Siouxsie & The Banshees • Night Shift • live 1981 [HD upscale]

Details

Description

"Only in in darkness I see you..."
'Night Shift' is possibly the darkest song Siouxsie and the Banshees ever recorded. It was written about Peter Sutcliffe, also known as The Yorkshire Ripper, and this performance from March 1981 comes only two months after his arrest and two months before he would go on trial. Siouxsie was given inside information by a journalist that Sutcliffe had previously worked as a gravedigger and preferred to work the night shift so that he would have access to the corpses in order to satisfy his unnatural urges.
'Night Shift' would subsequently appear on the bands 'Juju' album released in June of that year and it remained a live favourite on many subsequent tours. With its chorus of "F*ck the mothers, kill the others", it has lost none of its disturbing power over the years.
This was the song that Siouxsie chose to open her set on most of her appearances in 2023.

This performance was filmed live on 9 March 1981 at Warwick University.
I've upscaled the video from the best elements I could find and enhanced the original audio track.