The Jesus & Mary Chain
Formed in East Kilbride, Scotland, this indie quartet
originally comprised William Reid (vocals, guitar), Jim Reid
(vocals, guitar), Douglas Hart (bass) and Murray Dalglish (drums).
William Reid chucked in his job at a cheese-packing factory in
Glasgow and his brother Jim gave up working for Rolls Royce to
form the band in 1983. In the summer of 1984 they moved to London
and signed to Alan McGee's label, Creation
Records.
Their debut, Upside Down
- complete with trademark feedback - fared
well in the independent charts and was backed with a version of
Syd Barrett's Vegetable Man. In November
1984, Dalglish was replaced on drums by Primal
Scream vocalist Bobby Gillespie. By the end of the year,
the band was attracting considerable media attention due to the
violence at their gigs and a series of bans followed. Early the
following year, the band signed to the WEA Records label Blanco y
Negro.
The Reid brothers publicly delighted
in the charms of amphetamine sulphate, which gave their music a
manic edge. Live performances usually lasted 20 minutes, which
brought more controversy and truculence from traditional gig habitués, who felt short-changed.
Never
Understand further underlined comparisons with the
anarchic school of 1977 in general and The
Sex Pistols in particular, but the band surprised many
by later issuing the more pop-orientated Just Like
Honey.
By October 1985, Gillespie had returned to his
former band, Primal
Scream. One month later, the Reid Brothers issued their
highly acclaimed debut album, Psychocandy. Full
of multi-tracked guitar distortion, underscored with dark
melodies, many critics proclaimed it one of rock's great debuts.
The following August the band reached UK number 13 with the
melodic Some Candy Talking, which received
curtailed radio play when it was alleged that the subject matter
concerned heroin.
During the same period,
the band found a new drummer, John Moore, and parted from their
manager, Alan McGee. Further hits with April
Skies (number 8) and Happy When It
Rains (number 25) preceded their second album, Darklands.
Again fawned
over by the press, though not to quite the same extent as their
debut, it was followed by a tempestuous tour of Canada and
America, during which one brother was briefly arrested then
acquitted on a charge of assaulting a
fan.
In the spring of 1988, a compilation of
the band's various out-takes was issued. This assuaged demand
before the arrival of Automatic at the turn
of the decade. The band was effectively just a duo for this
record, with programmed synth drums as backing to the usual
barrage of distortion and twisted lyrics (the best example of
which was the single, Blues From A
Gun.
The follow-up Honey's Dead also housed a powerful lead
single in Reverence, which peaked at UK
number 10 in spring1992. After this, the Reid brothers changed
tack for Stoned & Dethroned, with the
feedback all but gone in favour of an acoustic, singer-songwriter
approach. Self-produced and recorded at home, its more reflective
texture was embossed by the appearance of guest vocalists Shane
MacGowan and Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star).
The
album was poorly received commercially and critically, resulting
in the band being dropped by Warners. They rejoined Creation
Records at the end of 1997 and issued Cracking
Up, their debut single of the new era, in March 1998.
It was followed by Munki, on which the Reid
brothers experimented with a motley collection of different
styles.
The band officially split-up the
following year with William Reid electing to work on his Lazycame
solo project and Jim Reid forming Freeheat.
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