Great Moments In Pop – The 80s Part 10.

This is a group that were very influential over the years, indeed just about every other group and singer since have revealed their admiration for them. Siouxsie And The Banshees had a huge amount of hits (and that’s not including side projects such as The Creatures), and because their story is rather well-known, for now I’ll just concentrate on what has got to be my favourite single of theirs.

By 1988, it had been a decade single the first hit single for Siouxsie, and a huge amount had changed in pop music since then. Punk music wasn’t the big genre by this point, but this was always a group that tried to experiment and move with the times, meaning that this one was rather different. Also, Siouxsie had something of an image change, getting rid of the famous Dennis The Menace hairstyle for a bob, which was rather fancy.

“Peek-A-Boo” was released in July 1988, and was taken from their ninth album “Peepshow”. Among the highlights were the backwards accordion (and you don’t get that much in pop music), along with lots of other strange noises. There was also a performance on Top Of The Pops, along with also appearing on various early satellite channels across Europe because they had to fill the hours with something.

Watching various clips from this time online, I imagine that Siouxsie had to learn to be patient in TV interviews after being asked “what is the song about?” for the 100th time. Critics were very keen on the new direction though, awarding this Single Of The Week, and describing this as “thirties hip-hop” in their constant quest to make up new musical genres on the spot.

And without wishing to sound like Only Connect, what does this one have in common with Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” from 1986, New Order’s “True Faith” from 1987, and Fine Young Cannibals’ “She Drives Me Crazy” from 1989? Well they all won The Chart Show‘s The Best Video Of The Year Award, what an honour. I was pleased that it did win though.

“Peek-A-Boo” reached no. 16, to become their final Top 20 hit single in the UK, and this was also the first of their two hits in America, reaching no. 53, and only being bettered by 1991’s “Kiss Them For Me”. Siouxsie And The Banshees would go on to have more hits into the 90s though. Maybe I’ll take a more detailed look at their interesting career soon.