John McKay (musician)

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John McKay
Born1957
OriginUnited Kingdom
GenresPost-punk
Occupation(s)Musician
InstrumentsGuitar
saxophone
Associated acts

John McKay is an English songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the guitarist of Siouxsie and the Banshees. He was a member of the group from July 1977 until September 1979. He played a "jagged unorthodox chording",[1] and created a "metal-shard roar" with his guitar.[2] Q magazine included McKay's work on "Hong Kong Garden" in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Tracks Ever".[3] He recorded two studio albums with the group, their debut album The Scream in 1978 and the sophomore album Join Hands in 1979.

McKay has been cited as an influence by several guitarists including Geordie Walker of Killing Joke, Robert Smith of the Cure, Steve Albini of Big Black, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine and Boz Boorer.

Siouxsie and the Banshees (1977–1979)[]

McKay grew up in Hemel Hempstead.[4] On 2 July 1977, he joined the band Siouxsie and the Banshees, replacing guitarist Peter Fenton.[5] McKay played his first concert with the band on 9 July at London's Vortex club.[5] His first studio recording with the band was a session for John Peel on BBC radio in November 1977. McKay composed the tune of their first hit single, 1978's "Hong Kong Garden" as well as much of the material found on the band's first two albums, 1978's The Scream and 1979's Join Hands. He's a self-taught musician. Music historian Nick Kent wrote that McKay had "a bent for more adventurous guitar styles involving minor/diminished seventh chord work".[4] Journalist Scott Calhoun wrote that "McKay made use of harmonics as means of artistic expression as well as way of creating textures related to new approaches in the use of the electric guitar". On certain tracks on The Scream such as "Jigsaw Feeling", he had a bell-like sound quality. He also used two-note chords on several songs of Join Hands.[6] McKay also played saxophone on the songs "Suburban Relapse", "Switch", "Regal Zone", "Playground Twist" and "Pulled to Bits". He left the band at the beginning of the Join Hands tour, a few hours before a concert in Aberdeen at the Capitol on 7 September 1979. He and Morris chose to flee the town after having a dispute with Siouxsie and manager Nils Stevenson during a signing session at the Other Record Shop on Union Street.[7]

He later briefly led a trio named Zor Gabor, which released one three-song 12" EP, Tightrope, in 1987 on the In Tape label. It was reviewed "record of the week" by NME.

Guitars and effects[]

McKay used different audio effects including fuzz (to create distortion) and flanger. Peer John Valentine Carruthers said that McKay "had no conventional skill in guitar playing, like chords or lines. He must have had hands like a gorilla because he was playing chords like this (stretches hand right out). I've no idea what they were, and you couldn't tell by listening because they were going through fuzz and flangers."[8] His guitars were a Hagström Semi Acoustic and a Gibson Les Paul. Mckay's effects included Fender Twin Reverb and MXR Flanger.[8] He played metallic guitar.[9]

Legacy[]

He has influenced several post-punk, noise, indie and alternative rock guitarists including Geordie Walker, Robert Smith, Steve Albini, Thurston Moore, Jim Reid, Kevin Shields, Johnny Marr and Boz Boorer.

Geordie Walker of Killing Joke said: "The guy's been ripped off so much, he started that flanged chord thing". Walker hailed McKay for his style on The Scream: "he came out with these chord structures that I found very refreshing".[10] When asked "how did playing with the Banshees impact your guitar style" after the 1979's Join Hands tour, Robert Smith of the Cure stated: "It allowed me to experiment. I inherited an approach from John [McKay] which was just to have everything full up, really", using "phased/flanged distortion".[11] Smith aspired to be like the Banshees: "the great thing about the Banshees was that they had this great wall of noise, which I'd never heard before."[12] In an article published in Matter magazine in 1984, Steve Albini of Big Black wrote an "all-time non-comprehensive good guitar list", and included McKay in the section titled "Noise" saying : "The Scream is notable for a couple of things: only now people are trying to copy it, and even now nobody understands how that guitar player got all that pointless noise to stick together as songs".[13] Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth cited "Hong Kong Garden" as one of his 25 all-time favourite songs.[14] Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain praised The Scream - era,[15] and Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine cited the Banshees-MkI as one of his early influences, and he "saw the Banshees in Ireland in 1979".[16] McKay is also revered by other musicians such as Johnny Marr of the Smiths and Boz Boorer (Morrissey's guitarist and composer). When asked "who do you regret not going to see live", Marr replied "Siouxsie and the Banshees mk 1".[17] Boorer cited him as a "big influence on my playing [...] That first Siouxsie record was quite incredible sounding, and it started me in thinking that music didn’t have to be any certain way—that there could be many different influences in music and it didn’t have to be a single, strict avenue. That first Banshees album has a lot of jarring guitar that rubs against what you’d think was going to or maybe should happen over a part".[18]

