Playing the Glass House in Pomona Thursday April 26th, 2007 to start with and then headlining the Coachella Festival in Indio California the Jesus And Mary Chain is back for good as the mythological Phoenix reborn from the ashes to bring their distorded guitars with an incediary show. A show not to be missed TJMC promised to shake the house again with that unparallel characteristic sound that forged the duo as a band of cult along with contemporary bands like Joy Divison, Bauhaus and The Pixies.

Hailing from East Kilbride, Scotland, Jim and William Reid were young, unemployed, and disgusted with the music being released in the early 80s. In 1983 they recorded two-man demos but record companies couldn’t care less.

The Jesus and Mary Chain began in early 1984 with Jim on vocals, William on guitar, and recruits Douglas Hart playing a three stringed bass and Murray Dalglish on a two-piece drum kit. They crashed Glasgow gigs claiming they were the support band until they had played so many that they could no longer show their faces around the venues.

May 1984 saw the band move to London to expose themselves and find fame. It was a case of the right place at the right time as the owner of the Creation label, Alan McGee, had opened the Living Room - a venue for new music. Having heard a demo tape passed on by Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream), McGee invited the Jesus and Mary Chain to play their first London gig on June 9, 1984, as a support band. With an audience count of about 20, and a 10 minute set, they began their climb.

As they replaced Murray Dalglish with Bobby Gillespie, McGee signed the Jesus and Mary Chain to his independent Creation label and released the debut single Upside Down. The 7″ topped British independent charts selling 35,000 copies and the singles mumbled vocals (”Feels like I’m going mad / Best friend I’ve ever had / Tell me why I feel so sad”), steady drum beat and squealing feedback managed to impress those with money.

Media attention grew and record companies wanted to sign on the Jesus and Mary Chain. Without funds, Creation knew it couldn’t support what the Jesus and Mary Chain was becoming but Alan McGee continued as their manager. Dressed in black leather, dark sunglasses, and with heads of messy hair, the Jesus and Mary Chain’s contracts offered to “improve” the band’s image. They refused to take up these offers and instead signed up with the WEA subsidiary label Blanco y Negro in January 1985.

When they released the debut album Psychocandy in November, magazines and newspapers praised the album as a breath of fresh air. The feedback, simple yet catchy songs, and basic drum beat were unlike other recordings of the time. The album was noisy, yet appealing. With lyrics like “Grass grows greener on the other side / corn grows sweeter on the other side” (In a Hole) it all seemed a tad absurd, but at least it was something new.

On September 12, 1998, at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, the band had a falling out on stage approximately 15 minutes in to their set before a sell out crowd. The band continued their US and Japanese tour minus William, and although it appeared that the band no longer existed, it wasn’t until October 1999 that the official announcement was made.

The Jesus and Mary Chain are confirmed for the Coachella Festival in the US on April 27, 2007. The line-up will be: Jim Reid, William Reid, Phil King, Mark Crozer, Loz Colbert.

Jimm Reid

Jimm Reid, the former Jesus and Mary Chain singer has been busy over the past 12 months recording a few radio sessions (BBC Radio 2 and Radio 6). He has also released a couple of singles on the Transistor Records record label. The first of which was a split single with Jim taking one side of 7″ single with ‘Song For A Secret’ and the other side being ‘Can’t Stop The Rock’ by Sister Vanilla (his sister, Linda’s band). The second single ‘Dead End Kids’ was released in mid July.

Initially when Jim started doing some low key solo shows he was just assisted by Phil King (Felt, Lush) on guitar. And these small intimate shows slowly grew and early this year he managed to get a full band together, that as well as featuring Phil King, now has Loz Colbert (Formerly of Ride) on Drums and Mark Crozer on Bass. The band have played a few gigs up and down the country and recently played a cracking gig at Bar Academy in Islington, where Jim even dusted down a a few Mary Chain songs (45 rpm, Never Understand and Moe Tucker) as well as ‘Vegetable Man’ in tribute to Syd Barrett (Originally covered by The Jesus and Mary Chain as the B side to their creation classic ‘Upside Down’ in 1984).

http://www.thejesusandmarychain.org/
http://www.myspace.com/jesusandmarychainband
http://www.myspace.com/jimreid