Jet Harris

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Terence "Jet" Harris MBE (born July 6, 1939 in Kingsbury , England ; † March 18, 2011 in Winchester ) was a British bass guitarist who had great success in the early 1960s with the Shadows and as a duo with Tony Meehan Had instrumental titles.

Life

In 1952, Terence Harris - he got his nickname "Jet" from his sprint talent in school sport - discovered the double bass for himself and taught himself to play. As a pioneer with the electric bass guitar, he was soon a sought-after musician in various bands in the mid-1950s.

In 1958 he made the acquaintance of Cliff Richard and shortly thereafter became a member of his backing band The Shadows . Until 1962 he was involved in all Cliff Richard hits, and even when the Shadows published their own instrumental titles from 1960 onwards, he played a decisive role in shaping the Shadows sound, in particular through his virtuoso, echoed bass playing with Kon Tiki and 36- 24-36 . In these two pieces, the bass emerged as the actual solo instrument.

In 1961, with the departure of drummer Tony Meehan, the old Shadows line-up began to fall apart. Meehan went to Decca Records as a producer , and when Jet Harris left after disagreement in 1962, Meehan got him a recording deal with Decca. The cause of Jet Harris' downright expulsion from the Shadows was that he suffered from latent alcohol problems that went so far that he fell drunk from the stage at a concert at the Palladium. His successor as bassist with the Shadows was briefly Brian "Liquorice" Locking. The irony of fate was that Jet Harris was the band leader until his expulsion and also had the honor of being the "finder" of the band name The Shadows .

With instrumental versions of Besame mucho and the theme music from the movie " The Man the Golden Arm with " (The Man with the Golden Arm) , he showed that he could also claim as a bass guitarist in the charts, the theme music reached # 12 on the British charts . Although Tony Meehan accompanied him on drums during these recordings , they did not officially appear as a duo until 1963. In addition, Jerry Lordan , who had already written the Shadows super hits Apache and Wonderful Land , provided them with two more hit templates. And so their first joint work Diamonds was a straight number one hit in Great Britain , with Scarlett O'Hara they reached number 2 and with Applejack they reached number 4.

Tragically, Harris was seriously injured in a collision between his car and a bus shortly afterwards, and his recovery and legal process dragged on for so long that by then his career had flattened. From 1966 he tried again and again with various projects, including 1967 with the Jeff Beck Group . In the meantime he had even given up music in favor of professional photography. It was only in the 1990s that he returned to music and released two albums again. Jet Harris died of cancer on March 18, 2011 at the age of 71.

Discography

Albums

  • 1977: Inside Jet Harris
  • 1989: Diamonds and Other Gems
  • 1992: The Anniversary Album
  • 1993: Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt
  • 1994: Twelve Great Guitar Gems
  • 1995: Tributes and Rarities
  • 1996: Live Over England
  • 1997: Two of a Kind (with Alan Jones)
  • 1998: One of Our Shadows Is Missing
  • 2001: The Phoenix Rises
  • 2002: Diamonds Are Trumps
  • 2007: The Journey

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
UK UK
1962 Besame Mucho
Diamonds and Other Gems 		UK22 (7 weeks)
UK
Main Theme (from The Man with the Golden Arm)
Diamonds and Other Gems 		UK12 (11 weeks)
UK
1963 Diamonds
Diamonds and Other Gems 		UK1 (13 weeks)
UK
with Tony Meehan
Scarlet O'Hara
Diamonds and Other Gems 		UK2 (13 weeks)
UK
with Tony Meehan
Applejack
Diamonds and Other Gems 		UK4 (13 weeks)
UK
with Tony Meehan

More singles

  • 1964: Big Bad Bass
  • 1967: My Lady
  • 1977: Theme from A Fallen Idol
  • 2006: San Antonio

literature

  • Laufenberg, Frank / Hake, Ingrid: Rock and Pop Lexicon. Vol. 1: ABBA - Kay Kyser . Düsseldorf / Vienna: Econ Verlag, 1994, p. 656.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.thisishampshire.net/news/8918784.Ex_Shadows_guitarist_Jet_Harris_dies/
  2. ^ Charlie Gillett / Simon Frith (eds.): Rock File 4. Panther Books Ltd, Frogmore 1976, p. 188.
  3. ↑ Chart sources: UK

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Harris, Jet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harris, Terence (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British musician
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Kingsbury , England
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 2011
Place of death Winchester