Thirty-five years ago today, a nascent Siouxsie and the Banshees — with co-founders Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin joined by Sid Vicious on drums — played their first concert at the famed 100 Club Punk Special, opening for The Clash and the Sex Pistols. Hear it here.

Although he’s become an in-demand guest vocalist, Robert Smith says in a new interview that he’s refocusing on The Cure and vows he won’t do another collaboration until he completes the long-promised second half of 2008′s ‘4.13 Dream’ — the so-called ‘Dark Album’ that he once suggested could land in spring 2009.

Much has been made about the loss of album art in the download age, but pop-culture maven Matthew Chojnacki argues that even more endangered are the 7- and 12-inch single sleeves of the 1980s — ephemeral splashes of music history that he’s compiled in the new book ‘Put the Needle on the Record: The 1980s at 45 Revolutions Per Minute.’

Twenty years ago today, the Perry Farrell-spawned Lollapalooza festival — which, in retrospect, joins Nevermind as perhaps the best historical encapsulation of ‘the year punk broke’ — made its debut in the sun-baked Arizona desert with performances by Nine Inch Nails, Living Colour, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Jane’s Addiction.

The fairly predictable playlist for Sirius XM’s ‘Dark Wave’ received a much-appreciated shakeup tonight thanks to guest host Peter Murphy, who managed to slip a barrage of unlikely artists ranging from Antony and the Johnsons to Sxip Shirey into the mix.

Today we mark another milestone as goth high priestess Siouxsie Sioux turns 54; to celebrate her birthday, we present the 12-song concert portion from the DVD release of The Banshees’ classic ‘Nocturne’ home video, filmed in 1983.

Twenty-five years ago today, Siouxsie and the Banshees released their seventh studio album, ‘Tinderbox,’ which spawned the band’s first 12-inch single in the U.S. — and its first significant club hit — with the classic ‘Cities in Dust.’

Not only is The Mission reuniting for a 25th anniversary concert this fall, but Wayne Hussey and two of the band’s other original members — plus ex-Siouxsie and the Banshees drummer Budgie — are currently in a British studio recording a brand-new album.

Former Siouxsie and the Banshees bassist Steven Severin says he and Robert Smith have discussed recording a second album as The Glove — the duo’s short-lived early-’80s side project — and that The Cure’s frontman tells him, ‘It’s just a matter of time.’

As promised, Sirius XM’s classic-alternative hub 1st Wave celebrated Halloween on Sunday by devoting half the day to a hugely expanded 12-hour version of its weekly ‘Dark Wave’ show.

In honor of Halloween, Sirius XM’s 1st Wave will expand this Sunday’s ‘Dark Wave’ to 12 full hours, a veritable ‘goth-a-thon’ promising ‘darker classic alternative music from artists like The Cure, Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees and more.’

Tonight’s episode of ‘Dark Wave’ — the weekly Sunday night show on Sirius XM’s classic-alternative station 1st Wave — managed a nice selection of lesser-played album cuts from a host of big-name players, including Depeche Mode (‘Sacred’), Siouxsie and the Banshees (‘Night Shift’), Morrissey (‘Disappointed’), The Jesus and Mary Chain (‘Teenage Lust’) and The Cure (‘Disintegration’).

Today we observe another dark-hued milestone, as goth queen Siouxsie Sioux — aka Susan Janet Ballion, erstwhile leader of The Banshees and The Creatures — turns 53.