On ‘Cities of Dust’, one can positively feel the panicked rush of volcanic terror that plunges its ashen shroud across Pompeii, a remarkable feat for a pop number that’s just as suited to the dancefloor as much as a snapshot of ancient catastrophe.

Such narrative pizzazz has to come from somewhere. Appearing on Australia’s Rage music show in 1993, all three Siouxsie and the Banshees selected the songs they wished to feature on their curated hour, reeling off numbers from the likes of Iggy Pop, Nirvana, and My Bloody Valentine, among others, a final round-up of songs that couldn’t make the official selection were whizzed through by Sioux due to their attachment to film scores, licenses standing in the way of broadcast.

Pulling out a much scribbled notebook of cherished silver screen scores and songs, Sioux begins her film list with Bernard Herrmann’s immortal score for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 killer thriller, Psycho. Focusing on the iconic shower scene, the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s screeching stabs that jab with the murderer’s knife frenzy proved so influential on Sioux that she confessed to requesting early auditioning guitarists to recreate such an unnerving moment of enduring, modern horror.

Taking a sharp detour into childhood, Sioux indulges in the nostalgic cosiness of animator Walt Disney’s finest offerings to the pop songbook. The hypnotic ‘Trust in Me’ from 1967’s The Jungle Book makes a mention, the Sherman Brothers’ slithering theme for Kaa the snake winding its way to Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Through the Looking Glass covers album.

Elsewhere, Pinocchio’s ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ and Lady and the Tramp’s ‘The Siamese Cat Song’ enjoy a mention, Sioux seemingly holding a sentimental affection for the classic Disney hit house with little in the way of irony or facetiousness.

Lastly, a jump to the tried and tested canon of James Bond themes makes Sioux’s movie list, the Banshees singer praising John Barry’s orchestral class and Shirley Bassey’s “tonsils” for 1965’s ‘Goldfinger’, typically celebrated as the finest theme in the long-running Eon spy series. Strangely enough, brief but consequential Banshees guitarist John McGeoch had cut a post-punk version of ‘Goldfinger’ with previous band Magazine in 1978, around the time of their lauded Real Life debut.

Siouxsie and the Banshees would try their hand in the world of movie singles. Just after their Lollapalooza appearances around the Superstition era, old fan Tim Burton would rope the trio in to record an official theme song for 1992’s Batman Returns, the band coming up with ‘Face to Face’, an excellent moody pop number that stands as one of the better examples of the now antiquated Hollywood single tie-in.

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