Quote from: Ulrich on July 17, 2025, 09:34:12https://www.buzzmag.co.uk/absence-autobiography-budgie-siouxsie-banshees-book-review/


https://louderthanwar.com/the-absence-by-budgie-book-review/

QuoteThe nickname Budgie was given to him by bandmates Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford. As part of the legendary punk-era Liverpool music scene, he played first in the Spitfire Boys ("my first gang") with Paul and then in Big in Japan with Holly.

Wow! I had no idea Budgie used to be a bandmate of future Frankie Goes to Hollywood (which I love btw) frontman and keyboardist/back vocalist/dancer/younameit...

QuoteObserving a period of white-hot musical and cultural change from the drum stool, Budgie's gaze covers an appealing and hidden subject, especially so for fans of the more liminal aspects of 70s and 80s pop culture. Budgie – Peter Edward Clarke according to his birth certificate – primarily played with The Slits before bringing his percussive mastery to dark pop meisters Siouxsie And The Banshees, and post-Banshees group The Creatures, for a two-decade tenure of critical and commercial success.

As well as a rare insight into Clarke's complex and occasionally bloody marriage and divorce with Siouxsie Sioux, a figure who remains elusive and rarely decoded, The Absence shines a light on much more. Poignant and relatable, abusive relationships and addiction play a part. All this amid a gaze on that rarefied world of fame, offset by the mundanity of touring, soaked with the booze and drug-fuelled quarrelling with bandmates and label bosses that comes with it.

This book has everything: emotive, engaging, vulnerable and fun, possessing a rare insight into a grubby yet glamorous musical chapter of leftfield pop stardom.

QuoteThe nickname Budgie was given to him by bandmates Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford. As part of the legendary punk-era Liverpool music scene, he played first in the Spitfire Boys ("my first gang") with Paul and then in Big in Japan with Holly.

In spite of the dysfunction in the relationship and the ongoing dysfunction within the various Banshees line-ups, there are lighter moments in the story. Even in a goth band, life in the studio and on the road allows for some fun and frivolity, not to mention globe-trotting glamour. There was, too, plenty of creative growth: another kind of fun.

As a writer, Budgie avoids the clichéd story arc of addiction and redemption: he gets sober halfway through the book, but it doesn't solve his problems. Only after marriage breakdown and therapy does he finally start to regain that "sense of self", and "Peter" re-emerges from the shadow of "Budgie".

Quote from: MeltingMan on July 14, 2025, 18:28:26could not be delivered. Sorry...