by Zoe Howe
29 December: The Jesus and Mary Chain play ICA Rock Week on Jim’s twenty-third birthday.
1985
In January, the Reid brothers and Douglas Hart move to London after signing with Blanco Y Negro. They record their second single ‘Never Understand’ with the late John Loder at Southern Studios, and work soon begins in earnest on debut album Psychocandy. The album is released in November.
2 February: The Jesus and Mary Chain appear on The Old Grey Whistle Test, performing ‘In A Hole’. ‘Never Understand’, the first single from the album Psychocandy, is released on Blanco Y Negro this month.
22 February: ‘Never Understand’, The Jesus and Mary Chain’s first release on Blanco Y Negro, comes out, with ‘Suck’ on the B-side.
15 March: The Jesus and Mary Chain’s show at the North London Polytechnic descends into violent chaos.
5 April: The Jesus and Mary Chain play New York’s Danceteria. This is their first trip to the US, organised by the late promoter Ruth Polsky.
7 April: Wham! become the first Western pop group to play in China.
27 May: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the single ‘You Trip Me Up’. ‘Just Out Of Reach’ is the B-side.
25 June: The Jesus and Mary Chain play Manchester’s Hacienda with Primal Scream – Bobby Gillespie’s then girlfriend Karen Parker (who provides backing vocals on ‘Just Like Honey’) plays drums instead of Bobby.
13 July: The Live Aid pop concerts, organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, raise over £50 million for Ethiopian famine relief.
9 September: The Jesus and Mary Chain play London’s Electric Ballroom – a gig now legendary for its riotous scenes. They play, or attempt to play, ‘Just Like Honey’ live for the first time.
30 September: ‘Just Like Honey’, the third single from Psychocandy, is released. ‘Head’ is the B-side.
November sees the release of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s debut album Psychocandy. It receives glowing reviews and continues to be listed in ‘best album’ lists to this day, including Rolling Stone magazine’s ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’.
25 December: The charity Comic Relief is founded. Shakin’ Stevens’ single ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ takes the Christmas number 1 spot on the UK single charts.
26 December: Thin Lizzy front man Phil Lynott is rushed to hospital after a suspected heroin overdose. He dies on 4 January 1986.
1986
This year, Bobby Gillespie leaves the group to concentrate on Primal Scream. He is replaced by John Moore. The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Some Candy Talking’ and part ways with Alan McGee.
5 January: The Pet Shop Boys’ single ‘West End Girls’ is the first number 1 UK single of 1986.
21 February: The Dead Kennedys play their final concert at UC Davis in California.
8 March: The Jesus and Mary Chain return to the US, this time with new drummer John Moore in tow after the departure of Bobby Gillespie.
2 May: Country superstar Dolly Parton opens her theme park, Dollywood, in Tennessee.
14 July: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the ‘Some Candy Talking’ EP.
September: The Mary Chain decide to part ways with manager Alan McGee.
15 November: The Beastie Boys’ Licensed To Ill becomes the first hiphop album to reach number 1 in the USA.
Jackie Wilson’s ‘Reet Petite’ claims the Christmas number 1 spot.
1987
The Jesus and Mary Chain release Darklands this year, but extensive touring and external pressures are taking their toll. John Moore has moved to guitar and the Reids decide to use programmed drums instead of a live drummer, which attracts mixed reviews in the US.
25 January: Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley goes to number 1 with the single ‘Jack Your Body’ – the first house music track to top the UK charts.
7 April: Alice Cooper almost dies on stage when his ‘gallows’ prop malfunctions.
20 April: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘April Skies’, the first single from their second album Darklands.
May: Whitney Houston’s song ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ is the first number 1 to be released as a CD single.
3 August: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Happy When It Rains’, the second single from Darklands.
September: The Jesus and Mary Chain release Darklands. On 4 September the band embarks on an extensive UK tour promoting the album.
4 October: Electronic data gathering replaces the sales diary technique for collating the UK charts. The chart publication date is also moved from Tuesday to Sunday.
