{"product_id":"mckay-john-siouxsie-the-banshees-sixes-and-sevens","title":"Mckay, John (Siouxsie \u0026 the Banshees) \"Sixes And Sevens\"","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"The Scream\", Siouxsie \u0026amp; the Banshees' first album, was released late enough in the punk era to bear some claim as the first post-punk album, with only minor traces of 'punk' lingering) and enough hints of what had come even earlier to be, paradoxically, new.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSiouxsie was the focus of the band, with her unique vocal style and lyrics, but the musical innovator in this early line-up was John McKay, who wrote most of the album's tunes (and singles like \"Hong Kong Garden\"), creating a wholly new guitar sound - harsh and brittle, yet melodically intoxicating . . . a sound so unique it was described by a somewhat confounded Steve Albini years later \". . . only now people are trying to copy it, and even now nobody understands how that guitar player got all that pointless noise to stick together as songs\".\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMcKay's influence lives on; many of the most influential guitarists of the past four decades credit him as a major influence - Geordie from Killing Joke, Jim Reid of The Jesus And Mary Chain, U2's The Edge, Thurston Moore, Johnny Marr and even the two guitarists - The Cure's Robert Smith and Magazine's John McGeoch - who followed him in The Banshees. \u2028\u2028\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMcKay's burgeoning status as the anti-guitar hero was halted when he and Banshees drummer Kenny Morris - at odds with Siouxsie and bassist Steve Severin - fled the band just after the start of a tour supporting the group's second album, Join Hands. It was a weekly music paper scandal, later the subject of a BBC documentary, and Siouxsie's vitriol working its way into the lyrics of a later Banshees b-side, \"Drop Dead \/ Celebration\". Aside from a solitary single on Marc Riley's In Tape label nearly a decade later, no music was heard from McKay again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSo it comes as a major surprise to learn of a pile of excellent recordings made in the years just after he left The Banshees, unheard by all but a very few, some of which feature drummer Kenny Morris, plus Mick Allen from Rema Rema, Matthew Seligman of the Soft Boys and longer-term collaborator Graham Dowdall and John's wife Linda . . . the latter three of whom are now sadly deceased.\u2028\u2028\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSixes And Sevens is an historic lost album. Brazenly genius and bearing fair claim as the lost treasure of the post-punk era, the album collects eleven studio tracks, carefully mastered from original tapes. It's a masterpiece which best speaks for itself.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"---","offers":[{"title":"VINYL","offer_id":45677626458287,"sku":"798234006249","price":31.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0552\/8833\/2463\/files\/a0943973724_10.jpg?v=1752787650","url":"https:\/\/endofanear.sbs\/products\/mckay-john-siouxsie-the-banshees-sixes-and-sevens","provider":"End Of An Ear","version":"1.0","type":"link"}