Jesus Jones

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Jesus Jones is a British rock group. The London-based group recorded and performed in the late 1980s, throughout the 1990s, and into the 2000s.

History

Formation and Liquidizer (1987-1989)

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 was one of the leading purveyors of the early 1990s "indie dance" scene. The band is led by Mike Edwards. The band's name was created by combining one of the most common Spanish first names and the most common American last name. ¹

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 for the time. The track was particularly championed by Bruno Brookes on his Radio 1 evening show.

Doubt and Perverse (1990-1995)

In the spring of 1990, Jesus Jones recorded their second album, Doubt, but their label was forced to delay its release until the beginning of 1991. The album sold very well, due to the success of their best-known hit "Right Here, Right Now". The song is about the swift end of the Cold War, and was a No. 2 hit in the U.S. but reached only No. 31 in the UK; and which was resurrected in 2006 as an advertising jingle for the American retailer Kmart, an image campaign for CBS News, and was used in promotional advertisements for the now defunct TV channel, TechTV. Ford Motor is using Right Here, Right Now in their 2010 advertising campaign.

Other singles from the Doubt album included "Real, Real, Real" and "International Bright Young Thing" which became two of their biggest singles in the UK reaching #19 and #7 respectively in the charts. In the year that Doubt was released, Jesus Jones won the "Best Newcomer" award at the MTV Awards.

The follow-up to Doubt was Perverse which, although a big seller, did not reach the worldwide hit status of Doubt.

Recent activity (1996-present)

After the release of the Perverse album, Jesus Jones took an extended hiatus and did not return to the studio until 1996. They released fourth album, titled Already, in 1997 after which Jesus Jones and their record label EMI parted company. The band remained in contact and came back with the low-selling London in 2001 on the indie record label Mi5 Recordings. EMI issued Never Enough: the Best of Jesus Jones, a collection of greatest hits whilst, in the meantime, the band moved from the North American-only Mi5 to the newly established Mi5 Recordings UK.

In 2004 they released the EP "Culture Vulture", whilst in 2005 DJ and record producer Robbie Riviera had a club hit with a remix of "Right Here Right Now", but did not manage to follow his previous single "Bang" into the Top 40.

2008 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has used "Right Here, Right Now" as her campaign theme song.^{[citation needed]} 1992 Democratic presidential candidate Jerry Brown used it as his campaign theme song.^{[citation needed]}

The third album Perverse properly lays claim to being the first rock album recorded entirely digitally. ^[1] As a result, the jacket sleeve does not list the traditional guitars/ drums/ vocals credit; it instead lists a frequency range: 20 Hz to 4 kHz- Al Jaworski, 300 Hz to 8 kHz- Jerry De Borg, drum type sounds- Gen, etc. Mike Edwards lead vocals are the only non sampled acoustic instrument on the record.

Band members

• Mike Edwards (born Michael James Edwards, 22 June 1964 in London) - Vocals, guitars, keyboards.
• Jerry De Borg (born 30 October 1960 in Kentish Town, London) - Guitars.
• Al Doughty - (born Alan Jaworski, 31 January 1966 in Plymouth) - Bass.
• Iain Baker (born Iain Richard Foxwell Baker, 29 September 1965 in Carshalton, Surrey) - Keyboards, programming and now on NME Radio.
• Gen - (born Simon Matthews, 23 April 1964 in Devizes, Wiltshire) - drums, additional percussion.

Discography

External links

• Official website
• Jesus Jones and more Jesus Jones
• detailed review of Perverse
• Archive of Info on Jesus Jones
• Allmusic entry for Jesus Jones

¹ http://www.jesusjones.zao.net/faq/