1990

Chronology (from the original Jesus Jones website)

February - Jesus Jones are one of the three British bands to play dates in Romania, the first rock gigs in the country following the revolution the month before.
March - "Real, Real, Real" single released, reaches # 19 in the UK (18 months later it peaks at # 4 in the US).
June - The Band perform at Glastonbury. The Daily Telegraph ( previously unrecognized arbiter of taste in rock 'n' roll) nominates their set as best of the festival. None of the band decide to vote Conservative as a result. Liquidizer climbs into the Top 5 of the Alternative Albums chart in the U.S.
August - It's the last day of the Reading Festival, again !
September - First tour of the U.S. and Canada. "Right here, right now" is released and reaches # 31 in the UK. Heh heh !
December - "International bright young" thing is released in the UK and becomes the bands biggest hit to date, reaching # 7.

Meanwhile, there's another revolution going down in Romania which doesn't involve samplers and skater chic. Instead of sending food parcels, Britain send a Food act (and two other bands lost to the mists of time). There are rumours that JESUS JONES will be kidnapped and held for ransom, and consequently they are escorted by 250 conscripts wherever they go. The teenage soldiers prefer dancing about with their rifles in the air to forming a human wall to stop any stray sniper bullets. Everyone shares a brief moment of hope in the prospect of a united Europe, and each of the gigs culminates in a heartfelt rendition of 'Keep On Rocking In The Free World'. On JESUS JONES return they discover they have moved up into the premier league. Their next release 'Real Real Real' reached Number 19 in March. After appearing on all the right stages at all the right times throughout the Summer - including Glastonbury and Reading - JESUS JONES go west in September, for their first tour of Canada and the U.S. (where 'Liquidizer' had been released in the U.S.). Back in Blighty, 'Right Here, Right Now' is released sans samples from Prince's 'Sign O The Times' and reaches 31. It's followed by a U.K. tour. By December, they have their first Top 10 - 'International Bright Young Thing' is a U.K. Number 7.

Foreword

Although 1990 was to be a comparatively low profile year compared to 1989, in February, after playing the first rock gigs in Romania since the revolution the month before, they were to mount their most serious assault to date, on the UK charts with a new single "Real Real Real".

Jesus Jones promo photos (Credit - Aleutia Shannon) click to open bigger versions

Whereas previous singles succeeded by force, "Real Real Real" managed to seduce the listener with its drifting, hypnotic dance rhythm, which coincided perfectly with the rave-orientated tastes of the time, securing their first appearance in the UK Top 20 at number 19. Mike was quoted as saying that it sounded like the song they wanted to do six months earlier, but was a good sign of the change in the band's direction.

March saw the band touring Europe as guests of the Cramps and in April they toured Australia and Japan.

June saw Glastonbury, where Jesus Jones were considered Best Of The Festival by the Daily Telegraph, and the release of "Liquidizer" in the US, which entered the top 5 of the alternative charts. Once again, they played the final day of Reading on August 26th, before jetting off on their first tour of the USA and Canada.

The next single was a track inspired by the recent events in Eastern Europe, "Right Here Right Now", which was released in September. With its restrained simplicity and beauty, it became their second top 40 hit, peaking at No. 31. Apparently the original version of the song had bass and drum loops from Prince's "Sign Of The Times", but these were not included on the final version, to the relief of their record company legal department.

In October, Jesus Jones embarked on a nationwide tour of the UK including two ecstatically received shows again at London's Town and Country Club. It was now clear that the band were being groomed for breakthrough radio airplay and with the release of "International Bright Young Thing" on 31st December, they achieved their first top 10 hit.

British Rock In Romania - February 1990 - Cloth Backstage Pass - click the image for a bigger version

Review of Real Real Real - Sounds - circa February 1990

The big one for the Jones boys, masterminded by affable musical whizz-kid Mike Edwards ("a genius" - the rest of Jesus Jones in Amsterdam recently) and boasting the chunkiest beat, the grooviest choral FX and the catchiest tune this side of the Mondays' triumph. Get the 12-inch for the snarling 'raw' mix and learn to live all over again. All hail the sample-rock revolution, particularly the bright yellow anoraks frm Naf Naf in Paris at only £10 a go (copyright Jesus Jones' wardrobe).

Review of gig at Marquee Club, Sydney, Australia - probably from the Sydney Morning Herald - April 1990

When were you last actually excited by a rock band? Not comforted, reassured or transported back in time, but picked up by the sound and pinned breathless against the wall? When did you last feel like you were watching or listening to something vital, fresh and new that made you want to proselytise about it?
Not for quite a while, I'd wager, because hindsight shows us that rock really ground to a standstill somewhere back there in the late 70s. Punk was not only too much for the mainstream to assimilate, but it also unwittingly initiated the trend of revivalism that has plagued the music scene ever since.
Very little rock in the 80s dabbled with innovation in any accessible sense, and the form somehow disengaged itself from one of its central tenets, the need for change and momentum. For a while it seemed that regression was de rigeur to the point where 30 years of sound came back into fashion at once, with no-one casting an eye to the future at all.
Until very recently, that is. What we are seeing at the moment in England, with the blurring of divisions between rock and dance club cultures, is the first truly new and interesting rock blend for the best part of a decade (with the possible exception of World Music, the devleopment of which took place outside the usual rock capitals).
It is a form of music which takes the rhythmic intensity and clarity of electronic dance music and meshes it with the frenetic guitar of hard rock.
For all that, London-based Jesus Jones are a deceptively traditional pop band. Strip back the noise, as they did for a mainly solo What's Going On encore, and the songs reveal themselves as crafted and catchy pop tunes.
In a blisteringly short set, which failed to break an hour, even including the encore, the five-piece band attacked their material with the sort of enthusiasm usually reserved for amphetamine addicts, sweeping through 15 songs with an infectious energy.
Indeed, songs like Move Mountains, Info Freako, All The Answers and Never Enough reached an intensity that seemed almost volcanic in the typically furnace-like heat of a typical Sydney club on a typically muggy night.
For many, it was all a bit confronting, an aural assault which often bordered on chaos, a potent brew of ferocious energy and volume, with weird samples careening about, the whole thing teetering on the edge of anarchy.
But for anyone stifled by the blandness of most of what is on offer these days, yet still in love with the guitar, this was a godsend.

Review of gig at Marquee Club, Sydney, Australia - probably from free Music Press paper- April 1990

If this raucous bunch were as jet-lagged as they confessed, heaven knows what kind of aural bliss a refreshed Jesus Jones would generate. Whatever it was that helped them through, I want a trailer load delivered immediately (if not sooner). Or just possibly - call me naive if you wish - these booming, boisterous Brits were just overdosing on zest, vigour and plain old enthusiasm - without the capital E.
Jesus Jones move(d) mountains with ease; from the screeching, cat-strangling Info Freako, to the rhythmic battering rams of Never Enough and Bring It On Down, to the newer pieces which curiously enough - although you'd never call them sparse - are not as style-laden as those of Liquidizer. With sings like Welcome Back Victoria (dedicated to a certain Margaret T), they've only covered about 50 genres, not the standard 100 or so per song.
Overall, theirs was an assault General Patton would have envied: never has a car crash sounded so sweet. Nor has the studio ever been transferred to the stage so well, debunking the myth that technology can only be cold and oppressive (as Depeche Mode would lead us to believe).
One question though - where was Real, Real, Real (leave your floppy disc back at the BBC, eh lads?)
It's re-assuring that in a time of staid, dark, droning guitar types, cup - runneth - over - type effervescence still exists. Every member of the congregation that is Jesus Jones (except drummer and sampler Gen, who was probably tied to his kit), prowled the stage like men possessed (or unleashed). They're so animated, Hanna Barbera should sit up and take notice.
It was only gravity that stopped them emulating the chant from Crazyhead's I Don't Want That Kind Of Love (i.e. I'm crawling up the walls). Even their lighting operator flailed about like a man trying to exorcise some nasty chemicals from his system, displaying an array of manoeuvres Bruce Lee wouldn't have rejected.
Jesus Jones are a perfect example of what happens when pure, uncut energy is given a free reign (and they play a bit, as well). Keep up with these Joneses' indeed - and to think Top Of The Pops almost denied us of them.....

