Here is an interview with Steve Severin and Budgie of the Banshees that was conducted by Record Mirror at around the time of the release of 'Through The Looking Glass'.
It's gone one o'clock in the morning in the packed VIP lounge at London's mega-trendy Limelight club. In one corner, Mandy Smith is being enthusiastically chatted up by Ben from Curiosity, his eyebrows disappearing Gallically and flirtatiously into his cap as she whispers in his ear.
In another corner, Ray from SSS is serenading a giggling crowd of rockettes with his Billy Idol impersonations. It's wall to wall celebs (for once), and as I duck the flying champagne my eyes fall upon a strange sight. For there , shimmying on the spot with glass in hand and a dazzling grin on his face, is Steve Severin. He twirls around, coat flying, giggling, and disappears off into the darker recesses of the room.
Nothing odd about that, you may say. Maybe not, but only two days previously I had interviewed Mr Severin and fellow Banshee Budgie, and the person I met that afternoon seemed a million miles from the person I've just seen doing the dance of the seven champagne glasses.
Flashback to Monday: we meet in an Edwardian hotel off Oxford Street to discuss the Banshees' album and its second single, Iggy Pop's 'The Passenger'. Steven is formal in his greeting and offers tea. He's dressed in a plain black coat which covers a rather loud but tasteful peacock blue suit. Budgie smiles and leans forward to greet me. He reminds me of an après nose-job, leather-clad Barry Manilow. Both make me feel a mite uneasy.
The Banshees are a very private group. So private that even an afternoon in their company leaves you none the wiser about them as people.
"We have a notorious reputation that isn't really anything. You can't really put your finger on it."
Well try , Steven. "People are scared of coming to talk to us , we're hard to get along with, but then we know exactly what we want to do and that's a bit tough for some people."
The Banshees have just released 'Through The Looking Glass', an intriguing set of cover versions, some for better ('Hall Of Mirrors') and some for worse ('Strange Fruit'). It strikes you that any of them could have been Banshees originals, but as Steven says: "Everyone said we had brilliant taste!"
How did they decide which songs to record when so many just begged to be covered by them?
Steven: "Lyrics were important. There had to be a certain lyrical content that Sioux felt happy singing."
Elvis songs were, apparently, considered, along with 'What's New Pussycat'.
"We also tried 'Paper Sun' by Traffic and again 'Arnold Layne' came up and went away," adds Budgie. Surely that's a difficult lyric for a girl like Sioux to sing?
Budgie: "Well, that's what we kept finding out! One of the main things that did keep cropping up was 'this lyric stinks'."
Steven: "Especially all the Tamla ones ... "
It seems strange that you should pick 'Sea Breezes' as your Roxy track.
Steven: "We tried 'Pyjamarama' and 'Street Life' for about two seconds, and we thought that it was too obvious to do. I think Sioux found it in the end, she really liked the melody."
Steven also mentions that they did consider a Bowie track (the most glaring omission) but when they tried 'After All' from 'The Man Who Sold The World', Sioux didn't want to do it - she didn't like the lyrics much.
"I think she thought they were too personal to him," offers Budgie. I keep forgetting about the Budgie/Sioux romantic connection, and the way Budgie speaks about her hardly belies the attachment.
In contrast to Budgie's effusive manner, Steven is so quiet and reserved that he puts me in mind of the Dormouse in 'Alice In Wonderland'. (In fact , did he not play that very role in their 'Play At Home' TV spot three years ago?) If he'd fallen asleep face down in his tea, I wouldn't have been surprised. Not that he's discourteous you understand , just distant, maybe feeling that this whole interview business is somehow an unnecessary tedium.
Aren't they worried that doing an album like this will be construed as an attempt to revitalise a career somewhat bruised by two relatively unsuccessful albums?
Steven bristles, quietly. "People can think what they like."
Budgie: "I think the reviewskind of say that, but it doesn't really seem such a clever career move. It's like laying yourself open to these kind of questions. If it hadn't worked within a week, we would've stopped it anyway."
Steven : "Some of the reviews have steered away from slagging it off simply because it's so obvious to do that, which is quite interesting. It's sort of a double bluff in itself."
Did you find that playing songs you loved gave you a new lease of energy?
Steven: "It gave us a chance to have a breather, and it was a really good exercise in itself to see how other people put songs together and maybe remember things you'd forgotten, like how simple things could be."
They both mention how making the album was less of a pressure as the songs had already gone through the process of being worked on . Their next studio album is already half written, and it would seem that the lessons learnt in 'Through The Looking Glass' have been borne out in more ways than one.
Steven: "We're now working as a three piece, so it gives us greater freedom to use the things we learnt from doing this last album ."
Up until this point, I've neglected the great question of John Carruthers' departure. However, Steven is very forthcoming .
"We virtually did the last album as a three piece, because it was more to do with making decisions and the three of us are very good about that and know which way a Banshee song should go. John's contribution never really went into that area at all. He was just playing guitar."
So was that the last straw?
Steven: "It was one of the straws! There's a lot more involvement than just playing the guitar if you want to be in the Banshees. We had two and a half years of trying to push John into taking many of his responsibilities and it didn't really work in the end. Once we were halfway through this last album we started to get the inkling of an idea that maybe he was holding us back."
Budgie: "But to give him a bit of credit, each time it's been harder for someone to come along and fit in."
But did he jump, or was he pushed?
Budgie: "He needed a push and we gave it 'im!"
Steven reckons that the Banshees will stay as a three piece and just bring people in to highlight various instruments the way they do on 'Looking Glass', which is probably how it should be. After all, Sioux herself recently admitted that she "Watched the group with the love of a jealous mother," and seeing how Budgie is her current lover and Steven her ex,
it's no small wonder that the unit of three is so tight and impregnable.
Does she treat them like sons and rule them with a cricket bat and a tawse? Budgie laughs and looks thoughtfully at the ceiling. "Well, she hasn't got a cricket bat!"
She's usually the one doing the interviews, though.
"That's why she says things like that!" says Steven . "I think it's that people tend to think that a woman in any commanding position would have to work like that. It's not true at all!"
"It's certainly different being in a group with men ," puts in Budgie. "I was with an all-girl group once and I got battered around a lot then!"
"We'd be the same if we were in a group with all men," protests Steven, as loud as he’ll ever get. "We wouldn't suddenly get in the tour bus and belch and fart all over the place!"
"Yes you would!" laughs Budgie. Well, I should've known that Sioux was an impregnable subject. The interview eventually dwindles to a close on a humorous note as Budgie, who's only recently given up smoking, finally cracks up in the face of Steven's puffing. All of a sudden, sentences have no endings and he jumps up and down like a jack-in-the-box.
"I spent all last night cleaning the windows in my flat! See, this is what you do!" Ever tried knitting?
"My sister tried to teach me to knit but the needles wouldn't move 'cos the stitches were so tight !"
Steven suddenly loosens up and I glimpse a teeny bit of the person I'm to see two days later. "I was very good at embroidery at school." He smiles, and suddenly seems younger and not quite so damn serious.
"Yeah, I remember bringing the needle through and sticking it in someone's head by mistake!" He chuckles again like a conspiratorial seven-year-old . How I wish though, that I'd had my tape recorder at the Limelight. That evening told me more about Steve Severin than the interview ever could have. Ah well, the gates of Fort Banshee crash down yet again, and their true selves remain intact.
