Jesus and Mary Chain -‘Live At Barrowlands.’ (Demon)

There they came. A band who took no prisoners, led by two brothers whose fractious relationship would see them put Alan McGee’s Creation records on the map and implode spectacularly a decade and a half later, having created some utterly spellbounding music, and releasing a debut album that would overshadow much of their subsequent output.

If you think that I’m talking about Oasis and the Gallagher brothers…well I could have been, but to many people, the Mary Chain did far more to shake up rock’n’roll than Oasis ever did. That debut album, Psychocandy, now celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. In doing so they paved the way for much of c-86 and shoegazing, and influenced an entire generation of people determined to push forward what guitar music could do. This, then, is a live document of the reformation shows which took place last year at Glasgow’s legendary Barrowlands venue.

While some artists create such a strong piece of work with their debut album that everything subsequent makes them look like Orson Welles, producing great work but unable to truly equal it (have you ever met anyone who seriously thinks that Lloyd Cole has equaled Rattlesnakes?), the Mary Chain did produce some great songs subsequently, and the album kicks off with a selection of these. So we get their two top ten hits ‘April Skies’ and ‘Reverence’. The latter is particularly strong, and indeed long, here. Rarely has nihilism sounded so utterly cool. We also get that astonishing debut single ‘Upside Down’, the banned from Radio 1 because it was ‘obviously’ about heroin ‘Some Candy Talking’ and the song ‘Psychocandy’ which wasn’t actually on the album. Alas, I wasn’t at the gig, but this truly brings me (and anyone else listening) as close as we will come.

Debate rages about whether bands should reform at all, and whether there’s any point in doing shows or tours which focus on one classic album. Whilst the thought of watching a dead horse being flogged may be depressing, I wonder how many of those who sneer really would rather starve than pay the bills and put food on the table. The fact is it may not be for money – classic albums are worth celebrating -and if they do it with as much style as the Mary Chain do it here, it underlines just how damn good the original record is. (And – here’s a thought – supposing you were too young to be there the first time round?)

So yes, the second part of the album is Psychocandy played in its entirety. From the opening ‘Just Like Honey’ to the closing ‘It’s So Hard’ what is delivered is a fantastic set that shows an album that truly is seminal, and which live sounds like it made the Barrowlands sweat rock’n’roll even more than it usually does onto its sticky floors. The brothers Reid – and their hired helps – were truly on fire on this night, and only added to an already impressive legacy. This is not an album to replace the original studio album, nor do I imagine it was conceived as such. It’s a welcome addition to their catalogue, and a reminder of why they were so utterly necessary.

****1/2

Live At Barrowlands is released on Demon on July 31.

Even in the hands of the Ramones, nihilism never sounded this good.

Just cool as…

Jesus and Mary Chain -‘Reverence.’ mp3

Jesus and Mary Chain -‘Psychocandy.’ (Blanco y Negro, 1985)

Once again, I cannot claim that this was an album that I was listening to when it came out. [Yes, I’m very impressed that your nine year old child regurgitates all the music you ask them to listen to instead of what their peers are. So sorry to hear that they’re not fitting in at school.] And in fact my route to this album was quite a long one, hearing several of their later albums before I got this album out of the library at school when I was eighteen.

Yes, amazingly, as well as trying to educate middle-class thugs about rugby and the like, my school got itself a library in which there was a CD library. You could only take out one CD at a time, but it had all the Smiths studio albums, the Cure, Lloyd Cole, Blur…and this was 1994 so it wasn’t bad, really. Every school should have one -as well as someone who makes sure that the kids can all have jotters (or exercise books as the sassenachs call ’em) before the staff get laptops.

Sorry…I was distracted there. Anyway…YES. Psychocandy. A slightly different beast on CD, being as it has ‘Some Candy Talking’ midway through. The song that was their breakthrough hit (apart from the fact Radio 1 banned it because it was ‘obviously’ about heroin). But an album that opens with the sublime ‘Just Like Honey’ a song bathed in honey, sweet, sweet feedback, as the twin gods of the Velvet Underground and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd make love and produce something utterly sublime. Nearly twenty years later it made my heart soar as this played out over the closing moments of Lost In Translation.

Feedback is the name of the game here -and while by 1994 we had had grunge so knew music didn’t need to be clean-sounding – this was a revelation. And it still is, years later. I picked up a cassette copy a year or so after I left school and it was frequently in the walkman at uni, accompanying me up and down the hill in my battered biker jacket, mad hair and army boots, trying to resemble a cross between Ian McCulloch, Robert Smith and of course the Reid brothers (not very trendy in 1998, but at least I wasn’t listening to those infernal Ministry of Sound comps). It’s not just the singles, but the singalong choruses as they drift along in those feedback drenched waves of sound. It’s an album to lose yourself in and then find yourself in, alternately, or maybe even at the same time.

I never saw the Mary Chain live; they broke up at the tail end of the nineties, though they did reform for some dates in 2007. And while some will debate the merits of later albums -and they all have many, to these ears, the Mary Chain never topped this. But because I discovered it later, I guess I didn’t find myself disappointed by subsequent albums. It still makes this heart fly, and that ancient tape still lives in the car, while a second-hand vinyl copy lives on the shelf and a digital copy on the iPod. An albums for all seasons and all time.

Jesus and Mary Chain -‘Never Understand.’ mp3

Jesus and Mary Chain -‘You Trip Me Up.’ mp3

Jesus and Mary Chain -‘Just Like Honey.’ mp3

17 Seconds is fortunate to have some very wonderful readers indeed.

Not only has one reader offered to send me a copy of Crawdaddy by the Darling Buds until I can get my mucky paws on a vinyl copy, but another reader, Graeme, has re-sent a copy of ‘Vegetable Man’ the Jesus and Mary Chain cover that I posted yesterday, only in m4a, which not everyone can access.

Jesus and Mary Chain -‘Vegetable Man (Syd Barrett cover).’ mp3

Bless you all. There will be more to follow (currently making my way through a mountain of marking…)

William and Jim Reid from the Jesus and Mary Chain. Even my hair’s never been quite that big…

It’s April, supposedly the cruellest month, but I’m on holiday. It’s now after midday in Scotland, so no April Fools here. Spring is starting to appear, though it would be nice if the aforementioned plumber would turn up, and the drilling outside would cease, shortly before I snap.

However, yesterday I finally got to meet JC, aka The Vinyl Villain and myself and Mrs. 17 seconds had a very nice chat with him for two hours in Glasgow. He is a very friendly guy and so what better toast him with than three tracks from the biggest thing out of East Kilbride, the Jesus and Mary Chain. And I’m not even posting anything from the debut (don’t get me wrong, I love it, but there is so much more to them than that.)

Jesus and Mary Chain -‘April Skies.’ mp3 (My introduction to the band, via Top Of The Pops in 1987)

Jesus and Mary Chain -‘Upside Down.’ mp3 (The world’s introduction to the Mary Chain in 1984. Signed by Alan McGee, the band indicated that they could make people’s ears and eyes come out on stalks. and that was before the riots started).

Jesus and Mary Chain -‘Blues From a Gun.’ mp3 (Just another great track…)

The brothers are supposedly reformed (as a band, not as characters) so I live in hope…