Top of the Pops Appearance Cue Card - April 10th 1990 - click for bigger version

Interview - Smash Hits - 18th April 1990

Jesus (Mike)
Full name: Michael James Edwards. Born 22/6/64 in the City Of London. One younger brother - Tom, 23, teaching in Zimbabwe at moment. Very tall, slightly gawky, speaks rapidly and very easily. Parents, Jill and John, are "like the two halves of me" i.e. his dad's very logical and his mum's very emotional. Favourite pop star is Jon from The Beloved: "Popstars should have looks, style or talent - and he's got all three." Favourite food: chilli, but will eat absolutely anything. Doesn't know if he could ever move out of London, although thinks about living in loads of places ("somewhere in Spain, Bonn in West Germany, a large amount of Sweden, Southern France, not Italy, Zurich..."). Describes himself as "tall, failed intellectual, with a big nose". Admits to being a terminal grumpy-bags - "I seem to have these random grumpy clouds that follow me around and descend upon me from a great height. I can't control it." Worst vice: eating chocolate. Is "terrible for reeling off lists". Loves being in Jesus Jones more than anything - "it's the most fun you can have" - and wouldn't change places with anyone in the world.
Introduce yourself:
"How do you mean? I'm lost! I don't really know what to say. I'd just say, "Hello. I'm Mike. I'm the singer with Jesus Jones."
What's your room like?
"It's cluttered. It's got a load of recording stuff in it. Um, and it's got loads of skate stuff in it. It's just very cluttered. I always look at those sort of places that are very sparsely decorated and I think, 'Yeah! That's great - that's what I want!' But you end up with this mess and you think, 'What went wrong?!!' I have a picture of a moose that my girlfriend did - it's sort of in-joke between us. I have a ghurka knife from Nepal that I got when I was there. I have a print from about 1880 of soldiers being very gentlemanly and polite to each other whilst they slice each other into little bits."
What's your favourite word?
"I'm usually an articulate person, but this'll be something very unarticulated (!). Em, unarticulate! Inarticulate even! Thwack is a good one. Thwack! It's got to be something onomatopaeic."
Are you in love?
"Yes. Totally. With my girlfriend. But if you met her you'd really like her. She's a fabulous person - she's absolutely gorgeous."
Do you like yourself?
"No, not really. No, I don't. I don't really like photos of me. I don't often like the way I've treated people, the way I behave with people. I often look back and I think I could have done a lot better. I'm going to look back on this in two hours time and think, 'Damn! I could have shone - I could have been brilliant! And I was such a craphead instead!'. I think that I'm often very cruel to people, and I realise it at the time, but insist on being that way. It's mostly with the band because they're the people I spend the most time with really. I think I'm a bit of a snob too, which is shocking. I like to read, I like listening to music, I like certain types of papers, and I think I can be snobby about things like that when really I have very little justification for being. So that's it."
Who do you get on with best in the band?
"Probably Gen because I've known him for so long. For about 12 years. He lives in the flat with me and my girlfriend, so that shows you how well we get on."
Tell us a secret about one the others.
"Jerry de Borg is a Satan worshipper. He sings Paul McCartney songs in public and makes no secret of it."

Jerry
Full name: Jerry Simon de Borg. "I'm half Maltese, half Irish." Born 30/10/63 in Kentish Town London to parents called Joan and Eric. One older sister, Jan, who's a scientist, and a younger brother Nigel, a car salesman for Ford. Snuffles to himself when he laughs ("snfnmfnmh") or throws his head back and bellows ("ahuhuhuhuh"). Favourite food: Fillet O'Fish from McDonald's with chips and a curry dip. Didn't speak to his mum for five years when she left his dad: "I just wanted to punish her, so I didn't speak to her for five years and when I'd thought I'd punished her enough I spoke to her." Used to be a commercial artist: "I like getting my brush and sort of going waaahrgh!". Fancies girls with "sexy feet, sexy hands" that "you have to sort of look at to see they're attractive". Knows two murderers, one who got away with it, one who didn't. Never votes. Most treasured possession is a Martin acoustic guitar which his grandad bought when he was 20 (there's only 23 in the whole world). Thinks Rutger Hauer (from the Guiness adverts) is brilliant. says: "I love socialising. I Love it. I go out a lot. I mean, you've gotta go home eventually but usually you're carried back, aren't you?"
Introduce yourself.
"Hello. I'm Jerry. The guitarist from Jesus Jones. That enough?"
What's your room like?
"Quite small. I got the smallest room in the flat. I live with Alan. Erm, I'm an artist so I've got my paintings up all over the flat, big paintings...Single bed, crappy cassette - it squeaks, crappy black and white television. Loads of records, no record player snhmf ahuhuhuh! It broke. Um, couple of wardrobes which are full of clothes and about two square foot walking space when you get off the bed. It's very colourful from the paintings. Yeah, I'm quite comfortable."
What's your favourite word?
"Em, God. Never thought about that one before. (V. long pause) Please or thank you I suppose. They're the most polite words. Snnfnmrhmr!"
Are you in love?
"No, but I fall in love very, very often. Literally every other day. And um, it lasts about a week, maybe two weeks, maybe a month. But it never really goes longer than a month. I mean, er, Christ, yeah, I can think of numerous occasions over the past week! Er, I think I did last night as well, yeah! Ahuhuihihh!"
Do you like yourself?
"Mm, yeah. I piss myself off a lot - well, you expect quite a lot from yourself sometimes, and if you know you're not up to scratch on things then you piss yourself off. I dunno - sometimes the way I treat people. Too offhand or something, or I'm terrible when I've had a few drinks and I say things that I just really wish I had never said and I wake up in the morning and I just literally go red! The things I say aren't meant to be insulting, but I've just got a bit of a warped sense of humour. What was the question again? Yeah, basically, most of the time. I make myself laugh a lot, saying things that only make me laugh!"
Who do you get on with best in the band?
"Well, that's easy to answer. Mike can be quite difficult to get on with - otherwise everyone. It's a long drawn out thing. He works very hard at his music and it just leaves little time to be friendly and sociable. I don't begrudge him or anything like that."
Tell us a secret about one of the others.
"Alan keeps getting boils on his bum! And I live with him and I keep hearing about it day in, day out! Don't you tell him I said that or he'll tell you something about me!"

