About The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid, who are the two founders and only consistent members of the band since its formation. They are recognized as key figures in the development of the shoegaze and noise pop subgenres. The band have had twelve top 40 entries and two top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart in the course of their career.
The Reid brothers recruited Douglas Hart on bass and Murray Dalglish on drums as their initial lineup. After signing to the independent label Creation Records, they released their first single "Upside Down" in 1984. Bobby Gillespie replaced Dalglish on drums, and their debut album Psychocandy was released to critical acclaim in 1985 on the major label WEA. After its release, Gillespie left the band to work on his own band Primal Scream. The band's biggest commercial success domestically was their second album Darklands, which reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart in 1987 and spawned the hit single "April Skies", peaking at No. 8 in the UK. It was the band's only top ten album. The band released their third album Automatic in 1989, which spawned their first charting singles in the US . Hart departed from the band two years later.
The Jesus and Mary Chain then released the albums Honey's Dead in 1992 and Stoned & Dethroned in 1994, both of which continued their popularity in the US. "Sometimes Always", taken from Stoned & Dethroned, became the band's most commercially successful single in the US as it peaked at No. 94 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band departed from WEA after ten years, and then signed with Sub Pop Records in the US and re-signed with Creation Records in the UK for the release of the album Munki in 1998. The band broke up the following year as a result of an onstage altercation the year prior; William Reid prematurely left a tour after fighting with an intoxicated Jim Reid. They eventually reunited in 2007, and in 2017, they released Damage and Joy, their first studio album in 19 years and seventh overall. Their next album, Glasgow Eyes, was released in 2024 and became the band's first top 10 album in the UK since 1988.
Brothers Jim and William Reid formed a band in the early 1980s in response to their distaste of the music at the time, saying, "It was the crap coming out of the radio that made us want to be in a band". This worked in their favor, as William said, "It was perfect timing because there weren't any guitar bands. Everybody was making this electronic pop music." Before forming the band, the brothers had spent five years on the dole, during which they wrote and recorded songs at home and worked out the sound and image of the band. Originally called The Poppy Seeds, and then Death of Joey, they initially told journalists that they had taken their eventual name from a line in a Bing Crosby film, although six months later they admitted that this was not true. Other accounts suggest that the name derived from an offer on a breakfast cereal packet, where customers could send off for a gold Jesus & Mary chain. As neither brother wanted to be the singer, they decided on Jim via coin toss.
The brothers started recording and sending demos to record companies in 1983 , and by early 1984 they had recruited bass player Douglas Hart and teenage drummer Murray Dalglish. Early influences included The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, and The Shangri-Las, William said in 1985, "We all love The Shangri-Las, and one day we're going to make Shangri-Las records." Jim mentioned his liking for Pink Floyd, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Monkees, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Muddy Waters. Early demos displayed a similarity to the Ramones, prompting the brothers to add another element to their sound; in William's words: "That's why we started using noise and feedback. We want to make records that sound different." They began playing live in early 1984. In the early days William Reid's guitar would be left out of tune, while Dalglish's drum kit was limited to two drums, and Hart's bass guitar only had three strings, down to two by 1985; in Hart's words, "That's the two I use. I mean what's the fucking point spending money on another two? Two is enough."
Struggling to get gigs, the band took to turning up at venues claiming to be the support band, playing their short set and making a quick exit. After failing to generate any interest from concert promoters and record labels in Scotland, the band relocated to Fulham, London, in May 1984, and soon afterwards their demo tape was passed to fellow Scot Alan McGee by Bobby Gillespie. Subsequently, McGee promoted a gig for the band at the Living Room in London in June 1984. On the strength of hearing the band sound check, McGee signed them to his Creation Records label on a one-off deal, and McGee also became the band's manager. Their debut single, "Upside Down", was recorded in October and released in November that year. The sessions were produced by Joe Foster, but McGee, unsatisfied with Foster's work, remixed the A-side, although the B-side, a cover version of Syd Barrett's "Vegetable Man", remained credited to Foster. The band were gaining increasing attention from the music press at this time with Neil Taylor of the NME describing them as "the best band in the world".
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