| The Salford Jets | - The Salford Jets play Life Cafe on Thursday 27 April - Tickets are £10
- Manchester Boys, the Jets' debut album us out now on Castle
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Why's it taken 25 years to get your album out? "All the deals we had with major companies had clauses to include an album release, usually in the second year of contract, but due to various circumstances it never happened. We fell out with Polydor and left by mutual agreement, or EMI International ceased to exist, and RCA changed of their chief UK record executive mere days before we were meant to be signing a contract extension and starting on tracks for the album!" What's made you release it now?
 | | The Salford Jets in 1980 |
"Mike (Sweeney, the Jets’ lead singer) and I always felt we should have a proper album release. We did a home made series of albums - Adventures in Lo Fi - covering pretty much everything the original Jets ever recorded. We were amazed at requests we were getting from around the world - I sent a copy of this to a magazine which they reviewed, saying they were amazed no major had picked up on the band. "Encouraged by this, I decided to send out a compilation of both old and recent songs to three companies and got a positive reply from Sanctuary back in May 2005. They’ve completely re-packaged, re-mastered and have now released Manchester Boys - which we are very proud of. All that in just under 30 years!" Which is your favourite Jets track?
 | | The Salford Jets in 2006 |
"Who You Lookin' At? because it was the nearest we got to success. It’s quite satirical - a tongue in cheek view of the perceived punk culture of the time. We were due to appear on Top Of The Pops as the fastest selling newcomers but unfortunately it was on the week when the BBC technicians decided to go on strike! "I also like Gina, because I still think it's a great little pop song, and Last Bus, just because it gave me an excuse to play the bass like a lead instrument and at 90 miles an hour!" There's a lot of affection for the Jets in Manchester. Why do you think the band is so well-loved? "We were always lucky to have great loyal fans who would travel long distances to see us and for which we were so grateful and fortunate. It’s a difficult question to answer, mainly because I'm not quite sure myself! Hopefully it is because people liked our music. We never ever really fitted into one genre, we just played whatever we liked - maybe that was one reason why we were not over successful all those years ago!" Why do you think things never took off for the Jets? | "Our single was on Jukebox Jury. Dusty Springfield heard it and said that if it got us out of Salford, she’d vote it a hit!" | | Diccon Hubbard on the shortcomings of their chosen moniker |
"For so many reasons. For example, when She's Gonna Break Your Heart was released, it became record of the week on Radio One, a massive deal back in 1980, but because RCA had all their pressing plants preoccupied with a Bowie single and an Elvis album, they had pressed very few of our single which made it difficult to purchase, by the time they realised they could have a hit on their hands it was too late! "Also, in hindsight, maybe the name didn’t help. The Salford in the Salford Jets put some people off. The city had a bit of a reputation back then and some venues wouldn’t book us because they thought we’d be rough. You don’t think it at the time. Let’s face it, no-one looks at Boston or Chicago and attaches them to the cities. "In fact, back when we were about to break through, oursingle was on Jukebox Jury. Dusty Springfield heard it and said that if it got us out of Salford, she’d vote it a hit!" Do you think the labels let you down? "Yes! Although some things were self inflicted." What's kept the Jets coming back for more?
 | | The Salford Jets in their heyday |
"We have never really stopped, if we did not still enjoy writing, recording and doing live gigs, we would have jacked it in years ago. We have always believed in ourselves no matter what!" Your sound is very now. What do you think of the new wave of post-punk bands? "There are some exciting new bands coming through, which is always a good thing, but as for our sound being very ‘now’, maybe that is just a quirk of fate. Things have a habit of going full circle; music, fashion, Marmite... It might be possible that we could be the oldest ‘new’ band in the country. You never know - I gave up predictions a long time ago!" | 
