Researched and written for April Skies by Mikko Kapanen with modifications/additions put in by Niina as and when they arrive

note: more photos coming soon.. if you have any photos that are missing, or you think that someone's photo isn't correct, please contact niina

The original "line-up" of The Jesus And Mary Chain consisted of brothers Jim and William Reid who in 1983/'84 recorded two-man demos on a four track porta studio with the aid of a drum machine at their home in East Kilbride, Scotland. While younger brother Jim is usually thought of as having been the band's lead singer he also sometimes played guitar onstage. In the early days before the band had a second guitarist he "played" the guitar rather badly (in conventional terms), basically just kicking it around to make noises. In latter days he played guitar onstage when William sang "I Hate Rock'n'Roll". William Reid's "main job" in the band was to be the lead guitarist and the main "architect" of the band's original sound. Even though William sang many of the band's songs on records, Jim used to sing everything live until the last few years when William sang "I Hate Rock'n'Roll" and "Cracking Up" himself. In spite of these "accepted" roles both brothers are nothing short of multi-instrumentalists, having recorded guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, percussion, programmed drum machines and samples, and sung lead and backing vocals on the band's albums and singles. With very few exceptions (two, to be exact) Jim and/or William also wrote all of The Jesus And Mary Chain's original material. Thus there was never really any need for extra players in the studio and since the band was the Reids' brainchild, albums like Darklands, Automatic and Honey's Dead were more or less recorded by just the two of them.

However, The Jesus And Mary Chain on record and The Jesus And Mary Chain live were two very different things. Apart from the "classic" Psychocandy line-up of Jim Reid (vocals), William Reid (guitars), Douglas Hart (bass) and Bobby Gillespie (drums), the band never really had a proper stable line-up, with musicians coming and going to back the Reids up live without ever becoming official members of the band. The only person to join the band after that classic line-up and become an official member of The Jesus And Mary Chain was Ben Lurie who became the only member of the band apart from the Reids to make major contributions in the studio as well. Still, official members or not, these people had a part to play in the Mary Chain's transformation from the exciting chaos of the early gigs to the "proper" great live band of the '90s... "And the way it all falls together is the way it all fits!"

When the Jesus and Mary Chain reformed in 2007, Jim took over all live vocal duties while William focussed on playing guitar.

Douglas was one of the original members of the band (having been school friends with Jim Reid), infamous for more often than not having less than four strings on his bass. When Douglas was in the band, he said making videos is a waste of time and really boring. You can check out the clips for "Never Understand", "Happy When It Rains" or "Sidewalking" and see for yourself that he really doesn't seem to be enjoying himself too much. However, after he left the band he started making videos for Alan McGee's Creation label (f.ex. My Bloody Valentine's "Soon") and from there he went on to put together his own video company! He has also directed The Stone Roses' home videos Live Blackpool and The Complete Stone Roses. He was a member of the Mary Chain from the very early days until the Automatic tour on which he shared the stage with new rhyhtm guitarist Ben Lurie, who would practically be his replacement as the "third" official band member from then on.

According to William Reid, Murray was only 16 when he joined the band. Obviously influenced by The Velvet Underground, the Reids had the guy banging on a two piece drum kit while standing up. Murray's only recorded appearance with the band (ultra chaotic bootlegs aside) was the debut single "Upside Down" - although years later in an interview William claimed Murray couldn't play the drum part and that he actually recorded it himself! Eventually Murray had to be let go apparently because his dad had told him to demand more money (musicians' union fees) for playing live when the band wasn't even making any money. Dalglish was the band's drummer from their earliest gigs in East Kilbride and Glasgow in the spring of 1984 until November when he was replaced by Bobby Gillespie. Murray then went on to form a band called Baby's Got A Gun. According to William, Murray later on worked in a bank.

Bobby was a friend of Jim, William and Douglas and it was actually him who got the band the deal with Creation Records - he was also a good friend of Alan McGee's who just "happened" to hear the band's demos on the B-side of a cassette Bobby had of a Syd Barrett bootleg. Alan contacted the Reids, put them on at his London club The Living Room and the rest is history... At the time Bobby sang in a relatively unknown group called Primal Scream before he joined The Jesus And Mary Chain but once his mates' group was out of a drummer he accepted their invitation to join (although his drumming abilities were very limited) and thus had to share his time between the two bands. Bobby played on all the band's records between "Upside Down" and "Some Candy Talking" but finally in October 1985 he announced he wanted to devote himself to his own band and that he was leaving the Mary Chain. However, he stayed on until early 1986 playing live gigs with the band. In 1998 Primal Scream released a cover version of the song "Darklands" as a B-side on "If They Move, Kill 'Em", and Bobby once appeared on stage in London with the Mary Chain. In 2002 Jim Reid appeared on Primal Scream's Evil Heat album and also got on stage with them at several gigs.

