Jet | |
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Nic and Chris Cester
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Background information | |
Origin | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
Genres | Garage rock, hard rock, power pop |
Years active | 2001–2012, 2016-present |
Labels | Atlantic, Elektra, EMI Music Group, Rubber |
Associated acts | The Bamboos, The CA$inos, The Wrights, TISM, DAMNDOGS |
Members |
Nic Cester Cameron Muncey Chris Cester Mark Wilson |
Past members | Doug Armstrong Jason Doukas |
Jet are an Australian rock band formed in 2001. The band consists of lead guitarist Cameron Muncey, bassist Mark Wilson, and brothers Nic and Chris Cester on vocals/rhythm guitar and drums respectively. The group sold 6.5 million albums. The band broke up in 2012, but later regrouped in 2016.
Brothers Nic Cester and Chris Cester grew up in Dingley Village, a south-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, and attended St Bede's College Mentone, listening to their father's classic rock records from the 1960s and 1970s.
However, according to Nic, it was Australian band You Am I who had the biggest influence on Jet's developing musical tastes:
"Hi Fi Way was the most important album of my generation. ... I think everyone our age, who played guitar, played You Am I songs for the first time in front of their school assembly. ... That was the record that made you realise you could be in an Australian band, you didn't have to be a grunge band and you didn't have to be influenced by American bands. It changed everything."
The brothers decided to form a band with Cameron Muncey, Nic's friend and previous bandmate, and with bassist Doug Armstrong whom Nic and Chris met while working together at their father's spice factory. During 2001 an old high school friend of Chris' joined the band on keyboard, and it was at this time that the band took their current name. They wanted a short name so when it showed up on festival advertisements, it would be large and bold in print. "Radio Song", from their album Get Born, was written about the troubles that the band had getting recognition at this time. Jet got their big break when seminal Melbourne Punk rock band The Specimens took Jet under their wing and put them on as an opening act at The Duke of Windsor. This is where Dave Powell first saw the band perform and went on to sign them to his management firm Majorbox.