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| From | Michael Bennett <mrhonorama@ameritech.net> |
| Subject | Re: Jet (70s, not recent) |
| Date | Mon, 11 Apr 2005 14:38:09 -0700 (PDT) |
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Stacy --
Jet was the band formed by Martin Gordon, who played
bass for Sparks on their Kimono My House album.
Gordon was dumped from the band about the time "This
Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us" hit the
charts. Gordon had wanted a bigger role in the band,
and the band's manager (and likely leaders Ron and
Russell Mael). Gordon has gone on to state that he
was responsible for some of the arrangements on
Kimono, and listening to it in comparison with Jet's
sole album release and Sparks' follow up, Propaganda,
this appears to be quite true.
Gordon then hooked up with Andy Ellison (vocals) and
Chris Towson (drums) and a couple of other musicians
to form Jet. Andy and Chris were in John's Children,
the '60s psychedelic band that spawned Marc Bolan of
T. Rex fame. As I said, Jet only put out one album,
so that makes the recommendation easier. And, it
sounds a lot like Kimono-era Sparks. It's really
good. The album is available on CD. There was a two
disc version, with rarities and live stuff on the
second disc, though I don't think that's in print
anymore.
Jet never got a second album off the ground. Martin,
Andy and Chris stayed together and formed Radio Stars,
who are more in the new wave/punk-cum-pub rock genre.
They also feature clever lyrics. Good stuff, but they
don't sound like Jet.
After the Stars released two albums and some singles,
they broke up. Just a couple of years ago, Martin
Gordon resurfaced as a solo act, after years working
with other bands. Towson is still his drummer. He's
put out two terrific solo records, Baboon In The
Basement and The Joy Of More Hogwash. Musically, they
kind of split the differenc between Jet and Radio
Stars, and his lyrics are better than ever.
Mike Bennett
--- Stacy Lynn <stacylists@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Can anyone tell me anything about the band Jet? Not
> the current chart
> band from Australia, but the one from the 70s? I
> ran across some of
> their stuff today at work and enjoyed what I heard
> but was having a
> hard time finding any info on them (besides what is
> up on
> allmusic.com) because I keep finding the current
> band Jet instead.
>
> I was able to find that they used Queen's producer,
> and that sounded
> excellent to me, and though the band seems pretty
> rock (not unlike
> Queen or other similar artists of the day) it is
> definately quite
> melodic and has some nice hooks to it (from the
> samples I heard).
>
> Anyone care to fill in any blanks for me? History,
> what happened to
> them, how are they regarded, songs/albums to start
> with, opinions?
> etc?
>
> Stacy
>
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