Funeral service of former Banshees drummer to take place in Cork
Late Cork resident Kenny Morris (on right), pictured in 1979 with his fellow members of Siouxsie and the Banshees; from left, Steve Severin, John McKay, and Siouxsie Sioux. (Picture: Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images)
The funeral of Kenny Morris, former drummer with punk icons Siouxsie and the Banshees, is to take place in Cork, the city where he has been living since 2010. The 68-year-old resident of Madden’s Buildings in Blackpool passed away at the Mercy University Hospital in Cork last week after a short illness.
Morris was born and raised in Essex to Irish parents, and became immersed in the punk scene in London when the rebellious genre exploded in the latter half of the 1970s. After a brief stint in a band with Sid Vicious, the teenager joined Siouxsie and the Banshees in 1977. As well as their first session for the BBC’s John Peel, Morris’s unorthodox tom-tom-focused style can also be heard on early classics such as (also legendary producer Steve Lillywhite's first hit).
A disagreement led to him leaving the group in 1979, and he was replaced on drums by close friend Budgie. Morris’s successor was among many music industry figures paying tribute to him in the wake of his death.
“A creative, innovative musician with impeccable style,” Budgie wrote on his Facebook.
The tribute also recalls the early influence Morris had on Budgie and a whole generation of drummers in the punk scene: “I had also watched and heard Kenny Morris live with Siouxsie and The Banshees and had witnessed his unique choreographic style of ‘drumming as performance’. Kenny drummed an unusual amalgamation of the Velvet Underground’s Maureen Tucker, and Alice Cooper’s Neal Smith.”
His drumming on the Banshees' track was sampled by Massive Attack on in 1997.
After leaving the Banshees, Morris felt disenchanted with the music industry. “I had seriously good offers,” he told the Irish Examiner in 2016. “Several well-known outfits wanted me to join. But it was an odd year. It was in a dark hole. It felt like a divorce.”
He returned to finish his training as an artist and moved to Kildare where he worked on his own paintings and also taught art. “I travelled around Ireland quite a bit,” he said. “ I had been to Cork quite a few times. It struck me that it was a real centre for arts and culture. It absolutely astounded me. I’ve been here ever since.”
His exhibitions in the southern city included The Modern Raze, at Camden Palace Arts Centre in 2016, accompanied by a Culture Night event featuring improvised music and the playing of unreleased recordings from Siouxsie And The Banshees.
Visitation has been announced for O’ Connor Brothers’ funeral home at North Gate Bridge, Cork, on Wednesday January 21, from 6pm to 7pm, followed by requiem mass in the North Cathedral on Thursday, and service at the Island Crematorium, Ringaskiddy.
