The Jesus & Mary Chain

The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain performing at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, California on 23 October 2007
Background information
Origin	East Kilbride, Scotland
Genres	Alternative rock, noise pop, post-punk, shoegazing, indie pop, indie rock
Years active	1983–1999, 2007–present
Labels	Creation, Blanco y Negro, Sub Pop, Def American, Reprise (US), WEA
Website	thejesusandmarychain.uk.com
Members	Jim Reid William Reid Scott Von Ryper Brian Young Mark Crozer
Past members	Douglas Hart Murray Dalglish Bobby Gillespie Loz Colbert Martin Hewes James Pinker Dave Evans Richard Thomas Ben Lurie Matthew Parkin Barry Blackler Steve Monti Nick Sanderson Lincoln Fong Duncan Cameron John Moore Phil King

The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid. After signing to independent label Creation Records, they released their first single "Upside Down" in 1984. Their debut album Psychocandy was released to critical acclaim in 1985 on major label WEA. The band went on to release five more studio albums before disbanding in 1999. They reunited in 2007.

Brothers Jim and William Reid had been inspired to form a band as far back as 1977, having heard groups of the British punk scene; in the early 1980s they formed their own. William stated, "It was perfect timing because there weren't any guitar bands. Everybody was making this electronic pop music." Before forming the band, the brothers had spent five years on the dole, during which they wrote and recorded songs at home and worked out the sound and image of the band. Originally called The Poppy Seeds, and then Death of Joey, they initially told journalists that they had taken their eventual name from a line in a Bing Crosby film, although six months later they admitted that this wasn't true. Other accounts suggest that the name derived from an offer on a breakfast cereal packet, where customers could send off for a gold Jesus & Mary chain.

The brothers started recording and sending demos to record companies in 1983 (using a Portastudio bought with £300 given to them by their father from redundancy pay after he lost his factory job), and by early 1984 they had recruited bass player Douglas Hart and teenage drummer Murray Dalglish. Early influences included The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, and The Shangri-Las, William stating in 1985, "We all love The Shangri-Las, and one day we're going to make Shangri-Las records." Jim mentioned his liking for Pink Floyd, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Monkees and Muddy Waters. Early demos displayed a similarity to the Ramones, prompting the brothers to add another element to their sound; in William's words: "That's why we started using noise and feedback. We want to make records that sound different." They began playing live in Spring 1984. In the early days Jim Reid's guitar would be left out of tune, while Dalglish's drum kit was limited to two drums, and Hart's bass guitar only had three strings, down to two by 1985; in Hart's words "that's the two I use, I mean what's the fucking point spending money on another two? Two is enough."