Music review: Siouxsie, Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow

In her first Glasgow show in 15 years, Siouxsie was a playful, purring, high-kicking presence, writes Fiona Shepherd

Siouxsie, Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow ****

The beloved Summer Nights at the Bandstand opened its 2023 season with its hottest ticket – the first Glasgow show in 15 years from punk icon Siouxsie Sioux, a magnetic performer assumed by some to have retired following more than 20 years as the imperious frontwoman of gothic rock trailblazers Siouxsie and the Banshees and experimental duo The Creatures.

All corners of her catalogue, including solitary solo album Mantaray, were referenced across her set, from Top Ten singles to classic album tracks. The magical undulating grace of Saint-Saëns’ Aquarium was an appropriate teaser intro as Siouxsie glided on stage, hooded and booted, in a fabulous silver jumpsuit designed by Pam Hogg. The image has always been key, complementing, never overshadowing the music.

Siouxsie playing Kelvingrove Bandstand PIC: Calum Buchan

Initially, her distinctive declamatory vocals were too low in the mix, manifesting as a Nico-like drawl but balance was soon restored for a double bill of tracks from the Banshees’ 1981 album Juju – the grinding guitars of Night Shift and driving bassline of Arabian Knights were the essence of goth.

Siouxsie, meanwhile, was a comparatively playful presence, checking on the audience in the rain, unleashing a shamanic dance to Land’s End, even high kicking and purring gleefully at one point before remembering her doomsday credentials. "Time for the end of the world," she declared as the band kicked in with the clanging, propulsive Cities in Dust, a track which is sadly never irrelevant.

Further highlights included the reverberating Dear Prudence, one of the all-time great Beatles covers, the rhythmic treasures of Happy House and tribal incantation of Creatures track But Not Them, and the sight of Siouxsie with a guitar (“now I strap it on,” she hooted) for Sin In My Heart, before she brought the main set to a close with the industrial psychic disturbances of solo track Into A Swan and returned to dispatch the whirling dervish goth anthem Spellbound.