26 October: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Darklands’, the title track from the album.
3 November: After a handful of European dates, The Jesus and Mary Chain take the Darklands tour to the US.
15 November: The Jesus and Mary Chain play Toronto’s RPM Club. During the show, Jim Reid, provoked by a verbally abusive audience member, lashes out and strikes the punter with his mic-stand. Reid is arrested.
By the end of November, the first acid house raves have started to spring up.
25 December: The Pet Shop Boys are at number 1 on Christmas Day with their cover of Elvis Presley’s ‘Always On My Mind’.
29 December: The nineteen-year-old Kylie Minogue releases her debut single, ‘I Should Be So Lucky’, via Stock Aitken and Waterman, just in time for Jim Reid’s birthday. The single climbs to number 1 the following February, where it remains for five weeks.
1988
John Moore leaves The Jesus and Mary Chain to concentrate on his solo career. The Mary Chain release stand-alone single ‘Sidewalking’, inspired by the hip-hop they’d heard during trips to New York, and the popular compilation album Barbed Wire Kisses: B Sides & More.
21 March: The Pixies release their debut album Surfer Rosa on UK label 4AD.
28 March: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the stand-alone single ‘Sidewalking’.
April: The Jesus and Mary Chain release Barbed Wire Kisses: B Sides & More.
12 August: Public Enemy stage a concert at Riker’s Island for 250 prisoners.
9 September: The Jesus and Mary Chain embark on a tour of Australia with their former roadie David Evans on guitar as John Moore’s replacement.
November: Madchester band The Happy Mondays release the album Bummed.
4 December: Roy Orbison gives his final concert in Akron, Ohio, before suffering a fatal heart attack two days later.
25 December: Cliff Richard’s ‘Mistletoe And Wine’ is Christmas number 1, the biggest-selling single of the year, keeping Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan’s single ‘Especially For You’ from the top spot. The entire top ten over the festive period is a veritable pop cheeseboard.
1989
The Jesus and Mary Chain tour ‘Sidewalking’, and also ‘co-headline’ with Iggy Pop, with disastrous results. A heavy year of touring, 1989 also takes the band on a bizarre trip behind the Iron Curtain to Estonia, amongst other places. The album Automatic is released in September.
21 March: Madonna’s video for ‘Like A Prayer’ causes controversy due to its use of religious imagery.
May: The Stone Roses release their debut album The Stone Roses.
14 May: A pop supergroup, including Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney, The Christians and Gerry Marsden, go to number 1 in the UK charts with a new version of ‘Ferry ’Cross The Mersey’, in honour of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster.
June: Nirvana release their debut album Bleach.
September: The Jesus and Mary Chain unveil their ‘driving across America album’ Automatic, and first single ‘Blues From A Gun’.
22 October: Folk singer Ewan MacColl dies.
30 October: The Jesus and Mary Chain embark on an extensive tour of the UK and Europe.
6 November: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Head On’, from the album Automatic, with ‘In The Black’ on the B-side.
13 November: The Jesus and Mary Chain release two more single versions of ‘Head On’ with different B-sides – one with ‘D
eviant Slice’ and the other, ‘I’m Glad I Never’.
25 December: The Christmas number 1 spot is claimed by Band Aid II, ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’
1990
The Jesus and Mary Chain tour Automatic, and are joined in June by Nine Inch Nails. Ben Lurie is now in the Mary Chain line-up on guitar. A major bust-up between the Reid brothers in Tokyo causes the Mary Chain to split up – although they don’t tell anybody outside the inner circle, and patch things up by Christmas. Meanwhile this year, vinyl is declining and the boy band phenomenon is rising.
7 January: New Kids on the Block single ‘Hangin’ Tough’ is the first UK number 1 of 1990.
21 January: MTV’s Unplugged series is aired for the first time, starting with British group Squeeze.
25 January: The Jesus and Mary Chain head off on the Automatic tour, starting in Vancouver.
26 January: Emerging band Nine Inch Nails join the Automatic tour in Chicago.
12 February: The Cramps release their fourth studio album, Stay Sick!, produced by Poison Ivy.
4 April: The North American Automatic tour ends in New York at the Ritz venue.
27 May: The Stone Roses stage their now legendary show at Spike Island (‘the birthplace of the British chemical industry’) in Cheshire.