Iain
Full name: Iain Richard Foxwell Baker. "The Foxwell bit's been traced back two or three hundred years." Very enthusiastic, talks fast and loud and emphasises every other word. Born 29/9/65 in Carshalton in Surrey. "I'm a complete Libra. A full on Libra. "One Sister, Joanne, a nurse. Parents called Richard ("a top geezer"), who's writing a book about ancient crooner Bobby Darrin, and Margaret, who's recovering from an operation at the moment ("Get well soon, mum!"). Once bunked off school and got caught by the military police hiding in the near-by military academy. "I was frog-marched back into school. It was brilliant!" Thinks Kylie Minogue is "ace, a top pop star". Likes waking up in the morning and "just lying there for an hour, just wriggling about". Favourite food: fish fingers and bread sauce. Worst vice: "Too much beer". Used to be a choirboy and hates The Pope.
Introduce yourself.
"I'm Iain, the keyboard player. Erm, everybody calles me Barry D, basically because I hated it so much when I first heard it. Everybody thought, 'well, we're in a band so we'd better have some stupid names. And you can have the most stupid name!' Yeah, I'm the keyboard player that can't stand keyboards. I really hate them. Well, they're so stupid - you look like such a nonce if you're stood behind them. You can't throw any rock shapes from behind a keyboard. So when we play live I don't spend a lot of time at the keyboard. I run around, I wave my arms in the air and leap up and down and scream my head off."
What's your room like?
"It's like a bomb site at the moment. There's just stuff all over the floor. It's L-shaped and there's a double bed in one bit of the L. And along the wall is just piles and piles and piles of records, a Julian Cope poster from "World Shut You Mouth", a Madonna poster for "True Blue", a couple of other things which I can't even remmeber...What else? It's up in the roof of a dormer bungalow so it isn't straight up. The walls slope in, so that's really nice and it's got a great big window that looks out onto a garden and I can see the pond. So that's ace."
What's your favourite word?
"My favourite word? Um, I can't think! There are loads of words! It'd have to be something like, um, cloudy. It sounds nice."
Are you in love?
(Immediately and very definately) "Yes, I can't tell you who with! Ahahaha! (Goes all bashful) No I can't, but she knows who she is, and she knows that I always will. You've got to put that down - that's quite important that."
Do you like yourself?
"Not really, actually. Sometimes not at all, because I always think I could be a bit of a better person if I tried. What don't I like about myself? Erm, my feet. Because I've got collapsed arches which makes walking really painful sometimes. So I'd like to swop those if I could. And my arms are too skinny. I'm a bit selfish, which I wouldn't mind changing, and erm, I'm hopelessly romantic, which is nice but it gets a bit wearing after a while."
Who do you get on with best in the band?
"I think all of them really. We're dead close. Jerry's quite good fun to be with, because I end up taking the mick out of time. Alan's the most rediculous person to go out partying with, because if you ever go out partying with him he has to be the last person to go to bed. He just won't stop until everybody else has dropped around him."
Tell us a secret about one of the others.
(Pause) "Ermmm, let me think. Jerry's got a hairy nose! Ahahaha!"

Alan
Full name: Alan Leon Jaworsky. "It's Polish." Born 31/1/66 in Plymouth. Has one (older) handicapped brother called Steve. Reckons his parents are "a bit mental" - "Me dad's a beer-swilling jazz musician, sportsman and all round total god star. Me mother's a bit like the character that Maureen Lipman plays but she's Polish." Favourite food: doner kebabs with chilli sauce. Drinks loads of milk - "I'm a complete milkhead". Wants to move out of Britain because "I hate everything it stands for - the politics, the apathy" and would like to see the whole of the Tory Party deported. Sees himself as " a sad old Dulux dog". Smokes millions of fags with slightly shaky hands - "I'm a bag of nerves. Total bag of nerves" - and hides behind his hair when he's talking. Wears purple all the time. Is "always losing or breaking things". Most treasured possession is his furry Romanian hat because he feels brave in it. Admits that he "woke up this morning, fully clothed, on the couch, and I forgot I had a can of beer in me hand and spilt that all over me. That was how I started the day".
Introduce yourself.
"I'd probably be too shy to introduce myself to the Smash Hits viewers. I'd say hello over and over again, go bright red and collapse in a fit of embarrassment."
What's your room like?
"Well, unfortunately the last time I went to paint my room, I went for a kind of mushroomy brown colour, because I thought that would be kind of (pause) rootsy. And it turned out to be the colour of some God-awful foundation cream, so I've got skin coloured walls, which I hate. It's a total mess. I'm a total mess. I only sleep there. The mess is mainly clothes, but there's tapes and records and various ashtrays and cups and plates. It's quite disgusting.
What's your favourite word?
"Wheelbarrow. It's a word you can rely on, wheelbarrow. It means one thing and one thing only. You can say wheelbarrow and you picture that daft-looking one wheeled thing. So yeah, wheelbarrow. What a word."
Are you in love?
"(Pause) I don't know. I hope I am. I think I am. (Pause) I'm not sure. Difficult one, that. I'm very, very fond of me girlfriend and it might be love, and it might not be, I don't know. I'd like to think it is. I think it probably is. I'm not very emotionally giving. That's a bit heavy , isn't it?"
Do you like yourself?
"(Pause) Sometimes. Not often. In general, yes, I hate being apathetic and sometimes I am incredibly apathetic. Like Mike'll say something that I don't agree with, and out of wanting a quieter life, I just don't bother to come back at him for that. I'd like to be more positive than I am. I'm a bit over-cynical and I tend to fly off the handle about things when I shouldn't, but in general, I can live with meself. Just about."
Who do you get on with best in the band?
"Oh, that's not a fair question. Well, because I live with him and share hotels with him, it's got to be Jerry. We have more common interests. We drink together, our personalities are closer. There you go - I've said it."
Tell us a secret about one of the others.
"That's horrible. I hate this question more that any of the others so far. (Huge sigh) Well, I'm not going to pick on Mike because I'll get shouted at. Urm Iain was once known as The Belly Biter. When Iain gets in a fight, his one form of defence is to bite people's stomachs. And that's a secret! Well, it's not any more..."

Gen
Full name: Simon Matthews. Got the nickname Gen from school - it's short for General. Born 23/4/64 in Devizes, Wiltshire. Two brothers - Andrew, 27, works fitting car hi-fi systems and James, 20, is a "struggling musician". Parents are divorced: mum (Jennifer) works at a health centre and dad (Ronald) works for Volvo car sales. Often talks in clipped sentences, has a huge grin and is always laughing ("A-a-a-a!") Is the friendliest member of the band: "I'm quite lively, I'm always quite up and buzzy and I'll always be the one who goes up and chats to people." Was a bit of a swot at school. Greatest fear is being lonely. Thought the poll tax riots were a good thing: "It's sad that people get hurt, but for people to show that amount of feeling and for all manner of people to be protesting is amazing." Loves his car - an enormous black and white New Jersey Highway Patrol Car. Embarrasses himself by biting his nails in front of people and then not knowing what to do with the nail when it's in his mouth.
Introduce yourself.
"Hello, I'm Simon Matthews of Jesus Jones! Or Gen even. Ahahaha! How's that?"
What's your room like?
"Tiny. I share a flat with Mike and he ended up with the big bedroom. I got really fed up with it about six months ago, because the amount of floorspace in my room was the arc of the door opening up! So what I did was I built a bed on legs. It's about six feet in the air. So you open the door and you walk underneath the bed. Well, you do being my height - everyone else hits their head! A-a-a-a! I've got the Romanian flag above my bed on the ceiling. Also Jesus Jones posters. I'm a magpie of the band - I collect everything. From every gig we do I get a poster."
What's your favourite word?
"Dooburyfurkin. I think it's just a word for 'thing'. Coming from the West of England I think it's just one of those sort of 'oo ar oo ar' words. It's quite a groovy word. A-a-a-a!"
Are you in love?
"Er, don't know. Not sure. I'm a bit confusd at the moment. I'm probably in lust at the minute. I think that's probably what it is. Confusing the two. Easy mistake. Especially for a young chap like me, innocent in these matters. A-a-a-a!"
Do you like yourself?
"Someone's got to. If you don't like yourself you're in trouble, aren't you? Yeah, on the whole. I think people have things about themselves they'd like to change - probably not about their personality, but physically. But the only thing really is that I wouldn't mind being a bit taller. Then again, being small does have it's advantages. I'm the short, cute one after all! A-a-a-a! Oh God, that sounded horrible."
Who do you get on with best in the band?
"All of them for different reasons. Mike's my best and oldest friend. I've known Mike for 12 years - we were at school together and I share a flat with him, so I have to get on with him or there's trouble. Everyone's got a different sense of humour and you love them for different reasons. If you feel in a certain mood, you'll call one of them up. We socialise a lot together."
Tell us a secret about one of the others.
"A-a-a-a! A secret. Gosh. (Pause) I wonder. I wonder what I can tell you... Mike's got smelly feet!

