Kenny Morris, drummer and one of the founding members of the post-punk and gothic rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, has died at the age of 68. The cause of his death has not been revealed.
Morris, British of Irish parents, was born in 1957 and joined Siouxsie and the Banshees in January 1977, at the age of 20, after attending the band’s first performance at the legendary Club 100 in London a few months before.
Although Morris only played on Siouxsie and the Banshees’ first two studio albums, ‘The Scream’ (1978) and ‘Join Hands’ (1979), his sound was crucial in the development of the group’s dark, primal style. Stephen Morris of Joy Division and New Order and Kevin Haskins of Bauhaus acknowledged that Morris’s sound influenced their own. Lol Tolhurst of The Cure claimed that Morris’s style had “shaped the aesthetic of Siouxsie and the Banshees.”
Morris left Siouxsie and the Banshees in September 1979, hours before the group’s scheduled concert in Aberdeen, due to internal disagreements with the band, along with guitarist John McKay.
Morris was replaced on drums by Budgie, from The Slits, with whom Siouxsie and the Banshees released their legendary album ‘Juju’ (1981). After leaving the band, Morris continued to play drums on live and studio recordings, directed short films, and explored his interest in teaching and painting. He ran an art gallery and, in recent years, had taken up the drums playing with Dublin post-punk band Shrine of the Vampyre.
Morris finished writing his memoirs during the pandemic. They will be published posthumously, in principle, throughout this year.
