by Zoe Howe
October: Oasis release their second album What’s The Story, Morning Glory? It becomes the third best-selling album in the UK ever.
December: The Beatles release ‘Free As A Bird’, their first single in over twenty years.
25 December: Michael Jackson is at number 1 on Christmas Day in the UK with ‘Earth Song’.
1996
Munki, the Jesus and Mary Chain’s final studio album to date, is underway at The Drugstore. Work also begins on Little Pop Rock, the Reids’ sister Linda’s own album.
13 February: Take That announce they will be splitting up. The news causes such despair that a telephone helpline has to be set up to deal with the hysteria.
19 February: Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker disrupts Michael Jackson’s performance of ‘Earth Song’ at the Brit Awards by mounting the stage, lifting his shirt and waggling his bottom in Jackson’s direction. Cocker later states that his actions are ‘a protest at the way Michael Jackson sees himself as some kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing’. The now defunct music paper Melody Maker suggests Cocker should be knighted for the stunt.
18 March: The Sex Pistols announce they are to reform for a twentieth-anniversary tour.
30 May: Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan is arrested upon release from hospital, having overdosed on a heroin and cocaine ‘speedball’ in a Los Angeles hotel room and been pronounced clinically dead for two minutes.
8 July: The Spice Girls release their debut single, ‘Wannabe’. It tops the British chart for seven weeks and is also number 1 in thirty-one countries, becoming the biggest-selling debut single by an all-female group of all time.
6 August: The Ramones play their final show at the Palace in Hollywood.
17 October: Lush drummer Chris Acland commits suicide.
8 November: The film Hype!, about the Seattle grunge scene, goes on general release after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.
25 December: The Spice Girls’ ‘2 Become 1’ is the UK’s Christmas number 1. Merry Christmas, music-lovers.
1997
The Jesus and Mary Chain complete work on Munki at the Drugstore, and part ways with Blanco Y Negro, who choose not to release the album.
12 February: David Bowie receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
21 May: Radiohead release OK Computer, which tops the album chart for two weeks and is widely hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time.
4 August: Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti dies.
21 August: Oasis release the album Be Here Now, which sells 695,761 units in its first three days, becoming the fastest-selling album in UK history.
29 September: The Verve release Urban Hymns. The majority of their royalties for the hit single ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ go to the Rolling Stones after a legal dispute over a sample of the Stones’ song ‘The Last Time’.
17 November: The Prodigy release ‘Smack My Bitch Up’, which garners widespread media attention not least because it was presumed to glorify misogyny and violence against women. The band deny the claims.
19 November: Gary Glitter is arrested after images of child pornography are found on his computer.
22 November: INXS singer Michael Hutchence is found dead.
25 December: The Spice Girls once again claim the Christmas number 1 spot in the UK, this time with the perhaps appropriately titled ‘Too Much’.
1998
The Jesus and Mary Chain reunite with Alan McGee’s Creation Records, releasing Munki in June and embarking on an extensive promotional tour with Philip King (Lush) on bass. Tensions and personality clashes finally tip the band over the edge and William Reid leaves the US leg of the tour in September.
4 January: BBC charity single ‘Perfect Day’ pushes the Spice Girls off the top of the UK singles chart, becoming the first British number 1 single of 1998.
19 January: Rockabilly guitarist Carl Perkins dies.
6 April: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the first single from Munki, ‘Cracking Up’, via Creation Records.
7 April: Singer George Michael is arrested for ‘lewd conduct’ in a public toilet in Beverly Hills.
14 May: Frank Sinatra dies.
18 May: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘I Love Rock’n’Roll’, the second single from the album Munki.
1 June: The Jesus and Mary Chain release Munki on Creation Records.
12 June: The Jesus and Mary Chain tour Munki, starting at Chicago’s Metro venue.
4 July: The Jesus and Mary Chain appear at the Meltdown Festival, curated by late broadcaster John Peel, on London’s South Bank.
5 July: Teenage pop singer Billie Piper becomes the youngest British solo artist to debut at number 1 in the UK singles charts with ‘Because We Want To’.
24 July: The Jesus and Mary Chain appear at Glasgow’s Barrowland venue for the last time. Primal Scream also perform. Douglas Hart, perhaps presciently given the circumstances to come, films the show.
