Article published in NME | 22nd September, 1979
Siouxsie and the Banshees | The departure Of Morris and McKay | IT’S IRONIC that Siouxsie and the Banshees‘ latest album bears the title ‘Join Hands‘ when half the group just ran away two dates into their biggest tour yet. But those close to the Banshees could see it coming. What caught everyone on the hop was the time they chose to do it.
At the moment no one knows the exact reason John McKay and Kenny Morris ran out at such a crucial point over such a trivial matter —their refusal to sign autographs at a record shop promo appearance.
Their only comment was to Banshees manager Nils Stevenson as he caught them speeding off in a cab outside their Aberdeen hotel: “We can’t take the pressure.” And with that the cab roared away.
The pair are now in hiding. At first it was thought they were with Rema manager Linda Tricker, John McKay’s girlfriend, but other rumours now have them in Paris.
It seems unlikely they are going to join either PiL or The Psychedelic Furs, as early theories hinted. No explanation has been issued to mystified group or public — and the Banshees have made no attempt to penetrate the veil of secrecy. As far as they’re concerned McKay and Morris are ex-Banshees.
So as motives are not forthcoming, one can only think back and try and find a reason. Accompanying Siouxsie and the Banshees on the two warm-up dates for the stricken tour — Bournemouth and Aylesbury — it was quite noticeable that Kenny and John’s preference for each other’s company within the band had grown into a practical self-isolation.
Siouxsie and the Banshees | The departure Of Morris and McKay
While Siouxsie and Steve plus Nils, tour promoter Dave Woods and driver-bodyguard Mick Murphy, laughed and chatted as a busload of mates would, the pair at the back kept an aura of icy disdain.
In the past McKay and Morris only usually opened up to anyone else when pissed or stoned. After Bournemouth, a particularly bad gig due to poor sound, the duo loosened up considerably and, during a two-hour walk along the sea front in the early hours of the morning, said things which, looking back, take on a distinctly different light.
It was the usual sort of stoned conversation but there was no mistaking John’s general tone — change was gonna come. McKay has always seemed to despise the trappings which went hand-in-hand with the Banshees’ music being accepted by large numbers of people.
He wrote large chunks of both Banshees albums’ music, usually to the ideas and lyrics of Sioux and Severin. And this was his main concern. John McKay spoke about the new album not so much as a proud parent, like Sioux, more a scientist quite pleased with latest developments.
Zigzag
The last ever formal interview conducted with the four Banshees took place a few weeks ago for Zigzag. Then, John McKay took a large part of the conversation with concise thoughts on the themes behind the album and its general cohesiveness.
That night on the cliff, though, his tongue loosened and with no record company surroundings to inhibit him, he expressed several doubts. Doubts about including ‘The Lord’s Prayer‘ on the album, taking up 15 minutes of side two as it does.
In the interview he said: “It’s really important to have ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ on this album. We probably won’t do it on the next tour, only on occasions when we feel like it.”
Siouxsie and the Banshees | The departure Of Morris and McKay
Yet out on the cliff he spoke of the track as more of a filler — even though it was the first piece the group ever performed, the song they’ve closed their set with for over two years.
Maybe John’s feelings towards the 15-minute cut weren’t helped when ‘Infantry‘, a solo piece of guitar mood-music which was to have followed ‘Prayer’, was left off McKay talked as if a great change would happen to the group by the next album.
“The next step will have to be in a very different direction,” adding warily, “I’m not sure how it will happen.”
Obviously I took this to mean a different element creeping into the Banshees music. At the time . . .
From these talks the fact emerged that just weeks before the tour John had engaged a solicitor to establish his position within the band and its contracts, adding fuel to Sioux and Steve’s theory that the departure was pre-planned.
Kenny Morris had obviously been feeling “the pressure”, During that last interview he remained almost mute for half an hour, then suddenly launched into a trembling diatribe against the interviewer for saying that the group got drunk in a past article.
Throbbing Gristle
The fact that the article was trying to present a different side to a much-maligned humourless image seemed to escape him. And next time I saw Morris he was drunk. It was the Throbbing Gristle night at the YMCA gig series.
This man was clearly disturbed and vehemently expressed his desire to branch out into other fields. “I’ve got other tools in my toolbox I want to use. I don’t just want to be a drummer.”
He added that many of his aspirations lay in art (painting and all that, not New Musick and all that). It was probably McKay and Morris who led the popular image of “those morose Banshees” in their lives out of the lights.
It got worse. Apart from his outburst on the tape, Morris asked Nils if this reporter could be kept away from the tour because he was “too silly”. He barely concealed his disgust when Sioux laughed or talked about animals, which is often her wont.
Nils: “On the boat to Belfast Kenny complained about Sioux being silly. I said, ‘All I want from this tour is some fun’. Kenny went mad, throwing’ his arms up in the air, and said, ‘Fun? Some of us have personal lives to have fun in.
Other members of this team are so involved in this group they’ve got no personal life’. “They were just pathetic. The band were growing apart. John and Kenny were going off into ga-ga land, totally abstract nonsense.”
Siouxsie and the Banshees | The departure Of Morris and McKay
What, with the band?
“With life in general. They seemed to become more immature. I always had hopes for John, until he got tight in with Kenny. The more he got involved with Kenny the more Kenny fucked him up.
“I thought we could resolve things on the tour. I thought it would obviously get better if the band were forced together. But they never made the effort.”
The rest of the Banshees were aware of the McKay-Morris discontent to the extent there was a confrontation during tour rehearsals. John and Kenny were asked if they wished to continue playing with Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Their reply, according to Steve, was affirmative and committed. Now we await their next move with interest. One thing’s certain, they can’t work for financial gain for some time yet, and no money is heading their way.
Meanwhile Siouxsie and Steve were sighted in a Barbican pub last week, celebrating their first day’s rehearsal with two new stopgap members, Budgie and Robert Smith from tour support band The Cure, who’ll be doing a set with his own group before taking the stage with the Banshees.
Budgie was an immediate choice for Kenny’s drum-stool, having so impressed with The Slits, who he also joined at Very Short Notice when Palmolive left.
The mood in the pub was relieved, adventurous and optimistic. As Sioux said: “Isn’t it great not to have a pair of old women moaning away in the corner?” (Kris Needs)
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