Original pressing plant acetates
Indebted to John (actually several last names that I know of
) for reminding me of this record on a recent comment he wrote. Three tracks from a band from East Kilbride, up near Glasgow, that turned the music business upside down onto its head and gave it a good shaking for a year or two.
Read J.A.M.C. first nationwide interview in Zig Zag magazine here
Recorded at Southern Studios in Wood Green, London, N22 and ably engineered by John Loder, these sessions ended up on the massive selling LP ‘Psychocandy’. Several singles were released from this LP all making the top 40 in the UK. There was a massive buzz about this band at this time in 1985. The inspiration felt for J.A.M.C. led in part to the N.M.E. named ‘C86’ genre of bands that flooded the gig venues the following year. The likes of The Pastels, Biff Bang Pow, Shop Assistants, and Marychain member Bobby Gillespie’s Primal Scream. Of course a lot of these C86 bands had been going before, or during the early stages of J.A.M.C. influence, but this influence opened the doors for the writers in all the music weeklies to push other similar bands, which of course they did with aplomb.
Were they described as ‘shoegazers’ by some hack in some weekly music paper?
An awesome snippet of tracks from this LP (will not risk uploading the whole LP for obvious reasons) trashy guitars over a soft pop under-beat, perfect for those summer days by the canal, ensure you get the CD or vinyl from ebay or somewhere!
Chris
April 10, 2008 at 8:47 pmthe release of Psychocandy was like the second coming of Christ in Scotland at the time it was released. suddenly everyone was going about in leather box-jackets, black 501s and backcombing their hair. bizarre.
i used to work with JAMC guitarist ben at interceptor (managing suede etc) and him and Jim reid produced our LP. Did a UK tour with them when they were in the criminally underrated ‘Freeheat’ as well. Lovely guys.
Tony Puppy
April 11, 2008 at 2:10 amBizarre. In London they played squat gigs and were treated as another punk band.
Though I’d left Scotland by this time, my youngest sister (not Val) and the soon to be JAMC drummer Bobby both used to roadie for Altered Images.
Nic
April 11, 2008 at 8:38 amThe JAMC were like a breath of fresh air when ‘Upside Down’ came out in 1984 – a sense of excitement and of danger, Ramones swathed in distortion with swaggering lyrics…
Punk in England had reached a point of stasis by then (or so it seemed to me), and the JAMC Peel session and OGWT appearance just compounded this feeling of excitement…
Like Chris says, they definitely spurred on a ‘fashion look’ that I remember: there was a conscious Velvet Underground-inspired look going around as evidenced in the 2nd hand clothes shops…
I saw them twice in 1985 and the gigs were electric…
(Has anyone got the ‘Taste the Floor’ bootleg? I was at that gig!)
The music Penguin mentions (Pastels, Shop Assistants, etc) was a big thing for ma femme who had grown up on Postcard Records and the VU…
Carl
April 11, 2008 at 8:41 amGreat band, I think that the first single came out on Creation, at the time the Membranes were on the label. It was refreshing to see the band break through instead of being criminally ignored like the likes of The Three Johns, Membranes and The (Sex) Pastels.
I saw The Pastels around that time , made a brilliant single “Truck, Train, Tractor” which managed to sell about 5 copies !!..
Going back to The Marychain, didn’t they do a gig at The Ambulance Station that was chaos and lasted about 20 minutess, that was the launch of them I seem to remember and probbaly ties in with Tony’s recollection of them around the time of them playing squat gigs/ punk band.
I guess that people were fed up with “hardcore punk” or the Crass alternative and this came along at that time.
Jim V
April 11, 2008 at 8:58 amDaddy Warbuck’s, just off George Square in Glasgow saw JAMC perform an enthusiastic rock gig (with customary staged riot). They played 2 songs, accompanied by the same blasphemous lyrics, and then left the stage. I think this was 1985, as I was still at school. Sorry at no point did JAMC ever come across as punk…just good old fun rock and roll.
