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Jesus Jones made a huge impact on the music business, back in 1989…and since that time they have never really been away, continuing to create new music and win new fans three decades after they launched themselves on the music scene with one of the most powerful debut albums of the decade.
The year had started with the release of their first single, the sample-frenzy of “Info Freako”, and they’d quickly established themselves as a must-see band, with gigs supporting The Shaman, and the Wonderstuff. They also made their first appearance at the Reading Festival, and released another two singles – “Never Enough” and “Bring It On Down”, which saw them inching closer to the UK top 40 – an impressive feat for a band who’d been together less than a year.
Newly signed to hip UK indie Food Records (the eventual home of Blur) the band set about recording their debut album.
“Liquidizer” distilled everything potent about the band into a short, sharp blast of energy. Singer and songwriter Mike Edwards’ carefully crafted melodies riding over the top of a wall of dance beats, and a swirling mass of samples.
The album was recorded cheaply (for less than the cost of their advance – around twenty thousand pounds) and rapidly, at London’s famed Townhouse Studios. In the producer’s chair was Craig Leon, the man behind Blondie and Suicide, and who changed music forever when he produced the first album by the Ramones.
Craig quickly professed his admiration for the young upstarts, who he deemed to be the ‘loudest band he’d ever worked with‘. Upon its release the album gained huge amounts of press and plaudits. It went silver in the UK and set the stage for their next phase – the runaway chart success of their second album “Doubt”, and the worldwide anthem “Right Here Right Now” which reached number one in the US.
Now, 30 years later, the band are looking back at 1989, and heading out on the road, to play their debut record in full – alongside some of the other high points of their career. They’ve even re-recorded several of the tracks from their debut album, to bring them up to date for the fans that followed them throughout the years. It’s not all about nostalgia though – Jesus Jones have never split up, and have continued recording and touring over the years.
2018 in particular was hugely productive, as they issued their best work for some time – the album “Passages”, as well as it’s companion album of remixes and demos – “Voyages”.
For Mike Edwards the ability to look back at “Liquidizer” is important; in that it frames, and informs what the band still do to this day. “It was a hugely important thing for us – getting a debut album done” adding “it was a statement of intent, and it’s a record that shaped who were were back then, but it also keeps us who were are now. I’ve always loved playing the songs from it – it’s amazing that we are still lucky enough to roll out the songs, thirty years later”
Jesus Jones play “Liquidizer” in full at the following shows – November 2019
8th – Worthing St. Paul’s
14th – London 100 Club
15th – Hastings Grand Elektra
16th – Cardiff Acapela
17th –Minehead Shiiine On Festival
22nd – Bedford Esquires
23rd –Derby Flowerpot
Jesus Jones are:
Mike Edwards – Guitar, Vocals
Jerry DeBorg – Guitar
Gary Thatcher – Bass
Iain Baker – Keyboards, Samples Gen – Drums, Sequences
