Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain: ‘We didn’t think we’d be doing this in our 60s’

Among a host of acts that have been celebrating their 40th anniversary over the last few years are Scottish alternative rockers The Jesus and Mary Chain – and they are coming to Cambridge this Saturday (14 December), where the celebrations should continue.

Forming in 1983 and releasing their debut album, Psychocandy, in 1985, the cult band, led by brothers and songwriters-in-chief Jim and William Reid, put out their eighth album, Glasgow Eyes, in March.

Jim, 62, spoke to the Cambridge Independent from his home in Devon, where he’s been living for “nearly 20 years”.

Commenting on the landmark anniversary, Jim says: “We’ve been doing it for 40 years: is it that big a deal? Suppose it is really but it doesn’t feel any different from when it was our 10th, 20th, 30th anniversary – still doing it for the same reasons, just a bit wrinklier, that’s all.”

Did Jim ever imagine when they started out that the band would be going this long? “No, I couldn’t have imagined that,” he replies, “and I’m sure William would be the same.

“You don’t; when you’re in your 20s, the idea of one day being in your 60s is just too abstract to get your head around…

“So no, I would never have imagined that we would still be doing this at this time of life.”

Jim recalls the “massive row” between him and his brother in the late 1990s which resulted in the band breaking up for nine years.

“We didn’t talk for a long time after that,” he reveals, “but nowadays we get on well enough, I would say.

“We know what the buttons are and we know when not to push those buttons – and so we don’t, and it kind of works out for us.

“So yeah, we’re still doing it, we still argue – but not to the point of breaking up again.”

Jim notes that he and his brother have “tried different things without each other” but admits that “frankly, it’s not really led us anywhere else” – “it just seems that we make sense together, it would appear, and it feels good.

“It sounds like we’re tolerating each other, but it’s not that at all. It just feels like the right place for us to be, in the Mary Chain.”

Fans at the band’s Cambridge gig can expect to hear songs from throughout their career, as well as one or two from Glasgow Eyes.

“There’s something from every album that we do live,” explains Jim, “and there will be stuff from the new record but we’re not going to ram it down people’s throats.

“I personally hate when other bands do that – you’ve got a new record out and you play the whole thing at people.

“So it’s a bit of everything; Psychocandy will be there, [second album] Darklands and so on and so forth, no record will be neglected.

“There’s going to be at least a couple of tracks from every Mary Chain record.”

Aside from the ‘regulars’ who have been coming to see the band for 30, 40 years, Jim says he has noticed younger people at their gigs too.

“Yeah, I mean I guess the internet’s got some bad sides, but that’s one of the good sides,” he observes, “I think it’s easier for the younger kids, that maybe we get namechecked by a younger band and their fans may just go on YouTube or whatever and find out what these old relics the Mary Chain are all about.

“And if they like it, they come – fortunately they do.”

As well as Glasgow Eyes, the Reid brothers also had a memoir published earlier this year. Titled Never Understood: The Jesus and Mary Chain, the book was written by Jim and William, with the help of critic and ghostwriter Ben Thompson.

See The Jesus and Mary Chain at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on Saturday, 14 December. Tickets, priced £38, are available from cornex.co.uk. For more on the band, go to themarychain.com.