Karen appeared on both the album and the Peel session version of "Just Like Honey". Apparently she was Bobby Gillespie's girlfriend at the time. She also drummed for the band at one early gig because Bobby had hurt his hand the night before.

Laurence, who was Jim Reid's girlfriend at the time, was originally scheduled to provide backing vocals for the album version of "Taste Of Cindy", similar to Karen's on "Just Like Honey". The record sleeve was designed and produced before the final mix of Psychocandy, hence the credit for backing vocals even though her voice was taken out. Laurence worked for Creation Records and also managed the band for a while after they sacked McGee. She is also thanked in the Darklands inner sleeve.

Dick Green of Creation Records and Biff! Bang! Pow! (Alan McGee's band at the time) was called in to play bass on "Some Candy Talking" because Douglas, Jim, William and everybody else working on the single at the studio failed to nail the part for one reason or another.

John Moore replaced Bobby Gillespie as the band's drummer in early 1986. By the autumn he had switched over to rhythm guitar, when Martin Hewes became the band's drummer. John Moore apparently did not appear on any of the band's recordings since "Some Candy Talking" was the only single from this period to actually have been recorded with live drums as opposed to a drum machine but Moore's name isn't mentioned in the credits on 21 Singles. Moore did appear on promo photos, video clips and TV appearances up to and including "Sidewalking" pretending to play the two-piece drum kit, although most of those songs were indeed recorded with a drum machine. The band also toured with a drum machine in 1987 and '88 with Moore on second guitar. After he departed he formed his own band John Moore And The Expressways where he sang and played guitar. Later on, in the '90s, he had a band called Revolution 9, he played on The Ecstacy Of St. Theresa's first album, introduced Absinthe to the UK and in 1998 formed Black Box Recorder with whom he has released several albums.

Former Redskin Hewes became the band's drummer for a while in 1986 when John Moore became the group's second guitarist.

Another short term drummer during the tours when John Moore played rhythm guitar.

Evans played rhythm guitar during the band's live shows after John Moore quit.

After James Pinker the band used a drum machine on stage. After that Richard Thomas took over the drums. Thomas originally played drums with a band called Dif Juz (pronounced "diffuse") that was on 4AD records. Thomas even appeared on The Jesus And Mary Chain's Automatic album, providing the drums for "Gimme Hell". He can also be seen in the promo videos for "Blues From A Gun" and "Head On", as well as on the "Head On" single cover photo. After his departure in 1990 he joined a band called Renegade Soundwave.

Australian Ben Lurie originally replaced Dave Evans as the band's rhythm guitarist for the Automatic tour on which he shared the stage with bassist Douglas Hart whose permanent replacement as an official member of the band he would become. One look at the credits in the booklet of Stoned & Dethroned reveal that his contributions to the band were actually quite important as he played various instruments just like Jim and William. Ben was also the only member of The Jesus And Mary Chain apart from the Reids to contribute original material to the band - he wrote "Taking It Away" (B-side of "Come On") and "Rocket" (B-side of "Cracking Up"). In 1998 he accompanied Jim in all the interviews instead of William, to promote Munki.

Steve used to be the drummer in The Curve before joining The Jesus And Mary Chain for the "Rollercoaster" tour. He did a fine job and worked with the band on many occasions since then. Monti recorded drums for Honey's Dead (apart from the tracks which used a drum machine), Stoned & Dethroned and some B-sides. He can also be seen drumming in the promo video for "Come On".

Matthew (ex-Starlings), played the Scandinavian tour, Rollercoaster UK tour, and European tour.

Another short term drummer, Barry (ex-Starlings), played the Scandinavian tour, Rollercoaster UK tour, and European tour.

Nick used to be the drummer in The World Of Twist before joining the Mary Chain. He recorded the drum parts for The Sound Of Speed and I Hate Rock'n'Roll EPs and the Munki album. Nick appeared on a variety of tv shows with the Mary Chain such as Later with Jools Holland in 1993 performing "Snakedriver". Nick was the live drummer for a number of tours but towards the end of the Mary Chain, his own group Earl Brutus (in which he is the lead singer and for whom William Reid and Ben Lurie have done production work) became progressively busier and he was sometimes replaced by Geoff Donkin.

Wiff played drums on the recorded version of "Little Red Rooster".

Played bass on "Little Red Rooster".

Ex lead singer of Mazzy Star, now a solo performer, Sandoval sang on two Jesus And Mary Chain songs; "Sometimes Always" in duet with Jim on Stoned & Dethroned and "Perfume" with William on Munki.

