[UVRAY]

My favourite band of all time.

I wrote this potted biography of the band for a music e-zine a couple of years ago:


It was 1984. Hailing from the East Kilbride area of Glasgow , The Jesus And Mary Chain played their first explosive gig at London's Nightmoves Club. Amidst high energy strobe lights and bellowing smoke their distorted, mesmerizing industrial sound was threatening to change music forever. The night ended in chaos when a crowd riot erupted and the audience trashed the venue - which was to set the parameters for many of the band's volatile 25 minute gigs. "There's never been a band good enough to play for longer." Claimed lead singer, Jim Reid.

Their first single "Upside Down" was released on Creation records in the same year and became an indie hit - selling over 35,000 copies. Though the band were still dogged with problems when they were arrested in Germany and charged with possession of amphetamines.

During "Never Understand" at North London Polytechnic - a classic Rock n Roll song reminiscent of Elvis Presley or The Beach Boys but immersed in a discharge of ear splitting distortion and feedback - the gig once again degenerated into chaos which ended with the band locking themselves in the dressing room while the crowd destroyed the venue. William Reid was to later state that "we're trying to present ourselves as serious musicians and we've got these morons doing a tap dance on the mixer decks."

The band still manged to release the "Psychocandy" LP in this year and it became an instant bedsit classic - it has since been voted "Album Of The Eighties" by Melody maker and is regarded as one of the most influential albums of the day.

"I mean, how many great bands have there been since The Sex Pistols?" Asked Bobby Gilespie. "F***ing none! To me that's the truth. There's only been The Jesus And Mary Chain."

In 1987 "April Skies" went top ten and "Happy When It Rains" (since ripped off by Garbage) soon followed it up the charts. But violence once again found the band when during a crowd revolt in Toronto Jim Reid was arrested and charged with assaulting a fan with his mike stand, and trouble also flared when Dolly Parton rather amusingly mistook them for a Christian gospel type group and invited them onto her popular TV show and was left embarrassed after Jim hit a whinging audience member. Charges were dropped against him after he promised Miss Parton that he would donate £500 to The Salvation Army.

"This is The Jesus And Mary Joseph. Every time you say the name of this band you're going to hell." Or so claimed Beavis and Butthead.

1989 saw the release of Automatic, the album that many people claimed was their best. Though the band were beginning to show signs of maturity the music on this album still possessed the unmistakeable feedback and murderously heavy bass lines that had become The Mary Chain's trademark sound.

By the time 1994 had rolled round the band had survived a number of line up changes and when they released their accoustic album "Stoned And Dethroned" in this year it featured additional vocals by Hope Sandaval of Mazzy Star and Shane McGowen of The Pogues.

The band continued until 1998 when their final album "Munki" was rejected by Warner Bros and was released when they returned to the Creation label but they finally split up shortly afterwards in a manner pretty much as they had started all those years ago - with a fight on stage at Los Angeles' House Of Blues Club that saw William Reid storming off stage never to return.

It has been said that The Jesus And Mary Chain's influence on music has been incalcuable, others have stated that the band have single handedly kept the flame of Rock n Roll burning and inumerable subsequent groups, including Sonic Youth, Garbage, Therapy, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and My Bloody Valentine have all cited them as a major influence. They also had the dualistic charm of making some of the noisiest yet most beautifully melancholy music that many have tried to emulate, though no one else has ever quite mastered like them.

But after recording 12 albums and 21 singles there was really nothing else for them to achieve. They'd taken it as far as they could go, but during this time they never once compromised their musical integrity and the final word is best said by Jim Reid himself:

"we discovered we were surrounded by people who didn't actually like music, we got very seriously depressed about it all. If it's just about money or fame, if you forget about the music, then it's all useless. If that's all that drives you, then you have no soul."


END.