Jesus Jones | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England |
Genres | |
Years active | 1988–present |
Labels | |
Members |
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Past members | Tony Arthy |
Website | www |
Jesus Jones are a British alternative rock band from Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire, formed in late 1988, who continue to record and perform, as of 2024. [5] [6] Their track "Right Here, Right Now" was an international hit, and was subsequently globally licensed for promotional and advertising campaigns. The single was also nominated for a Grammy award at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards in 1991, as was its album, Doubt . [7] They also achieved chart success with the songs "Real Real Real", "International Bright Young Thing" and "Info Freako".
Incorporating elements of electronic music styles such as house and techno to an indie rock format, along with fellow British groups such as The Shamen, Pop Will Eat Itself and EMF, Jesus Jones were one of the leading purveyors of the early 1990s alternative dance scene. In late 1988, while on holiday in Spain, Mike Edwards, Gen, and Al Doughty decided to leave the band they were in at the time, and form their own band. The name of the band came about when they realised that they were three "Joneses" sitting on a beach in Spain surrounded by people called Jesus. Back in London they advertised in the music press for a guitarist, and Jerry De Borg joined the band. Edwards had recently met Iain Baker in a pub in North London, they had got talking as they recognised each other as skateboarders, due to their footwear. Edwards asked Baker to join as the keyboardist and the line-up was complete.
They achieved initial critical acclaim with their 1989 album Liquidizer , and in particular, the single "Info Freako", which featured buzzing rock guitars with samples and a hip-hop sensibility, relatively new at the time. [5] The track was particularly championed by Bruno Brookes on his BBC Radio 1 programme.
In the spring of 1990, Jesus Jones recorded their second album, Doubt , but their record label was forced to delay its release until the beginning of 1991.[ why? ] The album sold well, due to the success of "Right Here, Right Now". The song is about the swift end of the Cold War, and reached No. 2 in the US and No. 31 in the UK. [8] [9] In June 1990, Jesus Jones appeared at the Glastonbury Festival. [10]
Other singles from Doubt included "Real, Real, Real" and "International Bright Young Thing", which became two of their biggest hit singles in the UK, reaching No. 19 and No. 7 respectively in the UK Singles Chart. [9] In 1991, Jesus Jones were the only UK winners when they won the Best New Artist award at the MTV Awards. [11] In April 1991, the British music magazine NME reported that their US tour had sold out before Jesus Jones arrived in the country. [12]
The follow-up to Doubt was Perverse (1993), a darker and more industrial based album, which, though a big seller, did not reach the worldwide hit status of Doubt. Perverse was one of the first rock albums recorded entirely digitally. [13]
After the release of the Perverse album, Jesus Jones took an extended hiatus and did not return to the recording studio until December 1996. After the recording of their fourth album, drummer Gen left the band before the album was released. They released their fourth album, titled Already , in 1997 after which Jesus Jones and their record label EMI parted company. The final months of the band are chronicled in the PDF book written by Mike Edwards "Death Threats From An 8 Year Old In The Seychelles", which was available for a time from the band's website. The band remained in contact and came back with a new drummer Tony Arthy with the low-selling London in 2001 on the indie record label Mi5 Recordings. EMI issued Never Enough: the Best of Jesus Jones, a greatest hits compilation album whilst the band moved from the North American-only Mi5 to the newly established Mi5 Recordings UK.
With the exception of the release of the Culture Vulture EP in 2004, no new material from the band had been released between 2001 and 2018. However, in 2010, a series of download albums were released to Amazon.co.uk. The release consisted of six different albums containing "in concert" performances at the BBC. Most were EPs but a few were live albums.
The single "Right Here, Right Now" was resurrected in 2006 as an advertising jingle for the American retailer Kmart, in an image campaign for CBS News, and in promotional advertisements for the now-defunct television channel TechTV. Ford Motor Company used "Right Here, Right Now" in their 2010 televisual advertising campaign. A cover of the song was also recorded by New Zealand band The Feelers to use in advertising for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. [14] In 2011 the band released The Collection & Other Rarities , which included many of their B-side tracks as well as demos and rarities. [15]
In November 2014, EMI reissued all four of the band's albums in a special CD+DVD bundle. In addition to the original album's tracks the reissues feature radio sessions, long-deleted b-sides, rare remixes and alternate versions. The DVDs include rare live concert footage and other extras. [16]
In a 2015 interview for the online periodical Soot Magazine band leader Mike Edwards acknowledged that, besides re-recording some older tracks with new arrangements, he was in the process of writing material for a new album: "I am writing new stuff – I was actually writing some new material yesterday and I have loads of little bits and pieces ticking over." [17]
Since the mid-2000s, Jesus Jones have continued performing live. In August 2011, the band went on a short tour (dubbed on one poster "The World's Smallest World Tour"), playing three shows in Australia before closing with a show in Japan. In November 2011, the band were due to perform in the UK in Birmingham and London, but the dates were postponed due to bass player Al Doughty being ill. They took place in January 2012. The band also toured the UK in December 2013 as part of The Wonder Stuff's Sleigh The UK tour. In March 2015, the band again returned to Australia and New Zealand for a five city tour. [18]
On 24 December 2013, the band announced the resignation of drummer Tony Arthy. Having been with the band for 13 years, Arthy had replaced original drummer Simon "Gen" Matthews who had left after the rocky completion of Already . On 1 January 2014, the band announced that Matthews would be rejoining the band. [19]
In 2016, the first song taken from what would become the Passages album, "How is this Even Going Down?" was released with extra tracks "Fall" and "Stripped 2016".
