Nocturne

Nocturne is a live double album and video by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released on 25 November 1983 by Polydor Records. Co-produced by Mike Hedges, Nocturne features performances recorded at two shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London, on 30 September and 1 October 1983, featuring Robert Smith (of the Cure) on guitar. Most of the material is from 1981's Juju and 1982's A Kiss in the Dreamhouse. It also features a few B-sides ("Pulled to Bits" and "Eve White/Eve Black") as well as a live version of the Beatles' "Helter Skelter", from the Banshee's debut album The Scream, and "Dear Prudence", a song the Banshees had recorded in the studio earlier that year in Stockholm and issued as a single in September. The music heard in the introduction before "Israel" is an excerpt from The Rite of Spring, composed in 1913 by Igor Stravinsky. Background and release The Banshees had already performed live with Robert Smith on guitar in September and October 1979, when he and his band the Cure served as tour support for the Banshees. A friendship had started at the time between the members of the Cure and the Banshees. In late 1982, when guitarist John McGeoch left the Banshees prior to the A Kiss in the Dreamhouse tour, Steven Severin asked Smith to join them for the British and European tour. In 1983, the band toured in Japan for the second time in less than a year and also visited Australia and New Zealand. With the September 1983 release of the "Dear Prudence" single, Smith became an official member of the Banshees; a few weeks later, they recorded Nocturne in London.