Though The Jets were acknowledged as the top beat group of their time, they never thought of making a career in music.
On March 7 — exactly 43 years to the date of their last performance at the Bhulabhai Desai Auditorium — The Jets, formed by five young men of the time; Michael Kirby (lead guitarist), Malcolm Mazumdar (rhythm guitarist), Suresh Bhojwani (bass guitarist), Napoleon Braganza (drummer) and Ashok Daryanani (manager) who grew to be Mumbai's first beat group, are having a reunion concert at Blue Frog.
Getting nostalgic, Ashok Daryanani says, “During those days the musical West Side Story was very popular. In it, was featured the gang called 'The Jets.' We just acquired that name and used it.”
About reconnecting with the band, Daryanani says, “We communicated mostly via e-mail. One of us came up with the suggestion of meeting up. Then that lead to the idea of performing. It took us three years to organise this reunion. E-mail technology got us to this point today.”
Though The Jets were acknowledged as the top beat group of their time, they never thought of making a career in music. “We were between 16 and 18 years old then. It wasn’t the lure of money but the love for music,” says Daryanani.
Suresh Bhojwani takes over adding says, “We took a mutual decision to quit while we were doing well. We had to seek out our future careers.”
However, today Bhojwani is despondent about the evolution of rock music in Mumbai over the years. “During our time it was about emulating our idols. The idea was to sound like The Shadows, The Beatles etc. But today it's about original music. And it's also hard to survive financially,” he laments.
Even in the midst of such despondency the excitement of the band members is palpable. Michael Kirby says, “The apprehension of performing after so long is there. We would try to recreate the 60s scene. Most people are not aware that Bombay actually had something like this.”
Malcolm Mazumdar ends by saying, “Among other songs we will definitely perform The Savage. It's one of our best.”
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