Ex Pogues lead singer, now with Shane MacGowan & The Popes, MacGowan sang the song "God Help Me" on Stoned & Dethroned. The Jesus And Mary Chain also recorded a cover vesion of Shane MacGowan's earlier band, The Pogues', "Ghost Of A Smile" for the B-side of "Come On".

Fong who has done engineering for A. R. Kane played bass with the Reid, Reid, Lurie & Monti Stoned & Dethroned and Hate Rock'n'Roll touring line up.
There's a short article at Guitar Geek about his bass stage setup.

Sister Vanilla a/k/a Linda Reid is Jim and William's little sister. She sang "Moe Tucker" on Munki and guest starred at a few live shows on the Munki tour as well. According to Jim Reid, Linda also came up with the album title Munki.

Phil was the bass player in the Munki tour line-up. He used to play bass with Lush before joining the Mary Chain.

Terry Edwards played trumpet at some 1998 shows. He has also played with The Tindersticks, Gallon Drunk and Spiritualized. Terry also plays on two songs on the Munki album and has recorded a very entertaining EP of instrumental versions of Jesus And Mary Chain songs called Terry Edwards Plays The Music Of Jim And William Reid.

Geoff was Nick Sanderson's drum technician and filled in as live drummer while Nick was busy with his band, Earl Brutus. Geoff Donkin also played a few of the American dates on the final Munki tour when Nick Sanderson injured his shoulder.

Prior to working as tour support for a number of artists, including JAMC, Geoff played percussion for Sonic Boom/Spectrum - in particular creditted on the first post-Spaceman 3 album "Soul Kiss/Glide Divine" - as well as with Cheree Records-signed psych band Beautiful Happiness - so more than just a drum tech - someone with a strong and credible indie/psych music background, hence his being ideal fill-in when JAMC needed a drummer at short notice.

Mark Crozer has joined the re-formed JAMC in 2007 following on from playing bass in Jim Reid's band in 2006. He's also in another band, the International Jetsetters, with Loz Colbert and Bert Audubert.

In similar style to Mark Crozer, Loz Colbert has joined the JAMC after playing drums in Jim Reid's band in 2006. He used to drum in Ride and the Animal House and is currently drumming in the International Jetsetters with Mark Crozer and Bert Audubert.



Jim and William Reid produced all of their records themselves but they were assisted in the studio by a few people over the years. The efforts of people like John Loder in the early days and Alan Moulder and Dick Meaney in the later days undoubtedly had more effect on the band's sound than a lot of the people who actually played with the band so these guys definitely deserve to be mentioned on this list:

Joe Foster engineered the "Upside Down" recording session but Alan McGee later claimed he had to go in and perform a radical remix on his sub-standard work. On the single McGee took credit for producing the A-side and gave Foster the title of producer on the flip side "Vegetable Man". On the compilations Barbed Wire Kisses and 21 Singles the production of "Upside Down" has been credited to the band (ie. Jim and William) with a co-production credit to John Loder thrown in for good measure on BWK ...

John Loder engineered the recordings of the "Never Understand", "You Trip Me Up" and "Just Like Honey" singles and the Psychocandy album. He also received co-production credit with William for three tracks on the Darklands album ("Nine Million Rainy Days", "Fall", and "About You"). In 1988 he co-produced "Sidewalking" and the Barbed Wire Kisses compilation with the Reids. All the sessions with Loder were held at Southern Studios. Later on the Reids built their own studio called Drugstore where all the '90s Mary Chain recordings were made.

Bill Price co-produced most of Darklands with William Reid at Wessex Studios in 1987.

Tony Harris engineered one track, "Deep One Perfect Morning" on Darklands at Livingston Studios.

Alan Moulder engineered and mixed the Automatic and Honey's Dead albums and about one third of Stoned & Dethroned. He also mixed three tracks on Munki ("Black", "Degenerate", and "I Can't Find The Time For Times").

Flood engineered three out of four tracks on the Rollercoaster EP. He also recived engineering credit for the track "Rollercoaster" on the Honey's Dead album (with the year of production on the track listed as 1990 with the rest of the album having been produced in 1992) even though to my ears at least the album and EP versions are obviously different takes of the song (the EP has a drum machine track while the album version has live drums by Steve Monti for starters).

Dick Meaney was Alan Moulder's assistant on Automatic and from there he went on to engineer some of the Honey's Dead era B-sides and The Sound Of Speed EP. He also engineered and mixed about two thirds of the Stoned & Dethroned album, the I Hate Rock'n'Roll EP, and most of Munki.

Nick Addison engineered the "Come On" B-sides and some of (?) the track "Perfume" on the Munki album.

There were some additional producers and engineers on some B-sides, remixes, acoustic versions and the BBC sessions but the above were the key players.