Nic
April 11, 2008 at 9:06 amCarl – ma femme LOVES ‘Truck Train Tractor’! In fact, I DJ-ed it about a month ago!
🙂
JAMC played the Ambulance Station at the tail end of 1984: I seem to remember reading a review of it in one of the music weeklies?
When you say ‘Hardcore Punk’, Carl, do you mean the ‘UK 82’ bands (the ‘Brickwall Punk’ bands) or Thrash?
Beyond a handful of groups that were influenced by global thrash (such as Anti System, Dirge, Onslaught, Legion of Parasites, Concrete Sox and Eat Shit – Disorder and Chaos UK were on a bit of a hiatus in 1984), Punk in England was still stuck in the ‘sing-a-longa’ mode then…and the ‘Crass alternative’ was slowly stewing itself into non-existence..
or at least that is the way i remember it!
I totally agree Jim V – the JAMC were never classed as a ‘Punk’ band: they seemed more in tune with the Velvets revival that happened in the UK around 1984 and 1985…
luggy
April 11, 2008 at 9:08 amWas at their gig at North London Poly that turned into a ‘riot’. Found it all pretty funny, I reckon their mates were the main instigators. Good band but didn’t bother seeing them again after that contrivance.
Nic
April 11, 2008 at 9:13 amPerhaps they took some cues from McClaren?
🙂
Carl
April 11, 2008 at 9:24 amNic…I do mean the UK82 bands , all cider and chaos !!…Sad really as was the Crass stuff. All too uniform for my liking…so yeah I remember it the same way as you Nic !
Jim V
April 11, 2008 at 9:29 amNorth London Poly gig on youtube if anyones interested…
Nathalie
April 11, 2008 at 12:22 pmI don’t believe this, I was just mentioning on the other page, how astonished I was to have found something about Webcore and here I am on another page with more bands of my past, namely Jesus and the Mary Chain, Here & Now… Wow… I think I am returning to being a psychedelic child..
Cheerio
Steve
April 11, 2008 at 5:20 pmRe Truck Train Tractor – the b-side (Breaking Lines) is even better! Check it out etc etc
Nuzz
April 11, 2008 at 8:51 pmIf any ones interested, I found this earlier: http://burningworld.blogspot.com/ a link to JAMC live at Roundhouse 12/3/08
sg
April 15, 2008 at 9:54 pmI loved the Jesus and Mary Chain, we used to play Upside Down full blast before we went out on a saturday night. I first saw them at the ICA in 1984 and recorded it. I also have all their gigs on tape from 1984 and 1985 plus many from 1986. The dates from 1984 are as follows :
Oxford Arms London 12/06/84
Roebuck London 15/09/84
Glasgow 24/10/84
Three Johns N1 24/11/84
Ambulance Station 25/11/84
Enger Forum 27/10/84
ICA London 29/12/84
Must get these on to CD sometime.
Penguin • Post Author •
April 15, 2008 at 11:25 pmStephen, could you email me the best quality one please?
sg
April 17, 2008 at 11:19 pmNo problem. Just going through them now, about half way through. Some sound great, some are really bad…..
mister caz
November 11, 2009 at 4:58 pmreally nice.
you folks have gotten some great stuff up there.
excellent blog.
jones the steam
November 18, 2009 at 4:23 amMary Chain were like the band i had been waiting for since i first heard feedback ala Velvets. i used to own several bootleg lps of gigs of theirs from the early days, i paid silly money for them 20 quid, 18 quid and 15 quid from the excellent rhythm mail order catalogue based out of plymouth. the only one i can remember is cutmedeadnailmedownandkickmyhead, it was totally awesome.does anyone have it?.
FINALLY,THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS SITE. IT IS THE DOGS LANYARD
p.s any chance of a Chaotic Dischord feature, its not for me its for my gran!