This was followed in 2016 with the Cdr single "Suck it up" with the extra tracks "So Welcome" and "Grateful".
All these tracks would later appear on the album Passages, which was released in April 2018 through a pledge music release and cd, with the companion demos album Voyages released in November 2018.
The band released reworkings of Liquidizer album tracks in November 2019 on CD to celebrate its 30th Anniversary. The reworked tracks were - "Move Mountains", "All the Answers", "Bring it on Down" and "Someone to Blame".
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK [21] | AUS [22] [23] | CAN [24] | EUR [25] | FIN [26] | GER [27] | NED [28] | NZ [29] | SWE [30] | US [31] | |||||
Liquidizer | 32 | 118 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
Doubt |
| 1 | 23 | 35 | 10 | — | — | — | 6 | — | 25 | |||
Perverse |
| 6 | 32 | 38 | 39 | 13 | 96 | 63 | 50 | 29 | 59 | |||
Already |
| 161 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
London |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
Passages |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
Voyages |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
"—" denotes items that did not chart or were not released in that territory. |
Year | Title | Tracks | Peak chart positions | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK [21] | ||||||||||||||
1989 | Food Christmas |
| 63 | |||||||||||
2004 | Culture Vulture |
| — | |||||||||||
2016 | How's This Even Going Down? |
| — | |||||||||||
2016 | Suck it Up |
| - | |||||||||||
2019 | Liquidizer EP |
| - | |||||||||||
"—" denotes items that did not chart or were not released in that territory. |
Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK [21] | AUS [22] [23] [36] | CAN [37] | EUR [38] | FIN [26] | GER [39] | NED [28] | NZ [29] | US [31] | US Alt. [31] | |||||
1989 | "Info Freako" | 42 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Liquidizer | ||
"Never Enough" | 42 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"Bring It on Down" | 46 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
1990 | "Real Real Real" | 19 | 117 | 10 | 48 | — | — | 59 | 37 | 4 | 26 | Doubt | ||
"Right Here, Right Now" | 31 | 35 | 18 | 87 | 13 | 84 | 61 | 29 | 2 | 1 | ||||
"International Bright Young Thing" | 7 | 79 | 58 | 29 | — | — | — | 22 | — | 6 | ||||
1991 | "Who? Where? Why?" | 21 | 167 | — | 82 | — | — | — | 48 | — | — | |||
"Right Here, Right Now" (re-issue) | 31 | — | — | 87 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
1992 | "The Devil You Know" | 10 | 54 | 47 | 34 | — | — | 77 | 15 | — | 1 | Perverse | ||
1993 | "The Right Decision" | 36 | — | 88 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 12 | |||
"Zeroes and Ones" | 30 | — | — | 78 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
1997 | "The Next Big Thing" | 49 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Already | ||
"Chemical No.1" | 71 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
2002 | "Nowhere Slow" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | London | ||
"Come on Home" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"In the Face of All of This" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
2005 | "Right Here Right Now" (Robbie Rivera featuring Jesus Jones) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | ||
2016 | "How's This Even Going Down?" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Passages | ||
"Suck it Up" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"—" denotes items that did not chart or were not released in that territory. |
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"Real Real Real" is a song by UK band Jesus Jones from their second album, Doubt (1991). It was released in March 1990 as the first single from Doubt, just prior to the release of the album. "Real Real Real" peaked at No. 19 on the UK Singles Chart and became the band's second top-10 US hit, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991.
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Already is the fourth album by the British rock band Jesus Jones, first released in 1997.
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"Right Here, Right Now" is a song by British alternative rock band Jesus Jones from their second studio album, Doubt (1991). It was released as the album's second single on 24 September 1990. Although it spent only nine nonconsecutive weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 31, it became a top-10 hit in the United States; it topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1991. The single sold over one million copies, won a BMI Award, and was the most-played song on college radio in 1991.
Never Enough: The Best of Jesus Jones is a compilation album/greatest hits album by British alternative rock/dance band Jesus Jones, released by the band's former record label EMI on 27 May 2002.
"International Bright Young Thing" is a song by British alternative dance band Jesus Jones. It was released as the third single from their second album, Doubt. The song was included on Jesus Jones's compilation album Never Enough: The Best of Jesus Jones, released in 2002.