50 Fun Facts About The Jesus and Mary Chain

Neither Reid brother wanted to sing for The Jesus and Mary Chain, so how was Jim picked as vocalist?

A coin toss settled it, so the reluctant Jim took the microphone while his older brother William became the band's lead guitarist.

The Jesus and Mary Chain's Just Like Honey plays over the closing scene of which Bill Murray film?

Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola's 2003 film, ends on the 1985 song, which had stalled at number 45 on the UK chart when it first came out.

The opening beat of The Jesus and Mary Chain's Just Like Honey is borrowed from which 1963 Phil Spector production?

Be My Baby, a hit for the Ronettes, opens with a beat played by session drummer Hal Blaine, which the Mary Chain's own drummer quotes at the start of their song.

Which Hollywood actress joined The Jesus and Mary Chain on stage in 2007 to perform Just Like Honey?

Scarlett Johansson had starred in the 2003 film that ends on the song, and she performed it with the reunited band on a festival main stage.

The Jesus and Mary Chain first claimed their name came from a line in a film starring which crooner?

Bing Crosby had nothing to do with it: six months later the brothers admitted the story was untrue. Another account traces the name to a mail-in offer on a breakfast cereal packet.

Which American band covered The Jesus and Mary Chain's Head On for the 1991 album Trompe le Monde?

Pixies released their version as a single, and it reached number six on Billboard's Modern Rock chart after the original had peaked at number two.

After bottles flew at a 1984 show, the press dubbed The Jesus and Mary Chain the new version of which punk band?

Sex Pistols comparisons followed exaggerated press reports of a riot, and several local councils responded by banning the band from playing in their areas.

Which 1985 debut album by The Jesus and Mary Chain buried 1960s-style melodies under squalls of guitar feedback?

Psychocandy took six weeks and £17,000 to make, and its title song was left off the record, surfacing on a single the following year.

Which American singer duets with Jim Reid on The Jesus and Mary Chain's 1994 single Sometimes Always?

Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star had been asked to guest years earlier, but no song suited her voice until William Reid wrote this one.

Which drummer on The Jesus and Mary Chain's debut album left to front his own band, Primal Scream?

Bobby Gillespie had also passed the band's demo tape to the label boss who signed them, and he printed the sleeves for the first 1,000 copies of their debut single.

Which 1987 single gave The Jesus and Mary Chain their highest UK chart placing, peaking at number eight?

April Skies was the band's first top ten hit, and it also gave them their best chart placings in Ireland and New Zealand.

Which 1984 debut single by The Jesus and Mary Chain stayed on the UK Indie Chart for 76 weeks?

Upside Down topped that chart in February 1985 and again in March, and it became one of the biggest-selling indie singles of the 1980s.

Which 1986 single by The Jesus and Mary Chain did a BBC Radio 1 DJ refuse to play, deciding it praised drugs?

Some Candy Talking still climbed to number 13 in the UK despite the fuss, at that point the highest the band had reached.

Which 1992 single by The Jesus and Mary Chain reached the UK top ten despite a Top of the Pops ban?

Reverence was the first release from the brothers' own London studio, and its number ten peak made it their biggest hit in almost five years.

Which 1989 single by The Jesus and Mary Chain topped Billboard's Modern Rock chart for three weeks?

Blues from a Gun is one of the few singles sung by William Reid instead of Jim, and it was among the band's first American chart entries.

Which 1987 album, the second by The Jesus and Mary Chain, reached number five on the UK chart?

Darklands was recorded almost entirely by the two Reid brothers, and William took the lead vocal on its title track and two other songs.

Which independent label released The Jesus and Mary Chain's 1984 debut single before the band joined a major?

Creation Records counted the single as its first success, and the band returned to the label 14 years later for their last album before splitting.

Which manager of The Jesus and Mary Chain called a 1985 gig riot 'art as terrorism'?

Alan McGee had signed the band on the strength of a soundcheck, and he argued that the crowd was smashing up pop music, not the hall.

The Jesus and Mary Chain formed in 1983 in which Scottish town, where the Reid brothers grew up?

East Kilbride is where the brothers spent five years on the dole, writing and recording songs at home while they worked out the band's sound and image.

The Jesus and Mary Chain ended an eight-year split by reuniting in 2007 at which music festival?

Coachella was the comeback, a day after a warm-up gig in Pomona, California, and the band's first UK show came at the Meltdown festival two months later.

The Jesus and Mary Chain's feedback-soaked debut album is credited with inspiring which later British guitar genre?

Shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine took up the mix of 1960s melody and noise, and the album is also counted as the earliest template for noise pop.

Which Britpop band, then promoting its debut album Leisure, joined The Jesus and Mary Chain's 1992 Rollercoaster Tour?

Blur shared the bill with My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr., each act playing 45 minutes with no encore while the Mary Chain closed every night.

William Reid called The Jesus and Mary Chain's 1992 slot on which touring festival 'the worst experience of our lives'?

Lollapalooza put the band on a bill with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Jim Reid judged the whole experience fairly disastrous.

The Jesus and Mary Chain's Snakedriver sits beside The Cure and Stone Temple Pilots on which 1994 film soundtrack?

The Crow soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 and sold 3.8 million copies in the United States; the song had first led a 1993 EP by the band.

All Things Must Pass, the first new song by the reunited Jesus and Mary Chain, appeared on which NBC series soundtrack?

Heroes carried the track in 2008, the band's first new music in a decade, and a re-recorded version turned up in 2017 on their comeback album.

The Jesus and Mary Chain supply the shouted backing vocals on Drama!, a 1989 single by which synth-pop duo?

