Waaaaay back in the dim mists of time, I was lucky enough to Siouxsie and the Banshees play live - with Robert Smith of The Cure as guitarist. He joined Siouxsie, Steve Severin and Budgie for a spell in the early 1980s [the Banshees went through guitarists like Spinal Tap gets through drummers], and toured New Zealand with them. Talk about your Goth icon overload. Set eyeliner to swoon.
The band played Auckland on Valentine's Day in 1983. The gig was at Mainstreet, a black hole of a place at the top of Queen St. February in Auckland is pretty much the height of summer, and even after dark humidity can be nasty. Don't know how Mainstreet was licensed to hold, but it felt like there were double the legal number. Even the walls were sweating. Set eyeliner to racoon.
I remember watching most of the concert from a mezzanine, standing on a chair to see. By rights I shouldn't have been there - it was Monday [a school night], and I was 16 [underage in a licensed venue]. But one of my brothers got me in, and got me home again afterwards. Next day was the school swimming championships at Jellicoe Pools. That was a long day in hell. [Set eyeliner to doom.]If you're wondering about the photos, they are from that concert but I didn't take them. The photographer was Jonathan Ganley and all the images are his copyright, so please don't swipe them without permission. You can see more of Jonathan's amazing pictures at his blog point that thing. The Siouxsie and the Banshees [with Robert Smith] pictures can be found here.
More than quarter of a century later [yikes!], I now live near Edinburgh in Scotland. Thanks to the joys of twitter, I spotted Steve Severin linking to Jonathan's photographs yesterday. Following a link to Severin's website, I discovered he now lives in Edinburgh. On the other side of the planet, Jonathan's going to my nephew's second birthday party this weekend [happy b-day, Rex!]. It's a small world, folks, smaller than you think. Onwards!
1 comment:
Actually, Rex is three now :-)
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