32 The Creatures “Fury Eyes”

Helen of Troy was the “face that launched a thousand ships.” It could well be said that a small rock show in Manchester in 1976 was the show that launched 1000 bands. There are jokes that if everyone who claimed to be at the Lesser Free Trade Hall that night were actually there, the crowd would be in the thousands. The room itself holds less than 200, as far as I know. What has been said with a bit more accuracy was that everyone who was there went out and started their own band. 

The Sex Pistols were the first great British punk rock band and, while they had played other gigs, this was the night that made them legends. Now, there wasn’t anything particularly special that they did this night as opposed to any other night they played. There were also not the first  punk rock band, there had already been a punk rock scene in New York with Patti Smith (who is really the first punk rocker) and The Ramones. But The Sex Pistols had something that the punk rock bands in New York didn’t – a complete disdain for knowing how to actually play their instruments and yet doing it anyway.

This was the motivation for the bands formed that night. If these guys can do it (not in the sense that they’re so bad) then anyone can do it. The spirit of rock and roll and punk rock in particular centers around the idea that music shouldn’t be only done by those with training. One group that formed from this show was Siouxsie and the Banshees. They’ll have their own track on this list so I’ll talk more about their beginning then.

At some point Siouxsie and the Banshees got a drummer named Budgie to join them and at some point after that Siouxsie and Budgie got married. While they were married, they put together a side project that focused on Budgie’s expressive drumming called The Creatures. Their albums are hit and miss style-wise, with some being more electronic than others. The best, and the one that made it so that Budgie became one of my favorite drummers, is Boomerang. This album is a percussion enthusiasts dream. Most tracks are built around the drums for the obvious beat and groove, but also play a significant role in the melodic lines. With “Fury Eyes” we have marimbas carrying the main melodic line with the occasional bells coming in for riffs. I don’t hear any non-percussion instrument in this song outside of Siouxsie’s vocals.