Real Real Real - May/June 1990

Nottingham Polytechnic Gig Poster 16 May 1990

Gig Review, Kilburn National May 17th - BIG! Magazine - circa May 1990

"I'm a Smash Hits cover start now!" hoots lengthy Jones frontman Mike Edwards as he fwisks his hair out of his eyeballs to reveal his "manly" good looks, "I can't afford to look ugly..."
Haw. He's freaking out completely on the stage of ver National in grim Kilburn blethering a load of old nonsense between songs that no-one can quite hear properly but seems to be about Luther Vandross, Romania, "new recordings", hollerings such as "Yo! Bring on down!!" (?) and New Kids On The Block: "Some people say there's only one kind of music... but I get bored shitless with that. This is a song for my friends New Kids On The Block and it's called 'Yeeeeaaaah!!!'"..........!" shriek the crowd as probably 0.0003 precent of the audience share his enthusiasm for Boston's "finest" (even though he thinks they're crap and is employing some vague form of "heavy irony" that no-one gets) but he doesn't care 'cos he likes his pop and he's a rebel and everything...
They really are quite mad, The Jones. The drummer's at - gusp!! - the side of the stage! And that mental geezer with the floor-sweepin' dreadlocks is nigh rupturing his frontal lobes with his frantic hair flings and then takes his shirt off to parade his painful thinness and "lots" of girlies drop their cups of Lucozade with wibbliness etc. And you should see the keyboard player. He's all dressed up in regulation "down the rave up" white and he's got the longest limbs you ever did see and spirals them in a whirly fever looking not unlike some demented mummy trying to disembalm himself. And then there's Jesus i.e. Mike twitching his shoulders and trotting up and down with his guitar on his knee-caps in a homage to rock ridiculousness and between them they all look terribly with-it what with their "happenin'" togs and vast good lookingness and - yes!! - they look like proper pop stars. Which is just as well, really, because they certainly don't sound like proper pop stars. Many of their tunes are grisly indie rock guitar janglers from yesteryear and even with the techno backing track trickery of currrazy voices and stuttery noises and echoey bits and things that sound like Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" and the like, it doesn't quite disguise the fact they've got a thimble full of half decent tunes: "Info Freako", "Real Real Real" (about 3 seconds of it) and something that starts off like Abba's "Does Your Mother Know" and then turns all hopeless. How odd. They look like a massively "hip" dance sensation for ver nineties... and they sound like a skint indie nightmare from 1978 that wrote its tunes in a coalbunker in Barnsley.
Still! It's a "visual feast", as they say, of strobe-light spookery that makes your head fall off and plenty spotlight splendour in millions of bonny hues... All they need now is ready-rolled Scotties Mansize tissues on the door for that essential ear-hole accessory and they're well away... Plugs ahoy!!

Gig Review, Leeds Polytechnic May 11th & Manchester International 2 May 12th - NME - 26th May 1990

"You're sweating so much you've buggered up Barry's keyboards!" Mike Edwards admonishes the Leeds crowd for causing the techno-gadgetry to overheat, proving that even the best laid plans can go terribly wrong. Robbed of samples, Mike promptly performs the scatty, scratchy intro to 'Info Freako' in a crap French accent. A splendidly surreal moment, but the show must go on.
And it does, with hordes of drowned rat fans bumping dazedlty into each other and bloodied sorts retiring injured. It ends with a real soccer-style inquest behind closed dressing-room doors after a mistake in the last song.
Jesus Jones have mixed feelings about Leeds. They were here ealier this week recording a slot for a mysterious but apparently hugely popular show called Casino, and were none to happy to subsequently discover that Casino is a cunning facade for Cannon & Ball. Before that, a few pranks with realistic-looking water pistols caused the local constabulary to seal off the city centre and make the Joneses prime targets for trigger-happy marksmen.
Perhaps discouraged by such an unfortunate series of events, the band rate a pathetic four out of ten on the rock'n'roll Richter scale after the show, when only bassist Al and guitarist Jerry are willing to test the city's nocturnal waters at the Warehouse while their colleagues wimp out to count sheep. Then again, maybe they were only too aware of the tour van, as the driver-cum-manager proves to be a totally mad bastard once behind the wheel. We make it to the morning, but only just.
"On the road you must be brave and tireless/On the road you can listen to the wireless..." Saturday morning on the motorway and a brave and tireless Mike foresakes the radio for a spot of heavy Walkman-like analysis of the previous night's (barely audible to the average ear) mistakes, checking the performance with a vigilance I haven't witnessed since my A-level examinations. It's a tense time - we're heading towards Manchester, notoriously unwelcoming to Jesus Jones in the past. But with over 200 ticketless sorts turned away from the International 2 and the punters inside being whipped up by the ever-excellent Ned's Atomic Dustbin, tonight is Manchester at its most manic, a truly astonishing - occasionally frightening - whirlwind of blood, sweat and beers.
A fine burst of Ofra Haza heralds the band's arrival, a hectic 'Trust Me' breaks the ice with the impact of a mallot on a Malteser, and from then on it's a desperate case of, uh, keeping up with the Joneses. With a new 21-song set to survive, small essentials like timing and pacing take precedence. Hence this frantic onset is anchored by the cleancut moodiness of 'Right Here Right Now' before Barry D is left alone on stage to shove his keyboard around a bit and whack out a few Bros samples.
The spacy gasping 'Victoria' is old but new, saved until the next time was considered right for Jesus Jones to show a different public face. Like now. 'Song 13' is dragged from the LP, a lazily attractive affair with real harmonies. And Barry D takes over again for some sub-Soul II Soul rapping in 'Winston', competing witha gently ripping hookline and heavily distorted bassline.
Then it's back into first gear, with much slamming of guitars and squirming of bodies. 'Bring It On Down' mometarily threatens to become Donna Summer's ' I Feel Love'; 'Yaag!' is all primitive passion and chattering primeaval screams; 'Real Real Real' is preceded by a suitably sardonic spiel from Edwards about pop infamy and before we can blink away the sweat cascading into our eyes, they're scuttling grandly through the encores: a classic is-he-a-patronising-plonker-or-a-messiah? solo spot from Mikeyboy; a great, gratuitously thrashy rampage through 'Never Enough'; is the fresh farewell, spinning delicately and attaining an almost New Age nonchalance with its thoroughly compelling veneer of tranquility. A startling way to die.
After their pathetic efforts on Leeds, Jesus Jones attempt to regain a modicum of hedonistic credibility by treking en masse to The Hacienda, where Sister Sledge rehashes are seemingly all the raving rage. Squashed into the puddle-strewn bar in the club's sweating bowels, Mike rants forth about being mobbed in Japan, the intense pleasure to be gained from public recognition, the immense joy of doing Top Of The Pops and , most gushingly of all, his newly-acquired niche as a bona fide pop star.
"It's great!" he beams, "All Jesus Jones ever wanted to do was to have fun, and that's what we're doing all the time now - it's phenomenally brilliant!"

Review of gig at Manchester International II - Probably from Sounds - May 1990

Their grappling hooks placed firmly over the chart battelments, Jesus Jones have now embarked on "Operation Clean-Up" in a live setting.
At this stage in the game their skate pop extravaganza looks evens favourite to snatch major rock silverware by the close season, with tonight's manic meeting of assorted, tripped-out minds merely serving to emphasise how effectively the Jesus Jones high church lures its rapidly expanding flock. This particular Jesus fever is damn infectious; it's a rawboned, punchy groove sermon lacking in weighty preaching that's apt to kick in the next snappy retort before any hints of boredom set in.
Spraying out over an oil-slick ridden sea of heads, this performance sees Jesus Jones - typically - in a no-pussyfooting-around mood, with songs gathered and dispensed with a minimum excess and maximum impact.
'Move Mountains' and the new 'Damn Good At This' are the first to shift up a gear, before drummer Gen finally opts to try out different beats on the slower 'Right Here, Right Now' and the curiously greasy, R & B slider 'Welcome Back Victoria'.
"It's Smash Hits time now. I can feel a sell-out coming on," exclaims Jesus figure Mike Edawrds as a cue to JJ's dancefloor crammer, 'Real Real Real' - the sequenced pop pulse that's seen the Jones boys quite rightly staking a patch in the present cool climate.
The unbridled havoc is still reserved for the enormous ''Info Freako' which is enhanced by floppy-mopped bassist Alan's Sid Vish four-string bruising and Edwards' extra gruff chorus of "...there is so much that I wanna learn"; the (should be) patented battle cry of every hyperactive kid.
With venues of this size soon to be a thing of the past, Jesus Jones are already girding their loins to spread parables with the big boys.