In a live review, music historian Jon Savage likened Joy Division's guitarist Bernard Sumner to McKay in 1979, saying that Sumner "was using a lot of distortion and noise in quite a melodic way. The only other person I could think of who was doing that then was John McKay from Siouxsie and the Banshees".[19] The Edge cited Siouxsie and the Banshees Mk1 of 1977-1978 among the bands who inspired him during U2 formative years.[20] Bobby Gillespie cited McKay among the guitarists of the late 1970s who inspired him.[21] When journalist Simon Reynolds interviewed Lydia Lunch saying there was this starkness of sound on certain Teenage Jesus and the Jerks songs that reminded him Siouxsie and the Banshees' circa The Scream, she replied "I loved the guitar work on their records".[22]

References[]

  1. ^ Darlington, Andrew (2001). I was Elvis Presley's Bastard Love-child & Other Stories of Rock'n'roll Excess [Siouxsie Sioux - section]. Headpress. p. 161. ISBN 1900486172.
  2. ^ Robbins, Ira A. (1983). The Trouser Press guide to new wave records. Scribner. ISBN 068417944X.
  3. ^ "100 Greatest Guitar Tracks Ever!". Q. No. 224. Rocklist.net. March 2005. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Kent, Nick (26 August 1978). "Bansheed! What's in an Image?". NME.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Siouxsie and the Banshees - Rainbow Theater 7/4/79. Concert Publishing. p. 3.
  6. ^ Calhoun, Scott (2019). U2 and the Religious Impulse: Take Me Higher. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781350032552.
  7. ^ Paytress, Mark (2003). Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Authorised Biography. Sanctuary. ISBN 1-86074-375-7.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Walmsley, Richard (April 1986). "Tinder Is The Night". International Musician and Recording World: 74–79.
  9. ^ Marc Riley and Rob Hughes (24 October 2017). "A to Z of Punk: S is for Siouxsie, Strummer and Stiff. Part 2". BBC radio. Retrieved 2 June 2020.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  10. ^ Kay, Max (June 1984). "Max Kay Interviews Geordie". Music U.K.
  11. ^ The Gothfather [Robert Smith interview]. Guitar World. June 1996. How did playing with the Banshees impact your guitar style? It allowed me to experiment. I inherited an approach from John [McKay, the Banshee's first guitarist] which was just to have everything full up, really. [...] It was phased/flanged distortion noise.
  12. ^ Oldham, James (February 2000). "Bad Medicine". Uncut. No. 33. p. 37.
  13. ^ Albini, Steve. (September - October 1984). "Tired of Ugy Fat ?". Matter [a Music Magazine] (10).
  14. ^ Kaye, Ben (17 January 2014). "Here are Thurston Moore's favorite songs of all time". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  15. ^ "Jim Reid on BBC Radio 6 Music". bbc.co.uk. 4 March 2012. Archived from the original on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2015. "Jigsaw Feeling" from The Scream album [...] it was brilliant, amazing. That's a reason why I made music.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  16. ^ North, Aaron (19 January 2005). "Kevin Shields: The Buddyhead Interview". Buddyhead (Interview). New York City. Archived from the original on 8 April 2005. Retrieved 30 May 2014. So what happened after The Complex? Kevin: Well, we started playing with a bass player who was your typical early 80’s, slightly funky… Gang Of Four type guy. So then we moved from being a typical punk band to being much more like Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
  17. ^ Horner, Al (19 September 2014). "Johnny Marr On Working With". NME. Archived from the original on 24 January 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  18. ^ Von Bader, David (30 March 2017). "Boz Boorer: Triple Agent". premierguitar.com. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  19. ^ Savage, Jon (2019). This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else: Joy Division: the Oral History. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0571345373. Instead of wrapping themselves around the same melodies and configurations, each of them was reversing certain paradigms, so that Hooky for example, becomes the lead guitarist. Bernard is then freed up to put all kinds of different shades on what a guitar could do, and he was using a lot of distortion and noise in quite a melodic way. The only other person I could think of who was doing that then was John McKay from Siouxsie and the Banshees". [about the live performance of Joy Division for TV show Something Else- September 1979.
  20. ^ Hutchinson, John (September 1986). "U2's Leading Edge [The Edge interview]". Musician [Monthly magazine]. Rock's Backpages (subscription required). Retrieved 19 January 2021. in 1977. We played a lot, rehearsed a lot, and became totally immersed in the music that was happening around us. Suddenly we became aware of people like Patti Smith, Richard Hell & the Voidoids, and Television. And in England there were the Banshees, the Skids, Magazine.
    Murphy, Peter (26 June 2007). "Close to The Edge [The Edge interview]". Hotpress.com. Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2020. Q: I imagine you watched with some bemusement in recent years as bands like Interpol and Bloc Party and Arcade Fire mined that wintery early ‘80s European sound. A: Yeah, it was amazing to realise two or three years ago that that particular moment in time when we were coming through had suddenly become the new zeitgeist for the rock ‘n’ roll alternative underground. It made me go back again and listen to Siouxsie & The Banshees, Joy Division.
  21. ^ Bonner, Michael (November 1999). "True Adventures of Primal Scream [original unedited text version of the article]". Uncut. Archived from the original on 23 January 2008. Retrieved 2 January 2021. Up til then, I'd only ever seen people playing guitar on stage - like Mick Jones, Paul Weller or The Banshees' John McKay
  22. ^ Reynolds, Simon (2010). Totally Wired: Post-punk interviews and overview. Soft Skull Press. ISBN 978-1593762865.
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