Never Understood

One of the things I was able to do while ill last week was read and I ploughed through the recent Jesus And Mary Chain autobiography, Never Understood, in just a few sittings. Their story, from childhood in a Glasgow tenement next to Parkhead to the move to East Kilbride, their discovery of underground and outsider music that bound the two brothers together and then the formation and rise of the band, is told by William and Jim alternating, and often contradicting each other.  It's revealing, hilarious at times, and also an account of how two men on different drugs (Jim alcohol and cocaine, William alcohol and weed) managed to function as a band and then gradually in the 90s stop functioning and tear themselves, the band and each other apart. Each brother is open about their personality traits and addictions, but there's also a sense that each one is telling part of the story through clenched teeth, a sense of 'we'll talk about this once and then pack it away again'. In a recent interview Jim was asked what he learned from doing the book and reflecting on the last forty years. 'Not to reflect on the last forty years of your life', was his answer. 

William says that he thought firstly alcohol and then secondly being in a band would give him the confidence to talk to girls. Jim says that he thought that alcohol would give him the confidence to talk to anyone and to stand on stage and be the frontman- he was and is shy and socially anxious in the extreme. From their teens they formed a united front, finishing each others sentences, sharing clothes and a record collection, utterly dedicated to the sound they conjured up in 1984 and after. They recount growing tired of Alan McGee's revelling in the chaos of the early gigs, the contentious statements and violence at the gigs but also the sheer excitement of it all happening and happening quickly in 1984/5. They also recognise the massive error they made in signing to Blanco Y Negro (a subsidiary of Warners, one of the biggest labels in the world) with whom they had constant friction, the label always trying to force 'world class producers' onto them. They regretted snubbing Rough Trade who would have been a much better fit. 

At every step along the way, everything that happens seems to reconfirm their outsider status, the outsiders' outsiders. Jim recounts the numerous occasions his inability to make small talk or just relate to people scuppered encounters with the people who were in his favourite bands- The Cramps, The Ramones, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, the people who inspired him to pick up a guitar in the first place. They are all shunned, were rude to or avoided. When offered the chance to meet Lou Reed, the man whose first album, the Velvets' banana album, is the cornerstone in the Reid's world, he passes up and and goes away knowing he hasn't made a mess of it. The end comes live on stage in 1998, partway through a US tour, ill advisedly booked after the tortuous recording of the album that became Munki. There is a fistfight in a Transit van on the road in the US. Sometime before there was a disagreement about a bowl of nuts backstage. Both men at the end of the road as brothers and as a partnership.

By the time they reform in 2007 both men know that they need to reform to put the extremely messy break up to bed. They both look at it all candidly, William sometimes a little tongue- in- cheek, but both seem to have grown as people. It's conversational in tone, the result of writer Ben Thompson interviewing each Reid extensively and then painstakingly constructing it as a narrative. One thing that comes across strongly, amidst the forty years of arguments, drugs, booze, friction with record companies, the comings and goings of bandmates, riots and violence at the early gigs and seemingly never ending chaos that swirls around them, is their love of music- the seriousness of their task, of writing, recording and playing songs in exactly the way they want to. More power to them. 

Upside Down

I found this on Youtube, a compilation of various Mary Chain TV appearances, shambolic miming, stumbling around on Top Of The Pops, a general sense of not giving a fuck but also giving a massive fuck, some blistering live performances too, ending with the band filmed live for the legendary Snub in 1990- a good way to spend thirty five Reid Bros minutes. 

• Happy When It Rains 0:00
• April Skies 3:33
• Never Understand 6:44
• Teenage Lust 9:35
• Far Gone And Out 12:33
• Come On 15:23
• Head On 18:06
• In A Hole 22:06
• Just Like Honey 25:17
• Inside Me 27:58
• Take It 30:35