Foreword
          I was 14, at a girlfriend's house and she put on this single, 'Happy House'. I can remember thinking, 'What the fuck is this?' I'd not heard anything like it. And the B-side, 'Drop Dead-Celebration', encapsulated every single thing that I felt at that time as a totally inarticulate, podgy, pasty, unempowered child. I became addicted. I bought the record and played it obsessively.
          At the time, I had no idea what she or the band looked like. The voice and the music were enough. But when I saw how she looked, I was hopelessly seduced. No woman I'd ever seen looked like that. She was one of the first to project a really powerful image of womanhood. There had been a lot of protest singers, but their music never resonated with me. I got into Patti Smith at around the same time, but Siouxsie Sioux was the one I connected with immediately. You never got the feeling that she was anybody's victim or anybody's whore. She was my girl, and has been ever since.
          Because I didn't get pocket money, I had to pilfer money so I could buy The Scream. A few obsessive months later, I bought Kaleidoscope. They were my two mainstays and I learned how to sing listening to those records. So many of the songs on those two albums were massive loves of my life. When I heard 'Suburban Relapse', I could see pictures. The band captured my imagination and dramatised my teenage life. And then I heard 'Christine'. That was my song. I, too, was the girl with the multiple personalities.
          I totally bought into Siouxsie's image, but there was one frustration: I was a redhead. Siouxsie proved all the more alluring for the simple reason that I could never really get there. I used to pore over photographs, take long slavish hours trying to reconstruct the eye make-up and I crimped my hair. My friend and I would pretend to be Siouxsie Sioux and it was a fucking amazing feeling. The hair, the make-up, the jewellery, the fierceness! She was like a warrior who made me feel like a woman who could do anything she wanted to, and that feeling has remained with me ever since.
          It's frustrating because I don't think she's ever really been given her due. She is the greatest punk icon ever, more so because she's always done it differently than the men. Musically, too, the Banshees were disobedient and sounded like no one else. When magazines put together these ridiculous lists of the greatest punk records ever, I find it laughable. Where are the Banshees? Siouxsie's an articulate, feral force and that frightens people. And so they shy away from giving her the praise that she deserves.
          When I first saw the Banshees, at the Edinburgh Playhouse on 27 February 1981, I was mesmerised. They played 'Israel', which hadn't long been out, and I almost fainted. It was total pleasure. I'd dressed up in my redheaded interpretation of Siouxsie Sioux - fishnet tights, little brown boots and a short mini-kilt with an orange cashmere sweater. I couldn't get my hands on the cool stuff that she wore, so I did what I could. It's that press shot of her wearing the 'Israel' T-shirt with her fingers sticking out that's the one that stays with me. I pored over that.
          A little later, the press began to describe them as a goth band. I never thought of them as goth. Goth has never been particularly angry, just a little dismayed. It always had a weak, submissive side to it. Siouxsie And The Banshees always had a real edge to what they did. There was so much articulated spite, humour and politics with a small 'p' there that I never felt they went down that simple, gloomy path. People try to pass them off as a goth band because they find them dangerous and don't understand them.
          Today, I can see and hear the Banshees' influence all over the place. What they were doing twenty five years ago still sounds vital, and Souxsie remains an incredibly powerful role model. Garbage were touring at the same time the Banshees were doing their reunion shows, and though our fans come from a different generation, I found out that many of them were also going to see the Banshees. When they played Edinburgh, my mum called me and said, 'Siouxsie Sioux was here last night and I've cut out the picture for you!' She knows all the songs. I think my whole family does.
          She shaped my life. I wouldn't be singing if it weren't for Siouxsie I got to do what she did because she did it first and she did it so much better. I could weep whenever I think about her. I'm not in her league. She allows me - and all the rest of us - to exist in her world...
          Needless to say, I've been waiting for this book for years!

Shirley Manson
June 2003

она заставила меня почувствовать себя женщиной, которая способна на все, и с тех пор это чувство не покидало меня.

В музыкальном плане the Banshees также были непревзойденными и звучали, как никто другой. Когда журналы составляют эти тупые списки величайших панк-альбомов, мне становится смешно. Где the Banshees?

Не будь Сьюзи, я бы не запела