Barbed Wire Kisses: The Jesus and Mary Chain Story

by Zoe Howe

  demo versions ref1, ref2, ref3

  press copies distributed ref1

  recording of ref1

  release of ref1, ref2

  success of ref1, ref2

  Vedder, Eddie ref1

  ‘Vegetable Man’ ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6

  Velvet Underground, The ref1, ref2, ref3

  Venue (Glasgow) ref1, ref2

  Verfaillie, Laurence and accents of Reid brothers ref1

  and ‘April Skies’ cover art ref1

  and arrest of Jim ref1

  and ‘Cut Dead’ ref1

  and Darklands recording session ref1

  and drum-machines ref1

  and Electric Ballroom gig ref1, ref2

  hired by Creation Records ref1

  and ICA Rock Week gig ref1

  and insularity of Reid brothers ref1

  and Japan tour ref1

  and Les Baines Douches gig ref1

  as ‘manager’ of Mary Chain ref1

  and McGee’s interview with French journalist ref1

  and ‘Nine Million Rainy Days’ ref1

  and paranoia of Mary Chain ref1

  and Peel Sessions ref1

  and Psychocandy recording session ref1

  relationship with Jim ref1, ref2

  and reviews of Darklands ref1

  and Rollercoaster Tour ref1

  and Scandinavian tour ref1

  and ‘Sidewalking’ ref1

  and Sugarcubes ref1

  and Terry Edwards Plays ref1

  and Top of the Pops appearance ref1

  and USA tours ref1

  and William’s humour ref1

  Vicious, Sid ref1

  VOX (magazine) ref1

  Warner Music

  and Blanco Y Negro deal ref1, ref2, ref3

  and Darklands recording session ref1

  dislike of Mary Chain ref1

  drop Mary Chain ref1

  and increased exposure of Mary Chain ref1

  and Jaffe ref1

  and ‘Jesus Fuck’ ref1

  and New York shows ref1

  and sound of Psychocandy ref1

  Weatherall, Andy ref1

  Weller, Paul ref1, ref2, ref3

  Westerberg, Kevin ref1, ref2

  ‘Who Do You Love?’ ref1

  William, Simon ref1

  Wilson, Brian ref1

  Wilson, Carl ref1

  Wilson, Ivor ref1

  Wilson, Norman ref1, ref2

  Winehouse, Amy ref1

  ‘Write Record Release Blues’ ref1

  Yawn! ref1

  ‘You Trip Me Up’ ref1, ref2, ref3

  Young, Brian ref1, ref2

  ZigZag (magazine) 41–2

  Jim and William Reid in a cold, dark room with some barbed wire, 1987. Just a regular evening chez Mary Chain.

  ‘Stonehenge with windows’ (Douglas Hart). Also known as East Kilbride. This is the Scottish new town in 1975.

  Right. Hair, cameras, action. Jim Reid photographed in Douglas Hart’s bedroom in 1983, the year it all started.

  Jim Reid photographed by Douglas Hart, Glasgow, 1983.

  Douglas Hart ponders the nascent Mary Chain’s options for world domination.

  Jim Reid recording ‘Upside Down’ at Evenlode, East Kilbride, this being the band’s (then the Daisy Chain) first ever studio recording. Douglas Hart’s school friend Norman Wilson was hauled in to play drums. He was the only person they knew with a kit.

  Jim Reid at the abandoned paint factory in East Kilbride, 1983. The paint factory was a sanctuary to the Mary Chain, providing the ideal place to drop acid, listen to incredibly loud music and, most importantly, smash things up.

  Photo-montage poster created by the band themselves for the Jesus and Mary Chain’s first Glasgow gig, 10 June 1984. The ‘live’ pictures were actually staged in Jim’s bedroom.

  The Mary Chain portrayed in all their glum glory on the cover of Slow Dazzle fanzine, 1984.

  The original letter written by Jim Reid to Alan McGee after the recording of ‘Upside Down’ didn’t quite go to plan. Note that Murray Dalglish has now been recruited on drums, and the band name ‘Daisy Chain’ has been changed to ‘The Jesus and Mary Chain’.