Interview with Mike Edwards - Smash Hits - 2nd June 12th 1990

Each fortnight a different pop start tells us what they "honestly" think about the charts.
"I think the charts are really, really good. I'm a big fan of a lot of things that are in there. They've got so much better since house music became influential. It's not just even the dance records that are in there, it's the fact that house music has opened people's eyes up to lots of other things.
"I've really liked all the Technotronic records. Even though they're basically just the same song, it's a really good song. I don't think it's a rip-off at all. I went out and bought the album and I didn't feel as if I wasn't getting value for money. I really like Madonna's 'Vogue'. I think it's absolutely the best record she's done in ages. It really does take someone with that much style and grace to make something like vogueing look vaguely interesting.
"I've never been a fan of UB40. There's nothing about them that makes me want to say 'Yeah!' or even sit down calmly and think 'Mm. This is really good'. We're big fans of dub reggae, but UB40 are a bit safe and homogenised. The Happy Mondays' record is fabulous. It's a pity it isn't one of their songs though because 'Hallelujah' and 'W.F.L.' were their highest points to date for me, and they weren't such big hits.
"I think Sonia is a really great pop star because she appears to be completely insane and hyperactive. She's got style and looks, and those are for me two out of the three qualities along with ability, that good pop stars should have. Big Fun don't have any of those qualities and neither do New Kids On The Block, come to think of it.
"I loathed and detested the Candy Flip record. They didn't do anything to improve or change The Beatles' classic original - it was just a couple of guys cashing in on the dance movement that's happening now. A sad version of a great song. But the Jimi Hendrix 'Crosstown Traffic' single is absolutely brilliant. It's one the the classic Hendrix tyracks of all time. It's just a shame that people have to learn about him through a jeans ad.
"Kylie Minogue has some serious fans in Jesus Jones, I'll tell you. Jerry, our guitarist, is very interested in Kylie. He collects all the photos of her he can. sticks posters of her on his wall. The fact that she's began making her image a lot more sexy has had an enormous effect on this group...".

The Jesus Jones Report - June 12th 1990

This was a promotional newspaper one-sided sheet that has loads of stories, reviews and other bits about Jesus Jones. It was an SBK issue which was the band's label in North America. If you click on the picture of it a larger sized version will open in a new window.

Reading Festival - August 1990

Review of Band - Reading Festival Programme - August 1990 (Also the same review appeared in the Glastobury Festival 1990 Programme)

The wild fusion of the sixties and the late eighties is being touted as the sound of the nineties. At one end of the specturm this gives you the song that makes your radio curl up and die - Candy Flip's sherbert sickly version of 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. At the other end you get Jesus Jones, the cutting edge between The Beatles and the orbital rave.
Jesus Jones took various breaths away with their first single 'Info Freako', released early last year. No hi-tech 'we'll mix it in LA' stuff here. In true let's do it right now tradition, the song was recorded for £125 as a demo and pushed out into the big wide world by Food Records, who knew not to mess with a good thing.
'Info Freako' was a declaration of intent - a sonic scrambling that delighted into trying to put a quart into a pint pot and danced merrily around the overflow. It took all the tricks of sampling and the clear simplicity of a great tune, put them together and lit the blue touch paper. Quite a start.
Jesus Jones had been around for just over six months before unleashing it. Skipping the run of the mill slog of pubs, they went out on tour with soulmates The Shamen who also marry the two decades in a dazzling ceremony.
As one critic put it at that time, the reference point for Jesus Jones is somewhere after the Beatles discovered drugs, but before they needed sitars and backwards trumpets to handle it. Clearly, a lot of people out there were looking for something just like it.
The band toured judiciously, played Reading and released another two singles, 'Never Enough' and 'Bring It On Down'. In September the debut album 'Liquidizer' shot out of the traps and has notched up over 50,000 sales. A March tour of Europe with The Cramps kept up the momentum, and in April the fourth single 'Real, Real, Real' smashed into the Top 30, confirming their rise from cult status. Readers of Melody Maker, NME and Sounds all put the band in their Top 5 new acts of last year, and right now Jesus Jones are sitting pretty.

Review of Right Here, Right Now EP - Smash Hits - circa September 1990

On first hearing, this tune sounds like hoary progressive rock group It Bites. It's nowhere near as furious as their last hit, "Real Real Real", and the vocals are decidedly on the rasping side, but it is a bit of a grower. A slow tune about the colossal events that happened in the Eastern Bloc recently, it still manages to include a crunching axe solo in the middle, but seems to lack a certain something. Whatever it is, it's difficult to say, but it seems a bit flat. Good, but perhaps not the obvious choice for a single.

 

Review of Right Here, Right Now EP - Source Unknown - circa September 1990

Less of a guitar mess than previously, Jesus Jones bring on the brass, sultry up the vocals and slip into a soft dance thang. Not so much Rock as boogie with soothing studio effect snatching the quiver that made Jones' early stuff so worthy. Well, they've smartened up now kids, so don't expect to choke over this one.

Review of Right Here, Right Now EP - Source Unknown - circa September 1990

A funky drums rumbled, brass stabbed and not so funky guitar yowled hoarsely husky surging indie rock jiggler in Martyn Phillips Mix (106 3/4bpm) and more dance oriented tightly jittering Dean Krexa Mix (106 1/2bpm) treatments.

Review of Right Here, Right Now EP - Source Unknown - circa September 1990

Chapter three verse 27 of the Pop Bible clearly states that: "After thou has tried to bludgeon thy way into the nation's affections and the holy charts with scant success, then adopteth the more subtle method of wooing the hearts of the masses..." Or something like that anyway. Those Jesus freaks have come up with their finest offering since 'Info Freako' spat out its rusk. Their familiar shuffling beat has its abrasive edges smoothed as a rousing brass refrain makes way for Mike Edwards' valiant attempt at singing as opposed to shouting. a mellow synth weaves a web of restraint around what is an infectious and encouraging move.

Review of Right Here, Right Now EP - Probably from Sounds - circa September 1990

Flushed with the success of 'Real Real Real', the Jones boys return with an EP every bit as confounding as the great, Are they (is he) irritating gits (a ruthless stuck up bastard)? Debate that rages to this very day. The title track will surprise lots of people, being a downbeat groover that's totally unlike JJ's last fizzy assault on the charts. It's a brave move, but it'd be a lot braver if the track - written after the collapse of Ceausescu's regime in Romania but before the band knew they'd be playing there - hadn't been smoothed out to such an extent. A harrowing jewel of a song live 'Right Here, Right Now''s impact is diminished by a cheesy horn section that seems totally at odds with the subject matter. This criticism applies particularly to the downright jolly disco mix on the 12-inch. But don't despair, the other tracks are all classic high energy JJ corkers. 'Move Me' curls like fire around a sampled vocal hookline, 'Damn Good At This' combines vicious guitars with (what sounds like) a masonry drill, and 'Are You Satisfied?' is a cosmic dance trip that fires off scintillating hooks with reckless abandon. If Jesus Jones are going to be huge, let's hope it's like this, wild and punky, rather than with loads of crappy old trumpets.

