Reviews

Madonna may have sold more records but no-one ever wanted to be her, Kylie may sell out arenas but her music means nothing; Siouxsie is a true artist and her latest album, ‘Mantaray’, her first solo affair since she ditched the Banshees and her interim band the Creatures, is still breaking boundaries. 

Tonight’s live set is played out in front of a screaming adoring crowd, who hand her bouquets, shows just why she is still one of the most compelling performers.

Forged in the white heat of punk, Siouxsie was the ice queen with the powerful image who took no crap. She exists despite the music business’s disdain for anyone with an ounce of art and integrity and yet she is a far better pop star than most of the multi-selling minions that hog the charts.

She looks amazing. Aged 50 and dressed in a Pam Hogg designed skin-tight silver outfit, she oozes a dark sexuality and glamour that Madonna would kill for. Labelled ‘goth’ by those who are terrified of anything that’s out of the ordinary, Siouxsie exists in a scene of one.

The set is mostly culled from the new album with its electronic neo-industrial edge and sprinkled with a few choice Banshees cuts, including ‘Spellbound’, ‘Arabian’ Knights’, ‘Hong Kong Garden’ and of course the Beatles cover and biggest hit ‘Dear Prudence’.

As Siouxsie high kicks her way to the climax of the set (and she can high kick amazingly high with a suppleness that just shouldn’t be there), there is hysteria of the room. She may be a cult artist, but she’s a big cult artist and you get the feeling that if she wanted to, she could still take it all.

She has the talent and the beauty and the attitude and the charisma fill arenas, but she probably hates the crap so much that she continues on her own determined path as an icon of the dark side. One of the last great stars with a musical vision to match, Siouxsie in 2008 is more convincing than ever.