[tweetmeme]As we first reported last month, the final four titles in Siouxsie and the Banshees’ catalog (1987′s Through the Looking Glass 1988′s Peepshow, 1991′s Superstition and 1995′s The Rapture) finally will receive expanded-and-remastered CD reissues — and today the band itself announced a new, confirmed release date of Oct. 13.
According to the Banshees’ Facebook page:
October 13th sees the long overdue release of the final four Siouxsie & The Banshees studio album remasters – ‘Through The Looking Glass’, ‘Peepshow’, ‘Superstition’ and ‘The Rapture’.
All four releases come with remastered audio from the original master tapes, rare bonus and unreleased tracks plus extensive sleeve notes. They cover a period of bold experimentation, from the idiosyncratic take on the band’s personal favourites on ‘Through The Looking Glass’ to the shocking diversity of ‘Peepshow’; from the sumptuous musical textures of ‘Superstition’ to the wild schizophrenia of ‘The Rapture’.
No tracklists have been revealed, and the Banshees’ post promises pre-order details will follow.
Last month, bassist Steven Severin hinted on the Facebook group Siouxsie (The Banshees & Other Creatures) that the final four albums finally would receive expanded re-releases on Sept. 15, more than four years after Universal Music pulled the plug on the band’s reissue campaign midstream. That date, we now know, has been pushed to Oct. 13.
The reissue news follows Universal’s release of a limited-edition double 7-inch of “Hong Kong Garden” in April, several months after Severin began posting to the Facebook group
about a broader Banshees’ campaignthat could include box sets: “This won’t be a one-off. Once we start — we will be putting things out on a regular basis. Universal have a 3 year plan proposed,” he wrote last fall.
The Banshees’s reissue campaign launched in 2005 with a 2CD deluxe edition of the band’s 1978 debut, The Scream. In 2006, single-disc reissues of Join Hands (1979), Kaleidoscope (1980) and Juju (1981) followed. And in 2009, three more titles — A Kiss in the Dreamhouse (1982), Hyaena (1984) and Tinderbox (1986) — each received single-disc reissues.
But in February 2010, though, Severin reported that Universal was ending the Banshees’ reissues:
“Universal have decided not to release any more single disc remasters. As the final four albums don’t have enough extras to warrant the double disc ‘deluxe’ treatment, they have halted our programme four albums short. They have given us the opportunity to license the last four (Peepshow, Glass, Super, Rapture) to another label. We are looking into this.”
It appears the Banshees’ archival releases indeed won’t be limited to the final four reissues. Dropping further hints on the Banshees’ Facebook group, Severin this week wrote, “Something else drops on Oct. 20th. Another thing in November. Something in the New Year and something BIG in March.”