25 August: Singer Lauryn Hill releases her debut solo album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill. It sells nineteen million copies worldwide and is certified 7x Platinum.
9 September: The Jesus and Mary Chain return to the US to tour, with Mercury Rev in support. Within two days, the band split up, with William leaving the tour.
23 October: Britney Spears’ debut single ‘. . . Baby One More Time’ is released, going on to become the top-selling single of 1999.
8 November: The Jesus and Mary Chain – without William – play their final show in Thessaloniki, Greece.
25 December: The Spice Girls are at number 1 for the third Christmas in a row, this time with the song ‘Goodbye’ (as Geri Halliwell has just left the band). This song is soon displaced by the rather less sentimental ‘Chocolate Salty Balls’ by South Park character Chef.
2007
After a hiatus of nearly ten years, the Reids reunite for the Coachella Festival in April, and a year of touring ensues for The Jesus and Mary Chain, this time featuring Mark Crozer on guitar and Loz Colbert (Ride) on drums, with former members John Moore and Philip King later joining the line-up. (The current line-up includes Philip King and Fountains of Wayne drummer Brian Young.) The year 2007 also sees the eventual release of Sister Vanilla’s Little Pop Rock, the album the Reids made with their younger sister Linda.
7 January: The first number 1 of the year is claimed by X Factor star Leona Lewis, with the single ‘A Moment Like This’. In October, her song ‘Bleeding Love’ becomes the biggest single of the year, remaining at the top of the charts for six weeks. (The video, incidentally, features the singer crouching by a radiator while singing ‘Keep bleeding . . .’ Either this is a happy accident or the director had a sense of humour.)
12 January: American jazz artist Alice Coltrane dies.
22 June: The Jesus and Mary Chain appear at the Meltdown Festival, curated by Jarvis Cocker, on London’s South Bank. The Pastels are in support.
4 August: US singer-songwriter and producer Lee Hazlewood dies.
7 September: After playing a clutch of summer festivals, The Jesus and Mary Chain play London’s Brixton Academy.
10 October: Radiohead release In Rainbows themselves. It is made available as a download and fans are invited to pay what they want for it.
22 October: The Jesus and Mary Chain embark on a short US tour.
10 December: Led Zeppelin reunite in London after twenty-five years. John Bonham’s son Jason plays drums.
25 December: X Factor singer Leon Jackson is at number 1 on Christmas Day with ‘When You Believe’. The domination of X Factor over our charts is now very much in place and remains so in the coming years. Not that it needs to affect us, of course.
Sources
The main voices in this book belong to:
Jim Reid
Founding member and lead singer of The Jesus and Mary Chain from 1983 to date. Solo projects include the group Freeheat.
William Reid
Founding member and lead guitarist of The Jesus and Mary Chain from 1
983 to date. Solo projects include Lazycame and William.
Douglas Hart
Founding member of The Jesus and Mary Chain and bass player from 1983 to 1991. Other projects have included Acid Angels and Cristine. Now a film-maker, Douglas Hart has made music videos for artists including My Bloody Valentine, The Horrors and Paul Weller and films including the award-winning Long Distance Information.
Bobby Gillespie
Drummer in The Jesus and Mary Chain from 1984 to 1986. Frontman, founding member and songwriter in Primal Scream.
Alan McGee
Founder of Creation Records. First manager of The Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream. After parting ways with The Jesus and Mary Chain he went on to manage My Bloody Valentine, Oasis and The Libertines among others. He retired from music management in 2008, but in 2013 announced he would be launching a new record label, 359 Music. He has also made the movie Kubricks with director/writer Dean Cavanagh.
Murray Dalglish
First drummer in The Jesus and Mary Chain. Murray Dalglish left the band in 1984, going on to play drums in Baby’s Got A Gun and, latterly, Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike. He also owns a hairdressing salon in East Kilbride.
Linda Fox
Linda Fox (née Reid) is William and Jim Reid’s younger sister. She is also known as the recording artist Sister Vanilla, and made an album, Little Pop Rock, with her brothers. The album was released in 2007.
John Moore
Drummer and later guitarist in The Jesus and Mary Chain after the departure of Bobby Gillespie. Also a writer, he enjoyed success with solo projects including John Moore and the Expressway after leaving the Mary Chain, and later with Black Box Recorder alongside Luke Haines and Sarah Nixey. He joined The Jesus and Mary Chain again in 2012.
