Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy - punk album for the '80s
Band was promoted as the new Sex Pistols but wilder and louder. However, anyone looking for punk's social statements was to be disappointed
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Blanco y Negro
The album comes from a time when Britain was divided by a just-ended miners' strike, race riots and mass unemployment. The mere mention of then prime minister Margaret Thatcher's name guaranteed a laugh for any left-wing comedian. Cheesy synth-pop wasn't cutting it for a young, thinking and angry audience.
Meanwhile, the police and Kelvin Mackenzie's Sun newspaper were looking for new scapegoats for society's ills.
Glaswegian entrepreneur Alan McGee stepped forward with his new discovery from East Kilbride and their debut album: promoting The Jesus and Mary Chain as the new Sex Pistols but wilder and louder, McGee hit on a highly successful strategy.
Giving his new signing the notoriety of the Pistols, especially the mayhem often associated with their gigs, led to vilification in the press and local councils shutting down much of the Mary Chain's first tour. It was great free publicity, but over the years it became clear that the band's edginess came from the fact that founding brothers William and Jim Reid simply didn't get on.