Jon McClure
| Jon McClure | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Jon McClure |
| Born |
22 December 1981 Sheffield, Yorkshire, England |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Labels | Wall of Sound |
| Associated acts | Reverend and The Makers, Mongrel, Reverend Soundsystem |
Jon McClure (born 22 December 1981), known as The Reverend, is an English musician. He is the lead singer and frontman of Reverend and The Makers, and ex-vocalist of 1984 and Judan Suki. He says that the name "Reverend" became his moniker because "I'm a big mouth and always running on at people".
McClure was born in the Sheffield suburb Grenoside, and grew up there with his parents and brother Chris. He has known Ed Cosens since childhood and in Notre Dame High School. He went on to become a poet, and began blogging on the internet.
A close friendship developed with Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys, who McClure met on a bus and asked if Turner wanted to join his band at the time. Together, the two have co-written songs including "He Said He Loved Me", "The Machine", and "Old Yellow Bricks". McClure cites his key influences as being Bob Marley, Oasis and John Cooper Clarke. McClure was part of a collective that set up "Instigate Debate" in August 2008. He shared a flat with frontman of Arctic Monkeys, Alex Turner.
McClure's first band was Judan Suki, which featured Ed Cosens and Laura Manuel from The Makers. The name Judan Suki is Japanese, meaning "being kicked in the weak spot", which McClure believed related directly to the music. Judan Suki was nothing more than an experiment by McClure. During its life, Judan Suki had approximately 20 members, including Alex Turner and Matt Helders, who later went on to form Arctic Monkeys. In 2004, the band downsized from eight members to five. It was at this time that they began playing for formidable record companies, although McClure felt that the band were not good enough to be signed, a sentiment he kept with Reverend and The Makers; his perfectionist attitude forced songs from the album to be re-recorded, delaying the band's releases. Judan Suki became well known within Sheffield and headlined venues such as the Boardwalk in 2002. The band were notable for their cover of "Brothers on the Slide" by Cymande, although a studio version was never recorded.
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