Plane sailing

I’d hate you to think I’m a fermenter of inter-band rivalry, but I can’t wait to talk to Jet’s Nic Cester so that I can ask him about their ding-dong with The Strokes. Julian Casablancas telling Rolling Stone that, “Jet makes me not want to make music”, has to be worth a juicy retaliatory swipe. Doesn’t it?

“I don’t really pay attention to that sort of stuff,” Cester says destroying my dreams of global syndication rights. “If it was Ronnie Wood who had a problem with me I’d be pretty fucking upset, but Julian Casablancas…”
Ah, that’s more like it! Not being privy to the inner workings of Julian Casablancas’ brain I can’t be sure, but it sounds like he’s worried that The Strokes have a rival in the sexy boy rock ‘n’ roll stakes. If he’s not, he should be! Putting sartorial matters to one side for a moment, Jet’s Get Born album is number 74 this week in America while Julian & Co’s Room On Fire languishes at 94. Add in the telephone numbers that Vodaphone are paying the Australians for the use of ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’, and it’s no wonder the Green-Eyed Monster’s made an appearance.
“The only reason we’ve had success is the haircuts and the jackets,” Cester deadpans. “In England, especially, the emphasis is more on fads and cool than it is music. Everybody’s raving about us at the moment but, come album two, the press probably won’t want to know. Either that or they’ll take great pleasure in saying how shit we are!”
Journalists? Fickle? Surely not! While not complaining about Jet’s success – “We haven’t turned into Radiohead yet!” – the thing that’s excited Nic Cester most this past year is meeting his musical heroes.
“I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when the Stones asked us to play with them in Australia,” he gushes. “Ron Wood’s my hero. We listen to The Faces every night before we go on stage to get ourselves fired up. ‘Borstal Boys’, ‘Silicone Grown’, ‘Pool Hall Richard’…they’re all phenomenal songs. Actually, I sang ‘Stay With Me’ with a friend’s band in Melbourne last week. It was fucking fun!”
Ronnie Wood’s there in front of you, what do you say to him?
“Not much. He’s such a hero that I lost the ability to speak. It’ll haunt me for the rest of my life that I had the opportunity and completely fucked it, but there you go.
“Have you seen Pirates Of The Caribbean?” he asks changing tact. “The character Johnny Depp plays in it is Keith Richards. He’s a total rock ‘n’ roll pirate!”
And, together with Ronnie, the best thing about The Rolling Stones nowadays.
“Absolutely. They did a version of ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’ on the tour which had an even longer middle eight than the Sticky Fingers one. They’re the moments when you realise, ‘My God, these guys are such fucking great blues players and so much more than a pop band.’ They’re Masters of Evolution while always sounding like the Stones as well.”
How big were the shows Jet played with them?
“Most of them were 20,000, which is big enough for a skinny white boy from Melbourne,” he laughs.
“Actually, I found the couple of 1,000 and 2,000-seater shows we did more intimidating because you can see everybody’s eyes! The Stones were pretty tight with the tickets, the bastards, but we managed to get a couple for my Mum and Dad who admitted afterwards that perhaps their sons hadn’t been wasting their time all these years (Nic’s brother Chris is the Jet drummer).”
As nice as it was having the Ma and Da in the crowd, Nic’s favourite Stones gig was the one in Sydney’s answer to the Olympia, the Enmore Theatre.
“Angus and Malcolm from AC/DC got up completely unannounced for the last four songs, which were blues standards rather than Stones stuff. It was funny seeing Malcolm take up his normal position next to the drum-kit while Angus was straight on to the catwalk, headbanging and stomping away.”
Having bid a fond farewell to the OAPs, it was over to America for a sprint round the States with fellow retro rockers Kings Of Leon.
“Outside the Stones, that’s the most fun we’ve had touring with anybody,” Nic reflects. “Our ages, history and time we started in the press being more or less the same, we understood exactly what each other was going through. We were supposed to go to a barbecue at their folks’ house, but unfortunately something came up which wouldn’t allow it. I was dying to see what the rest of the family’s haircuts were like!”
Something we touched on earlier was Jet’s disdain for moany gits like Radiohead who’d have you believe that being in a rock ‘n’ roll band is some sort of capitalist-devised torture.
“We played what seemed like eight million gigs last year and were pretty unhealthy by the end of it, but that’s the deal if you want to be successful. I’ve been places, done things and met people that I wouldn’t have if I wasn’t in Jet. As jobs go, it’s a pretty cool one!”
One of the few places that Jet didn’t get to in 2003 was Ireland, an oversight they’re putting right on Valentine’s Day when, courtesy of those nice Jack Daniel’s people, they play a J.D. Set gig in a secret Belfast location. Well, secret unless you win one of the 10 pairs of tickets we’re giving away to this invite-only spectacular.
“We were supposed to go to Belfast as part of the last tour, but for some reason or other it got put off,” Nic concludes. “My family’s half-Scottish, so any time we get down that neck of the woods is great.”