| Jet Harris and Tony Meehan began playing together as members of the Shadows backing Cliff Richard. Despite the success of the group in its own right, both of them decided to quit. Meehan had left the group at the end of 1961 with plans to take up a job in A&R with the Decca record company. Harris stayed with the group until 1962 deciding that he could probably do better for himself on his own. He was already a well known and popular artist, particularly with the female members of the Shadows audiences and Duane Eddy had shown the potential rewards for a 'solo' guitarist. This was a very risky decision as Jet found playing his own 'lead' quite different to playing bass guitar with the group. | |
The EP shown on the right (DFE8528) is the only one you are likely to come across that is attributed to both artists. Another does exist- "Diamonds", but is very rare in the UK. "Jet & Tony" is hard enough to find and contains both sides of their two biggest hits together. |
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Jet's first two solo singles both made the chart, but he decided to forge a link with the former Shadows drummer who encouraged by Harris's success agreed to a partnership. Their first single release; 'Diamonds' went all the way to the #1 spot and things looked to be going all their way. Two more major hits followed, but disaster struck in the form of a car crash in which Harris was injured. With his partner unable to play, Meehan continued with the 'Tony Meehan Combo' and even achieved a minor hit in that guise before finally moving off into his A&R role. Jet Harris later returned to playing, but by this time the musical scene had changed and the accent was on the new vocal groups rather than instrumentals. He would never regain the momentum needed to reach the charts again. There were rumours for years that he might again rejoin the Shadows. However, it was never to be and Harris still remains a well loved solo performer on the 60s nostalgia circuit. Sadly, following an accident at his London home, Tony Meehan died on November 28th 2005. |
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