Jet Harris & Tony Meehan - Diamonds (1963, DES Stereo Remix 2024)

Описание: IN THE SHADOW OF CLIFF -- Jet Harris and Tony Meehan were Cliff Richard's bassist and drummer, the Shadows' engine house behind him. Both played jazz before getting fully onboard with rock 'n' roll. Tony Meehan was a drummer with natural talent and flair. Jet Harris had one of the first electric bass guitars in the UK, courtesy of Cliff. With Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch they became Britain's most successful band before the Beatles, once they literally broke out from Cliff's 'Shadow', to enjoy a massively successful chart career of their own.

PARTING COMPANY - Meehan would become disenfranchised and leave the group in 1961 to become a producer with Decca, replaced by Brian Bennett. (Meehan would be working New Year's Day 1962 - the day the Beatles auditioned and were infamously informed via Brian Epstein they'd been unsuccessful, as "groups of guitars are on the way out".) Harris would leave some months later, having experienced increasing falling outs with other members, notably Bruce Welch who was concerned with Harris' drinking. Harris signed with Decca and enjoyed two reasonably-sized instrumental hits with a new, 'lead bass' guitar sound. "Besame Mucho" was first (no. #25) followed by "Main title Theme (from 'The Man With The Golden Arm'')" (no. #12). Then, somewhere near the end of 1962, some genius had the idea to pair Harris and Meehan up as a musical act. Whoever that was, we thank you!

DIAMOND GEEZERS - Released in January 1963, their first outing was "Diamonds", a new composition from the pen pf the singer-songwriter who wrote the shadows first his and number 1 - Jerry Lordan. It was magic stuff; Harris' downtuned guitar emulated a trebly bass, sounding mean, moody and magnificent. The three verses were identical, lasting an unusual 20-bars, separated between verses 2 and 3 by Meehan's drumming break, itself underscored by the actual bassist playing throughout and playing timekeeper for Meehan - something Harris previously provided on Shadows tracks featuring a Meehan solo, for example "See You In My Drums".

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR - Having first tried breaking this down this three years ago, trying again in 2024 brought better results, with clearer separation on the stems. A non-standard mix was then put together with Meehan's drums pretty much centre-stage, the bass over to the right, with Harris and the piano plus various orchestral accompaniment arranged by Meehan are over to the left - and have to be together as separation of these proved impossible at a more granular level. Delay was used on individual elements where possible to add a live, close-miked studio feel, with reverb judiciously added to increase that spatial awareness (I sometimes think I've swallowed a dictionary). The final touch was daring to compress the whole lot, which actually worked to increase the intensity of it all. The results are a crisp and dynamic stereo mix, instruments clear and the bass underscoring Meehan's drum break can be heard loud and clear, throughout.

MEAN AND MOODY MUSIC - The pair would follow this up with the stonking "Scarlet O'Hara", again written by Lordan (that's the songwriter's actual spelling by the way) which some believe was better than "Diamonds". I'm close to that way of thinking, yet Diamonds retains that myaterious basis for it. (By the way, I shall be adding their "Scarlet O'Hara" to this channel in the near future.) The third 45 in the Summer of 1963, Les Vandyke's "Applejack" (one I did a while back and is one of my best-sellers on this channel, lol!), made number 4, showing the act was extremely popular and had a future. All in all, 1963 was a wonderful year for 'Jet & Tony', up to the point Harris was badly injured up in a car crash, along with his then-girlfriend Billie Davis. This unfortunately brought the career of this first bass 'n' drums duo to a sudden stop. Meehan would soldier on and fulfilled dates where the backing group The diamonds were re-named to The Tony Meehan Combo and use another musician to replicate the Harris sound onstage (probably John Paul Jones?). Losing Harris was a bitter blow, but Meehan pulled out all the stops making the next single, "Song Of Mexico" in early 1964.

GONE WITH THE WIND - The single came out and was another top-drawer Jerry Lordan composition with another terrific arrangement by Meehan. Yet this wonderful number struggled to make a mere #39. It really should have done better than that. And so that was that for this chapter of the Jet Harris and Tony Meehan story. Meehan would go back into producing while Harris would attempt a comeback in 1966, followed by a missed opportunity to play in the Jeff Beck Group. Had he been able to stay together for that gig, who knows how much more rock 'n' roll Jet Harris would have had to offer the world.

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