Zor Gabor and Kenny Morris

In September 1979, The Banshees were in Aberdeen, touring with The Cure and Scars as support.  According to the liner notes from the excellent Scars box set, "During a signing session at a local record shop earlier that afternoon, the headliners had a bitter disagreement which resulted in drummer Kenny Morris and guitarist John McKay jumping in a cab and leaving town, effectively abandoning the tour... The Cure were asked to play a longer set, while desperate attempts were made to locate the missing band members.  Eventually realising they were long gone, Siouxsie and Severin joined The Cure onstage for a version of The Lord's Prayer, closing track of the Join Hands album, which had been released that day."

Susan and Steven recovered nicely from this setback.  They toured with Robert Smith on guitar.  They replaced Morris with Budgie (from Big In Japan and The Slits) and recruited John McGeoch in time for the recording of Kaleidoscope (with an assist from Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols).  But what of the mutineers who abandoned The Banshees in Aberdeen? 

Neither of them made a record until 1987, when Marc Riley's In Tape label released a single by John McKay's new group Zor Gabor, and The Temple ov Psychick Youth released a self-produced Kenny Morris 12" (La Main Morte, TOPY 011).  La Main Morte was the soundtrack to a Kenny Morris short film, with narration by radical French writer Dorothée Lalanne.  Morris had studied filmmaking before joining The Banshees.  More information about Kenny Morris' single and films is available at Kill Your Pet Puppy.

Kenny Morris' YouTube channel hosts several of his short films, including La Main Morte.

 

Zor Gabor was a short-lived trio of John McKay, singer Linda Clark, and drummer Graham Dowdall.  Dowdall had worked with Nico, John Cale, Eric Random and Ludus prior to joining Zor Gabor.  He later composed for theater and radio, and taught at Goldsmiths College.  He joined Pere Ubu, and makes solo records under the alias Gagarin.  Gagarin's latest album is The Great North Woods, released in 2020.

Zor Gabor's sole release, Tightrope, was a three song 7" and 12" produced by David Cunningham of Flying Lizards.  Linda Clark sounds and looks more than a little like Siouxsie.  John McKay sounds as great as ever.   I always thought his playing on The Scream was as radical and exciting as anything Keith Levene did.  Gagarin's website describes McKay as "the UK guitarist who single-handedly slowed down UK Punk and developed the sound that later became known as Goth."  But of course Tightrope was released in 1987, not 1978.  As they say, you can't step into the same river twice.  Or to paraphrase Bowie, you can crash the same car more than once, but the shock of the initial impact wears off with repetition.  Tightrope was NME's single of the week, but soon Zor Gabor was no more.