London, England, January 1989. A new band called Jesus Jones have now been playing gigs for just one month. They’ve landed a record deal with an upcoming label called Food, and it’s time to start taking the next steps in their career. Those steps start happening very quickly. That month, they release their first single, “Info Freako”. It narrowly misses the UK charts, and their innovative blend of rock, dance music and sampling technology quickly creates a huge buzz. That year, they embark on their first UK tour and record their first album, “Liquidizer”. Over the summer, frontman Mike Edwards writes a batch of new demos to be included on the band’s next album. There’s a song called “Right Here, Right Now” that seems promising. Mike hopes it might even be released as a single in the future.
Fast forward to 2024. The songs that Edwards wrote in that summer of 1989 launched Jesus Jones on a career that took them around the globe many times over. ”Right Here Right Now” rose to the top of the US charts, becoming an anthem. The album it was taken from – 1991’s “Doubt” – went on to sell more than two million copies. They received an MTV award and were nominated for a Grammy. They played Wembley Stadium and performed in front of rapturous audiences everywhere they went. But speaking to Edwards now, the singer is humbled by what happened. “If you’d asked me back in 1989 to imagine that we might still be doing this 35 years later, I’d have said it was absurd”, muses Edwards.”Still being able to play around the world now feels like an absolute privilege for us.”
2024 sees the band looking back on the decades, marking the progress of time with a thirty-fifth-anniversary tour. It all started late last year, with a quick tour of Japan, then some warmup dates in the UK. But this year sees them hit the road in earnest, with shows in Australia, then the US and Canada, before festival dates in the UK and a slew of gigs in the autumn (including some top-secret “surprise” dates that’ll get everyone talking).
Jesus Jones arrive back in the US in late March, to play their first proper tour of the country in decades. It’s the same five-piece lineup, and they’re as unapologetically energetic as they were all those years ago. The band will play songs from across their entire career: from that first single, “Info Freako”, to their massive anthem “Right Here, Right Now”, to their latest single “Still Smiling”, released in 2023.
Guests on the tour are The Discoveries Of the American Scientific.
