Their first show since 2008, The Mary Chain were as noisy and belligerent as ever as, both deafening and blinding, sound and light used as weapons against the mesmerised crowd, and as the smoke unfurled and great tides of feedback rose and crashed everyone present surrendered to ‘Psychocandy’ all over again.
Forming in East Kilbride in 1983, The Jesus and Mary Chain announced their arrival on the scene with a series of provocatively short gigs (average length: ten minutes). Staged by nascent scene-maker Alan McGee, brothers Jim and William Reid - aided by the brain-dead stomp of a young Bobby Gillespie on drums – set forth their stall of proto-shoegazing.
Released in 1985, ‘Psychocandy’ was a cocktail of speed and hallucinogens mixed with equal parts Beach Boys’ melody and Velvets’ minimalism. A combination of guitar feedback with traditional pop song structure proved influential on the forthcoming shoegaze genre and alternative rock in general influencing the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Spiritualized and more recently The Horrors.
Speaking about the 30th anniversary of 'Psychocandy', Jim Reid said, “Psychocandy was meant to be a kick in the teeth to all of those who stood in our way at the time, which was practically the whole music industry. In 1985 there were a great many people who predicted no more than a six-month life span for The Mary Chain.”
Track listing:
April Skies
Head On
Some Candy Talking
Psycho Candy
Up Too High
Reverence
Upside Down
---------------------
Just Like Honey
The Living End
Taste The Floor
The Hardest Walk
Cut Dead
In A Hole
Taste Of Cindy
Never Understand
Inside Me
Sowing Seeds
My Little Underground
You Trip Me Up
Something’s Wrong
It’s So Hard
