Brothers William and Jim Reid would stay up, plotting the path to world domination over endless cups of tea and low-volume music (to not wake their sleeping sister) in the front room of their parent’s house. Due to the high volume of argumentation, William and Jim knew they couldn’t be in the same band, later to discover their dream ensembles were the exact same thing: The Jesus and Mary Chain.
After picking up those conversations over 40 years later, William and Jim tell the full story of one of Britain’s greatest guitar bands for the first time. It’s wildly funny and improbably moving chronicle filled with brotherly strife, feedback, riots, addiction, eternal outsiders, and somehow turns into a love letter to the Scottish working-class family. Their memoir is set to coincide with the band’s 40th anniversary in 2024 and their new album, Glasgow Eyes, which is the band’s first album since 2017.
Jim Reid on Never Understand:
“It’s got plenty of warts, we can assure you of that. In fact, it might be all warts.”
Producer, Lee Brackstone comments:
“The working title for this book was ‘Never Understand,’ a great Mary Chain song that everyone knows from 1984. As the writing process drew towards its conclusion, William suggested changing the title to ‘Never Understood’: a great lesser known track from 1998. The switch is a perfect representation of the way this book blurs the line between the present and the distant and recent past, while illuminating hidden vistas of this legendary band’s psychic hinterland.
“It’s a dream to be publishing this book at White Rabbit. When I commissioned it, I was hopeful with the guiding hand of Ben Thompson, we might end up with a classic. What we have ended up with, exceeds even my wildest hopes and expectations: not merely a classic but one of the greatest music memoirs I have ever published.”
Never Understood is set to be published by White Rabbit on August 15, 2024 (September 3, 2024 in the United States by Hachette Books) in hardback, trade paperback, e-book, and audio digital download. There will also be a White Rabbit Special Edition and a vinyl audiobook.
There are three editions of the memoir: Standard, Record Store, and White Rabbit Deluxe. The Record Store Edition only has 1500 made, but it is signed by William and Jim, and comes with the original cover artwork and housed in a bespoke slipcase all designed by William Reid. The White Rabbit Deluxe only has 500 made and comes with all of the same as the Record Store Edition as well as an exclusive LP featuring audio extracts from the book with narration by each brother and four exclusive postcards from the Jesus and Mary Chain archive.
Preorder Never Understood here.
Preorder Glasgow Eyes here.
