Photo l-r : Gerry, Joe, Phil, Reggie & Justin

It could be said that The Jets started life in a two up two down terrace house in Hibbert Street, Luton. It was number 34 to be precise, but if you go round there today don't expect to find one of those blue plaques above the door, that particular building was knocked down many years ago. In those days we had called ourselves The BB Exiles which later would become simply The Exiles. With the front room decked out in egg boxes to help suppress the sound we were soon driving the neighbours to a point where they were likely to commit multiple homicides. We then moved operations to the relative safety of a scout hut (or whatever it was) which was sited at the edge of the Marsh Farm Estate, now known more famously for the large scale riots that took place in the summer of 1995.

Our first gig at Dunstable College saw us booed off stage after just some 2 or 3 numbers, but all that energy and adrenalin was just too much, like some hapless band of predictable hard core druggies we were instantaneously hooked. Under The Exiles guise we were to eventually record our first demo at Strawberry Studios Stockport and arrived just one day after the Bay City Rollers had vacated the premises. With many of their young (female) fans still milling about outside, we could easily be forgiven in those days of extreme naivety, for thinking we were already halfway there.
To cut a long story short, we were to become The Jets some years later, establishing ourselves locally around the time The Clash had gigged at The Queensway Hall. To be fair, by the time The Jets appeared on the Farewell to the Roxy Club recording, the line up had evolved a little as had both our direction and style. My recollections of the Roxy Club itself are rather hazy. Maybe it was the smoke or the immensely stale air. It was dark, dirty, damp and incredibly sweaty. When you played you got spat on in a frenzied like manner by some of the weirdest looking spike haired freaky arse mothers this planet has ever seen, and in all the filth people could be found shagging each other in the piss soaked toilets too.

But yes I suppose the place did have a distinct kind of electricity about it. The punk bomb had not only gone off right inside the Roxy but hey, you could still smell the cordite. Think our first gig there was an audition night Wednesday when the entrance fee was a reflective 50 pence. The other band on the bill that night was called Nazi though I got a feeling they didn’t turn up, (they were invading Poland or something).

Monday 2/1/78: Recording of 'Farewell To The Roxy'. These bands played: UK Subs, Billy Karloff and The Goats, The Crabs, Plastix, The Bears, The Tickets, The Red Lights, Acme Sewage Co., The Streets, The Jets, Blitz, Open Sore, XL5, The Pitful

The UK Subs in fact were not the only band to get two numbers. The manic TV Drink number was ultimately so incredibly short that no one seemed to notice when it ended & a song called Dreg began, (incidentally also about Luton). If anyone listens to the track they’ll notice TV Drink comes to a halt one minute & 9 seconds in. As the music restarts, Gerry (the then vocalist) declares “This one got right up the governors nose last night” the song called Dreg or Dreg Town (or whatever it was called) had in effect already begun.

 Click to hear clip of 'Dreg'

If I remember correctly the line up that day was as follows:  Myself on drums, a guy called Reggie on bass, Phil & Joe on guitars & Gerry on vocals. I think this was probably Gerry’s last gig too.

Later we were also on the Farewell to the Roxy tour starting off from the Glasgow Apollo. It is not really important as to why we eventually pulled out. Lets just say that Kevin St. John was the sort of guy who was either going to shag you or screw you, the only difference being that one thing involved your arse, the other involved your appearance fee. Maybe it is simply my age and increasing cynicism but perhaps a question more pertinent to the time would be that if the Roxy was so initially central to the punk era & its inception. Then how much of a contribution was actually due to St. John’s Freaky Young Thing driven libido?

Can’t remember too much about the other bands, the UK Subs though did look the part and gave the impression they’d be sticking around for a while and apparently they did. We also managed one or two gigs up the road at the Vortex where on one occasion we appeared on the same bill as Siouxsie and the Banshees. Sorry but all that peculiar eye brow stuff did bugger all for me.

 Part 2 - Good Vibrations & the TeeVees

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Account from Justin of the Jets