Interview - Smash Hits - September 1990

The Hobbies of The Stars - Jesus Jones

Iain and his record shop
I like to spend all my time here. Before I joined Jesus Jones I worked in record shops for about two and a half years. It's what I do best. Every week you get not just new things to listen to, but incredibly new things. Things that have only just got off the plane. They get driven in a van to the shop and literally there's about five people waiting here to buy them. People know when something new's coming in. It's almost like working in a dealing room on the Stock Exchange. I find that exciting. I hang around, I play records and help put the sleeves out, just help out when I can. Yeah, hoovering and tidying - I do a lot of tidying. Every now and again you can see me wandering around with a duster in my hand. I'm not on the staff, I tinker. A part-time tinkerer. I'm a fan of music and if you are, then hanging around record shops is the obvious thing to do. And I love dusting.

Mike and his mountain bike
I got a bike first of all because I sold my car because I decided that travelling round London by car was an absolutely stupid thing to do. It was £600. You actually get to feel like a bit of an outlaw, going down one-way streets the wrong way and turning right when you shouldn't do. It's very exciting. I had this staggering moment last night when I was turning right at a "do not turn right" place. There were people walking across the road and being a reasonable sort of person I stopped to let the people go past. One guy turned to me and said, "Do you know what that sign says?" I said, "Well of course I know what it says, it says 'don't turn right'". But what I really should have said was, "I bet you don't practice archery on Sunday like you're legally supposed to," (He's right! An act in 1369 did indeed proclaim that "everyone of the said city of London strong in body, at leisure times and on holidays, use in their recreation bows and arrows"!!) but of course these things never come to you at the time. I live in this fantasy world: I go skateboarding, I ride my bicycle and I play in a rock band and that's all I do. It's a fantastic life and I don't feel guilty at all.

Jerry and his art
I went to art college but I got kicked out in the third year. They didn't think I had the temperament to be a freelance artist which is what I was for about five years after they kicked me out. At 18, I started working for a greetings card firm but I got sacked from that for writing rude words on a card. Then I worked for the HMV shop painting enormous copies of LP covers which were displayed above the entrance of the London Bond Street HMV shop. Then I did some record covers but eventually the band took over. That was over three years ago. The main picture behind me lives in Alan's room, but it's not his. I used to come home drunk and paint these mad pictures. I actually gave this one to my sister (the huge mental painting in the small picture) but she didn't like it. She left it round my dad's house. At the moment I'm painting a picture of Alan for his dad, but it's not finished. I don't have enough time at the moment, but it's a passion. I really enjoy creating things whether it's music or it's art.

Alan and his cooking
This is a lamb stew, which is my personal favourite. And Jerry's personal favourite. You get some water and you heat it up and you stick some chicken stock in it. Wop a few carrots in, some leeks, some pearl barley. It's a cheap shoulder of lamb. I hack through that , fry it in garlic with onions, stick it in with the leeks and carrots and bay leaves, yeah, bay leaves - the most important part, these little geezers. They add a certain je ne sais quoi, as I believe certain people say. It's my old man's recipe, and his father's before him. I cook curries and bolognaise, that's easy. If you're doing a curry you just add curry things and if you're doing Italian you stick oregano in. I get excited when I cook, I run away with myself. I want to try a hot pot. These English meaty stodgy vegetable dishes, I want to get well back into that.
This is my one shot at a balanced diet. I make it very Monday. It's addictive, and you can eat it any way, Jerry likes to eat it in sandwiches. It's a religion to me.

Gen and his American Police car
It was offered to me cheap so I said, "Well, this is too good to miss!" It was £500. I got it off KLF. They had two. The original was used for their "Doctorin' The Tardis" single when they were called The Timelords. They were friends of our record company and that's how I got it. Originally it wasn't working but I had a good look at it and started it up. It never breaks down. I did, however, get trapped at the Reading Festival this year because they put me in the camping field instead of the car park and I had to sleep in the car all weekend!
It's very, very plain inside. The seats are plastic. Obviously the American police don't want people vomiting over some nice cloth upholstery. And it's got a grille that can be put up between the front and back seats. You do get a police "feel" being in it. I've got a set of handcuffs. All I need now is the 12-bore shotgun under the seat. (?!)

Gig Date Postcard, US/Canada Tour - circa September 1990

Gig Review, Long Beach California Bogarts - NME - 6th October 1990

This was only the second date of Jesus Jones' first US tour and already annoying little things were going wrong.
During the afternoon soundcheck, singer Mike Edwards narrowly escaped an exploding Spinal Tap drummer situation after volts from an ungrounded piece of equipment surged through his body, and had him demonstrating some nifty new dance moves. Then something horrible happened to Gen's snare drum, and a replacement was wheeled on after just a couple of songs; then bassist Alan Jaworski was forced into his best Peter Hook impression, his guitar slung two inches off the ground after the strap broke.
Still, the lads soldiered on with stiff upper lips, inspired, no doubt, by the proximity of the Queen Mary, once the British Empire's most luxurious ocean liner, now a hotel and tourist attraction in dry dock across the street.
'Liquidizer' reached Number Three on the US college chart after finally being released in America last May ("We're here spending Wilson Phillips' and Technotronic's money," joked Edwards). With a solid live reputation preceeding them, and the luxury of two albums-worth of material to choose from, Jesus Jones were ripe for this tour.
Even though the electrics were a mess, the band was properly wired. Instead of sinking in them, the plague of technical problems spurred them on to a blistering, though somewhat truncated performance. 'Bring It On Down' now bears no relation to the record, it's become a hybrid of 'Heart Of Glass' and 'I Feel Love', but they're two almighty songs, so that's OK.
They concentrated (naturally, given the market) on 'Liquidizer', tossing a few new songs into the Magimix for more discerning punters. No radical departures, just more of their buzzsaw-through-the-brain speciality that makes pain so pleasurable.

Article - Number One - circa October 1990

Click on the articles for a bigger versions that will open in a new window.

