Siouxsie and the Banshees will commemorate the group’s 1978 debut single “Hong Kong Garden” next month with a limited-edition double 7-inch reissue of the song that will include the original A- and B-sides on one record, and the version from Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” film and the recording of “Voices” from 1984’s The Thorn EP on the second record.
Due out April 7 via Universal Music, the single will be available from “all good record shops, Amazon and other online stores,” according to the band. Pre-orders are now being taken through Universal’s online shop, with the first 100 purchases coming with a free 18-inch by 12-inch poster.
The single comes in a thick gatefold card sleeve with an eight-page booklet and re-worked cover art, all overseen by Siouxsie and Steven Severin, according to the band.
The release by Universal is notable as it comes four years after the label pulled the plug on the Banshees’ album reissue campaign before the band’s final four albums — 1987′s Through the Looking Glass
Severin has been hinting for months on the Siouxsie (The Banshees & Other Creatures) group on Facebook that Universal is gearing up a new Banshees campaign, possibly even revisiting the missing four reissues: “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 news also follows last year’s revelation by Severin that he was on good terms with Siouxsie once again, tweeting, “After a gap of nearly a decades, the Banshees are talking again… The feud is over.”
Below, check out the tracklist for the new “Hong Kong Garden” single as well as the original music video — which, ironically, Universal has blocked from viewing in the U.S. on the Banshees’ own YouTube channel because of copyright issues.
Tracklist: Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Hong Kong Garden” 35th Anniversary Limited Edition
A1. “Hong Kong Garden”
A2. “Voices” (B-Side to Hong Kong Garden)
B1. “Hong Kong Garden” (Mary Antoinette OST strings version)
B2. “Voices” (The Thorn EP version)
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Banshees’ Steven Severin scoring new animated haunted house doc ‘Borley Rectory’
- ‘The feud is over’: Steven Severin says The Banshees talking again after nearly a decade
- Video: Siouxsie closes 2nd Meltdown gig with Banshees classic ‘Spellbound’
- Siouxsie plays ‘Kaleidoscope’ in full at first concert in 5 years (SETLIST, PHOTOS, VIDEO)
- Siouxsie and the Banshees 20-disc ‘mega’ box set with 11 albums, live DVDs in works
- Steven Severin: Siouxsie and the Banshees’ reissue program dumped by Universal Music
This made my day! Awesome!
Vinyl? That’s nice but I’m ready for some CDs!
Would love the final 4 albums remastered.
Steven said the 20 disc Boxset is not happening anymore but there will be other smaller box sets instead.
This is a great little package (and I LOVE packaging): However, I don’t have a vinyl stereo player (that works), and I already own the Deluxe 2-Disc SHM-CD of THE SCREAM, which includes the 7-inch A-side of “Hong Kong Garden”, and I bought DOWNSIDE UP in 2005, so I already have THE THORN EP (w/ “Voices” which is even better than the original 1978 version). I’d LOVE to have the booklet and the packaging, though…esp. if Sioux and Severin authorized it themselves. Too bad it didn’t come in CD single form as well. It’d still be a collector’s item to have anyway.
I’m assuming that this is all just a nice little prelude/teaser/primer for the following:
1. The Siouxsie & the Banshees (Deluxe) reissues 1978-1995, inc. THE PEEPSHOW TOUR ’88 Live album.
2. The Siouxsie: MELTDOWN 2013 live album CD/DVD.
3. The 2nd Siouxsie solo studio LP.
4. Steven Severin’s spooky BORLEY RECTORY soundtrack EP to the short film of the same name that’s being released later this year.
If all of this is true, and does occur, it will shape up to be a very hopeful Spring and sensational Summer. Everything will be coming up Siouxsie and Severin…