Brotherly Love

By Steve Sutherland

Continuing the rock 'n' roll legend…two lovely boys from Cardiff, a plateful of dreams and enough talent to convince Steve. Welcome Gene Loves Jezebel.

Cal did not question the fact that people liked his brother better, but he had developed a means for making it all right with himself. 

He planned and waited until on time that admiring person exposed himself, and then something happened and the victim never knew how or why. Out of revenge Cal extracted a fluid of power, and out of power, joy. It was the strongest, purest emotion he knew. Far from disliking Aron, he loved him because he was usually the cause for Cal's feeling of triumph… 

Steinbeck's "East Of Eden" was published in the early Fifties, but it still applies to John and Mike today. Even without reference to the Puffin book of amateur psychiatry, it's outrageously obvious that these two are fixated, frustrated and understandably infuriated by the cruel trick fate played on their birthday. 

Boy twins, born poor in industrial South Wales; little wonder they instinctively courted personal rebellion, gender confusion and blind self-assertion long before their classmates discovered the devious delights of skipping school, routing rival rugby fans, smoking round back of the bike sheds and the odd weekend bout of shop lifting. 

"…This is the way we are; we've always been like this…" 

Today John sports black rat-tails, a psychedelic headband, pinky-red eye liner and refers to himself as Jezebel. Mike's a scruffy, stocky, stylish blond and looks suspiciously naked like he usually makes up but and this turns out to be true only just fell out of bed. He prefers to be known as Gene. 

"I think it's inevitable, the very fact we're twins; we've always worked off each other. It's not exactly competition but it's a great thrill for us to be recognized independently…maybe other people don't understand that…" Gene (let's play their little game) sounds sincere. 

"You've no idea…it's been a lifetime of people's bringing us together, looking at our noses, our lips, stroking our hair as kids…things like that and to be actually able to work against people recognizing us as twins is fabulous" Jezebel sounds triumphant. But, why work together at all? 

"…Because we always have…because Gene does love Jezebel…" 

Gene Loves Jezebel is an act of revenge, a perverse self-expression, the ultimate task of twisting disadvantage into advantage; a pop group. Formed, spiritually, in Cardiff "when we were 14", their history's one of indecision and disaster philosophically salvaged by anecdote as vital experience. 

"Back in Cardiff our guitarist Ian was attacked and had his hand slashed after a Rock Against Racism gig. He still can't feel two of his fingers…plays like Django Reinhardt…when we moved to London, we had our equipment stolen…we once supported Crass, it was a traumatic experience…we've changed our name a lot of times, just from gig to gig but, Gene Loves Jezebel, this is the one!.. 

Mike's called Gene because he broke his leg at school and some guys cruelly quipped, y'know, 'Gene Vincent' because he was always singing out loud. His surname's Aron; that comes from that film "East Of Eden"…some people have equated us with those two characters; one very black and one very white…" 

I forget to ask about Jezebel…but there is much talk of gay clubs… 

Gene Loves Jezebel seduced and shocked me at the ICA, a minor miracle. Their second ever gig as a quintet - (Cardiff dates were all as a trio and a recent Rock Garden warm-up found them disguised as Slovarian) - they refused to pander or pretend; set out to confront as much as compliment the crowd's expectations; menaced while other were content to mollycoddle. Like The Birthday Party, they were dangerous; like The Virgin Prunes, they upset and unsettled; like The Scars, they were silly. And they sounded like…nothing on earth. 

"We hope we don't!" Jezebel's chuffed. "It's not contrived; it's just because we're natural and I see all the other bands as being contrived. They all wanna play funky bass, they all wanna wear the right shirt. We don't…we don't have any influences and, I mean, if we did…well, you know, we've always worked AGAINST things anyway…" As if I was likely to forget! 

Their own self-description's not too helpful - "I don't know…Everly Brothers for the Eighties?"… - but their methods are admirably explicit. 

"We hope it's quite passionate, quite frenetic at times and also very moving." Jezebel's getting carried away. "As you say, it's as much a confrontation as a compliment because when we play we always expect to be given a hard time of it. We just wanna protect ourselves but, to a certain extent, we'd like to upset our audience by confronting them…to make them question stereotypes and morals…" 

Gene jumps in, excited: "When we used to play in Wales, we used to have this kind of incestuous thing going because the first implication of our act was homosexuality. Then the onlookers would work out we were twins and the incestuousness confused them so they tended to listen far more to what we were saying…" 

Their intentions aren't all negative; their birthright, strict Catholic up-bring, the breakdown of the job-family-semi-detached lifestyle they'd been educated into, the rape of their beloved Welsh countryside, the rigidity of the rock 'n' roll regime they're exploiting, the repression of youthful spontaneity and spirit by the small-time rural mentality, the sexual role they're supposed to perform, all galvanized their actions into passionate purpose. 

"The issues that concern us? Just things that affect us," says Jezebel… Life. Listening and talking to people, coming to conclusions and those conclusions coming out in the songs. The egalitarian spirit…that's what it's all about. We'd like to see the decline of the stereotype, we believe deeply in a lot of the feminist issues… 

One song, the cite as example, concerns a typically romantic Mills and Boon stroll through the park yet ends on a smutty "You're such a perfect lay…" 

"It's really fabulous; the band get really nervous and they concentrate. The concentration's always there; they can't get that blasé attitude that other bands have of just playing every night. They don't know what the fuck we're gonna do next sometimes and so they're playing and they're watching and they're listening. That's why it sounds like we've played thousands of times before, because everybody's concentrating. We can really make our nerves work for us now…" 

Gene Loves Jezebel articulate the dangers of preconception. They can play but sometimes they choose not to. Some things they can't play so they'll decide to have a go. They hope to turn their identity crisis into hard cash. Words they use a lot are "frustration", "tension" and "incest." 

"We find it very traumatic to go out on that stage and do it every time. It's a massive, naked thing, everybody can see what you really feel and think"…Jezebel's growing melodramatic in the best Judy Garland tradition. "You're baring yourself: he continues, "getting very emotional with people you've never ever going to touch." 

He's wrong. Gene Loves Jezebel touched me…deeply. They'll touch you too. 
 
 
 

Previous Article

Home

Next Article