Never Understood
On sale
10th July 2025
Price: £12.99
A TELEGRAPH MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR
A ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN UNCUT BOOK OF THE YEAR
A RESIDENT MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR
In Never Understood, William Jim tell the story of The Jesus and Mary Chain – one of Britain’s greatest guitar bands – for the very first time.
A wildly funny and improbably moving chronicle of brotherly strife, feedback, riots, drug and alcohol addiction, eternal outsiders and extreme shyness – and a love letter to the Scottish working-class family – Never Understood is a bona-fide classic of rock ‘n’ roll literature.
‘Here is the story of the Reid brothers’ rollercoaster life. Scream if you want to go faster: they’ll almost certainly oblige’
Ian Rankin
‘Entertaining . . . fraught, funny and occasionally farcical’
The Scotsman
A ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN UNCUT BOOK OF THE YEAR
A RESIDENT MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR
In Never Understood, William Jim tell the story of The Jesus and Mary Chain – one of Britain’s greatest guitar bands – for the very first time.
A wildly funny and improbably moving chronicle of brotherly strife, feedback, riots, drug and alcohol addiction, eternal outsiders and extreme shyness – and a love letter to the Scottish working-class family – Never Understood is a bona-fide classic of rock ‘n’ roll literature.
‘Here is the story of the Reid brothers’ rollercoaster life. Scream if you want to go faster: they’ll almost certainly oblige’
Ian Rankin
‘Entertaining . . . fraught, funny and occasionally farcical’
The Scotsman
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Reviews
Art ignites in the mind and, in the case of The Jesus and Mary Chain, churns relentlessly on to the centre stage. Perhaps the definitive outcasts-saved-by-rock 'n' roll story
Funny and moving
A wonderful book. Jim and William were outsiders among outsiders and being in a band was life or death for them. Somehow against all the odds they created one of the most iconic bands of all time and easily some of the most sublime music of the 80s
An epic story about the Reid brothers' war against the world and themselves. An odyssey of rock 'n' roll, class, addiction, self-crucifixion and resurrection. As diseased and beautiful as their music. I couldn't put it down
Forget Phil Spector's wall of sound - The Jesus and Mary Chain didn't know where to stop, and it led to the most exciting sounds to come out of the UK in a generation. Here is the story of the Reid brothers' rollercoaster life. Scream if you want to go faster - they'll almost certainly oblige
From the opening line to the last you get it all: addiction, poverty, success, misery, redemption. All told with a brutal, raw honesty and a dry, intoxicating realism
★★★★
In this entertaining autobiography, William and Jim Reid emerge as both expert chroniclers and good company . . . Fraught, funny and occasionally farcical