Never Understood: The Jesus and Mary Chain by William and Jim Reid review - 'funny and fraught'

Jim and William Reid formed The Jesus and Mary Chain in East Kilbride more than 40 years ago.

Rock’n’roll mythology is littered with sibling strife. The Kinks, Oasis, the Everly Brothers, even the outwardly harmonious Beach Boys thrived and sometimes foundered on their family dynamic. William and Jim Reid, guitarist and frontman of The Jesus & Mary Chain, love their rock’n’roll. Jim even wrote a song called I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, sincere to a point but also a backhanded riposte to his brother’s I Hate Rock’n’Roll - a song which opens with the lyric “I love rock’n’roll”. Complicated? Petty? Or just two great songs for the price of one? Arguably all of the above.

In this entertaining autobiography, the reader can enjoy two narratives for the price of one as the brothers’ story ping-pongs between their two perspectives with ghostwriter Ben Thompson as their umpire. Their separate but interlaced accounts are presented in different typefaces, highlighting the subtle contradictions in their memories.

What they both share is a dry sense of humour. The text is shot through with a tone of droll disgruntlement, whether relating their early misadventures as a band, their painful encounters with their musical heroes or the shifting sands of their own rapport, which may contain traces of macademia nuts.

The brothers’ relationship has had its rollercoaster moments but what emerges most clearly from their autobiography is their fraternal bond, especially as they buck the family trend and ditch hard labour for budget bohemia and dreams of the perfect band before realising that their separate fantasies are actually a shared aspiration.

The brothers relate their musical endeavours, from trial and error to early infamy to international touring to break-up and back, with a mix of conviction and realism. It is for others to assess their wider cultural impact. You won’t have to go far in Scotland to find a fan for whom their classic debut album, Pyschocandy, was transformational, almost mythical, yet their signature sound was conjured from a second hand guitar and a foraged fuzz pedal. Never Understood illuminates the inside track and it’s funny, fraught and occasionally farcical.

The brothers grew up in Parkhead (with a Rangers-obsessed father who was colourblind and unaware the household phone was green) before the family moved to East Kilbride. The EK years provide the book’s most enjoyable interlude as Jim in particular captures the swings and roundabouts of life in a New Town with something bordering on actual affection. As their personal and professional story unfolds, the Mary Chain’s cultivated image of surly superiority, born of shyness and contrariness, crumbles away and these two sixtysomething perpetual outsiders emerge as expert chroniclers and, probably to their eternal embarrassment, good company.

Never Understood: The Jesus and Mary Chain by William and Jim Reid, White Rabbit, £25. William and Jim Reid are appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 14 August