Erasure borrowed the band because they happened to be recording in the studio next door, and their voices supply the song's repeated one-word shout.

The B-side of The Jesus and Mary Chain's debut single covers Vegetable Man, a song by which Pink Floyd founder?

Syd Barrett wrote it in 1967, but Pink Floyd shelved the recording, so the song circulated only on bootlegs until an official release in 2016.

The Jesus and Mary Chain covered Who Do You Love? and wrote a tribute B-side to which rock and roll pioneer?

Bo Diddley Is Jesus was the title of the tribute, and both tracks came out on different formats of the same 1987 single.

After their drummer quit, The Jesus and Mary Chain recorded their second album using what to keep the beat?

A drum machine replaced the departed drummer on the 1987 record, and the brothers then toured Britain with it instead of hiring a replacement.

Which 2024 album gave The Jesus and Mary Chain their first UK top ten album chart placing since 1988?

Glasgow Eyes had to be recorded twice, William Reid said, because an engineer misplaced every original recording and the band started again from scratch.

Which relative of Jim and William Reid sings on a track from The Jesus and Mary Chain's 1998 album?

Their sister Linda was a schoolgirl when the band broke through, and she later made the album Little Pop Rock with her brothers under the name Sister Vanilla.

Which 1988 B-sides collection by The Jesus and Mary Chain takes its title from a line in Cherry Came Too?

Barbed Wire Kisses reached the UK top ten, and the writer Zoë Howe borrowed the same title for her 2014 biography of the band.

Which 1988 single by The Jesus and Mary Chain loops a beat from Roxanne Shante's hip-hop hit Roxanne's Revenge?

Sidewalking reflected the brothers' interest in hip hop, and it came out as a standalone single, absent from all of the band's studio albums.

Which Jesus and Mary Chain single did NME name its top track of 1985, ahead of Just Like Honey?

Never Understand was the band's first major-label single, and its shrieking guitar feedback is counted as an influence on later bands.

Which Irish singer takes the lead vocal on God Help Me, from The Jesus and Mary Chain's Stoned & Dethroned?

Shane MacGowan of the Pogues sang it on an album first planned as an all-acoustic record, an idea the brothers abandoned along the way.

The Jesus and Mary Chain's Honey's Dead was shortlisted in 1992 for the first edition of which British album award?

Mercury Prize judges gave the award to Screamadelica by Primal Scream, the band led by the Mary Chain's own former drummer.

The cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain's Honey's Dead shows a Pre-Raphaelite painting of which Shakespeare heroine?

Ophelia (First Version) by Arthur Hughes supplied the detail, while the album's title signalled a clean break from the sound of the early hit Just Like Honey.

The Jesus and Mary Chain named a 1998 album track after Moe Tucker, the drummer of which New York band?

The Velvet Underground were a founding influence: the brothers drew on the album The Velvet Underground & Nico when they began recording at home.

In which Canadian city was Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain arrested in 1987 after striking a heckler?

Toronto was where he swung his microphone stand at hecklers and spent a night in jail; he was later discharged after donating about £500 to charity and apologising.

Which founding bassist of The Jesus and Mary Chain played with only two strings and later directed music videos?

Douglas Hart reasoned that two strings were enough, and he went on to direct more than 80 videos, including early clips for My Bloody Valentine.

Which BBC Radio 1 DJ had The Jesus and Mary Chain record sessions for his show in 1984 and 1985?

John Peel booked a second session only a few months after the first, and the band's debut single placed in his Festive Fifty chart for 1984.

Which Warner-owned label, set up by Rough Trade's Geoff Travis, signed The Jesus and Mary Chain in 1985?

Blanco y Negro at first refused to press the band's opening single for the label because of its B-side, then kept the brothers on its roster for a decade.

Which American indie label released The Jesus and Mary Chain's 1998 album in the US after the band left Warner?

Sub Pop, the Seattle label that made its name with Nirvana, took the American release while the band went back to its first British label at home.

Which producer, the bassist of Killing Joke, made The Jesus and Mary Chain's 2017 comeback album Damage and Joy?

Youth produced the brothers' first studio album in 19 years, half of whose songs had already appeared in earlier versions from solo and side projects.

Which American singer guests on a track from The Jesus and Mary Chain's 2017 album Damage and Joy?

Sky Ferreira was recommended by a musician friend who had just recorded with her, Jim Reid explained, once the brothers realised the album was full of duets.

In 1988 Jim and William Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain remixed the single Birthday for which indie band?

The Sugarcubes, the Icelandic group fronted by Björk, reissued the song with the brothers' remix under the title Birthday (The Christmas Mixes).

The Jesus and Mary Chain covered Tower of Song, first recorded on the 1988 album I'm Your Man by which songwriter?

Leonard Cohen wrote the song, and the Mary Chain's version came out on a 1990 EP before a newspaper critic praised how smoothly it moved into their style.

The Jesus and Mary Chain B-side Kill Surf City reworks Surf City, a 1963 hit co-written by which Beach Boy?

Brian Wilson gave the song to Jan and Dean, who took it to number one, and the Mary Chain also recorded a cover of the Beach Boys' Surfin' U.S.A.

The Jesus and Mary Chain fell apart in 1998 when William Reid walked off stage mid-show in which US city?

Los Angeles fans got their money back: Jim came on apparently drunk, William left after about 15 minutes, and the split was made official the next year.

In 2018 The Jesus and Mary Chain opened a North American tour for which American industrial rock band?

Nine Inch Nails took the Mary Chain out on the Cold and Black and Infinite tour in autumn 2018, a year after the brothers' first album in almost two decades.