Neil Taylor
Former NME journalist, C86 pioneer and founder of digital publishing imprint Ink Monkey Books.
Clive ‘The Doctor’ Jackson
Lead singer in Doctor and the Medics. Jackson also ran the club night Alice in Wonderland in central London in the 1980s. Clive Jackson continues to tour and DJ.
Joe Foster
Also known as ‘Slaughter Joe’, Foster, a producer and former member of the Television Personalities and Biff Bang Pow!, co-founded Creation with Alan McGee and Dick Green. He also runs the PoppyDisc label, which has artists including BMX Bandits and Norman Blake on its roster.
Stephen Pastel
The professional name of Stephen McRobbie, lead singer and guitarist in The Pastels since their formation in Glasgow in 1981. In May 2013 the Pastels released Slow Summits, their first album since Illumination in 1997.
Pat Collier
Engineer/producer, former owner of Alaska Studios, where The Jesus and Mary Chain recorded ‘Upside Down’, engineered by Collier. He also mixed ‘You Trip Me Up’. Pat Collier now works from Perry Vale Studios in Forest Hill, south-east London.
Geoff Travis
Founder of Rough Trade Records and the Rough Trade chain of record shops. Also founder of Blanco Y Negro (a subsidiary of Warners), who signed The Jesus and Mary Chain in 1985.
Jeannette Lee
Co-owner of Rough Trade Records with Geoff Travis, Jeannette Lee also worked with The Jesus and Mary Chain during their time with Blanco Y Negro.
Mick Houghton
Former press officer for The Jesus and Mary Chain, Echo and the Bunnymen and many others during his time working with Warners before setting up his own PR company, Brassneck Publicity. Mick Houghton is also a prolific writer, and at the time of writing he is working on a biography of Sandy Denny.
Laurence Verfaillie
After working with Alan McGee at Creation Records, Laurence Verfaillie went on to be a leading music PR and was the managing director of drum-and-bass PR company Electric. She now runs a successful French delicatessen called Degustation in south London.
Chris Morrison
Chris Morrison, founder of CMO Management, managed The Jesus and Mary Chain from 1987. He is also famous for having managed Blur and Damon Albarn, and currently manages artists including Grace Jones, Mutya Keisha Siobhan and Morcheeba.
Jerry Jaffe
Former senior vice-president of A&R at PolyGram Records, Jerry Jaffe worked with Chris Morrison and managed The Jesus and Mary Chain’s career in the US. He set up Management By Jaffe and managed the careers of artists including St Etienne, Dead or Alive and Midge Ure. Jerry Jaffe also ran the US operations for Creation Records until 1995.
David Evans
A one-time roadie for The Jesus and Mary Chain, David Evans stepped in to play guitar when John Moore first left the group. He now works as a designer.
James Pinker
New Zealand-based drummer, percussionist and engineer James Pinker joined The Jesus and Mary Chain briefly at the end of 1987 and appears on the compilation album The Power Of Negative Thinking. He has also worked with Dead Can Dance, The Pogues and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Philip King
Bass player for UK shoegaze legends Lush and later for The Jesus and Mary Chain, Philip King is in the current line-up of the band, now playing guitar two decades after failing an audition to be their guitarist. Philip is also a picture researcher, working with publications such as Uncut.
Ben Lurie
London-born Australian musician Ben Lurie was working on reception at Rough Trade before joining The Jesus and Mary Chain, at first to play guitar and later, replacing Douglas Hart on bass. Ben Lurie was also in Jim Reid’s group Freeheat, and is now a graphic designer.
Steve Monti
Drummer for Curve, Ian Dury and the Blockheads and later the Wilko Johnson Band, Steve Monti joined The Jesus and Mary Chain in 1992. Monti has also worked with the Cocteau Twins among others.
Lincoln Fong
Engineer and bass player Lincoln Fong joined The Jesus and Mary Chain initially as a technician, and later post-Stoned And Dethroned (1994) on bass. As an engineer Fong has also worked with artists including the Cocteau Twins and Pete Townshend.
Alan Moulder
Closely connected with the UK shoegaze movement (and married to Curve frontwoman Toni Halliday), engineer and producer Alan Moulder first worked with The Jesus and Mary Chain as an assistant engineer on sessions with the engineer Flood. He is considered to be one of the UK’s best engineers and has worked with Nine Inch Nails, My Bloody Valentine, Foals, Arctic Monkeys and others.
