DESCRIPTION:
Play at home special present - Siouxsie & the banshees.

This is great. Really something awsome strange madness from the early 80's.
Robert Smith plays in it as well (as we all know, he was a banshees member for 2 periods in the old days).

Looks like Alice in wonderland has returned.
Play at home is part of a channel 4 series.

Aired: September 1984
Minutes : Play at home 33 minutes Nocturne 17 minutes
Total video time 50 minutes
Quality : 9

Play at Home -- Alice in Wonderland themed TV Special
Songs they played :
05:10 Weather cade (The Creatures)
12:20 A blues in drag (The Glove)
28:07 Circle (Siouxsie)
33:22 Eve White/Eve Black (From Nocturne)
34:35 Voodoo Dolly (From Nocturne)
45:00 Helter Skelter (From Nocturne)

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Siouxsie and the Banshees, "Play at Home" on Channel 4 (1984, video, entire show, 50 minutes)
If you like the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, 1983/1984 was an absolute golden period.
Robert Smith was playing guitar with the Banshees (one of several stints), appearing on Nocturne (the Banshees live from the Royal Albert Hall -- a stunning gig released on double vinyl and VHS!) and on the studio LP Hyaena; Robert Smith and Steve Severin had formed the Glove with Jeanette Landray (then girlfriend of Severin's band mate Budgie) and Siouxsie and Budgie had formed the Creatures.

1984 was also a golden era for live music TV with the Tube, the Old Grey Whistle Test and, briefly "Play at Home" -- a series of documentaries about leading rock bands made by themselves... what could go wrong?

So the Banshees do their own unique (and surreal) version of Alice in Wonderland, with a full supporting cast, and intercut with music from the Banshees, the Glove and the Creatures. Siouxie's dis-embodied blood-red lips narrate the story, and chews all available furniture. Green screen tech must have been cheap -- the whole show is littered with really bad backgrounds (but I think they new that).
And, yep, that is Budgie in the top photo!

This was a great watch and it came up the other day on Youtube -- the entire 50 minute show. It is also available on the DVD re-release of Nocturne.

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The Play At Home series offered four musical acts:
New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, Virginia Astley and of course Siouxsie and the Banshees, during the period that Robert Smith of The Cure was in the band—an hour of TV to do pretty much whatever they wanted. When they saw what the Banshees cooked up, I'm sure the execs were both thrilled and nervous (What happened to Channel 4 over the years???).

The Banshees' Play At Home episode was finally released as a DVD extra on the reissue of the 1983 Nocturne concert film in 2006. Note inclusion of music from side-projects The Creatures and The Glove. Longtime Banshees producer Mike Hedges makes an appearance as the Queen of Hearts and Annie Hogan, once Marc Almond's musical collaborator, can be seen as the Doormouse.

According to Slicing Up Eyeballs, Banshees bassist Steven Severin is preparing a 20 disc mega-box set including all eleven Siouxsie & the Banhsees albums and DVDs of vintage live performances. Twenty discs! Can't wait.