London Camden Ballroom

SINGER JIM REID has described pop music as ‘a sewer’. On stage he slides, rolls. jerks and gesticulates like a schizophrenic rat on amphetamine.

Opposing the commercialism of Madonna and the tweeness of The Smiths, Reid’s group, The Jesus And Mary Chain, offer a musical mayhem driven by youthful zest and emotion rather than any overt technical skills. They thrive on a volatile atmosphere and create one through an undercurrent of violence inherent in their music.

All the songs are cloaked in a dizzy crackle of guitar feedback. On the most accessible numbers this is welded to a spindly thread of melody often so unnervingly simple as to be redolent of surf music. On their second single, ‘Never Understand’, they sounded like the Beach Boys with knuckle dusters.

To continue reading this article and to discover many more (over 140,000 words-worth!), purchase Mick Sinclair’s Adjusting the Stars: Music journalism from post-punk London.