This timeline takes us from the year of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s inception to their split, and ultimately their reunion in 2007. (Note: it is not an exhaustive timeline of the Mary Chain’s every move; rather it is a tool to put their story into a broader cultural context.)
1983
In East Kilbride, Scotland, brothers William and Jim Reid start to write songs and record demos on a Portastudio bought with their father’s redundancy money. Meanwhile in London, Alan McGee starts Creation Records with Dick Green and Joe Foster. Also this year, The Birthday Party break up, with singer Nick Cave forming The Bad Seeds soon after the split. My Bloody Valentine, later to join the Creation family also form this year in Dublin.
January: Trevor Horn, Jill Sinclair and Paul Morley start the label ZTT (Zang Tuum Tumb).
1 February: Long-running breakfast television programme TV-AM is launched.
26 February: Michael Jackson tops the US charts with the album Thriller. On the same day, The Cramps, a favourite band of the nascent Jesus and Mary Chain, release their first live album, Smell Of Female.
2 March: Compact discs go on sale to the general public.
July: Glaswegian goth-pop duo Strawberry Switchblade release their debut single ‘Trees And Flowers’ through 92 Happy Customers, a label run by Will Sergeant (Echo and the Bunnymen). It sells 10,000 copies.
1 September: Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon announce the dismissal of Mick Jones from The Clash.
24 October: ZTT releases the provocative debut single by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, ‘Relax’.
2 December: Michael Jackson’s fourteen-minute video for ‘Thriller’ is premiered on MTV.
The Flying Pickets are at number 1 on Christmas Day in the UK with ‘Only You’.
1984
The first line-up of The Jesus and Mary Chain is formed: Jim Reid on vocals, William Reid on guitar, Douglas Hart on bass and Murray Dalglish on drums. This year, their demo tape reaches the ears of Alan McGee via the band’s new ally Bobby Gillespie, and this leads to a gig at McGee’s London club night the Living Room and ultimately a record deal with Creation Records. The Jesus and Mary Chain record their first single, ‘Upside Down’, in the autumn of 1984 before embarking on their first tour. This is the year that The Jesus and Mary Chain rocket from obscurity to acclaim within a startlingly short space of time.
11 January: BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Read announces live on air that he refuses to play Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s single ‘Relax’, on account of its suggestive lyrics. The BBC bans the single, which subsequently goes to the top of the UK charts, where it stays for five weeks.
20 February: The Smiths release their eponymous debut album via Geoff Travis’s label Rough Trade.
1 April: Marvin Gaye is shot dead by his father in Los Angeles.
8 June: The Jesus and Mary Chain play their first gig at Alan McGee’s Living Room club on Tottenham Court Road. McGee falls in love with them instantly and signs them to Creation. Two days later, the Mary Chain play at Glasgow club Night Moves. The reception is not so positive and the band are unceremoniously thrown out of the venue mid-set.
25 June: Prince releases Purple Rain.
17 September: The Mary Chain play an inebriated show at Alice In Wonderland – a psychedelic club night in Soho co-run by Clive ‘The Doctor’ Jackson from Doctor and the Medics, and one of a handful of London dates organised by Alan McGee. They are physically hauled off stage by the promoters and told never to return.
11 October: The Mary Chain and Bobby Gillespie’s band Primal Scream play their first gig together in Glasgow. Bobby has also just joined the Mary Chain, replacing drummer Murray Dalglish, and this is his first gig with the Reids and Douglas.
23 October: The UK sees for the first time the scale of the famine in Ethiopia, thanks to a news report by the BBC newsreader Michael Buerk. Bob Geldof is one of the millions watching and he is subsequently inspired to organise Band Aid, and later Live Aid.
24 October: The Jesus and Mary Chain play London’s Three Johns pub. In the audience is NME journalist Neil Taylor, who subsequently proclaims the band to be ‘the best thing since the Sex Pistols’.
