Jesus and Mary Chain

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The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band that revolved around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid. Hailing from East Kilbride in Scotland, The Jesus and Mary Chain released a constant string of albums, singles and EPs from their formation in 1984 until their breakup in 1999.

The Jesus and Mary Chain originally revolved around the songwriting partnership of its two main members. To fully realise their vision of the band, the Reid brothers recruited bassist Douglas Hart and drummer Murray Dalglish. The Jesus and Mary Chain recorded their debut single, "Upside Down", released in October 1984 on Creation Records. Dalglish was replaced shortly afterwards by Bobby Gillespie (who would go on to front Primal Scream), and William Reid subsequently claimed that he had played the drums on the debut single himself because of Dalglish's lack of ability. Though the single received universal critical acclaim from the British music press, and The Jesus and Mary Chain was championed fanatically by the NME, it was their live shows that drew them the most attention.

The Jesus and Mary Chain's early gigs have become somewhat legendary in indie circles. Playing in front of small audiences, the Mary Chain earned their notoriety by playing very short gigs, some lasting no more than 10 minutes and consisting of a constant wall of feedback and distortion, as well as playing with their backs to the audience and refusing to speak to them. Many shows culminated with the Reids trashing their equipment, which was often followed by the audience rioting. All of this delighted manager and Creation Records boss Alan McGee, who obviously found it very easy to get attention for The Jesus and Mary Chain. He would simply make sure people from the music press were present while these events occurred, which ensured blanket coverage in the music papers.

The violence that followed The Jesus and Mary Chain's every action culminated in an event that is now a part of indie folklore. On March 15, 1985, the Jesus and Mary Chain played a gig at the North London Polytechnic in front of one of their largest crowds up to that point. Support band Meat Whiplash had stirred up violence before The Jesus and Mary Chain even set foot onto the stage by throwing back into the audience a bottle thrown at them. By the time The Jesus and Mary Chain started their short set, the audience was already in the mood for violence, and because of its size (the venue was oversold), the riot that occurred was far bigger and wilder than any other that had occurred at a Jesus and Mary Chain gig. The fans trashed the venue and The Jesus and Mary Chain's equipment, resulting in four people being taken to hospital. An estimated £8000 of damage was caused. The music press were present at the show, and this event subsequently became known as "The Jesus and Mary Chain Riot".

The same year, The Jesus and Mary Chain signed to Blanco y Negro and released the singles "You Trip Me Up" and "Never Understand", which were soon followed by their debut album Psychocandy. The album fused together the Reids' two primary influences, the guitar noise of The Stooges and The Velvet Underground with the '60s pop leanings of Phil Spector and The Beach Boys. It has been noted that The Jesus and Mary Chain was very fond of drugs such as LSD and amphetamines and that the drugs influenced the ear-piercing, screeching feedback, which immediately became their trademark. The record received unanimously positive reviews and is now considered a landmark recording.

Not a group to stay out of trouble, the Jesus and Mary Chain were thrown out of their record company's offices after a fight broke out, and Reid was arrested for possession of amphetamine in Germany. This earned them the now infamous comparisons to The Sex Pistols by the U.K press and led to numerous appearances in the infamous UK tabloids. Like the Pistols' "Anarchy" tour, the Jesus and Mary Chain were banned from Plymouth, Birmingham, Sheffield, and removed from a Glasgow concert for swearing onstage. The final date in Brighton was attended by 600 fans and an impressive army of police, but the Jesus and Mary Chain and the crowd behaved themselves.

Two months later, the WEA pressing plant refused to handle the Mary Chain's third single, "You Trip Me Up", because some of its staff considered the B-side, "Jesus Suck", to be blasphemous. However, the band originally wanted to call the song 'Jesus Fuck'. They were forced to replace the cut with "Just Out of Reach."

