audience, Siouxsie could easily have just put on a show that took in the greatest hits and been done with it. While she did indeed play some serious crowd-pleasers like “Christine”, “Happy House” and the Banshee’s cover of the Beatles’ “Dear Prudence”, there was also plenty of deeper cuts which more than held their own and the attention of those present. Tracks like “Loveless” and set-closer “Into a Swan” showed that her 2007 solo album Mantaray was no throwaway contract fulfilment. Similarly, the percussion-driven “But Not Them” by her other band, the Creatures, made it clear that Siouxsie was never a one-trick pony either but was more than capable of bringing experimental ideas to the fore that could hold the attention of a large crowd.
Having finished their main set, there was no way that the audience was just going to go home, and it wasn’t long before the band was back on stage to delve once again into Siouxsie and the Banshees’ back catalogue. Launching into the sinister “Switch”, before taking on a storming “Spellbound”, the crowd seemed positively transported. However, after a quick breather, she was back again for a spectacular one-two punch of “Hong Kong Garden” and a tambourine powered “Israel”. After which, it is safe to say an awful lot of aging goths finally went home very happy indeed.
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