26 October: The Jesus and Mary Chain, Biff Bang Pow! and Jasmine Minks set off for the Creation package tour of Germany. When they return on 4 November, the Mary Chain discover they are all over the music press, thanks to their debut single ‘Upside Down’ (released to the public in November) and their incendiary Three Johns gig.
29 October: Frankie Goes To Hollywood release their debut album Welcome To The Pleasuredome. It goes straight to number 1.
9 November: ‘Upside Down’ is released, with the Mary Chain’s Syd Barrett cover ‘Vegetable Man’ on the B-side. This single is The Jesus and Mary Chain’s first release on Creation Records.
25 November: The Mary Chain play the Ambulance Station in Old Kent Road – a heavy gig but also the night Rough Trade boss Geoff Travis, also running Warners imprint Blanco Y Negro, sees them for the first time.
3 December: The Band Aid charity single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ is released, becoming the fastest-selling UK single of all time.
29 December: The Jesus and Mary Chain play ICA Rock Week on Jim’s twenty-third birthday.
1985
In January, the Reid brothers and Douglas Hart move to London after signing with Blanco Y Negro. They record their second single ‘Never Understand’ with the late John Loder at Southern Studios, and work soon begins in earnest on debut album Psychocandy. The album is released in November.
2 February: The Jesus and Mary Chain appear on The Old Grey Whistle Test, performing ‘In A Hole’. ‘Never Understand’, the first single from the album Psychocandy, is released on Blanco Y Negro this month.
22 February: ‘Never Understand’, The Jesus and Mary Chain’s first release on Blanco Y Negro, comes out, with ‘Suck’ on the B-side.
15 March: The Jesus and Mary Chain’s show at the North London Polytechnic descends into violent chaos.
5 April: The Jesus and Mary Chain play New York’s Danceteria. This is their first trip to the US, organised by the late promoter Ruth Polsky.
7 April: Wham! become the first Western pop group to play in China.
27 May: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the single ‘You Trip Me Up’. ‘Just Out Of Reach’ is the B-side.
25 June: The Jesus and Mary Chain play Manchester’s Hacienda with Primal Scream – Bobby Gillespie’s then girlfriend Karen Parker (who provides backing vocals on ‘Just Like Honey’) plays drums instead of Bobby.
13 July: The Live Aid pop concerts, organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, raise over £50 million for Ethiopian famine relief.
9 September: The Jesus and Mary Chain play London’s Electric Ballroom – a gig now legendary for its riotous scenes. They play, or attempt to play, ‘Just Like Honey’ live for the first time.
30 September: ‘Just Like Honey’, the third single from Psychocandy, is released. ‘Head’ is the B-side.
November sees the release of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s debut album Psychocandy. It receives glowing reviews and continues to be listed in ‘best album’ lists to this day, including Rolling Stone magazine’s ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’.
25 December: The charity Comic Relief is founded. Shakin’ Stevens’ single ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ takes the Christmas number 1 spot on the UK single charts.
26 December: Thin Lizzy front man Phil Lynott is rushed to hospital after a suspected heroin overdose. He dies on 4 January 1986.
This year, Bobby Gillespie leaves the group to concentrate on Primal Scream. He is replaced by John Moore. The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Some Candy Talking’ and part ways with Alan McGee.
5 January: The Pet Shop Boys’ single ‘West End Girls’ is the first number 1 UK single of 1986.
21 February: The Dead Kennedys play their final concert at UC Davis in California.
8 March: The Jesus and Mary Chain return to the US, this time with new drummer John Moore in tow after the departure of Bobby Gillespie.
2 May: Country superstar Dolly Parton opens her theme park, Dollywood, in Tennessee.
14 July: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the ‘Some Candy Talking’ EP.
September: The Mary Chain decide to part ways with manager Alan McGee.
15 November: The Beastie Boys’ Licensed To Ill becomes the first hiphop album to reach number 1 in the USA.
Jackie Wilson’s ‘Reet Petite’ claims the Christmas number 1 spot.
