In this 19th episode of CROSSED CHANNELS, we flashed back to 1967, the year The Who played their first North American gigs. The band’s inaugural US performance took place on March 26, that year, where they promoted “Happy Jack” — their first real US hit — with a brief but brutal set as one of a dozen or so attractions on Murray the K’s “Music in the Fifth Dimension” show at midtown Manhattan’s RKO Theater.

But while no one who saw their Murray the K shows (a nine-day stint during which they performed up to five times a day) would ever forget the experience, The Who would make a greater and more lasting mark in the US with their show-stopping appearance that June at the Monterey International Pop Festival, their grueling two months on the road spent opening for Herman’s Hermits at fairgrounds, auditoriums and stadiums across North America, and their quite literally explosive performance that September on CBS Television’s The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

The band’s hard graft paid off, earning them their first US Top 10 hit with “I Can See For Miles,” which reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 that November. But even as The Who were slowly muscling their way to stardom in the US, they seemed in grave danger of fading away in their homeland. “I Can See For Miles,” which peaked at #10 in the UK, was their poorest-selling new single of original material in over two years, and their brilliant 1967 LP The Who Sell Out only reached #13 on the British album charts. Sounding woefully out of place amid the changes in the UK pop scene, the band’s three 1968 singles — “Call Me Lightning,” “Dogs” and “Magic Bus” — wouldn’t even manage to crack the UK Top 20. Throw in the massive debts the band had accrued by regularly trashing their equipment onstage, and The Who were in deep trouble…

However, as we discuss, The Who’s burgeoning popularity in the US not only helped to keep the band afloat during this uncertain period, but also set the stage for their breakthrough 1969 album Tommy and the band’s legendary appearance at Woodstock. “If it wasn’t for America there would be no Who,” says Max Ker-Seymer, a friend of the podcast who has seen The Who in concert over a longer period than anyone still attending their shows… and we’re very much inclined to agree.

Given that The Who’s 1967-1969 visits to North America also included such infamous incidents as Pete Townshend’s bad acid trip on the flight home from Monterey, Keith Moon’s raucous 21st birthday party at the Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan, and the concert with The Doors at New York’s Singer Bowl that inspired Townshend to write “Sally Simpson,” there was no shortage of material for Dan and I to touch upon; indeed, this nearly 90-minute episode could have easily stretched to nine hours.

CROSSED CHANNELS can be heard both on our Substack pages or via your preferred podcast app. In previous episodes we have discussed everyone from Siouxsie & The Banshees to Parliament, Sweet to Otis Redding, The Jam to The Ramones, The Clash to Blondie, Kate Bush to the Raspberries - but always with a transatlantic angle. Fully paid-up subscribers to either Dan Jagged Time Lapse or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith get all the 31 episodes, plus our exclusive previously unpublished interviews and access to all the archives all of the time. That is danepstein.substack.com or tonyfletcher.substack.com.

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And all this for the price of a vegan iced chai latte at the going rate in Bed-Stuy (Do or Die), Brooklyn.

Welcome back to the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the “Yank”) and Tony Fletcher (the “Limey”) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.

This time out, we (somewhat belatedly) observe the 40th anniversary of a legendary British post-punk band finally breaking through to the US album charts after a phenomenal run of hits in their homeland.

The band? Siouxsie & the Banshees, those iconic goth-rock progenitors with a punk past. The album? Tinderbox, the Banshees’ deliciously dark seventh studio long-player, which was released on both sides of the Atlantic on April 21, 1986. The album peaked at #13, giving the band their seventh British Top 20 album in a row. And in the US, where the band’s cult following had previously only translated to minimal sales, Tinderbox reached #88 on Billboard’s Hot 100, its comparative success opening the door for a two-month headlining tour of North American theaters, auditoriums and outdoor sheds.

The album’s initial salvo had actually been fired nearly half a year earlier, with the October 1985 release of “Cities in Dust,” a dance-rock anthem inspired by the destruction of the Roman city of Pompeii. Why was “Cities” released so far in advance of its parent album? And why was Tinderbox the Banshees LP that finally made a sizable dent in America’s frontal lobe? We get into all of that on this episode, as well as the weirdness that ensued when mainstream US press tried to wrap its head around who the Banshees were and what they were up to.

We also delve into the stories and subjects behind Tinderbox’s eight tracks, the important musical contributions that Banshees Severin, Budgie and “new boy” John Carruthers (who had replaced Robert Smith on guitar following 1984’s Hyæna) made to the album, and Siouxsie’s importance as a frontwoman, singer and lyricist. And as an added bonus, Dan hips Tony to Theda Bara, the American silent film star whose exotic, occult-tinged “vamp” image presaged (and quite possibly influenced) Siouxsie’s “goth princess” persona.

As always, the first 10 or so minutes of this episode are free for all to hear. But to listen to this episode in its entirety, along with all of our previous complete CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for a paid subscription to both of them!

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The theme music on this episode is "Blue Diamond Fire" by Dan's project, The Corinthian Columns.