27 August: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the ‘Rollercoaster’ EP.
15 October: British shoegazing group Ride (with future Mary Chain member Loz Colbert on drums) release their debut album Nowhere on Creation Records.
27 November: ‘Vocal’ pop duo Milli Vanilli admit to miming on their hits, such as ‘Girl You Know It’s True’. Their Grammy award is revoked. On the same day, The Happy Mondays release their hit album Pills ’n’ Thrills And Bellyaches.
25 December: Cliff Richard claims the Christmas number 1 in the UK once more, this time with ‘Saviour’s Day’.
1991
With the Reids communicating with each other again, work begins on a new LP, Honey’s Dead, the ‘last sober album’, as Jim refers to it. Founding member and bass player Douglas Hart leaves the band. The Reids buy their own studio in Elephant and Castle, South London. They call it The Drugstore.
15 January: Yoko Ono brings together a ‘Peace Choir’ – featuring Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt, Peter Gabriel and Lenny Kravitz among others – to record and release a version of ‘Give Peace A Chance’ in reaction to news of the imminent Gulf War.
May: The Smashing Pumpkins release their debut album Gish.
June: Bryan Adams’ single ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’, featured in the hit movie Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, is released. It spends sixteen weeks at number 1 in the UK.
18 July: Perry Farrell launches the first Lollapalooza tour, intended as a send-off for his dissolved band Jane’s Addiction. Acts on the bill included Nine Inch Nails, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Rage against the Machine.
August: Blur release their debut album Leisure, which peaks at number 7 in the UK chart.
September: Nirvana release their second album, Nevermind. In the same month, the Pixies release the album Trompe le Monde, which includes their cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain single ‘Head On’.
27 October: U2’s single ‘The Fly’ replaces Bryan Adams’ ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’ at the top of the UK chart.
November: Michael Jackson releases Dangerous, which goes on to be the best-selling album of the decade.
4 November: My Bloody Valentine release Loveless, their third album. The recording process has taken two years and reportedly cost £250,000, a figure that nearly bankrupts Creation Records.
24 November: Queen frontman Freddie Mercury dies just 24 hours after formally announcing that he is suffering from AIDS.
25 December: Queen are at number 1 for Christmas in the UK with the double A-side ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’/‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’. Proceeds go to the Terence Higgins Trust.
1992
The Mary Chain embark on the Rollercoaster tour, release the single ‘Reverence’ (which becomes a top ten hit, much to the surprise of the Reids themselves) and take part in the ‘unbearable’ touring festival Lollapalooza. Also this year, Alan McGee sells half of Creation Records to Sony after struggling with debt.
27 January: British band Lush release their album Spooky, reaching number 7 in the UK album chart.
3 February: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the controversial ‘Reverence’, which unexpectedly goes to number 10 in the UK single charts.
2 March: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Far Gone And Out’, with B-side ‘Why Do You Want Me?’
9 March: The KLF famously appear on the Brit Awards, firing blanks over the audience from an automatic weapon.
23 March: The Jesus and Mary Chain release Honey’s Dead and embark on the first leg of their Rollercoaster tour, with Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody Valentine and Blur, before touring Europe through April and May.
April: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Far Gone And Out’, the second single from Honey’s Dead.
22 June: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Almost Gold’, the third single from Honey’s Dead. The B-side is ‘Teenage Lust’ (Acoustic Version).
18 July: The Jesus and Mary Chain travel to San Francisco to be part of the Lollapalooza tour with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others. The tour lasts until 28 August and is not an enjoyable experience for the Mary Chain.
September: The Shamen’s single ‘Ebeneezer Goode’ causes a stir because of its purported endorsement of Ecstasy. It shoots to number 1 in the UK, and becomes one of the most controversial number ones of the 1990s.
23 October: The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Rollercoaster tour resumes in the US, this time with Spiritualised and Curve.