1987
The Jesus and Mary Chain release Darklands this year, but extensive touring and external pressures are taking their toll. John Moore has moved to guitar and the Reids decide to use programmed drums instead of a live drummer, which attracts mixed reviews in the US.
25 January: Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley goes to number 1 with the single ‘Jack Your Body’ – the first house music track to top the UK charts.
7 April: Alice Cooper almost dies on stage when his ‘gallows’ prop malfunctions.
20 April: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘April Skies’, the first single from their second album Darklands.
May: Whitney Houston’s song ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ is the first number 1 to be released as a CD single.
3 August: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Happy When It Rains’, the second single from Darklands.
September: The Jesus and Mary Chain release Darklands. On 4 September the band embarks on an extensive UK tour promoting the album.
4 October: Electronic data gathering replaces the sales diary technique for collating the UK charts. The chart publication date is also moved from Tuesday to Sunday.
26 October: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Darklands’, the title track from the album.
3 November: After a handful of European dates, The Jesus and Mary Chain take the Darklands tour to the US.
15 November: The Jesus and Mary Chain play Toronto’s RPM Club. During the show, Jim Reid, provoked by a verbally abusive audience member, lashes out and strikes the punter with his mic-stand. Reid is arrested.
By the end of November, the first acid house raves have started to spring up.
25 December: The Pet Shop Boys are at number 1 on Christmas Day with their cover of Elvis Presley’s ‘Always On My Mind’.
29 December: The nineteen-year-old Kylie Minogue releases her debut single, ‘I Should Be So Lucky’, via Stock Aitken and Waterman, just in time for Jim Reid’s birthday. The single climbs to number 1 the following February, where it remains for five weeks.
1988
John Moore leaves The Jesus and Mary Chain to concentrate on his solo career. The Mary Chain release stand-alone single ‘Sidewalking’, inspired by the hip-hop they’d heard during trips to New York, and the popular compilation album Barbed Wire Kisses: B Sides & More.
21 March: The Pixies release their debut album Surfer Rosa on UK label 4AD.
28 March: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the stand-alone single ‘Sidewalking’.
April: The Jesus and Mary Chain release Barbed Wire Kisses: B Sides & More.
12 August: Public Enemy stage a concert at Riker’s Island for 250 prisoners.
9 September: The Jesus and Mary Chain embark on a tour of Australia with their former roadie David Evans on guitar as John Moore’s replacement.
November: Madchester band The Happy Mondays release the album Bummed.
4 December: Roy Orbison gives his final concert in Akron, Ohio, before suffering a fatal heart attack two days later.
25 December: Cliff Richard’s ‘Mistletoe And Wine’ is Christmas number 1, the biggest-selling single of the year, keeping Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan’s single ‘Especially For You’ from the top spot. The entire top ten over the festive period is a veritable pop cheeseboard.
1989
The Jesus and Mary Chain tour ‘Sidewalking’, and also ‘co-headline’ with Iggy Pop, with disastrous results. A heavy year of touring, 1989 also takes the band on a bizarre trip behind the Iron Curtain to Estonia, amongst other places. The album Automatic is released in September.
21 March: Madonna’s video for ‘Like A Prayer’ causes controversy due to its use of religious imagery.
May: The Stone Roses release their debut album The Stone Roses.
14 May: A pop supergroup, including Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney, The Christians and Gerry Marsden, go to number 1 in the UK charts with a new version of ‘Ferry ’Cross The Mersey’, in honour of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster.
June: Nirvana release their debut album Bleach.
September: The Jesus and Mary Chain unveil their ‘driving across America album’ Automatic, and first single ‘Blues From A Gun’.
22 October: Folk singer Ewan MacColl dies.
30 October: The Jesus and Mary Chain embark on an extensive tour of the UK and Europe.
6 November: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Head On’, from the album Automatic, with ‘In The Black’ on the B-side.
13 November: The Jesus and Mary Chain release two more single versions of ‘Head On’ with different B-sides – one with ‘Deviant Slice’ and the other, ‘I’m Glad I Never’.
