Chart entered : 25 February 1989
Chart peak : 42
Number of hits : 12
My mate Sean had a particular animus against this lot , based, I think on the gap between their mouthy frontman's grandiose claims and the quality of the music produced ( see also Boomtown Rats, Sleeper ), and I can't say they did much for me either. I recall citing these on Popular as one of the prime exponents of "Crap Pop" in this era and a number of commenters coming to the defence of this debut single. I missed it at the time so there's some curiosity involved in hearing it now.
Jesus Jones started with school friends , Mike Edwards ( guitar / vocals ) and Simon "Gem" Matthews ( drums ) playing in bands together in their home ton of Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. In 1986 they picked up bassist Al Doughty and moved to London as a band called Camouflage . They attracted some attention from labels but no deal was forthcoming. A change of name to Big Colour changed nothing. They decided on their second re-brand while on holiday in Spain in 1988 . They quickly picked up Iain Baker ( keyboards ) and Jerry De Borg ( guitar ) . They had a similar vision to the likes of Big Audio Dynamite and Pop Will Eat Itself in trying to create a hybrid of alternative rock and modern dance. Simon knew the people at Food, the EMI- sponsored label set up by former Teardrop Explodes man David Balfe and they were signed up before they'd even played a live gig.
EMI were persuaded to give "Info Freako" heavy promotion and it got on the Radio One playlist. Starting with a barrage of radio babble similar to Landscape's Einstein A Go Go, the music is a mix of thrashed guitars , Art of Noise-style keyboard samples, funky drums, white noise and Mike's electronically distorted vocal snarl. It got rave reviews and while it doesn't sound so remarkable now, I can see why people found it thrilling when the charts were choked up with Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
The lyric deserves further consideration. Mike hymns the virtues of autodidacticism and makes the fatal declaration " it means I'll always have the edge over you ". It's hilariously ironic that a band so concerned with producing music for the future could call it so wrong. Technological development in the forthcoming decade was to eviscerate the value of knowledge and research and make it practically worthless outside the well-fortified walls of academic publication. Yous truly has long since accepted that these blogs have no commercial potential. Even that last redoubt of the autodidact, the pub quiz, has been stormed by people looking at their mobiles under the table ( as well as the ever-dwindling number of venues in which to operate ). Mike's Info Freako didn't have "the edge" ; he was teetering on it.
In reference to your pub quiz comment, I have attended a couple of football quizzes in town and noted that certain individuals frequent trips to the Gents would indicate phone-checking or one hell of a cocaine habit.
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