THE JET BOYS - Larger Than Life

THE JET BOYS  Larger Than Life  LP/CD  1989
Jet Rollers / You Tell Me Lies / Blind's Night / You Talk Too Much / I'm A Lonesome Boy / The Story / Call Me Sister Midnight / Teenage Kicks / Like A Shooting Star / Untitled Ghost Track.
Produced by Si Freddi Di Angelo.

The Jet Boys: Freddy Lynxx: vocals, guitar / Poker Alice: bass, vocals / Nick Hell: drums, vocals / Vic Vixen: guitar, vocals + The 3/8: brass section / Paul Walfish: piano.

About The Jet boys
« Freddy Lynxx was playing in a band, the Aristochattes, when he first saw Thunders play in Paris in 1983. Lynxx left his band to start working as a roadie for Thunders then started a new band. When it came time to name the group, the top three choices were Jet Boys (the name of a Thunders song), Flying Pizza and Vendetta (Vixen/Alice’s choice). To settle it, Lynxx took his mates and the three names over to Thunders to ask him which was best. « How could he not choose the one after his own song? » Lynxx said. « I picked Jet Boys the way the Rolling Stones took their name from the Muddy Waters song. Going to Johnny Thunders for the name was like a little boy going to church and being given his church name ».
Scott McLennan Time Out 1994.

The Jet Boys – Year by Year
1984 - The Jet Boys took off after 3 weeks of rehearsals with a guy named John as their drummer, they were asked by Johnny Thunders to be his supporting act at the Gibus Club in Paris on September 26th & 27th. The second night, while playing « Can’t Keep My Eyes On You », a suitably impressed Johnny Thunders jumped on stage to grab the mic… that’s a double rock n roll confirmation of biblical proportions! They also played the Gibus club with the Flying Padovani’s in November & December as the word spread like napalm and the band moved up a gear. John was ejected from the drum stool and replaced by Phil Nodon in September 1985 and the next logical step was to get into the studio.
1986 - In January, the first demo is recorded with Johan Asherton, Mickey Blow and mixed by Dominique Laboubée (Dogs). The studio was so small that Phil had to use a drum machine. They later played the Gibus again with The Vibrators.

1987 - Phil left the band for unknown reasons and was replaced in 1988 by Nick Hell. They recorded their second demo in February and narrowly escaped death when a landslide destroyed part of the studio while Freddy was recording his guitar; the song « Like A Shooting Star » was born before the dust could settle.
1989 - From March 8th to 11th they returned for more shows at the Gibus club, again with Johnny Thunders. Then on April 4th they recorded the « Larger Than Life » album in 3 days at Mesa studio, on glorious 8 track, and after 2 days of mixing on 19/20th for a total cost of 6035 Francs (£920) including the master tapes, the deed was done. A month later a Debut single “Just Wanna Talk To You“ in pink vinyl is released on Sucksex Records (pronounced Success) and is quickly re-pressed in black vinyl in September when it sells out. Meanwhile, The Jet Boys keep busy touring and playing with The Del Lords, The Fleshtones, The Inmates and Dogs D’amour. October saw a release of a pink vinyl 12 » followed by the album in December. Heaps of great reviews in the worldwide music press followed, even without proper distribution; but it proves to be too little, too late, and believe it or not the band splits up because of Vic Vixen complaining about a missing credit on the inner sleeve! Only Nick Hell and Freddy remain, and quickly bring in Mad Engine on Bass and Fuzzfox on guitar.

1990 - Touring mostly in France and Spain and with new demos recorded in Lille attracting attention, the band is approached by Musidisc Records. In December, Johnny Thunders is playing an acoustic gig at the Gibus Club and Freddy brings him the tape of the album. Talking about project, Johnny tells Freddy he knows the people from Musidisc and would be interested in producing the album himself. Tragically, it will be the last time they speak.
April 1991 - and new demos for Musidisc , but the band has already planned to use 2 of the songs on a single in memory of Stiv Bators and the sleeve poster bag is already printed. During the mix on 23rd April, the phone rings and Marc Zermati tells them the sad news about Johnny Thunders… From that moment on everything goes wrong so they decide to mix in a different studio with Phil Sevin who was an assistant engineer during the last Stiv Bators studio sessions! Meanwhile, back from a Spanish tour, Musidisc don’t return their calls…
1992 - Mad Engine is leaving and is replaced by their roadie, Ian Dollz. They tour France, Belgium and Spain where they get a contract to release « Larger Than Life ». Marc Zermati asks Freddy Lynxx to help him produce a Johnny Thunders tribute album and secures a deal for « Larger Than Life » and the tribute album at the same time, on Meldac Records in Japan.
1993 - Ian Dollz and Nick Hell quit the band. A New York girl called Big G is recruited but it’s difficult to find a permanent drummer, with Jean-Lou Kalinowski (Shakin’ Street) sitting in for a while before Big G suggests they hire the drummer Yo, from her other band Loco Lizzards.

1994 - Freddy Lynxx asks Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, Rich Kids) and Julian Standen (who produced The Lemonheads and London Cowboys to name but two), if they are available to produce the Jet Boys. Live action continues with gigs at the Gibus club in June 4th and 5th with guest Rick Blaze & the Ballbusters from New York and results in some return gigs in the America. In August, touring in the United States with The Ballbusters, It appears Arista are interested in the band after they play up a storm at the Webster Hall in New York City. They even manage to secretly record a demo at Edison Recording Studio on 46th St while the big boss is on vacation. However, the relationship between Big G and Yo is becoming intolerable so it’s back to France, and Freddy calls it a day, bored of feel ling like a baby-sitter. Back at base he is soon busy with a Japanese split single with the band « The Golden Arms » released in the US on Jeff Dahl’s label Ultra Under Records, and another in the pipeline.
1998 - Freddy plans to re-release « Larger Than Life » and asks Jean Cataldo from Action Records to do some remixes. Something is in the air and by pure coincidence he’s then contacted by the US label Triple XXX (via Jeff Dahl’s connection) and offered a 3 album worldwide deal including The Jet Boys album! Since 1994 The Jet Boys have been in financial debt to Skydog manager Marc Zermati , when Marc asks Freddy to let him release « Larger Than Life Dusted » the debt is written off.

 In conclusion: The Jet Boys have never been a big success but sold something like 7000 copies of Larger Than Life with minimal, or bad distribution. You can find the « Dusted » version on Amazon but expect a « Producer’s Cut » one day, including all of the demos mentioned above. In my humble opinion, you are encouraged to seek any and all of the Jet Boys recorded output by regular searches on the www, e-Bay, Record fairs and the usual methods of tracking down the good stuff. A small caveat, dear reader, since the crash and burn of THE original Jet Boys there are a few bands out there who share the same name, but only the line-up with Freddy Lynxx carries the trademark of quality you can trust.
Finally, this page is dedicated to Nicolas Chante aka Nick Hell who was defenestrated in Costa Rica in 1998. May you be remember as « THE’ Jet Boys drummer!
Tom Crossley-Last.fm
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