25 December: The Christmas number 1 spot is claimed by Band Aid II, ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’
1990
The Jesus and Mary Chain tour Automatic, and are joined in June by Nine Inch Nails. Ben Lurie is now in the Mary Chain line-up on guitar. A major bust-up between the Reid brothers in Tokyo causes the Mary Chain to split up – although they don’t tell anybody outside the inner circle, and patch things up by Christmas. Meanwhile this year, vinyl is declining and the boy band phenomenon is rising.
7 January: New Kids on the Block single ‘Hangin’ Tough’ is the first UK number 1 of 1990.
21 January: MTV’s Unplugged series is aired for the first time, starting with British group Squeeze.
25 January: The Jesus and Mary Chain head off on the Automatic tour, starting in Vancouver.
26 January: Emerging band Nine Inch Nails join the Automatic tour in Chicago.
12 February: The Cramps release their fourth studio album, Stay Sick!, produced by Poison Ivy.
4 April: The North American Automatic tour ends in New York at the Ritz venue.
27 May: The Stone Roses stage their now legendary show at Spike Island (‘the birthplace of the British chemical industry’) in Cheshire.
27 August: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the ‘Rollercoaster’ EP.
15 October: British shoegazing group Ride (with future Mary Chain member Loz Colbert on drums) release their debut album Nowhere on Creation Records.
27 November: ‘Vocal’ pop duo Milli Vanilli admit to miming on their hits, such as ‘Girl You Know It’s True’. Their Grammy award is revoked. On the same day, The Happy Mondays release their hit album Pills ’n’ Thrills And Bellyaches.
25 December: Cliff Richard claims the Christmas number 1 in the UK once more, this time with ‘Saviour’s Day’.
1991
With the Reids communicating with each other again, work begins on a new LP, Honey’s Dead, the ‘last sober album’, as Jim refers to it. Founding member and bass player Douglas Hart leaves the band. The Reids buy their own studio in Elephant and Castle, South London. They call it The Drugstore.
15 January: Yoko Ono brings together a ‘Peace Choir’ – featuring Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt, Peter Gabriel and Lenny Kravitz among others – to record and release a version of ‘Give Peace A Chance’ in reaction to news of the imminent Gulf War.
May: The Smashing Pumpkins release their debut album Gish.
June: Bryan Adams’ single ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’, featured in the hit movie Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, is released. It spends sixteen weeks at number 1 in the UK.
18 July: Perry Farrell launches the first Lollapalooza tour, intended as a send-off for his dissolved band Jane’s Addiction. Acts on the bill included Nine Inch Nails, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Rage against the Machine.
August: Blur release their debut album Leisure, which peaks at number 7 in the UK chart.
September: Nirvana release their second album, Nevermind. In the same month, the Pixies release the album Trompe le Monde, which includes their cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain single ‘Head On’.
27 October: U2’s single ‘The Fly’ replaces Bryan Adams’ ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’ at the top of the UK chart.
November: Michael Jackson releases Dangerous, which goes on to be the best-selling album of the decade.
4 November: My Bloody Valentine release Loveless, their third album. The recording process has taken two years and reportedly cost £250,000, a figure that nearly bankrupts Creation Records.
24 November: Queen frontman Freddie Mercury dies just 24 hours after formally announcing that he is suffering from AIDS.
25 December: Queen are at number 1 for Christmas in the UK with the double A-side ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’/‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’. Proceeds go to the Terence Higgins Trust.
1992
The Mary Chain embark on the Rollercoaster tour, release the single ‘Reverence’ (which becomes a top ten hit, much to the surprise of the Reids themselves) and take part in the ‘unbearable’ touring festival Lollapalooza. Also this year, Alan McGee sells half of Creation Records to Sony after struggling with debt.
27 January: British band Lush release their album Spooky, reaching number 7 in the UK album chart.
3 February: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the controversial ‘Reverence’, which unexpectedly goes to number 10 in the UK single charts.
