SUBURBAN RELAPSE: THE BIRTH OF THE BANSHEES

David Gavan takes STEVEN SEVERIN for a walk down the memory lanes of Bromley, to trace the roots of Siouxsie & The Banshees.

In the 70s, there was something David Lynch-esque about the Kent dormitory town, Bromley. London was visible from a height, but its proximity to the capital was belied by an atmosphere of smug chauvinism. A less scenic Twin Peaks, with a Little England soul. Growing up here in the late 70s, one sensed there was more to life than recreational violence and glue-sniffing in the park. Local musicians such as Bowie and, later, Siouxsie & The Banshees, proved there was.

Like fellow musical icon and Bromley refugee David Bowie, Steven Severin’s feelings towards the place remain bracingly ambivalent. “Leaving Bromley South station today, I had a 70s flashback. When you arrived here back then, you had to do a 360-degree scan because there would inevitably be half-a-dozen skinheads loitering outside.” That would explain the piercing look he flashed me as I approached to introduce myself.

During the mid-70s, early Sex Pistols followers, The Bromley Contingent, slowly gestated. For two of its key members, Steven Bailey (Severin) and Susan Ballion (Sioux), the prosperous yet culturally anaemic suburb of Bromley proved a fertile petri dish. Having met at a Roxy Music concert in October ’75, they developed in tandem as they exchanged books and records.

Then, in December of the same …

by David Gavan
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