Jesus and Mary Chain: A Short History of the Band

Not much was going on with British music in 1984. The New Romantic scene was slowly dying out and going nowhere as it was hijacked by pop-careerists like Nik Kershaw, Eurythmics and Howard Jones. The only thing new and fresh at the time was The Smiths. In America, the college music scene was dominated by REM and the other so called "Paisley Underground" bands. So there seemed to be a gap in the market and the lives of many bored and disillusioned underground music fans. The excitement of punk had gone, the new wave had become assimilated into the mainstream and nothing was kicking alternative music forward. Music just didn't seem noisy enough. This gap was plugged by a couple of Scottish chancers who stumbled across a new unique formula that would revitalize the British music scene and promote big back-combed hair as an alternative way of life. They would use the sunny summer tunes of the Beach Boys and subvert them with the noisy drone based sounds of the Velvet Underground to form something new. A rare thing in popular music.

Jim and William Reid lived in East Kilbride in Scotland. In 1983 they made a rudimentary demo that showed their very basic musical skills could be harnessed in an exciting and fresh way, just like punk had done. Their songs were melodic and splattered with feedback that accidentally came from a broken effects pedal. This demo found its way to Bobby Gillespie who in turn gave it to his friend Alan McGee who owned the then struggling indie label Creation. McGee, ever the optimist (and a trick he used years later with Oasis), started spreading the word that he'd found the future of rock'n'roll and the future was feedback.

McGee set up a gig in London and the band, now called the Jesus And Mary Chain, play a very short, noisy and chaotic set shrouded in feedback and white noise. They signed a deal with Creation and started on the road to a long career in music. Easy.

McGee does a great job at hyping the band to the British music press who are desperate for a bit of color and excitement to write about. They grasp the opportunity with fervor and the band play a series of shows around the country. The gigs are full of violence and angsty tantrums that befit the new saviors of music. This behavior is hyped by the press into a cartoon controversy of indulgence, degeneration and dread. McGee's plan works like a charm. Think McLaren and the Pistols with added hair and better tunes.

The band's first record was a single called "Upside-Down" and was layered with incessant white noise that made listening difficult. It's B-side was a messy cover of "Vegetable Man" written by Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett. The single sold well on the back of the hype, it became Creation's best selling release to date. The Mary Chain released three more singles and bagged a deal with the Blacno Y Negro label which was a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. It was "Just Like Honey" that showed the band had really harnessed the power of white noise and had got the feedback under control. It was Bobby Gillespie, now lead singer with Primal Scream, who bashed out the simple drum part. The vocals were pushed to the fore and it became obvious that the band actually had pretty tunes amid the swirl of noise. In 1985 their debut album "Psychocandy" was released. It showed the band had many such melodies and the listener could begin to ignore the feedback and follow the tune, or ignore the tune and bliss out on the feedback. They had successfully changed the listeners perception of music.

This was the biggest achievement in the Jesus And Mary Chain's career. Having done this they changed their sound and used a more definitive blend of light and shade. Gillespie was not to feature again as he left to form Primal Scream. The two brothers played all the instruments on the follow up release "Darklands". Songs began to chug and the feedback was almost non-existent at times as the Beach Boys influenced tunes became central. Every song seemed to be vieled in echo and reverb. Due to this they were labelled as Goths. They released the ethereal "Some Candy Talking" as a single. It was banned from the radio in Britain for a while because of alleged drug references. The decision just fueled the publicity machine.

The Jesus And Mary Chain have continued to follow this proto Goth mixed with Beach Boys formula ever since. Sometimes their songs are mantra like, sometimes they are dark and decadent, sometimes they are acoustic and sweet. Yet amidst all of this their grasp of a cool tune remains and pegs them down as pop lovers. Its their most enduring quality. Yet one thing that stands them apart is their initial use of noise, feedback and white noise. They managed to reinvent the very sonics of modern music. An amazing achievement. Thank the Lord for cheap dodgy effects pedals.