John McKay’s Reactor
The Lexington, London
nineteenth June 2025
After shut on half a century within the shadows, goth’s misplaced guitar hero John McKay is again. Steve Morgan joins the tomb military assembled to pay their respects
Comebacks are nothing new within the we are able to bear in mind it for you wholesale age, the place careers may be kickstarted by web seekers hungry for teenage clicks. However as reanimations go, the return of John McKay would have stretched even cult horror scribe HP Lovecraft’s artistic smarts.
McKay, technically already third by the fabled, ever-revolving door of Siouxsie And The Banshees’ guitar alumni, was at 21 arguably the true misplaced boy of goth. After the bust-up that cut up this newest line-up, Robert Smith started his first stint filling in, which ultimately led to him becoming a member of the band full-time.
The guiding musical drive behind the Banshees’ startling 1978 debut The Scream, McKay’s taut, chopping, clanging guitar stabs had been a complete revelation: a post-punk signpost clocked by numerous others as a sonic template. However, till now, nothing. Down the years, he drifted additional into the shadows, the continued well being problems with spouse Linda, his post-Banshees musical co-conspirator and fixed companion of 40 years plus, ultimately occupying all his time, earlier than he misplaced her throughout Covid.
The revelation earlier this 12 months that, 45 years since he and drummer Kenny Morris jumped ship in the beginning of the tour for second album Be part of Arms, McKay was not solely releasing Sixes And Sevens, a ‘new’ outdated album of post-Banshees demos however would play dwell once more, was a welcome piece of fine information in 2025. It additionally felt uber goth: a jump-scare worthy of the finale of Carrie.
And so, to north London on a flaming mid-June evening. The climate couldn’t be farther from goth if it tried. But one way or the other, the sunshine appears positively becoming. Into the sunshine they assemble, in dribs and drabs, the residing undead, some quietly shuffling, some loud and proud. With an air of hushed expectancy, McKay walks quietly on in entrance of a packed home, the early arrivals having been handled to a tastefully curated DJ set by Boz Boorer, and the winningly cartoonish surf punk of one-man band Scant Regard. Badged as John McKay’s Reactor – flanked by Jen Brown (vocals) and drummer Jola of long-standing pop-punkers The Priscillas, and Billy King on bass – McKay stands stage proper, salt-and-pepper hair tied again, sporting a shirt teeming with what appears like snakes.
He appears good, he appears match. He hits the opening chord of Black 5. The observe’s menacing chug could also be ‘new’, however the sound is unmistakably trademark McKay. And the band itself may be very, very watchable. Brown, hair backcombed, clad head to toe in black, might, in the event you slender your eyes, be Siouxsie.
As half the 14-song robust set is Banshees materials – a shimmering Mirage is second up, she may as nicely go all in. Drummer Jola is pure eye sweet – assume Cabaret, dashed with Rocky Horror’s Little Nell. Staring malevolently at her equipment by startling black-and-white eyelashes, she bashes it, as if a mum or dad chastising errant youngsters, rocking robotically forwards and backwards, propelling the songs alongside.
King, too, is an effective foil. Darkly brooding, with a figuring out smile, his bass throbs and pulses, whether or not top-end flange, or heavy and thudding.
Regardless of the odd sound downside onstage within the first half, it’s a triumph. Okay, no-one got here right here to anticipating it to fail – however it’s clearly been fairly the journey again, and one absolutely made with a lot soul-searching. The muscular robustness of those oft-skeletal, primal songs – and the esteem through which the gang holds McKay – is what actually sticks. A lot as with Journal’s long-awaited reunion reveals in 2008, it’s a robust expertise listening to a contemporary PA system crank out these acquainted numbers unheard dwell for therefore lengthy. The Staircase (Thriller) is brilliantly delivered, the howled, backing vocal coda nonetheless jarring because it swirls. Suburban Relapse is equally spectacular. However the spotlight is the epic, six-and-a-half-minute claustrophobic coil of The Scream’s jarring nearer Swap – that breakdown bit, Siouxsie’s thumbnail sketches of suburban paranoia behind the lace curtains nonetheless with the facility to shock.
It’s a thoughtfully paced set – however you’d anticipate that if you’ve had shut on half a century to mull it throughout. Hong Kong Backyard, the radio-friendly debut single that propelled the Banshees to the mainstream, has misplaced none of its scrumptious quirky attraction – and far of the ‘new’ materials – the taut, jerky Tightrope, Vigilante (shades of God Save The Queen) and Zen And The Artwork Of Nonsense particularly – sounds field contemporary. The hour-long set closes with an encore of Playground Twist, nonetheless tense and unnerving; a darkish, tumbling nursery rhyme that claws at you, with its risk of ‘you’ll be able to drown within the shallows’. Nonetheless waters, as they are saying, run deep.
When it’s over, McKay departs quietly however appears genuinely moved by the reception. Whether or not this can suffice, unfinished enterprise lastly put to mattress, stays to be seen. Solely the flintiest of hearts would begrudge McKay’s return to the long run he just about self-sabotaged, abandoning his personal superb screenplay with the ink nonetheless contemporary. His outdated bandmates launched a compilation album referred to as Twice Upon A Time – it’s solely proper he will get to complete that story. It’s an excellent return for the reluctant hero: sit again and luxuriate in the true McKay.
You will discover John McKay’s Reactor: Instagram | Fb | Bandcamp
You should buy Sixes and Sevens right here
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Phrases by Steve Morgan, yow will discover his writer’s archive right here
Pictures by Naomi Dryden-Smith – Louder Than Battle | Fb | Twitter | Instagram |portfolio
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