Interview - Record Mirror - 13th October 1990

Last September, Jesus Jones released their debut album, 'Liquidizer', a pop puree of shuffle beats, broad 'n' beserk basslines, bitchin' rock riffs and witty sampling - all rough and tumbling it out behind crazed and Cultish vocals.
After a handful of hit singles and respectable placings in numerous readers' polls, the London-based, sacrilegious ensemble had them Info Freaking to post-revolutionary rock in Romania, before touring Europe with American psychotics The Cramps.
'Real, Real, Real' brought the band their first Top 20 single this summer, while their appearance at both Glastonbury and Reading festivals evoked a feast of mixed reactions.
Today, on the eve of their first American tour, vocalist Mike Edwards and keyboard maestro Iain Baker sit and chinwag about their latest EP. 'Right Here, Right Now' is a collection of tunes originally for the oft deferred second album. Due for release in January, the LP will be promoted by a UK tour starting this month.
The EP's title track is a sparse, brassy, gentle and melodic affair, with the previously horrible holler reduced to a wondrous whisper.
"This is one of the few dance records ever with something to say," declares Mike. "It's a change in mood and tone for us. Instead of being flat out, thrashing away and very manic - very hysterical - it's a considered and quite intelligent song about the feelings I had at the beginning of 1990; a decade in front of us, and the whole political structure of the world changing. It's a song of faith, hope and optimism."
Unusually, Mike didn't produce all the tracks on the EP himself, preferring to let Martyn Philips take to the knobs.
"I normally produce myself because I have a clear vision of what I want," says Mike, "one which often contradicts what's happening in pop around us. The reason we started in the first place was to make music that was different from everyone else, not to join this dreadful glut of terribly boring bands, aping one Stone Roses song."
Mike doesn't see the entire industry in such a negative light. "We live in a very good time for rock music, when youth culture has become dominant again, as opposed to the Tina turners and Dire Straits, who are incredibly boring and have nothing to do with youth culture at all."
"Kids are more into music now," agrees Iain. "In contrast to that dreadful tedium during the Eighties with people like Phil Collins making it seem that rock music was the preserve of people between 25 and 40."
"The quality of pop music is improving too with the likes of Adamski and Betty Boo," continues Mike. "Jason, Kylie and Sonia are still getting into the charts, but are becoming less important as people realise how manufactured they are."
"We are the sort of band who should make great pop singles. 'Real, Real, Real' was a great pop single. On the next LP there's a sampling track way ahead of anything The Young Gods have ever done; there's rock music heavier than Black Sabbath and Sonic Youth combined. This is the time for bands to be varied in their approach."
Ever a band to express some strong opinions, Jesus Jones themselves rouse extreme feeling, not least in the music press, with reports veering from exaltation to crufixion. This summer's open-air gigs have attracted particular criticism. Iain blames techincial problems at Glastonbury.
"You felt you were pissing in the wind," he explains. You're trying to make everything sound great, you're pressing all the right buttons but you can't hear anything; nothing seems to be working or going right so you groan inwardly and grin at the audience, hoping they don't notice."
"Reading was the festival where it really came together, despite the press reports which astounded us," continues Mike. "We were the only band that day who did anything to an audience. I walked off stage thinking, 'I don't care what anyone says, that was a screamer of a gig',"
Mike welcomes any real point of view: "Both our initial approach and the music we make have been quite uncompromising; therefore people do have strong opinions about us. I'm extremely happy that no one can take us or leave us; everyone has something to say."
Love 'em or hate 'em, you have to admire the boys who made a defiant stand against rock 'n' roll's excessive lifestyle. "Every band at Glastonbury was competing with these ludicrously huge tour buses." says Iain. "We insisted on a Transit, which was our way of saying that we must have the biggest willies in rock music because we don't have to parade our masculinity about."
Wild, reckless and well endowed stage stars they may be, but in the cold light of day, one can't help but notice that the chaps are softly spoken, polite and happy-go-lucky.
"We're like everyone," says Mike, "we're multi-faceted characters. My wilder side comes out onstage because that's where I feel most comfortable with it. I could leap around the room and be aggressive now but it wouldn't serve a purpose."
"The very last thing it is is contreived. In the past year I've aimed to be more and more honest about the things that we do - more honest in interviews, which is why I'm not reverting to the Jesus Jones persona which, although it is a facet of my character, was something that I over-amplified."
This honesty seems more likely to come across on the second album where, as Mike says, "There's a lot more of me baring my soul; hopefully not in a tedious way, but an interesting and entertaining one."
"Most people can see through act. You can read interviews with bands, look at comments and think, 'That was in inverted commas in someone's head before it even came out'. People play along with the myth because it makes good press, or comes across as a good attitude, but it's essentially hollow."
"A lot of bands at the moment act in quotes," continues Iain. "The Stone Roses are a good example. Onstage, in photos and at press conferences, they act in quotes. It's an anachronism; they're resurrecting something that's already happened, putting it out before the public once more."
This criticism is by no means levelled at fellow baggy Scallies the Happy Mondays. As Iain declares, "I've got a lot of time for them becasue they're original and they've been doing what they're doing now for a long time."
"I'm biased," adds Mike, "because at Glastonbury I was talking to Shaun Ryder's dad. He was incredible. He made me an honorary Northerner by virtue of the fact that my mother comes from Derbyshire."
When last interviewed by this hallowed publication, our Micky declared his lust for 'disgusting fame'. Is this still his priority?
"In trying to figure out why I make music; I've decided it's a 50/50 split between being compelled to and wanting to be famous. Most people find the idea of fame attractive and many don't have the means to pursue it."
"Everyone needs to assert their identity on the world somehow - either through their job or something else. For me there's no better sense of identity than to walk down the street and be recognised by a complete stranger. That drives me very much becase I feel that I'm stamping myself on the world. It may be a psychological weakness, but I think that makes people interesting."
Iain is more forthright. "In the short term I want to be bigger than The Stone Roses, because they're crap and we're not. After that, it's bigger than U2 and The Beatles combined. I want us to become part of everyday like, I want our records played on the Moon."

Review of gig at Kentish Town and Country Club - Sounds - November 1990

It's funny how Hawkwind's ultra-hippy laser shows have gotten really hip again while theHawks themselves remain a laughing stock to most people. The Jesus Jones show employs enough lights to rival the Blackpool illuminations, while the stage is decked out in a tin-foil type substance - all very '70s. "Are...you..satisfied?" inquires vocalist Mike Edwards in his best piss-take cabaret voice. They certainly are, though no one's having as good a time as the band themselves. Low slung guitars and street hero poses are the order of the day - the chaps moving about like tigers on mescaline. 'Nothing To Hold Me', off the next LP, is the highlight of the evening, with keyboard madman Barry D taking over the vocals with a mellow rap that begs to be a single. Indeed Barry is the star of the show even when he's not upfront.
Strobe lights are turned on to full effect for 'Bring It On Down', which comes complete with a sample of Donna Summer's old disco smash 'I Feel Love', incongruous amidst the white English chaos - albeit a very controlled and theatrical type of chaos. 'Real Real Real' is the populist fave, prompting clenched fists and the trippiest lighting, but it's 'Info Freako' that really whacks them into their fast lane. Clad in a white boiler suit, Barry takes his keyboard off the stand, bangs it gently (!) on the floor, then puts it back before one of his customary jives around the stage, whistle in mouth. His keyboard must really hate him - when he's not ignoring it, he's bashing seven shades of shite out of it. Playing comes a very pronounced third. Dry ice appears for the encore. The Jesus Jones show is very much a 'show', and fun though it is, a touch more real damage wouldn't go amiss. Controlled explosions take you only half way there.

Review of International Bright Young Thing - Record Mirror- 19th January 1991

This, the indie dancer's frenetically rumbling and quavering, surging and leaping instrumental picture disc version, is flipped by Iain Baker & Jon Jules's 'International Bright Young Thing (Chaos Mix)' (116.5bpm), combining late Sixties-style psychedelia with the Incredible Bongo Band's 'Apache' breakbeat, worth hearing.

International Bright Young Thing - Recording the remix in a garage in Uxbridge with Jagz Kooner (Sabres Of Paradise) - circa December 1990 - click for a bigger version

Review of International Bright Young Thing - Source Unknown - circa December 1990

Courtesy of Phil Harding (of PWL fame) this is a strange "collusion" of that trademark SAW jigga-jigga drumbeat, raucous guitars from the Jones' boys axes and mental-age yelps from Mike Edwards. The ultimate answer to Morrissey's "Last Of The International Playboys" perhaps? But are The Jones' truly "International Bright Young Things"? With this single I very much doubt it. Sounding like Jason Donovan with a bad case of spazz guitaritis this at least gets marks for not being a remix, a re-release or a megamix!

Interview - Smash Hits - circa December 1990

"Would you believe that I got to this video shoot at a quarter to nine this morning?" asks the gleaming haired youth with the gangling limbs and over-indulgent make-up. "It's two o'clock now and I've had this muck on my face all day." he cheerily continues, sounding not peeved in the slightest, for he is Mike out of Jesus Jones and he would slap-it-on American tan foundation 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year for the sake of rock and roll. "I refuse to gripe about making videos even though it's a bit crap, because I think anyone who moans about any aspect of being in a successful rock 'n' roll band should be taken out and shot," he pronounces wildy, and trots off for a final dust-over from the brush-brandishing make-up person.