2 March: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Far Gone And Out’, with B-side ‘Why Do You Want Me?’
9 March: The KLF famously appear on the Brit Awards, firing blanks over the audience from an automatic weapon.
23 March: The Jesus and Mary Chain release Honey’s Dead and embark on the first leg of their Rollercoaster tour, with Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody Valentine and Blur, before touring Europe through April and May.
April: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Far Gone And Out’, the second single from Honey’s Dead.
22 June: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Almost Gold’, the third single from Honey’s Dead. The B-side is ‘Teenage Lust’ (Acoustic Version).
18 July: The Jesus and Mary Chain travel to San Francisco to be part of the Lollapalooza tour with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others. The tour lasts until 28 August and is not an enjoyable experience for the Mary Chain.
September: The Shamen’s single ‘Ebeneezer Goode’ causes a stir because of its purported endorsement of Ecstasy. It shoots to number 1 in the UK, and becomes one of the most controversial number ones of the 1990s.
23 October: The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Rollercoaster tour resumes in the US, this time with Spiritualised and Curve.
25 December: Whitney Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You’, as featured in the film The Bodyguard, is the Christmas number 1 for 1992. It has been firmly at the top of the charts since 29 November and remains there until the end of the year.
The Reids start working on material for new album Stoned & Dethroned, collaborating with Mazzy Star singer Hope Sandoval and Shane MacGowan. The Jesus and Mary Chain also release their second compilation album, The Sound Of Speed, in August.
22 March: Depeche Mode become the first alternative British band to get to number 1 in the USA on the Billboard 200, with the album Songs Of Faith And Devotion.
29 March: Suede release their eponymous debut album. It enters the chart at number 1, and sets a new record for the fastest-selling debut LP by a UK act in Britain.
May: Blur release Modern Life Is Rubbish.
31 May: Oasis play King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. Creation Records boss Alan McGee is in the audience. He offers them a recording contract.
7 June: Prince announces he is changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol; for ease, he becomes ‘the artist formerly known as Prince’ until presumably even he gets tired of it and reverts to ‘Prince’ in 2000.
28 June: The Mary Chain release the ‘Sound Of Speed’ EP.
August: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the compilation album The Sound Of Speed.
18 November: Nirvana play MTV Unplugged.
25 December: The UK’s Christmas number 1 is claimed by Mr Blobby (a character from the UK TV show Noel’s House Party, whose vocabulary is limited, side-splittingly, to the word ‘blobby’) with the song ‘Mr Blobby’. The single knocks Meatloaf’s ‘I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)’ off the chart top spot after seven long weeks.
The Jesus and Mary Chain, now with Curve drummer Steve Monti in the group, release Stoned & Dethroned in August. A fractious promotional tour ensues.
16 January: D:Ream’s ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ is the first UK number 1 single of 1994, later becoming the ‘theme song’ for Tony Blair’s New Labour.
11 February: The three surviving Beatles reunite in secret to record additional music for some of John Lennon’s unfinished demos. The track ‘Free As A Bird’ is released the following year as part of the Beatles Anthology.
7 April: Dr Feelgood singer and proto-punk figurehead Lee Brilleaux dies after battling lymphoma.
8 April: Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is found dead. His death, three days earlier, is declared suicide from a self-inflicted gun-shot.
29 May: Scottish pop band Wet Wet Wet’s single ‘Love Is All Around’ goes to number 1 in the UK, staying at the top of the charts until 4 September.
18 July: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Sometimes Always’ (B-side: ‘The Perfect Crime’), the first single from their album Stoned & Dethroned. The duet between Jim Reid and Mazzy Star singer Hope Sandoval reaches number 22 in the UK charts.
August: The Jesus and Mary Chain release Stoned & Dethroned. Oasis unleash Definitely Maybe, which becomes the fastest-selling debut album in the UK. The record is broken in 2006 by Arctic Monkeys’ catchily titled Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.
