Peepshow - Siouxsie & The Banshees

I've got mixed feelings about this album. Polar opposites you might say. On one hand I admire it's inventiveness, originality and the sheer power of Siouxsie's vocals. And on the other? Well it brings me out in a cold sweat and ties my stomach in knots. In other words simple unadulterated fear. So how can a simple 45 minute pop album give rise to such strong emotions?

Around 1988 we were starting to become mechanically mobile and increasingly independent. That is we had access to a car. Not all of us were so lucky to own a vehicle but one or two of us had acquired a vehicle and we wasted no time in wasting time; driving round the streets of Hartlepool with music blasting out of the stereo. Being self respecting indie-kids the music had to fit the right profile - after all if you're going to inflict your choice of music on the greater Hartlepool population then it had to be 'cool'. And when I say 'cool' I mean loud guitars, indistinct vocals and preferably unheard of.

So we would spend hours and hours driving around listening to music and ..... well deciding where to drive to next. To those who witnessed us pass them they must have reached the conclusion that we had nothing better to do. They couldn't have been further from the truth. Of course we had better things to do......we just didn't know what they were.

And what about the fear? Well this album was on a regular playlist in the car of MR. And MR's car had two speeds. Fast and lightspeed. It was if he was on a crusade to find out for himself whether Einstein's theory of relativity held water using only his sheer fearlessness and a MkII Ford Escort. Ironically, I think he actually disproved it as I noticeably aged during each journey! It was really hard to appreciate the intricacies of goth-pop when approaching the universal constant. So we usually arrived at our nominated destination ahead of time - occasionally before we had actually set off - only to select another and we were off again; passengers at bus stops becoming a blur as we rushed past them and trees denuded of their leaves in our thunderous wake.

But if this sounds like I am being ungrateful it shouldn't. Having a mate with a car gave us access to places that, otherwise, would've been off limits; camp sites, cinemas, chinese take-aways, shops and concert halls were all now in reach. It expanded our horizons immeasurably and gave us a chance to listen to each others music - auditioning albums in our own personal petrol powered hi-fi with the constantly changing view from the outside world as our backdrop. I was introduced to a great many bands in this way; The The, The Soup Dragons, The Mission, The Smiths, Fields of the Nephilim and The Cult amongst numerous others.

....and being in MR's car meant that you were never late to your destination!