Watch The Jesus and Mary Chain’s first-ever TV performance
Scottish shoegazers The Jesus and Mary Chain are one of the most influential bands in alternative music. Predating the boom of the genre in the 1990s, they were already predicting shoegaze in the mid-1980s as they forged torrents of noise pervaded by abrasive, hazy guitars. The influence of their sound was felt throughout the movement of alternative artists to succeed them, from My Bloody Valentine to Ride.
Surrounded by 1980s synth-pop and electronic music, The Jesus and Mary Chain looked to older influences for their sound, from The Velvet Underground to The Shangri-Las. Looking to stand apart from mainstream music, the band used feedback and out-of-tune guitars to create a new grating, caustic sound. Noise was always prioritised, and this was true of their live performance too.
Early on, Jesus and Mary Chain gained a reputation for their short, chaotic gigs. The band refused to face the audience, turning their backs to them, and declined to play for longer than 20 minutes. In SPIN, lead singer Jim Reid wrote, “We only do 20-minute sets. There’s no band alive that’s good enough to play for longer than 20 minutes.”
As excitement around the band grew, so did the crowds who flocked to their shows. Their chaotic, noisy sound eventually garnered an equally chaotic, noisy audience, and The Jesus and Mary Chain found themselves banned in venues across the country. Reid noted: “Some people wouldn’t let us play because our reputation’s been exaggerated. One place refused to let us play because of something they read in the Sun.”
The disorder stirred up by their live performance only garnered them more press, which in turn led to more violent audiences. It became a cycle. Douglas Hart added, “It’s brought a hooligan element into the audiences. People read stuff and think, ‘They’re a really violent group, so let’s go and be violent.’ They go mad.”
After stirring up so much excitement around their riotous, noise-fuelled live sets, Jesus and Mary Chain eventually made it to the television, appearing on The Tube in 1985. Ahead of the release of their debut album Psychocandy later that year, they performed the album’s third single, ‘Just Like Honey’, and album-only track ‘Inside Me’.
The Tube featured several bands each week, performing live in front of an audience. In this controlled environment, the performance doesn’t quite reflect the chaos of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s early years. The band were also trying to shake off their reputation for violent crowds by this point, anticipating an acoustic support slot alongside Sonic Youth and the release of their debut album.
When the camera cuts to the audience, they’re all politely swaying. The lariest it gets is some gentle pushing during ‘Inside Me’, far from the reports of early audiences throwing bottles onstage. Still, the performance is just as noisy and feedback-filled as you’d expect and provides a look at the shoegaze pioneers in their infancy.
Watch The Jesus and Mary Chain’s first-ever TV performance below.
