Never Understood

The Jesus and Mary Chain

William Reid, Jim Reid

$62.95

Hardback

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English

Da Capo
17 September 2024

Music; Punk, New Wave & Indie; Biography: arts & entertainment; Family & relationships

William and Jim Reid, brothers and founding members of The Jesus and Mary Chain--a band that bridged the gap between the punk explosion and the emergence of grunge and Britpop--chronicle the chaos, confusion, and stories behind their music.

For five years after they'd swapped sought-after apprenticeships for life on the dole, brothers William and Jim Reid sat up till the early hours in the front room of their parents' East Kilbride council house, plotting their path to world domination over endless cups of tea, with the music turned down low so as not to wake their sleeping sister. They knew they couldn't play in the same band because they'd argue too much, so they'd describe their dream ensembles to each other until finally they realized that these two perfect bands were actually the same band. The name of that band was The Jesus and Mary Chain.

The rest was not silence, and picking up those conversations again more than forty years later, William and Jim tell the full story of one of Britain's greatest guitar bands for the very first time - a wildly funny and improbably moving chronicle of brotherly strife, feedback, riots, drug and alcohol addiction, eternal outsiders and extreme shyness, that also somehow manages to be a love letter to the Scottish working-class family.

By: William Reid, Jim Reid
Imprint: Da Capo
Dimensions: Height: 231mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 522g
ISBN: 9780306835513
ISBN 10: 0306835517
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 17 September 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Brothers William and Jim Reid are founding members of The Jesus and Mary Chain. Ben Thompson is a critic, ghostwriter, and radio host.

Reviews for Never Understood: The Jesus and Mary Chain

"""Art ignites in the mind and, in the case of the Mary Chain, churns relentlessly on to the center stage. Perhaps the definitive outcasts-saved-by-rock 'n roll story.""--Irvine Welsh ""A wonderful book, most enlightening. Jim and William were outsiders among outsiders and being in a band was life or death for them. Somehow against all the odds they created one of the most iconic bands of all time and easily some of the most sublime music of the '80s.""--Roisin Murphy ""An epic story about the Reid brothers' war against the world and themselves. An odyssey of rock and roll, class, addiction, self-crucifixion, and resurrection. As diseased and beautiful as their music. I couldn't put it down.""--Bobby Gillespie ""Forget Phil Spector's wall of sound--the Jesus and Mary Chain didn't know where to stop, and it led to the most exciting sounds to come out of the UK in a generation. Here is the story of the Reid brothers' rollercoaster life. Scream if you want to go faster--they'll almost certainly oblige.""--Ian Rankin"