After Psychocandy, the Jesus and Mary Chain recorded and released the single "Some Candy Talking", which is commonly misunderstood as being about heroin use. In a 2005 interview with Jim Reid featured in Filter Magazine, Reid noted that: '"Some Candy Talking" had nothing to do with drugs, actually. It was just something a radio DJ picked up on, and it was banned in all the major radio stations in the UK.' It should be noted though that images of poppy flowers are featured in the video for the single, seeming to imply that the song is indeed about heroin. Furthermore it wasn't banned by the Only UK radio station even likely to play it, BBC Radio 1, being voted at no. 9 in that years John Peel Festive fifty

Following the release of "Some Candy Talking", Bobby Gillespie left to front Primal Scream on a full time basis. The Jesus and Mary Chain's second album, Darklands, was released in September 1987. Featuring a more melodic sound, the album was recorded almost entirely by the Reids themselves, replacing live drums with a drum machine, and received overwhelmingly positive reviews by the British music press.

The Jesus and Mary Chain's live shows, at one time considered the most exciting element of the Jesus and Mary Chain and the reason for most of their success, were now overshadowed by their records. In 1987 Jesus and Mary Chain toured without a drummer, instead employing a roadie to play a tape of drum tracks through the PA system. The gigs were very poorly received and they quickly reverted back to live drums, drafting in John Moore , then Dave Evans, former Jesus and Mary Chain soundman and bass player with Biff Bang Pow! (which also featured Alan McGee and Dick Green of Creation Records), Richard Thomas for two years, subsequently replaced by Steve Monti in 1990. Moore went on to form John Moore and the Expressway, and released a solo album before forming Black Box Recorder with Luke Haines. Douglas Hart also left in 1990. The fluid nature of the Jesus and Mary Chain's line up continued throughout their entire career, with a revolving door of drummers, bassists and guitarists being recruited for TV appearances and gigs whenever they were required, the only constants being the Reid brothers.

The Jesus and Mary Chain's dangerous reputation culminated at a gig at the RPM club in Toronto in November 1987, when Jim Reid allegedly hit two fans with a microphone stand for spitting on him. Jim was arrested and spent a night in jail. He was subsequently given absolute discharge after agreeing to give £500 to charity.

Following the odds-and-sods collection Barbed Wire Kisses (1988) and constant touring, the album Automatic was released in September 1989. Boasting heavy use of synthesized bass and keyboards, the album was not received quite as well as its predecessors. It contained the singles "Head On" and the Dylan ode, "Blues From A Gun". By this time, the violence that was originally associated with the Jesus and Mary Chain was practically non-existent and the Reid brothers were less antagonistic and aggressive in general.


After cooling down, the Jesus and Mary Chain proved their detractors wrong with their next single, "Reverence". Spitting feedback and punk rock bile in every direction, the track was banned from radio and the video was banned from being broadcast on television (outside the United States), due to its potentially offensive lyrics ('I wanna die just like JFK, I wanna die in the USA'...'I wanna die just like Jesus Christ, I wanna die on a bed of spikes'). The single was followed by the release of the album Honey's Dead (1992), which was considered a return to form; keeping their distinctive ear-piercing noise, whilst also drawing in influences from the huge British dance scene at the time. Following the tour to support the album and the release of another compilation of odds-and-sods, The Sound of Speed, Jesus and Mary Chain returned to the studio to record their fifth album proper, the largely acoustic Stoned & Dethroned which would see release in 1994.


Following the final album in their odds-and-sods trilogy, 1995's Hate Rock N' Roll, the Jesus and Mary Chain parted ways with Blanco y Negro, their record label of over a decade, and signed to American indie label Sub Pop. For Sub Pop they recorded 1998's Munki album, which would turn out to be their last before splitting the following year. The album is often thought of as sounding "divided" due to the Reids' crumbling relationship, Jim Reid recalls: "Me and William weren't really getting along at all. That last year we barely even spoke. Munki is one of my favorite albums, but it was really divided. William would go into the studio with the rest of the Jesus and Mary Chain and record while I wasn't there, and then I'd go in with them when William wasn't there."

Though it was not until October 1999 that the split was made official, on September 12, 1998, William had a falling out in the tour bus with guitarist Ben Lurie before they were to play a sold out gig at the famous Los Angeles House of Blues. Jim appeared onstage apparently drunk and barely able to stand or sing. William walked offstage about 15 minutes into their set, and the show ended. The audience was later refunded the price of their tickets. The Jesus and Mary Chain finished up their U.S. and Japanese dates without William, but from that point, it was clear that the Jesus and Mary Chain was at its end.

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