Welcome to a new episode of Musical Disclosure. Today's appointment is dedicated to one of the most bold and innovative groups of the British post-punk era: Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Siouxsie Sioux, the future leader of the group, and bassist Steven Severin first met in 1975 at a Roxy Music concert. After the decline of glam rock, the two became passionate about the Sex Pistols' punk scene, to the point of joining a group of avid fans, the Bromley Contingent, who followed them around concerts. During the 100 Club Punk Festival in 1976, organized by the Sex Pistols' manager, Siouxsie and Severin proposed to play, despite not yet having a band name or other musicians to perform with. In the following months, drummer Kenny Morris and guitarist John McKay joined the band, forming the lineup with which Siouxsie and the Banshees would make their debut in the music world. In 1978, the four musicians finally managed to find a record label willing to grant them total artistic freedom, despite already holding sold-out concerts and making appearances on TV and radio. Credit for this achievement also goes to a sympathetic graffiti campaign by a fan, who would leave "Sign the Banshees: do it now" on the walls of major record companies. The band's first single was "Hong Kong Garden", introduced by an oriental-flavored xylophone and filled with McKay's sharp guitars. Siouxsie defined the song as a tribute to the Chinese workers of a Chislehurts restaurant, the Hong Kong Garden, who at the time were victims of skinhead attacks. The track quickly conquered the English Top 10 and paved the way for the publication of "The Scream" (1978), the band's debut album. The album's title and cover were partially inspired by the film "The Swimmer" (1968), in which the protagonist, a theater manager, after swimming in a friend's family pool, decides to return home by passing through all the pools he encounters on the way. This path leads him to a state of physical and mental exhaustion, while repressed truths resurface, ultimately bringing him to a desperate, liberating scream: hence "The Scream". In "The Scream", Siouxsie and the Banshees brilliantly develop the idea of a "musical democracy", where each instrument, including the voice, occupies its own rhythmic and melodic space without prevailing over the others. The album received almost unanimous critical acclaim, being defined as visionary and forward-looking, especially in the way space imposes itself as a fundamental part of the tracks, no less important than notes and sounds. 

We invite you today to listen to "Hong Kong Garden", the first eccentric publication of one of the most influential bands in punk history.