Siiiii formed in May 1983 when singer Paul Devine, then only 19, moved from Mildenhall in Suffolk, East Anglia to Sheffield, having answered an ad in Melody Maker, purely to be in the band.
He joined guitarist and bassist Mark and Ange Holmes (from Sheffield bands Fatales and Surface Mutants) and Wayne Furniss, Pulp's original drummer and guitarist.
Taking their name from William Burroughs' "The Soft Machine" ("Siiiii". the sound of a young man enjoying an orgasm during anal sex in a lavatory) they gigged extensively during the early to mid-1980's and possibly hold the record for the amount of times any band was nearly signed to a record label, most notably Sony Records, where their song "Over" was one of the company's "Tracks Of The Month" during 1995.
Fusing tribal drums (sometimes using two drummers onstage), outrageously powerful basslines, intricate and ethereal guitars and Paul's ominous, frenzied or pristine voice, Siiiii created a sound all their own.
The band played with many influential bands from early UK dark-music culture, including The Chameleons, Inca Babies, Skeletal Family, Artery and March Violets.
Siiiii disbanded in 1986 and the members went their separate ways. Mark went on to play and record with the Anti-Group, featuring members of Clock DVA, and Paul became involved in The Niceville Tampa (now Niceville) and then Deep Valley Orgasm in South Wales.
In 2005, having been "rediscovered" after a chance meeting of emails between Paul and Gothic Rock journalist Mick Mercer, the band managed to find each other via the Web and put together "Ancient", an archive album of original 1980's songs, on their own King Sol Records label. Hot on the heels of this came a prestigious and show-stopping set at the fourth Drop Dead Festival in New York.
More gigs followed in Germany, Holland and Ireland, allowing the band to showcase brand new material.
A second, live album, called "Ein Verdammtes Versprechen (A Fucking Promise)" was recorded in Germany in 2008 and the band's second studio album, "Modern" is currntly being recorded.
In coming to a band like Siiiii it is important to understand that any comparisons made are simply done with the benefit of retrospective illumination, helping identify who they are similar to, but you mustnt think that influenced their creations. Siiiii were recording and gigging during the original Goth phase and the reason theyre unique among all those other unique bands is because they were in on the birth. Their ideas were solely their own, nobody elses. And just as we can look at Ausgang, Sex Gang, Danse Society or March Violets and see how they all bristled with their own characteristics (as opposed to, say, UK Decay and Bauhaus who, having already existed in a different form, had been partly shaped by what they saw in other bands which helped free their true capabilities and allowed them to glow brightly), so we will hear Siiiii and marvel. What I can tell you is that if you collect Goth records, if you have an interest in the 80's sounds, if you just love great songs and singing, these recordings offer something you may not hear much of during 2006. This is superb. It has an evocative blend of sounds, with thoughtful or anguished lyrics, and a simplicity which only proves how good the songs are. Moreover, it has an attitude and hunger about it which bands these days don't have, because anybody can form and record these days.
© Mick Mercer 2005
But what makes this band so attractive, after all? Mainly, there is its versatility. With remarkable influences of Bauhaus and The Birthday Party, each one of their songs is a subgenre by itself. By the way, by coining the expression "death rock", Rozz Williams had in mind his dissociation from the concept, let's say, of "gothic music as the expression of a restrictive lifestyle". We could say that all that Siiiii produced reflects the time when reactions such as Rozz's were still unnecessary, a boiling moment in which the bands were more worried about their songs than with the tags that would or could be attributed to them.
© Cid Vale Ferreira 2006
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