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Jet Records interests me because they released a lot of superb records but were never heralded as a major player. It was, of course, the legendary Don Arden’s label, a man who had a reputation for dangling people out of windows. He was a successful manager and promoter in the 60s, when the music industry was the wild west and there were few rules.
It was started in 1974, featuring musicians such as Lynsey de Paul, Electric Light Orchestra,, Roy Wood, Gary Moore, Ozzy Osbourne, Alan Price, Adrian Gurvitz, Riot and Magnum. The first release on the Jet Records label was the single "No, Honestly" which was a UK top 10 for its singer and writer Lynsey de Paul in November 1974.
ELO were managed by Don Arden from the band's start in 1972. They were initially signed to Harvest Records (a division of EMI) in the UK and United Artists Records in the US. A reminder that their roots were in progressive rock for the first couple of albums. Roy Wood left ELO in 1972 and formed his own group, Wizzard. During 1973 and 1974, ELO and Wizzard moved from the Harvest to Warner Brothers Records in the UK. In 1975, the two bands and Wood's solo releases moved again in the UK to Jet, with their recent Warner Brothers material becoming part of Jet's catalogue. Interestingly, for fans of TV stars who made albums, around this time, David Carradine released an album. He was popular in the Kung Fu series as Grasshopper and that’s the album title. It had the collaboration of ELO's cellist Hugh McDowell and violinist Mik Kaminski and on Jet.
Up until 1985 they were distributed by Island Records, Polydor Records (1975-76)
United Artists Records (1976-78) (UK), (1974-78) (US) and CBS Records. ELO became massive, probably one of the biggest in the world. Out Of The Blue sold 10 million worldwide and was Jet’s cash cow for many years.
As their popularity faded in the early 80s, the label hit big with the two and one live Ozzy Osbourne solo albums. Arden's daughter Sharon, who was working for Don, started dating Ozzy and eventually married him. Sharon took over managing Ozzy from her father, and Osbourne left Jet to go to the Epic label of Jet's distributor CBS.
I was inspired to write this because I was playing Nuclear Attack b/w Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood and Run To Your Mama, a 12” single by Gary Moore. After leaving Thin Lizzy in 1979, Moore relocated to Los Angeles where he signed a new recording contract with Jet Records. He recorded the album Dirty Fingers, which was shelved in favour of the more radio-oriented G-Force album, which came out in 1980. Dirty Fingers was eventually released in Japan in 1983, followed by an international release the next year. The Live at the Marquee album also came out on Jet. But Moore’s long term career was on Ten/Virgin.
The label wound down in the late 80s and is now owned by BMG Rights Management under its Sanctuary Records label but in its time it was, with ELO, dining at the big table. They needed another equally big band at the time to become a major player but never really got it. They did have excellent bands like Magnum, Kingfish, Widowmaker, Trickstar, and Girl, but they were never a big mainstream hit. Even the Gary Moore records were very peripheral in his career.
