Jim Reid was born in 1961 in Glasgow. Four years later his family moved out to the suburb of East Kilbride. After years of boredom, Jim and his brother William, inspired by punk rock, conspired to form a rock'n'roll band tailor-made to their music tastes. When their father was made redundant and gave them money 'to buy a car so they could get a job', they spent it on a Portastudio and made demos. Although Jim believed he couldn't sing, he landed the role of vocalist solely because his guitar playing was worse than William's.
The Jesus and Mary Chain were formed, and in the summer of 1984 they moved to London and signed to Alan McGee's Creation label. Their debut single Upside Down, complete with what was to become their trademark feedback, did well in the independent charts. Early the following year they signed to WEA Records. November 1985 saw the release of Psychocandy, one of rock's greatest debuts. The JAMC reached no 13 in the charts with Some Candy Talking and then no 8 with April Skies. The album Darkland followed in '87, and over the following years Automatic ('89), Honey's Dead ('92)which included the single Reverence making the top 10, Stoned and Dethroned ('94) and their last LP Munki ('98). The band split up onstage in LA in September 1998 after the arguments that had always between present between the brothers reached boiling point.
So ended a band that were influential on so many to follow: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Ravonettes, to name a couple. There were also nods from bands like Oasis and Blur, covers by The Pixies and Primal Scream, tributes, and their music was used in feature films.
For a full Mary Chain Discography see: http://aprilskies.amniisia.com/index.php
By the time of the split Jim had progressed in his song writing from the early Mary Chain single Never Understand to more mature yet still edgy songs like I Love Rock 'n' Roll. With his love of music and desire to continue writing and singing, he went on in 2000 to form the band Freeheat with ex Mary Chain drummer Nick Sanderson and guitarist Ben Lurie. Freeheat did several tours and released an EP Retox, before the members went their separate ways in 2003.
Jim has since been joined by Phil King (ex Felt, Lush, Jesus and Mary Chain and many many more...) on lead guitar, Loz Colbert (ex Ride) on drums, and Mark Crozer on Bass, and has been performing his new material at several low key gigs. His debut solo single Song For A Secret was released in November 2005 through Transistor Records.
Since 2007 Jim has been with the reformed Jesus and Mary Chain.
Other projects Jim has been involved with include:
Remixed Ja Sha Taan by Fun-Da-Mental (1997)
Singing and writing: on Death In Vegas' Broken Little Sister from The Contino Sessions (1999) and on Swiss electro Seelenluft's I Can See Clearly Now from The Way We Go (2004)
Providing vocals: on Primal Scream's Detriot from Evil Heat (2002), and performing live with them.
Production: on Portuguese punks The Parkinsons' mini album A Long Way To Nowhere and on Tompaulin's Give Me A Riot In The Summertime.
Writing songs: for his sister Linda's band Sistervanilla.
Jim lives in Devon with his wife Julie and daughters Simone and Candice.
Where can I buy "If you gotta go"? I love it! I can't find it available for download anywhere and the only CD I've located is like $250! :( I must have it! Help! -Jason (c/o French Disco)
Online Now!
