![]() ![]() They played two shows at the Danceteria, the new-wave nightclub that was the chicest hangout of the mid-80s, and recorded a session with former Velvet Underground man John Cale. In early 1984, Gene Loves Jezebel flew to New York for the first time, small‑town boys in the Big Apple. The twins’ near-telepathic intertwined vocals – complete with moans and birdlike cries – instantly set them apart from their contemporaries. Songs such as the twisted, incestuous Upstairs and majestic Screaming (For Emmalene) swirled with gloomily romantic atmosphere. That word – ‘goth’ – would come later, but their debut album, 1983’s Promise, nonetheless pinned its dark colours to the mast of this emerging scene. Jay (left) and Michael (centre) with the House Of Dolls (1987) line-up of GLJ “We were looking for our own sound, our own look. We’d see Robert Smith and Siouxise Sioux in clubs, but I never felt confident enough to walk up and say: ‘I love your music, I’ve seen you twenty-five times.’” ![]() “We very shy and quite insecure,” says Michael. With their spidery post-punk songs and equally spidery haircuts (“tarantula tops” as Jay calls them), they slotted instantly into this demi-monde, even if the Astons never quite felt comfortable being part of it. Michael’s then wife studied at St Martin’s College, and they immediately found themselves in the midst of a febrile underground movement where music intersected with art, fashion and alternative culture. They were outsiders when they moved to London and put together Gene Loves Jezebel at the start of the 1980s too. ![]() He was always in steady relationships, always looking to have families and kids. We had separate friends, we were in different forms at school. “We weren’t just hanging out with each other. “That’s a great myth about twins,” says Jay. They were close, though not quite as close as you might imagine. For Michael it was Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. Jay loved the epic pop of the Beach Boys and Phil Spector. Music provided an escape: punk and post-punk, Bowie, Zeppelin. “Just because someone’s skinny doesn’t mean they can’t handle themselves.” “You either got beat up or fought back.” The Astons fought back. As kids in the steel town of Porthcawl, South Wales, the Astons spent much of their time fighting with the local rugby boys. Add to this quality aural schmutter of the calibre of Sweet Sweet Rain and you have something that at least warrants the re-release it’s getting, even if contemporary sources might have rolled their eyes in disbelief on hearing the news that Gene Loves Jezebel would be as warmly received in 2017 (in some quarters at least) as they were in 1987.Like so many musicians who came of age in the late 70s, Gene Loves Jezebel were outsiders. Hence The Cult loom large (ironic, that, since GLB guitarist James Stevenson, who writes a great deal of the material on this album, ended up as The Cult’s touring guitarist) alongside names like The Alarm, Simple Minds and, bizarrely, James – the vocal similarities of Jay Aston and Tim Booth are uncanny at times.ĭon’t get me wrong – post punkers and goths of a certain age will afford themselves a wry smile on hearing tracks like In a Lonely Place again – I certainly did- whilst the album’s one semblance of a hit, Josephina (seen here both in its original form and with an extended mix), has actually aged pretty well and would certainly get toes tapping in your local alt.rock disco were it to be released today. Listening now it’s hard to see it as anything other than a lukewarm rehashing of whatever was hot on US college radio at the time, fused with some nods to the greats of British post punk. Of course they’ve reformed, broken up again and sued one another countless times since then, but at the time it seemed as if Heavenly Bodies might well be the epitaph of Gene Loves Jezebel and it’s two prime movers, twins Michael and Jay Aston.Īnd as such it was probably seen as a bit of a damp squib. Originally released on the Savage label in 1993, Heavenly Bodies was something of a swansong for UK goth sensations Gene Loves Jezebel. ![]()
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