Siouxsie Sioux
Susan Janet Ballion (born 27 May 1957), known professionally as Siouxsie Sioux (/ˌsuːzi ˈsuː/, soo-zee-SOO), is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer.[a] She came to prominence as the leader and main lyricist of the rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, who were active from 1976 to 1996. They released 11 studio albums, and had several UK Top 20 singles including "Hong Kong Garden", "Happy House" and "Peek-a-Boo", plus a US Top 25 single in the Billboard Hot 100, with "Kiss Them for Me".
For the American singer, see Susie Suh.
Siouxsie Sioux
Susan Janet Ballion
27 May 1957
Southwark, London, England
- Singer
- songwriter
- musician
- record producer
- Vocals
1976–present
Siouxsie also formed a second group, the Creatures, in 1981. With the Creatures, she released four studio albums and singles such as "Right Now". After disbanding the Creatures in the mid-2000s, she has continued as a solo artist, using just the name Siouxsie, and released the album Mantaray to critical acclaim in 2007.
AllMusic named Siouxsie as "one of the most influential British singers of the rock era".[1] Her songs have been covered by Jeff Buckley ("Killing Time"), Tricky ("Tattoo") and LCD Soundsystem ("Slowdive") and sampled by Massive Attack ("Metal Postcard") and the Weeknd ("Happy House"). In 2011, she was awarded for Outstanding Contribution to Music at the Q Awards[2] and in 2012, she received the Inspiration Award at the Ivor Novello Awards.[3]
Biography[edit]
Early life (1957–1976)[edit]
Siouxsie was born Susan Janet Ballion[4] on 27 May 1957 at Guy's Hospital in Southwark, England.[5] She is ten years younger than her two siblings. Her sister and brother were born while the family was in the Belgian Congo.[5] Her parents met in that colony and worked there for a few years. Her mother, Betty, was of Scottish and English descent and was a secretary who spoke both French and English.[6] Her father was a bacteriologist who milked venom from snakes, and came from Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium. In the mid-1950s, before Siouxsie's birth, the family moved to England.
The Ballions lived in a suburban district in Chislehurst, Kent. Siouxsie was an isolated child, being unable to invite friends to her house because of her alcoholic, unemployed father.[7] Despite his issues, Siouxsie regarded him as intelligent and well-read, and sympathised with his inability to fit in with a "rigid, middle-class society".[8] During moments of sobriety, her father shared with her his love for books. Siouxsie was aware that her family was different;[9] the Ballions were not involved in the local community and Siouxsie, aware that her family's house differed from the neighbours', would later state that "the suburbs inspired intense hatred."[9]
At the age of nine, she and a friend were sexually assaulted by a stranger in a park. The assault was ignored by both her parents and the police,[10] and was not spoken of in the family. The incident and its later treatment would lead Siouxsie to distrust adults.[11] Years later, she stated:
Songwriting[edit]
Journalist Paul Morley noted that Siouxsie's songs topics dealt with "mental illness, medical terrors, surreal diseases, depraved urges, sinister intensity, unearthly energy, sexual abuse, childhood disturbances, sordid mysteries, unbearable nervous anxiety, fairytale fears, urban discontent and the bleak dignity of solitude". Many of her songs are about damage; her childhood marked her profoundly. She said, "Damaged lives, damaged souls, damaged relationships. Most of the damage I sing about first happened when I was younger and I am still feeding off it and working it out. Early experiences are what create a lifetime of damage. The songs you write can help you fix the damage. And just the environment you are in is so important and can waste potential and corrupt something. For me, there was neglect. An alcoholic father who is not there because the most important thing for him is just to get alcohol and your mother is trying to compensate for the non-existent second parent so she's never there because she's working all the time and when she is around she's stressed out. Being isolated and not having anyone to connect with, there was just no physical touching back then".[83]