23 August: Jeff Buckley releases the album Grace.
10 October: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘Come On’, the second single from Stoned & Dethroned. The B-side is ‘I’m In With The Out Crowd’. The band also head out on their first tour since 1992, with Mazzy Star in support. They tour the US, concluding on 28 November in San Diego.
25 December: East 17 claim the Christmas number 1 with ‘Stay Another Day’, not a particularly festive song; in fact it’s totally miserable. Still, it does have church-bells on it.
1995
Ever prolific, William and Jim Reid have already started working on material for their sixth studio album Munki. They also release the ‘Hate Rock’n’Roll’ EP and William’s song ‘I Hate Rock’n’Roll’.
1 February: Manic Street Preachers member Richey Edwards goes missing.
May: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the ‘Hate Rock’n’Roll’ EP and also the single, ‘I Hate Rock’n’Roll’. They then embark on a short tour of Australia and Japan before returning to Europe for a stint of summer festivals.
September: Blur release The Great Escape, which tops the album charts. The single ‘Country House’ from this album also becomes the band’s first number 1, crucially beating Britpop rivals Oasis and their single ‘Roll With It’ to the top.
October: Oasis release their second album What’s The Story, Morning Glory? It becomes the third best-selling album in the UK ever.
December: The Beatles release ‘Free As A Bird’, their first single in over twenty years.
25 December: Michael Jackson is at number 1 on Christmas Day in the UK with ‘Earth Song’.
Munki, the Jesus and Mary Chain’s final studio album to date, is underway at The Drugstore. Work also begins on Little Pop Rock, the Reids’ sister Linda’s own album.
13 February: Take That announce they will be splitting up. The news causes such despair that a telephone helpline has to be set up to deal with the hysteria.
19 February: Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker disrupts Michael Jackson’s performance of ‘Earth Song’ at the Brit Awards by mounting the stage, lifting his shirt and waggling his bottom in Jackson’s direction. Cocker later states that his actions are ‘a protest at the way Michael Jackson sees himself as some kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing’. The now defunct music paper Melody Maker suggests Cocker should be knighted for the stunt.
18 March: The Sex Pistols announce they are to reform for a twentieth-anniversary tour.
30 May: Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan is arrested upon release from hospital, having overdosed on a heroin and cocaine ‘speedball’ in a Los Angeles hotel room and been pronounced clinically dead for two minutes.
8 July: The Spice Girls release their debut single, ‘Wannabe’. It tops the British chart for seven weeks and is also number 1 in thirty-one countries, becoming the biggest-selling debut single by an all-female group of all time.
6 August: The Ramones play their final show at the Palace in Hollywood.
17 October: Lush drummer Chris Acland commits suicide.
8 November: The film Hype!, about the Seattle grunge scene, goes on general release after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.
25 December: The Spice Girls’ ‘2 Become 1’ is the UK’s Christmas number 1. Merry Christmas, music-lovers.
1997
The Jesus and Mary Chain complete work on Munki at the Drugstore, and part ways with Blanco Y Negro, who choose not to release the album.
12 February: David Bowie receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
21 May: Radiohead release OK Computer, which tops the album chart for two weeks and is widely hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time.
4 August: Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti dies.
21 August: Oasis release the album Be Here Now, which sells 695,761 units in its first three days, becoming the fastest-selling album in UK history.
29 September: The Verve release Urban Hymns. The majority of their royalties for the hit single ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ go to the Rolling Stones after a legal dispute over a sample of the Stones’ song ‘The Last Time’.
17 November: The Prodigy release ‘Smack My Bitch Up’, which garners widespread media attention not least because it was presumed to glorify misogyny and violence against women. The band deny the claims.
19 November: Gary Glitter is arrested after images of child pornography are found on his computer.
22 November: INXS singer Michael Hutchence is found dead.
25 December: The Spice Girls once again claim the Christmas number 1 spot in the UK, this time with the perhaps appropriately titled ‘Too Much’.
