Background and Music
In late 1977 and early 1978, the band received major press coverage but they didn't manage to get a recording deal. A fan made a graffiti campaign in London where all the walls of the major campagnies were sprayed with the words: "Sign the Banshees: do it now". Polydor finally signed them in June.
The Scream was recorded in one week and mixed in three. The band was in the studio in August while their debut single "Hong Kong Garden" was in the charts. The songs were written with John McKay, who had became their guitarist in July 1977. Only "Carcass" dates from the band's time with Peter Fenton, their guitarist from January to July 1977.
Music historian Clinton Heylin explained that the "recruitment of guitarist John McKay" along with "the formation of Magazine and PiL" between "August 1977 and May 1978", marked the "true starting-point for English post-punk". Siouxsie wanted the Banshees' music to be "cinematic"; the razor-sharp, slashing strings of Bernard Herrmann's score to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho particularly inspired the band for the music of "Suburban Relapse", where the guitars echo to the knife-screeching violins of the famous shower scene.
Read more about this topic: The Scream (album)
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