And with that, the Banshees came roaring to life. Backed by a pre-Sex Pistols Sid Vicious on drums, Marco Pirroni (later of Adam and the Ants) on guitar, and Severin on bass, a 19-year-old Sioux winged her way through the first gig, screaming bits from the Bible, the Beatles' ''Twist and Shout,'' and the German national anthem. ''A lot of people think too much and talk themselves out of things like that, but I didn't give it a moment's thought,'' she says. ''I just did it. I like relying on my instincts. If more people did, they might find they were pretty accomplished musicians.''
In 1978, the Banshees (with drummer Kenny Morris and guitarist John McKay) released The Scream, an aptly titled first album that proved how far Sioux had come since her jokey debut. Raw and aggressive, the sound was pure punk at its core, guided by her nasal, untrained swoop of a voice. In place of rallying cries against the Queen and fascist regimes were surrealist, tongue-in-cheek tales, like a butcher in love with his bloody wares (''Carcass''). ''We were the kind of Clockwork Orange kiddies then,'' Sioux laughs. As her voice evolved into a multi-octave force, the Banshees explored new territory, zigzagging through psychedelia (1983's Beatles cover ''Dear Prudence'') and electronic sampling (1988's ''Peek-a-Boo''). ''Cities in Dust'' (1985) was the first of a handful of alt-rock radio hits in the U.S.
After the band's participation in 1991's inaugural Lollapalooza tour, which helped push sales of their 11th album, Superstition, to an all-time high of 358,000 copies, many expected the next project to be a full-on mainstream assault. And what better way to do so than by recording the theme song to a big Hollywood movie, Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992). ''I've always been a fan — Siouxsie is one of very few women who can create a realistic primal cat sound,'' quips the eccentric director, whose own striking style, not to mention that of characters like Edward Scissorhands, is arguably indebted to Sioux.
But the collaboration did little for the band commercially, and in 1995, they released The Rapture, a melodious, solidly reviewed album...that sold only 60,000 copies in the States. ''Siouxsie was always reluctant to do anything just because it's supposed to be the next thing you do. She abhors all that,'' explains Budgie (a.k.a. Peter Clarke), Sioux's drummer husband, a Banshee since 1979 and half of their side project the Creatures since 1980. ''And if someone doesn't play the game — especially female performers who don't conform to a certain type — the industry would rather they go away.''
Soon after Polydor (now Universal) dropped the Banshees in 1995, the band split. Since then, Severin has worked primarily as a producer (credits include the Tiger Lillies), while Sioux and Budgie have forged ahead with the Creatures. True to their do-it-yourself roots, they set up shop in their recording studio at home in rural southwestern France, released 1999's Anima Animus on their own label, Sioux Records, and took off on a self-financed world tour. In 2003, electronic duo Basement Jaxx invited Sioux to sing the title track on their highly lauded Kish Kash, and the Creatures also partnered with Instinct Records on Hai!, a stripped-down drum-and-voice explosion recorded with taiko master Leonard Eto, who joined them on tour.