  DEAR ALAN

  THIS IS THE MASTER TAPE FOR THE SONG ON THE LP. SORRY IT TOOK US SO LONG TO SEND IT, BUT WE’VE HAD A LOT OF PROBLEMS GETTING IT DONE. WE DIDN’T HAVE VERY MUCH MONEY SO WE WENT INTO AN 8 TRACK STUDIO AND RECORDED IT LIVE (MORE OR LESS). BUT IT SOUNDED FUCKING AWFUL, THE GUITAR SOUND WAS TERRIBLE AND THE WHOLE THING WAS VERY TAME, MAINLY BECAUSE OF THE STUPID BASTARD ENGINEER WHO DIDN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT WE WERE LOOKING FOR.

  SINCE IT WAS SO BAD WE ALL DECIDED THAT THE FIRST 4 TRACK VERSION OF THE SONG WAS MUCH BETTER SO THAT IS WHAT WE HAVE SENT. WE ADDED A FEW LITTLE BITS ONTO IT.

  HOPE YOU LIKE IT. IT IS CALLED “UPSIDE DOWN” AND WAS WRITTEN BY JIM REID AND WILLIAM REID.

  THANKS

  JIM REID

  P.S.

  THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN ARE

  JIM REID – VOCALS

  WILLIAM REID – GUITAR

  DOUGLAS HART – BASS

  MURRAY DALGLISH – DRUMS

  Jim Reid and Douglas Hart survey the chaos unfolding at their feet at the Ambulance Station, Old Kent Road, London, in November 1984. ‘The police were called . . .’ remembers writer Neil Taylor.

  Jim Reid in Southern Studios, London, recording Psychocandy in 1985. The Mary Chain worked hard in the studio, and the atmosphere was frequently tense. ‘I threw William against a door and knocked it off its hinges,’ Jim recalls. ‘Can’t remember why. But back then it was all about the music. Ten minutes later we’d be fine with each other.’

  William Reid on stage, 1985. ‘You’d see him crouched and looking at all the pedals, and you could feel that energy – anger, in a way,’ recalls Laurence Verfaillie.

  Jim, Douglas and William on stage during their European tour, 1985.

  Douglas Hart, and Bobby Gillespie on drums. Three strings on the bass, a kit consisting of no more than two drums – less was always more.

  WEA’s (unreleased) band biog of The Jesus and Mary Chain, 1985, shortly after being signed to Blanco Y Negro. ‘Hunky good looks’, eh? Are you sure you didn’t write this, chaps?

  The Jesus and Mary Chain looking insouciant in Tottenham swimming pool, 1984. The Mary Chain, still living in Scotland at the time, had been staying at Alan McGee’s flat nearby. Non-swimmer Douglas Hart admits he ‘appreciates a drained, abandoned swimming pool far more than a full and functioning one’. Works slightly better for Mary Chain photo-shoots as well.

  Bobby Gillespie in Portugal, where the band had flown with director Tim Broad to shoot the video for ‘You Trip Me Up’. The idea was to film the band in a sunny location. It rained.

  The Mary Chain looking positively bereft beneath a palm tree in Portugal in 1986. (Actually they had a very nice time.) ‘It was special,’ remembers Jim Reid. Although ‘nobody knew what we were about. Everybody thought we were some kind of freak show that had rolled into town. Which, of course, we were.’

  Jim and William Reid in a field of flowers.

  Douglas Hart, Jim Reid in the background, 1986.

  The Jesus and Mary Chain on stage at the Tic Toc Club, Coventry, 6 September 1990. Douglas Hart would leave the band the following year.

  The advent of the magnificently coiffed (and, crucially, quite cheerful) John Moore, replacing Bobby Gillespie on drums. This image was taken in press officer Mick Houghton’s office in 1987, around the time of the band’s second album Darklands, Mick’s favourite JAMC album: ‘I think it’s the best album they made. They made a much more lasting statement than Psychocandy, in a way.’

  William and Jim Reid backstage in Glasgow during the Rollercoaster tour, 25 March 1992. It was never, as Douglas Hart and John Moore both attest, a ‘party’ atmosphere after a show. ‘Actually, you wouldn’t want to go to a party that The Jesus and Mary Chain were at,’ says Moore. ‘That wouldn’t be a party.’
The band would, Douglas confirms, ‘sit in silence and then go home and watch the telly’

  The Jesus and Mary Chain on stage with Scarlett Johannsson, Coachella, 27 April 2007, singing ‘Just Like Honey’. Former Mary Chain member John Moore thought it hilarious that ‘in true Mary Chain style, they didn’t even bother to introduce her’.