Editing The Jesus and Mary Chain (section)

===''Psychocandy''===
{{Listen
|filename=Jesus And Mary Chain Never Understand.ogg
|title="Never Understand"
|description="Never Understand" combines [[Beach Boys]] melodies with the distortion of ''[[White Light/White Heat]]''}}
The success of "[[Upside Down (The Jesus and Mary Chain song)|Upside Down]]" led to interest from [[Warner Music Group|WEA]]-subsidiary [[Blanco y Negro Records]] which signed the group in early 1985. The group released the single "[[Never Understand]]" in February which reached number forty-seven on the [[UK Singles Chart]].{{sfn|Strong|2003|p=383}} The label had initially refused to press the single due to its B-side, "Suck", but went ahead given the alternative put forward by the band, a song called "Jesus Fuck".{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=31}} The band were eager to get "Jesus Fuck" released, and McGee got as far as producing test pressings of a re-issue of "Upside Down" with the song on the B-side, before the band insisted that Blanco y Negro include the track on their next single. The follow-up, "You Trip Me Up", was delayed due to staff at the pressing plant refusing to press it due to the presence of the song, now re-titled "Jesus Suck"; The single was released in June 1985 with a new B-side, "Just Out of Reach".{{sfn|Strong|2003|p=383}} [[John Peel]] got the band to record a second session for his [[BBC Radio 1]] show in February 1985 (the first was only a few months earlier), and the band also made a TV appearance on ''[[The Old Grey Whistle Test|Whistle Test]]''<ref>{{cite AV media|title=The Old Grey Whistle Test Vol. 3|type=DVD|publisher=BBC Video|year=2006}}</ref> in March and ''[[The Tube (1982 TV series)|The Tube]]'' the same year.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=24}} The third single for Blanco y Negro, "[[Just Like Honey]]", released in October, was their biggest hit to date, reaching No.&nbsp;45.{{sfn|Strong|2003|p=383}}

Eager to avoid the violence of earlier gigs and to give an opportunity for their songs to be heard without distortion and feedback, the band planned to perform several unannounced acoustic sets supporting [[Sonic Youth]], but this was abandoned when the plans were leaked.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=48}} Their debut album ''[[Psychocandy]]'' followed in November that year.{{sfn|Strong|2003|p=383}} The album fused together the Reids' two primary influences: the guitar noise of the Stooges and the Velvet Underground with the pop songwriting and melodies of the Beach Boys, The Shangri-Las and [[Phil Spector]]; In fact, the album's opening song, "[[Just Like Honey]]," borrows [[Hal Blaine]]'s famous drum intro from [[The Ronettes]] 1963 classic, "[[Be My Baby]]", produced and co-written by Spector.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|pp=49, 56}} The record received unanimously positive reviews and is now considered a landmark recording.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=52}} Drummer Gillespie announced his departure from the band in October 1985, to concentrate on Primal Scream.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=51}} He had recorded most of the drums on ''Psychocandy'', with [[John Moore (British musician)|John Moore]] filling in when Gillespie was unavailable, eventually joining the band to replace him.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=51}} [[John Loder (sound engineer)|John Loder]] also acted as a stand-in drummer when Gillespie was unavailable for live performances.{{sfn|Strong|2003|p=383}}

When the band signed to Blanco y Negro in January 1985, there were stories reporting that they had stolen money from managing Director Rob Dickens's jacket and destroyed his office, all untrue but seen as good publicity by manager McGee.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=23}} In a performance on Belgian television in March 1985, the band did smash the set and the audio equipment, but this was at the request of the TV producer.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=24}} Such behaviour became expected of the band and many shows culminated with the Reids trashing their equipment, which was often followed by the audience throwing projectiles onto the stage and damaging equipment.{{sfn|Larkin|1992|p=227}}<ref name="Sinclair">{{cite web |last=Sinclair |first=Mick |year=1985 |url=http://micksinclair.com/guardian/jesus.html |title=The Jesus And Mary Chain |work=micksinclair.com |access-date=11 July 2012}}</ref>

On 15 March 1985, the Jesus and Mary Chain played a gig at the [[University of North London|North London Polytechnic]] in front of one of their largest crowds up to that point. The organizers had overbooked the venue, leaving hundreds of fans locked outside. When Gillespie and Hart attempted to break the locks, the police were called. Support band [[Meat Whiplash]] had stirred up violence before the Mary Chain set foot onto the stage when singer Paul McDermott threw an empty wine bottle into the audience, prompting four members of the crowd to attack him, leading to their set being abandoned.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=24}} Second act [[The Jasmine Minks]] got through their set without incident, but The Jesus and Mary Chain then kept the audience waiting for over an hour before taking the stage, and then left the stage after playing for less than twenty minutes.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=24}} Members of the audience began throwing cans at where the band were hiding behind the stage curtains, before mounting the stage to smash the equipment that remained there. The violence continued for some time before police eventually took control.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=24}} The venue blamed the band's late appearance and two equipment breakdowns, while McGee issued a statement saying that "the audience were not smashing up the hall, they were smashing up pop music", going on to say "This is truly art as terrorism".{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=25}} The violence soon started to become a hindrance to the band, with people attending concerts simply for the violence rather than the music, William commenting "I hate it, I despise it. It gets in the way in terms of getting more gigs, and it gets in the way of our image".{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=25}} Many performances were cancelled during the remainder of 1985, with promoters or local councils not prepared to risk a riot.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=25}} The violence flared up again at a performance at the [[Electric Ballroom]] in [[Camden Town]] in September, with bottles thrown at the band while they played, and a section of the audience smashing up the amplification equipment and smashing the lights afterwards, with several people injured by flying glass.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=26}} A major factor in the audience reaction was the length of the band's sets at the time, which lasted less than twenty-five minutes, Jim explaining this with "there's never been a group good enough to play any longer". Lack of songs was also a factor, according to Jim: "We've only got enough songs to play for that long".{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=27}}

After the success of the album in the UK, the band embarked on a tour of the United States in late 1985 and 1986, followed by a tour of Japan.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|pp=60, 65}} On returning to the UK they toured the UK, this time without the trouble that had marred earlier performances.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=65}} The band revived their acoustic intentions with a stripped-down session for John Peel in November 1985, which included "Psychocandy", the original album title track that was omitted from the release, and "Some Candy Talking", a song which they had been performing for over a year, but had been left off the album.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=68}} A second version of "Some Candy Talking" was issued on a free [[Extended play|EP]] issued with the ''NME'' in January 1986, and the song was released as the band's next single in July. It reached number thirteen in the [[UK Singles Chart]], but attracted controversy when [[BBC Radio 1]] DJ [[Mike Smith (television presenter)|Mike Smith]] decided that the song was a paean to illegal drugs (denied by the band at the time, but admitted by William a year later) and convinced the station to ban it from being played.{{sfn|Strong|2003|p=383}}{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=69}}