SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES – "SUNLESS" (B-side, 1988)

Besides Siouxsie’s admitted lyrical preoccupation with the word 'skin', apparently there’s another one with 'sun', a word that seems to turn up quite often in the lyrics of several Banshees tracks and has even made it into the titles of a couple of their b-sides the likes of "Follow The Sun" from 1981 or "Shooting Sun" from 1987, a year in which the band even toyed with the idea of covering Traffic’s 1967 classic "Paper Sun". Then in 1988, it’s "Sunless" that's been picked for a title of another b-side track, yet this one had a different provisional title when initially conceived in January 1988 during the rehearsals for 'PEEPSHOW' album at 'Berry House' Studios in Ardingly of Sussex...

Severin: "Originally titled 'Istanbul' – a portastudio demo that Martin and I worked on down in Ardingly. It seemed way too frenetic for vocals so it stayed instrumental. Budgie got a good work-out on this."

Siouxsie: "The thundering drums are divine – what a maestro!"

The track was recorded at Marcus Music studios in London (apparently during the recording of 'PEEPSHOW' album that took place from 25th of January til the end of March 1988). It was subsequently mixed (in Siouxsie’s words) "…deep in the heart of Soho at the now defunct Marquee studio" in London during the mixing process of the album from April til June 1988. The astounding audio result of "Sunless" was made available in both the 12” vinyl and the cd format of the divine single "The Last Beat Of My Heart", released on 21 November 1988. "Sunless" has never been performed live.