Inside The Happy House

MELODY MAKER AUGUST 2, 1980

To all intents and purposes, 1979 was not a particularly happy time for Siouxsie & The Banshees. For starters, the recording sessions for Join Hands, the band’s crucial follow-up to their widely acclaimed Scream debut album, had revealed both drummer and guitarist Kenny Morris and John McKay pulling away from the band, refusing, by all accounts, to contribute fully to the work in hand. In Newcastle on tour, the tension finally erupted as the two of them publicly walked out of an autograph session at a record shop and back to their hotel. The two of them carefully made up their beds to look as if they were sleeping and scarpered, leaving Siouxsie and Severin to carry on regardless. They haven’t been seen since.

There were problems with the album itself. Only “Icon”, “Regal Zone”, “Placebo Effect” and “Playground Twist” attained the phenomenally high standards that the Banshees had set themselves. And, as the band hastily enlisted the help of Robert Smith,