John McKay is an English songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the guitarist of Siouxsie and the Banshees. He was a member of the group from July 1977 until September 1979. He played a "jagged unorthodox chording", and created a "metal-shard roar" with his guitar. Q magazine included McKay's work on "Hong Kong Garden" in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Tracks Ever". He recorded two studio albums with the group, their debut albumThe Scream in 1978 and the sophomore album Join Hands in 1979. McKay has been cited as a influence by several guitarists including Geordie Walker, Steve Albini, Thurston Moore, Johnny Marr, Jim Reid, Kevin Shields and Boz Boorer.
Siouxsie and the Banshees (1977–1979)
His first studio recording with the band was a session for John Peel on BBC radio in November 1977. McKay composed the tune of their first hit single, "Hong Kong Garden" as well as much of the material found on the band's first two albums, 1978's The Scream and 1979's Join Hands. He's a self-taught musician. Music historianNick Kent wrote that McKay had "a bent for more adventurous guitar styles involving minor/diminished seventh chord work". Journalist Scott Calhoun wrote that "McKay made use of harmonics as means of artistic expression as well as way of creating textures related to new approaches in the use of the electric guitar". On certain tracks on The Scream such as "Jigsaw Feeling", he had a bell-like sound quality. He also used two-note chords on several songs of Join Hands. McKay also played saxophone on the songs "Switch", "Regal Zone" and "Playground Twist". He left the band in September 1979 after the release of Join Hands. He later briefly led a trio named Zor Gabor, which released one three-song 12" EP, Tightrope, in 1987 on the In Tape label. It was reviewed "record of the week" by NME.
Guitars and effects
McKay used different audio effects including fuzz and flanger. Peer John Valentine Carruthers said that McKay "had no conventional skill in guitar playing, like chords or lines. He must have had hands like a gorilla because he was playing chords like this. I've no idea what they were, and you couldn't tell by listening because they were going through fuzz and flangers." His guitars were a Hagström Semi Acoustic and a Gibson Les Paul. Mckay's effects included Fender Twin Reverb and MXR Flanger. He played metallic guitar.
Legacy
He has influenced several post-punk, noise, indie and alternative rock guitarists including Geordie Walker, Thurston Moore, Steve Albini, Jim Reid, Johnny Marr, Kevin Shields and Boz Boorer. Geordie Walker of Killing Joke said: "The guy's been ripped off so much, he started that flanged chord thing". Walker hailed McKay for his style on The Scream: "he came out with these chord structures that I found very refreshing". In an article published in Matter magazine in 1984, Steve Albini wrote an "all-time non-comprehensive good guitar list", and included McKay in the section titled "Noise" saying : "The Scream is notable for a couple of things: only now people are trying to copy it, and even now nobody understands how that guitar player got all that pointless noise to stick together as songs". Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain praised The Scream - era, and Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine cited the Banshees-MkI as one of his early influences. Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth cited "Hong Kong Garden" as one of his 25 all-time favourite songs. McKay is also revered by other musicians such as Johnny Marr of the Smiths and Boz Boorer. When asked "who do you regret not going to see live", Marr replied "Siouxsie and the Banshees mk 1". Boorer cited him as a "big influence on my playing That first Siouxsie record was quite incredible sounding, and it started me in thinking that music didn’t have to be any certain way—that there could be many different influences in music and it didn’t have to be a single, strict avenue. That first Banshees album has a lot of jarring guitar that rubs against what you’d think was going to or maybe should happen over a part". In a live review, music historianJon Savage likened Joy Division's guitarist Bernard Sumner to McKay in 1979, saying that Sumner "was using a lot of distortion and noise in quite a melodic way. The only other person I could think of who was doing that then was John McKay from Siouxsie and the Banshees".