25 December: Whitney Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You’, as featured in the film The Bodyguard, is the Christmas number 1 for 1992. It has been firmly at the top of the charts since 29 November and remains there until the end of the year.
1993
The Reids start working on material for new album Stoned & Dethroned, collaborating with Mazzy Star singer Hope Sandoval and Shane MacGowan. The Jesus and Mary Chain also release their second compilation album, The Sound Of Speed, in August.
22 March: Depeche Mode become the first alternative British band to get to number 1 in the USA on the Billboard 200, with the album Songs Of Faith And Devotion.
29 March: Suede release their eponymous debut album. It enters the chart at number 1, and sets a new record for the fastest-selling debut LP by a UK act in Britain.
May: Blur release Modern Life Is Rubbish.
31 May: Oasis play King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. Creation Records boss Alan McGee is in the audience. He offers them a recording contract.
7 June: Prince announces he is changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol; for ease, he becomes ‘the artist formerly known as Prince’ until presumably even he gets tired of it and reverts to ‘Prince’ in 2000.
28 June: The Mary Chain release the ‘Sound Of Speed’ EP.
August: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the compilation album The Sound Of Speed.
18 November: Nirvana play MTV Unplugged.
25 December: The UK’s Christmas number 1 is claimed by Mr Blobby (a character from the UK TV show Noel’s House Party, whose vocabulary is limited, side-splittingly, to the word ‘blobby’) with the song ‘Mr Blobby’. The single knocks Meatloaf’s ‘I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)’ off the chart top spot after seven long weeks.
1994
The Jesus and Mary Chain, now with Curve drummer Steve Monti in the group, release Stoned & Dethroned in August. A fractious promotional tour ensues.
16 January: D:Ream’s ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ is the first UK number 1 single of 1994, later becoming the ‘theme song’ for Tony Blair’s New Labour.
11 February: The three surviving Beatles reunite in secret to record additional music for some of John Lennon’s unfi
nished demos. The track ‘Free As A Bird’ is released the following year as part of the Beatles Anthology.
7 April: Dr Feelgood singer and proto-punk figurehead Lee Brilleaux dies after battling lymphoma.
8 April: Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is found dead. His death, three days earlier, is declared suicide from a self-inflicted gun-shot.
29 May: Scottish pop band Wet Wet Wet’s single ‘Love Is All Around’ goes to number 1 in the UK, staying at the top of the charts until 4 September.
18 July: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Sometimes Always’ (B-side: ‘The Perfect Crime’), the first single from their album Stoned & Dethroned. The duet between Jim Reid and Mazzy Star singer Hope Sandoval reaches number 22 in the UK charts.
August: The Jesus and Mary Chain release Stoned & Dethroned. Oasis unleash Definitely Maybe, which becomes the fastest-selling debut album in the UK. The record is broken in 2006 by Arctic Monkeys’ catchily titled Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.
23 August: Jeff Buckley releases the album Grace.
10 October: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Come On’, the second single from Stoned & Dethroned. The B-side is ‘I’m In With The Out Crowd’. The band also head out on their first tour since 1992, with Mazzy Star in support. They tour the US, concluding on 28 November in San Diego.
25 December: East 17 claim the Christmas number 1 with ‘Stay Another Day’, not a particularly festive song; in fact it’s totally miserable. Still, it does have church-bells on it.
1995
Ever prolific, William and Jim Reid have already started working on material for their sixth studio album Munki. They also release the ‘Hate Rock’n’Roll’ EP and William’s song ‘I Hate Rock’n’Roll’.
1 February: Manic Street Preachers member Richey Edwards goes missing.
May: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the ‘Hate Rock’n’Roll’ EP and also the single, ‘I Hate Rock’n’Roll’. They then embark on a short tour of Australia and Japan before returning to Europe for a stint of summer festivals.
September: Blur release The Great Escape, which tops the album charts. The single ‘Country House’ from this album also becomes the band’s first number 1, crucially beating Britpop rivals Oasis and their single ‘Roll With It’ to the top.