Although a good deal older than their contemporaries, Warren Gaines and his brother Darren had enjoyed some success in the early nineties with Warwick grunge outfit Shunt.  With one eye on the incoming tide of Britpop, they formed Jetload, recruiting Darren’s son Dean into the line-up as vocalist and frontman. This father/son, brother/brother, uncle/nephew combination was an instant hit right across the rural West Midlands and after Pivotal Records big cheese Chris Chintz saw them at a Tuesday night show in Leamington, he signed them to the label.

With ex-Hamdy’s News and Conway veteran Rob Clegg in the producer’s chair they set to work on their debut album, ‘Heavy Roller’, the title suggested by producer Clegg, inspired by the long afternoons he often spent alone watching schoolboy cricket. Family tensions, growing since the band was signed, meant recording got off to a difficult start. After a disagreement over a sandwich, Darren Gaines stopped speaking to his brother Warren which in turn led to tensions between Warren and nephew Dean. When Darren and Warren eventually made up, Dean stopped talking to Darren and the recording was put on hold until Rob Clegg got to grips with who wasn’t talking to who. The creases of disagreement were largely ironed out and an album was eventually released.

With Dean’s on-off relationship with Twinge front-woman Chrissie Fisher giving the band some much needed tabloid attention, they enjoyed moderate success, touring the country with indie-space-rockers Lasertoner. Often referred to in the music press as the ‘Les Dennis and Amanda Holden of Britpop’, the couple split when Fisher left Dean for Gas Gazzard of Coathanger. Interest soon waned and a half-hearted attempt to generate an inter-band rivalry, involving some name-calling and pushing with Winchester drone-darlings Bedwetter, failed to get Jetload the publicity they needed.

With expectation and demand at a critical low, plans to record a second album were put on the back burner, then taken off the burner with the cooker being switched off altogether when the band split in 1998. In recent years, Jetload have been back on the road, though a combination of lack of interest and economic necessity means they now tour as their own tribute band.

Too low to be high
Too low to be high, yeah.
Not enough elevation to reach for the sky,
I’m too low to be high,
Too low to be high,
But I’m getting there
Don’t know where’s there,
But I’m getting there.

from ‘Too Low to be High’, Jetload

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