Where is Siouxsie and the Banshees’ ‘Cities of Dust’?
In many ways, Siouxsie and the Banshees are UK punk’s greatest success story. While others would stand as the movement’s archetypes and achieve greater commercial conquer, Siouxsie and the Banshees displayed creative longevity and unerring vitality well into the 1990s. No one could have predicted it early on when singer Siouxsie Sioux was sporting swastika armbands and swearing it up with Sex Pistols on Bill Grundy’s Today show infamy, but she’d go on to front one of Britain’s most consistently exciting pop bands.
Firmly dwelling in the choppy post-punk territory of the 1970s, Siouxsie and the Banshees would enter the following decade with an insatiable thirst for new musical colours and sounds, reaching into the deepest sonic recess for exotic energy to cast over their enchanting art-pop.
Across acclaimed albums, memorable Top of the Pops performances, and a rejig of members including The Cure‘s Robert Smith for a period, the band headed to Berlin’s legendary Hansa Tonstudio in May 1985 to cut their awaited seventh LP with new guitarist John Valentine Carruthers, who had joined for the 1984 EP The Thorn.
An immersive, expanded palette of sounds swirls all over Tinderbox. Owing to bassist Steve Severin’s purchase of the Yamaha DX-7 keyboard, new aural opportunities presented themselves to the band, delivering a record that feels more cavernous in atmosphere but never lapsing into darkwave, a moody affair but lit with warm torches that flicker against ancient ruins or weathered statues like a sacred tomb.
A thrilling grasp of the arcane is exquisitely realised on Tinderbox‘s lead single ‘Cities of Dust’. Glittering chimes ripple atop an infectious dance guitar attack and skulking drum groove all dance around Sioux’s effortlessly commanding vocals. For such an urgent pop cut, it’s easy to overlook the drama that bristles among its lyrics: “Water was running, children were running / You were running out of time / Under the mountain, a golden fountain / Were you praying at the Lares’ shrine?”
A Lares was a minor deity in ancient Roman culture, perceived to serve as a protective entity of guardian and safety for any local area or household. Such custom would be practised by placing a shrine in the heart of the family unit, often at dinner tables or places of communal gathering. Understood to be a site of sanctuary, what are ‘Cities of Dust’ panicked protagonists praying about?
Depicting the ancient city of Pompeii in Italy’s Campania region, ‘Cities of Dust’ explores the terror of Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 AD and its smothering of the city and nearby villas under 13 to 20 ft of volcanic ash. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Pompeii has presented historians with a fascinating glimpse into everyday Roman life, as well as eerie preserves of the citizens killed with plaster moulds created from their bodies.
It certainly serves as evocative fodder for a cracking pop song. Spelling a moment in Siouxsie and the Banshees’ 1980s purple patch when compositional and thematic inspiration was mined from the most mysterious places, ‘Cities of Dust’ still shines as a pop gem packed with fraught danger and stirring allure.
