The Jesus & Mary Chain Reunion: Possibly, Maybe Bigger Than Jesus?

Brian Raftery | January 29, 2007 3:14 am

Alan McGee–the record-label mogul turned Guardian blogger–has some very high hopes for this summer’s Jesus & Mary Chain reunion at Coachella:

If Coachella goes well (and let’s pray that it does), I believe a reformed Mary Chain, like the Pixies, could be twice as big as they were the first time round. More than any other band in the world, they deserve the respect – and money – that was always their due. A world tour could be absolutely massive. In today’s live market, the Mary Chain are a 20,000 people a night band in major cities. They could sell out four Brixton Academies, no problem. In a world of Robbie Williams and Coldplay, we need the Mary Chain like we need oxygen. Let’s hope they can get past the arguments of yesteryear, because they’re good for our musical health. The Mary Chain mean so much to so many people because they make you feel glad to be alive. They’re soul music – a national treasure.

Maybe McGee is blinded by the fact that he signed the Reid brothers to his Creation Records imprint in the mid-’80s, or maybe he was out late the night before he wrote this, apple-bobbing with the Klaxons or something similarly cool and British. Because his “20,000 people a night” estimate is a crazy-high sales-mark for a band that, while deservedly beloved, never quite cracked that big outside of the U.K. Unless the group changes its name to “Jesus & Mary Chain & Timberlake,” we’re guessing this tour will do better than, say, the New Cars, but will come nowhere near the recent Pixies jaunts. Sofia Coppola can only afford so many first-tier tickets, you know.

Stoned and rethroned? [Guardian Online]