On November 13th, 1978, after a 2-year campaign following their debut at the 100 Club Punk Festival, Siouxsie and The Banshees finally released their first album The Scream. The band’s initial lineup for their debut performances was Siouxsie Sioux on vocals, Steven Severin on bass, Marco Pirroni (later Adam and the Ants) on guitar, and Sid Vicious on drums. By the time of the recording of the Scream, however, Pirroni and Vicious were swapped out for guitarist John McKay, and Kenny Morris on drums.
The Scream featured dark primal sounds accentuated by tribal percussion and jagged guitar work. This is highlighted on tracks such as “Metal Postcard”, and “Overground”, along with noteworthy tracks “Jigsaw Feeling”, a cover of The Beatles “Helter Skelter”, and the stabbing screech of “Suburban Relapse”,
The Scream changed everything—and one could argue that is was the first true Post-Punk LP, despite Magazine’s Real Life coming out 5 months earlier. In fact, The Banshees would later recruit John McGeoch who performed on Magazine’s debut record—just 2 years later, with no other than Cure frontman Robert Smith filling the slot in the interim.
Here’s what Robert Smith had to say about The Scream:
“When The Scream came out, I remember it was much slower than everybody thought. It was like the forerunner of the Joy Division sound. It was just big-sounding.
The album was produced by Steve Lillywhite, who would also go on to work on U2’s debut “Boy”.
Watch our Animated History about “Hong Kong Garden” and “The Scream” below:
