I first got to know about this band due to two reasons. One due to my mother being a great Jets fan and secondly due to Ishan Bahar their main vocalist is being the choir leader of our church. Due to this I was very much interested on going for the show from the first day it advertised on the newspapers. Meantime I searched about their history and found out a lot of great details about the formation and the great days they had during the highest of their success which I would be penning in the next few paragraphs.
On the day of the show when we went there it was a full house at BMICH. To our amazement it was a full pack house of the middle age gentlemen & women and there were hardly anyone lower than 25 years of age. For being a part of the show we two (myself & my friend) plus the other few youngsters got a special mention from the Jets as well as from the audience. The small chat we had during the breaks whilst the show was proceeding with the gentlemen seated next to us becomes very valuable to pen these few lines.
He himself was a great fan of the Jets thosedays; and according to him Jetliners by far could be seen as the best dance band in the early 60’s. The story of the creation of the band goes as follows (according to Maestro Vijeya Corea who acted as the emcee on that day plus the facts I gathered in the souvenir released at the concert). Felix (Fernando); a Benedictine was a guitar maniac. He with one of his friends called Lucian (Perera) formed a small group and started to strum some rhythms where Lucian handled the Lead and Felix doing the Rhythm (mind you only using the box guitar). Then at a function they see one guy playing the guitar with much skill and call him into the group. He was Anton (Gunawijeya). Then the big question arose!!! There were 2 rhythm guitarists and one lead. So to provide them with bass Felix disposed the last two strings of his box guitar and converted it into a bass guitar and became the bassist. Then they had found this pint-size lad who used to sit outside the house in Dehiwala where the three guitarists normally practised and hammer to any piece of wood making a good beat to any of the songs they rehearsed. This attracted the three guitarists and they gave him the nod to become a part of the band wagon. He was Hairs Jurangpathy or the Little Dynamite of the Jets as he was then called by the fans. This four piece outfit initially formed the Band - The Jetliners. Initially these three guitarists and the drummer played the hits of the legendary band “Shadows” such as the Apache, Dance On, Foot Taper etc....
Then came the glorious days of the Jets. When the businessman Mr Tony Fernando identified their talent and installed them at the Galle Face Hotel Coconut Grove they made a new made era of music. This became their ultimate home for more than 10 years (350+ Sundown Dances consecutively). Every Sunday from 7-10 was one heck of a party at this venue and they created the Jets culture. The crowd that gathered became regular visitors and at last the ‘Grovers’ became one family quite known to each other partying and dancing the night out on the tightly packed dance floor.
Then the need of a vocalist emerged and the man who got the nod to join the band wagon was Ishan Bahar who was quite a sensation among the crowd who usually belted out the best of the Cliff Richard & Elvis Presley. Then Minon Ratnam the keyboardist and the versatile singer (Kadalle ativu Kirilli fame) of her own right joined the group filling the gap of a much needed keyboardist.
As this went along Lucian & Ishan left as usually happens in bands and then Indra Raj replaced Lucian whilst Sohan Peiris replaced Ishan. And the story had gone on till they dispersed in 69.
But after so many years being able to see this lovely bunch of talent was a blessing. There were few who held the 2 records the Jetliners produced waited eagerly to get the autographs done from there hero’s whilst everyone enjoyed every bit of the show. The demand was such that the show scheduled to be finish at 10 went up till around 12 due to the continuous requests from the fans asking for more and more…
Even though there are many concerts going in the TV channels and the concerts happening in almost everywhere the entertainment I received listening to these greats were amazing. Each song they sang touched the hearts of any music lover and it was a very nice experience to be a part of the lovely concert.
As the final curtain drew I was thinking to myself how talented those old folks were even at this age and how lucky we would have been if we were to live in that era with a great amount of good bands. I finishes this story with one note for thought – do any current band in Sri Lanka has a fan base of this nature or the potential to market itself for a period of 6 months for a sell out crowd. I don’t think so…
