Siouxsie Sioux is a often a very warm, accommodating, and reasonable person—quite often undeserving of her crown as the “ice queen”. She, however, has limits to her patience—and to illustrate this point, here is an awkward yet humorous video of a 1981 Dutch interview gone wrong. (The cool thing about this clip is that it features all the members of the Banshees’ speaking, including John McGeoch.)
One thing you’ll notice is that the interviewer keeps mentioning a band called Soviet Sex (the Dutch band, not the Swiss Soviet Sex). Turns out the founder of the Pirate TV Station PKP was involved with that band, and shot their music videos…so I think by attempting to plug the station’s own interests—the interviewer should be glad that only his microphone was damaged!
Here is some further background info on the interview:
“In 1981 Siouxsie and the Banshees gave a great concert at the Paradiso. It was filmed for the Amsterdam Pirate TV Station PKP with a portable VHS.
They went to the Paradiso in the afternoon during the soundcheck, and it was the guitar player John McGeoch who talked to them and gave permission to film the concert that evening.
They filmed from the balcony, and even though it is of course VHS quality from the eighties, it is still quite enjoyable to watch.
The spotlight on Siouxsie shines a little too bright at times but her dancing is great. Plus the concert ends in my favourite song : Helter Skelter.
After the concert they were allowed an interview, but the interviewer ( I forgot his name ) was a little intimidated by Siouxsie so could not really come up with any sensible questions, which resulted in Siouxsie getting slightly obnoxious, dipping our microphone in a glass of water and making fun of the interviewer and the cameraman.
It’s all a little uncomfortable, but I included it anyway, cause it is a rare opportunity to see old footage of Siouxsie talking. PKP broadcasted several songs of the show later that summer, and somehow a copy of this VHS tape came into circulation, and the audio has also been ripped as a bootleg. This however is the best possible copy I could make from the original Master tape, which never left my house since 1981.”
Here is the full concert below:
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