The success of the Strokes and the White Stripes opened up the floodgates when they hit the big time early in the twenty-first century, as evidenced by the overabundance of similarly styled garage rock and blues rock acts to follow in their wake. Originating from Melbourne, Australia, the Jet story can be traced back to 1995, when two students attending St. Bede’s Catholic School, Cameron Muncey (b. 8 February 1980, Australia; guitar/vocals) and Nic Cester (b. Nicholas John Cester, 6 July 1979, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; guitar), discovered a mutual admiration of You Am I, AC/DC, Oasis, and the Beatles, and decided to form their own group. With both handling guitar and vocal duties, several other members passed through their ranks as short-lived band names such as Duosonic, Mojo Filter, and Hi Fidelity were utilized during this period. Shortly after settling on a permanent name, Jet (taken from the Wings hit from the early 70s), Muncey and Cester found a permanent rhythm section comprising Cester’s brother, Chris Cester (b. Christopher Cester, Melbourne, Australia; drums) and Mark Wilson (b. 6 August 1979, Australia; bass).
Live performances followed, and in the wake of the success of local heroes the Vines, record labels began scouting Australia for additional talent. It did not hurt matters that Jet signed on with the Vines’ management, which in turn set the burgeoning quartet up with a publishing deal and a recording contract with Elektra Records was completed in late 2002. Around the same time Jet issued their first EP, the four-track Dirty Sweet (once more, the band borrowed from rock royalty, this time a phrase from T. Rex’s ‘Get It On’). They played some top live gigs including several of Australia’s major music festivals, and were invited to open the Rolling Stones’ tour of the continent in January 2003. After launching their debut tour of England a few months later, Jet worked in Los Angeles, California with producer Dave Sardy, resulting in the release of Get Born, in October of the same year. Their album was an immediate worldwide hit, spawning the hit single, ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’ and eventually selling over a million copies.
The band then spent the next two years touring throughout the world, including a notable support slot on the 2005 Oasis tour. Their second album, Shine On, was released in late 2006 and contained a strong, but heavy, Beatles influence, with Harrison guitars and Lennon vocals to the fore.