1998
The Jesus and Mary Chain reunite with Alan McGee’s Creation Records, releasing Munki in June and embarking on an extensive promotional tour with Philip King (Lush) on bass. Tensions and personality clashes finally tip the band over the edge and William Reid leaves the US leg of the tour in September.
4 January: BBC charity single ‘Perfect Day’ pushes the Spice Girls off the top of the UK singles chart, becoming the first British number 1 single of 1998.
19 January: Rockabilly guitarist Carl Perkins dies.
6 April: The Jesus and Mary Chain release the first single from Munki, ‘Cracking Up’, via Creation Records.
7 April: Singer George Michael is arrested for ‘lewd conduct’ in a public toilet in Beverly Hills.
14 May: Frank Sinatra dies.
18 May: The Jesus and Mary Chain release ‘I Love Rock’n’Roll’, the second single from the album Munki.
1 June: The Jesus and Mary Chain release Munki on Creation Records.
12 June: The Jesus and Mary Chain tour Munki, starting at Chicago’s Metro venue.
4 July: The Jesus and Mary Chain appear at the Meltdown Festival, curated by late broadcaster John Peel, on London’s South Bank.
5 July: Teenage pop singer Billie Piper becomes the youngest British solo artist to debut at number 1 in the UK singles charts with ‘Because We Want To’.
24 July: The Jesus and Mary Chain appear at Glasgow’s Barrowland venue for the last time. Primal Scream also perform. Douglas Hart, perhaps presciently given the circumstances to come, films the show.
25 August: Singer Lauryn Hill releases her debut solo album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill. It sells nineteen million copies worldwide and is certified 7x Platinum.
9 September: The Jesus and Mary Chain return to the US to tour, with Mercury Rev in support. Within two days, the band split up, with William leaving the tour.
23 October: Britney Spears’ debut single ‘. . . Baby One More Time’ is released, going on to become the top-selling single of 1999.
8 November: The Jesus and Mary Chain – without William – play their final show in Thessaloniki, Greece.
25 December: The Spice Girls are at number 1 for the third Christmas in a row, this time with the song ‘Goodbye’ (as Geri Halliwell has just left the band). This song is soon displaced by the rather less sentimental ‘Chocolate Salty Balls’ by South Park character Chef.
2007
After a hiatus of nearly ten years, the Reids reunite for the Coachella Festival in April, and a year of touring ensues for The Jesus and Mary Chain, this time featuring Mark Crozer on guitar and Loz Colbert (Ride) on drums, with former members John Moore and Philip King later joining the line-up. (The current line-up includes Philip King and Fountains of Wayne drummer Brian Young.) The year 2007 also sees the eventual release of Sister Vanilla’s Little Pop Rock, the album the Reids made with their younger sister Linda.
7 January: The first number 1 of the year is claimed by X Factor star Leona Lewis, with the single ‘A Moment Like This’. In October, her song ‘Bleeding Love’ becomes the biggest single of the year, remaining at the top of the charts for six weeks. (The video, incidentally, features the singer crouching by a radiator while singing ‘Keep bleeding . . .’ Either this is a happy accident or the director had a sense of humour.)
12 January: American jazz artist Alice Coltrane dies.
22 June: The Jesus and Mary Chain appear at the Meltdown Festival, curated by Jarvis Cocker, on London’s South Bank. The Pastels are in support.
4 August: US singer-songwriter and producer Lee Hazlewood dies.
7 September: After playing a clutch of summer festivals, The Jesus and Mary Chain play London’s Brixton Academy.
10 October: Radiohead release In Rainbows themselves. It is made available as a download and fans are invited to pay what they want for it.
22 October: The Jesus and Mary Chain embark on a short US tour.
10 December: Led Zeppelin reunite in London after twenty-five years. John Bonham’s son Jason plays drums.
25 December: X Factor singer Leon Jackson is at number 1 on Christmas Day with ‘When You Believe’. The domination of X Factor over our charts is now very much in place and remains so in the coming years. Not that it needs to affect us, of course.