Welcome watchers, to the shooting of The Jones' video for "International Bright Young Thing", their new single. It's taking place in stage B, a weeny hanger sort of affair and, well, nothing much is going on. There's lots of smile-free people with headphones and "ciggies" meandering about looking for their portable phones. There's a bloke in a nice jumper (the director, Eric Watson) who's frowning at a TV monitor. There's a huge crane with a camera on the end. There's a stage with a perspex bottom. And there's The Jones "brothers". They're not doing anything.
"See that fat bloke who pushes the trolley with the crane on?" whispers Iain. "Well, he's the reason why the video's costing £40,000. £35,000 a day he charges for pushing that trolley. Won't get out of bed for less than a thousand pounds." And he smiles at said fat bloke whose face remains steadfastly locked in grumpy mode.
After six hours' waiting, Mike is finally allowed to get up on stage. He's holding a miniscule guitar. He's being filmed from high up, you see, by the camera that's attached to the end of the crane above his head, and the idea is that his head will appear enormous, while his feet look tiny and very far beneath him. So he's got a tiddly guitar so that appears a long way below too. He has to stand on the perspex bit. because of a technique which will superimpose him and his baby guitar onto various scenes - exploding volcanoes, v. tall buildings, US football grounds etc - so that it seems as though he's zooming up and out of them into the air. All the other Jones members have been given under-sized instruments to play. "What a pathetic sight," grumbles Alan on seeing his space-age bass. "I'm going to look like bloody Curt Smith (Singer out of Tears For Fears) ugh ugh uuuurgh." Iain is no more enamoured with his keyboard. He tries out a few buttons. "Listen to that!" he snorts, pressing a knob marked "Funny". "That noise isn't funny! Am I laughing? Are you laughing? No. Hmmf. I don't find it remotely amusing."
Whilst Mike gets severe neck-ache from gazing "winningly" upwards at the crane, the others pass the time in sweetie reminiscences. "Look at this," blithers Iain, flourishing a square piece of dirt under Gen's nose. "What sweet does this remind you of? It was one that you could only buy loose." Gen, not surprisingly, looks somewhat bewildered.
"No? Don't know?" continues Iain the mad person. "Well! Jap cubes of course! I remember them well. And Spangles. You could get those ones in rice paper that you could eat. Well I used to eat it anyway so I hope it was rice paper."
Gen politely suggests an alternative way of killing time. He ties a gold earring to a piece of hair and proceeds to predict how many children Iain and Jerry will have. "You dangle the ring above your palm," he explains, "and it'll move of its own accord. If it goes in a circle, it's a girl, if it moves up and down in a straight line it's a boy. If it doesn't move you won't have any. I'm having five - boy, girl, boy, girl, boy." And - blimey - the ring does move about by itself, predicting one boy for Jerry and a healthy family for Iain.
Alan's on stage now, throwing his hair about with his usual abandon. In fact his head antics are so violent that some of his hair extensions actually fling off across the studio like flying blond worms. Still, there's plenty more where they came from (i.e. the hairdresser's), so he doesn't mind and soon slopes back for a cup of refreshing milk. "Complete milkhead, me," he grins before denouncing it as semi-skimmed and adding a sugar-cube for taste (mmmmmm).
The hours tick by. The Jones' are signing Christmas cards and doing psychology tests now. These reveal that Iain sees himself as a sheep's dropping, Mike's home life is "methodical", Alan thinks people see him as wrong ("too true, too true." he sighs) and Jerry is an "EMF head" (Gen doesn't count because he's done it before).
"I like EMF," announces Mike. "All these hideous sixties style bands with shuffle beats and wah-wah guitars, all these dry, unimaginative, retrogressive dullards...and EMF come along with energy and enthusiasm and with an awareness of what decade was before this one and they do better than any of those bands. I admire the qualities that they have."
More hours tick by and everyone's looking a bit frayed around the edges. The unending good-natured Jones have long since run out of anti-boredom games. Most of the band have finished doing their bit in front of the camera. All that's left is for Gen to be filmed drumming on his pathetic drum kit and that should only take five minutes if all goes to plan (It doesn't). While they're waiting for him to finish, Mike watches a TV monitor where he's being projected from a volcano at high speed: "Looks like a spot being squeezed," he sniggers and flops into a chair.
Was it fun being filmed then Mike?
"There was quite a high pain factor in this video with all that looking upwards so no, not really. But it wasn't too bad...oh no, Gen's drum kit has just fallen over."
Amd indeed, the diminuitive drummer has toppled his even more diminuitive drum kit through his wild thrashings. The bloke in the nice jumper looks worried.
"Can we just do that once again...?" ha asks.

Questionnaire - Smash Hits- Mike Edwards

BEST GROUP IN THE WORLD: Not Yet.
BEST BRITISH GROUP: Sometimes.
BEST FEMALE SOLO SINGER: Dolly Parton.
BEST MALE SOLO SINGER: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
BEST DANCE ACT: LFO.
BEST INDIE ACT: The KLF.
BEST ROCK OUTFIT: Leather trousers only.
BEST SINGLE: Dalliance - The Wedding Present.
BEST LP: Frequencies - LFO.
BEST POP VIDEO: Stadium House - The KLF.
BEST DRESSED PERSON: Lady Miss Kier.
BEST DJ: Colin Faver.
BEST FILM: Thelma & Louise.
BEST MALE ACTOR: Nicholas Cage.
BEST FEMALE ACTOR: Geena Davis.
BEST MUSIC TV PROGRAMME: Insufficent evidence.
BEST NON-MUSIC TV PROGRAMME: Twin Peaks/News.
WORST FEMALE SOLO SINGER: Dame Edna Everage.
WORST MALE SOLO SINGER: Blind Lemon Pope "Jerry" De Borge.
WORST SINGLE: Bryan Hood - Robin Adams is here to rock.
WORST LP: Didn't buy it.
WORST POP VIDEO: Tortured artist melodrama in Sherwood Forest (i.e. think he means Bryan Adams).
WORST DRESSED PERSON: Adam.
WORST FILM: Wild At Heart.
WORST HAIRCUT IN POP: Billy The Fish.
WORST TV PROGRAMME: Pick a soap.
SMASH HITS/RADIO ONE AWARD BEST NEW ACT: Levitation.

Another Questionnaire - Smash Hits - Mike Edwards

BEST GROUP: Deee-Lite
BEST MALE SOLO SINGER: Lenny Kravitz
BEST FEMALE SOLO SINGER: Ofra Haza
BEST DANCE ACT: Technotronic
BEST POP VIDEO: Dream's A Dream - Soul II Soul
BEST DRESSED PERSON: Lady Miss Keir
BEST DJ: Paul Oakenfold
MOST FANCIABLE MALE: Danny New Kid
MOST FANCIABLE FEMALE: Betty Boo
BEST MUSIC TV PROGRAMME: The Chart Show
BEST NON-MUSIC TV PROGRAMME: The Late Show
BEST TV AD: Maxwell Tapes
WORST GROUP: New Kids
WORST MALE SOLO SINGER: Richard Marx
WORST FEMALE SOLO SINGER: Taylor Dayne
WORST SINGLE: I'm Still Waiting - Diana Ross
WORST LP: Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em
WORST POP VIDEO: Deacon Blue - Four Songs
WORST DRESSED PERSON: Anyone in spandex
WORST DJ: Tony Blackburn
MOST COMPLETELY USELESS PERSON: Timmy Mallett
WORST HAIRCUT: Roxette (both)
WORST FILM: Die Hard II
WORST TV PROGRAMME: Home & Away
MOST VERY HORRIBLE THING: Alan's (out of Jesus Jones) toes

Fact Box No 81 - Smash Hits

Mike "Jesus" Edwards of Jesus Jones

Full Name: Michael James Edwards.
Date of birth: 22/6/64.
Born: City Of London.
Lives: London.
Marital Status: Single, but getting married to his girlfriend Thea on June 2 in Sweden.
Eyes: Green.
Height: 6'2".
Weight: 11.5 stone.
Car: Hasn't got one, but occasionally drives Gen's 1966 US Patrol Car.
First Hit: "Real Real Real" which reached No.20.
Biggest Hit: "Real Real Real".
Fact!: His worst vice is eating chocolate.
Fact!: Jesus Jones once got arrested by the over-zealous Leeds police for shooting at each other with water pistols that looked a tad like the real thing.

New Year's Resolution - Smash Hits

Mike Edwards from Jesus Jones

"I resolve not to make any because if I did it would make me look the complete and utter idiot that i really am. (??) Last year I did exactly the same thing so, yes, I did keep last year's resolution!"