Loz Colbert
Founding member and drummer in Oxford-based shoegaze group Ride, Loz Colbert would eventually join The Jesus and Mary Chain after working with Jim Reid on his solo project prior to the band’s reunion at Coachella in 2007. More recently he has been working with Gaz Coombes of Supergrass.
Mark Crozer
Guitarist/bass player who joined The Jesus and Mary Chain in 2007 for the reunion appearance at Coachella, after being in Jim Reid’s solo band up to that point. Other projects include The International Jetsetters and Mark Crozer and the Rels.
John Robb
Musician and writer John Robb (formerly of The Membranes) conducted The Jesus and Mary Chain’s first interview in 1984, for the magazine ZigZag. Robb has written a number of books including Punk Rock: An Oral History and is the frontman with the group Goldblade. He also runs the rock journalism website Louder Than War.
Discography
STUDIO ALBUMS
Psychocandy
Released: November 1985
Labels: Blanco Y Negro, Warner Bros
Peak chart position: UK 31; US 188
Certification: Gold (UK)
Personnel according to sleevenotes:
The Jesus and Mary Chain/Jim Reid – vocals, guitar/William Reid – vocals, guitar/Douglas Hart – bass/Bobby Gillespie – drums
Additional musicians:
Karen Parker – backing vocals/Laurence Verfaillie – backing vocals
Technical personnel:
The Jesus and Mary Chain – production/John Loder – engineering
Design personnel:
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br /> Greg Allen – art direction/Alastair Indge – sleeve photography/Bleddyn Butcher – sleeve photography/Chris Clown – sleeve photography/Mike Laye – sleeve photography/Rona McIntyre – sleeve photography/Stuart Cassidy – sleeve photography
Track listing:
‘Just Like Honey’/‘The Living End’/‘Taste The Floor’/‘The Hardest Walk’/‘Cut Dead’/‘In A Hole’/‘Taste Of Cindy’/‘Never Understand’/‘Inside Me’/‘Sowing Seeds’/‘My Little Underground’/‘You Trip Me Up’/‘Something’s Wrong’/‘It’s So Hard’
The 1986 CD release also contains the track ‘Some Candy Talking’.
The 2011 reissue included the following extra CD/DVD:
‘Upside Down’/‘Vegetable Man’/‘In A Hole’ (John Peel radio session, 23 October 1984)/‘You Trip Me Up’ (John Peel radio session, 23 October 1984)/‘Never Understand’ (John Peel radio session, 23 October 1984)/‘Taste The Floor’ (John Peel radio session, 23 October 1984)/‘The Living End’ (John Peel radio session, 3 February 1985)/‘Inside Me’ (John Peel radio session, 3 February 1985)/‘Just Like Honey’ (John Peel radio session, 3 February 1985)/‘Some Candy Talking’ (John Peel radio session, 29 October 1985)/‘Psychocandy’ (John Peel radio session, 29 October 1985)/‘You Trip Me Up’ (John Peel radio session, 29 October 1985)/‘Cut Dead’ (John Peel radio session, 29 October 1985)/‘Up Too High’ (Portastudio demo, 1984/85)/‘Upside Down’ (Portastudio demo, 1984/85)/‘Never Understand’ (Portastudio demo, 1984/85)/‘Taste the Floor’ (Portastudio demo, 1984/85)/‘In A Hole’ (Portastudio demo, 1984/85)/‘Something’s Wrong’ (Portastudio demo, 1984/85)/‘Just Like Honey’ (demo version, October 1984)/‘The Living End’ (Alaska Studios demo, June 1985)/‘My Little Underground’/‘Never Understand (Alternate Version)’/‘Jesus Fuck’
DVD:
‘Never Understand’ (music video)/‘You Trip Me Up’ (music video)/‘Just Like Honey’ (music video)/‘In A Hole’ (Old Grey Whistle Test, 12 March 1985)/‘Riot At North London Polytechnic – Interview And Live Clips’ (The New Music, 15 March 1985)/‘Interview’ (VRT, Belgium, 17 March 1985)/‘Never Understand’ (VRT, Belgium, 17 March 1985)/‘Just Like Honey’ (The Tube, 11 November 1985)/‘Inside Me’ (The Tube, 11 November 1985)