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!

Remember — CROSSED CHANNELS, unlike most podcasts, does not take ads; we value your intelligence too highly to subject you to that sort of thing. And if you are already a paid subscriber to one or both of our Substacks, THANK YOU. We appreciate it more than you can know!

tonyfletcher.substack.com

danepstein.sustack.com

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

Welcome back to CROSSED CHANNELS — 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.

We are all hopped up and ready to go for our 30th episode, in which we flash back exactly 50 years to when the US was celebrating its 200th birthday in a far more positive mood than it appears to be commemorating its 250th. That weekend, 3000 miles from the flotilla in New York’s harbor, further still from all the street parties and suburban barbeques, armed with a reputation honed at Manhattan’s Lower East Side club CBGB’s and a debut LP recorded in two weeks in a studio adjacent to Radio City Music Hall, The Ramones made their British debut at the Roundhouse in London - on July 4, 1976 itself.

Their brief show, eagerly anticipated by a small and influential legion of British fans starved for primitive and minimalist rock ‘n’ roll, and conducted in the midst of Britain’s biggest heatwave in living memory, proved to be one of the most exciting and important trans-Atlantic cultural exchanges in music history. It therefore seemed the perfect subject matter for Dan and Tony to discuss on this otherwise quite muted semiquincentennial.

To access the full episode, please take out a paid subscription either to tonyfletcher.substack.com or danepstein.substack.com - or both. You'll get all the previous Crossed Channels podcasts, exclusive posts, and access to all the archives all the time.

Theme music: Blue Diamond Fire by Dan's project the Corinthian Columns.

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.

In this 29th episode we discuss not one of the first four classic albums by Liverpool legends Echo & The Bunnymen, but the troubled, eponymous fifth album. Tony actually witnessed the record’s long gestation in person while writing the band’s authorized 1987 biography Never Stop: The Echo & The Bunnymen Story, which makes Echo & The Bunnymen the first album to be featured on CROSSED CHANNELS that one of us was in the studio for. It is also perfect subject matter for Crossed Channels as it’s an album made by a British band in a British studio but with an American audience very much in mind.

Since he was present for its recording — both in subsequently-abandoned form in Liverpool with producer Gil Norton, as well as in London with eventual producer Laurie Latham - and given that he traveled with the band on their subsequent 1988 US tour for SPIN magazine, Tony has quite a bit of insider information to share during this episode. Some of it is explosive, and much of it will be new to Bunnymen fans, so this episode should be well worth the price of admission!

Released in July 1987, three years after the jaw-droppingly brilliant Ocean Rain, and nearly two years after the Latham-produced single “Bring On The Dancing Horses” signified a change in musical approach (and landed on the platinum Pretty In Pink soundtrack), Echo & The Bunnymen was the band’s most commercially successful release in the US, where the single “Lips Like Sugar” was a significant radio and dancefloor hit. In the UK, the album peaked at #4, just as Ocean Rain had done. But improved US sales aside, Echo & The Bunnymen was widely seen as a disaster.

Once considered the greatest band in the UK, Echo & The Bunnymen - whose drummer Pete de Freitas had returned to the fold after going AWOL in the USA and “totally insane” in the process - now seemed sadly adrift amid Laurie Latham’s generically “80s” pop production. Not even the presence of Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek on a remake of the beloved B-side “Bedbugs and Ballyhoo” — the band subsequently covered The Doors’ “People Are Strange” for the soundtrack of the 1987 teen horror film The Lost Boys — could re-light their fire during the recording sessions.

As always, the first 10 or so minutes of this episode are free for all to hear. To listen in 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! tonyfletcher.substack.com danepstein.substack.com

By doing so, you will not only get a new episode of CROSSED CHANNELS every month in your inbox, but also receive other exclusive posts from each of us, as well as full-time access to all the good stuff in our respective archives. Plus, your monthly paid subscription will allow us to afford our monthly post-recording repast over at one of our many fine (or at least decent enough) Asian eateries!

Remember — CROSSED CHANNELS, unlike most podcasts, does not take ads; we value your intelligence too highly to subject you to that sort of thing. And if you are already a paid subscriber to one or both of our Substacks, THANK YOU. We appreciate it more than you can know!

Theme music for this episode is Dan’s project The Corinthian Columns and its latest release “Hydrangea,” available on Bandcamp here.