The Venders were formed in the Hertfordshire village of Hunsdon, and featured Del Vincent on lead vocals, Pat Hynes on lead guitar, his brother Pete Hynes on rhythm guitar, Percy Bishop on keyboards, Colin Felstead on bass, and a third Hynes brother, Dave, on drums. Playing local venues and the occasional American air force base, one of the Venders' more successful peers were the Diamonds, featuring lead guitarist Ray Glyn Mynott, who owned a Fender Stratocaster, then hard to come by in the United Kingdom. When Pat Hynes hurt his finger and was unable to play a gig, the Venders asked Mynott to fill in for him, and they were happy enough with his work to invite him to join the band full-time. Mynott agreed, and after shuffling a few members, the new Venders line-up was Pete Hynes on lead vocals, Mynott on lead guitar, Pat Hynes on rhythm guitar, Dee Murray on bass, and Dave Hynes on drums. They made their debut as the opening act for the Tornados on Christmas Eve 1964, and early the following year they decided they wanted a hipper sounding name, and so rebranded themselves The Mirage. Several members were working as session musicians in their spare time, and this moonlighting put them in contact with Dick James, one of England's most successful music publishers. James had installed a recording studio in his London office complex in order to cut song-writing demos, and The Mirage became one of James' house bands, as well as being signed as staff songwriters for his firm.
After meeting at the studio, the band struck up a friendship with Graham Nash and Allan Clarke of the Hollies, and on their recommendation, The Mirage landed a record deal with CBS. Their first single, 'It's in Her Kiss' (a gender-switched cover of the Betty Everett hit) was issued in June 1965 to little success, although their Nash/Clarke-produced second release, 'Go Away', earned respectable radio airplay. Despite the modest success of 'Go Away' and the use of a Mirage recording, 'I'm Gonna Leave Her', in the hit film 'Georgy Girl', CBS was reluctant to authorize a third single, and the band bided their time, writing songs and committing them to tape at the Dick James studio. CBS eventually let them go, and music entrepreneur Larry Page, an associate of James, signed them and made a deal to release their material through Phillips Records. Dick James handled publishing for the Beatles, and for their first Philips single he arranged for them to be able to cover 'Tomorrow Never Knows' from the then-unreleased 'Revolver', with a band original 'You Can't Be Serious' on the flip. However, conflicting opinions at Phillips led to the single not appearing until December 1966, and as by that time the Beatles' recording of the tune had been out for some months, The Mirage recording suffered at the marketplace.
Undaunted, the group cut a second single for Phillips, with 'Hold On' arriving in March 1967, and two months later saw the release of 'The Wedding Of Ramona Blair', a charming bit of pop psychedelia which was spun regularly by British pirate radio outlets. It received a smattering of BBC Light Programme play, but it wasn't enough to make it the success it deserved to be. With no hits to their name Phillips dropped The Mirage, and the various members had to make a living as sessionmen, cutting publishing demos, and backing other artists in the James/Page stable, including acting as backing musicians for Reg Dwight's unreleased album 'Regimental Sgt. Zippo, which was eventually released in 2021 as by Elton John. The Mirage landed a new record deal when Larry Page brought them aboard for his new Page One label, but much to the group's annoyance, the A-side for their 1968 Page One debut was a bit of pop fluff called 'Mystery Lady' that was co-written by Page under the nom de plume Larry Stein. Their second Page One release, September 1968's 'Here Comes Jane', wasn't even released under their own name, with the group credited as the Yellow Pages, and when a month later Page One released 'Carolyn', another substandard number written by Page, the band were at the end of their tether, and deliberately broke up just to free themselves of their contract with Page.
A few months later, Ray Glynn, Dave Hynes, Pete Hynes, keyboard player Kirk Duncan, and bassist Jeff Peters signed with Carnaby Records, a new label launched by music promoter Mervyn Conn, and as they were unable to use the name The Mirage, the band called themselves Portobello Explosion. Their first release for Carnaby was 'We Can Fly', a Hynes brothers original backed with a cover of the Bubble Puppy's Texas psych hit 'Hot Smoke And Sassafras', but it made little impression, and following Hynes and Duncan's love of the Band's first two albums, they shifted their music to resemble their rustic country-rock, and so another name-change was needed, this time to Jawbone. Their sole eponymous album came out in 1970, and was a unique mixture of Beatles-influenced pop and rootsy Americana, but reviews were tepid, and Jawbone played no live gigs in support of the release, resulting in the band breaking up. Because they were recording demos at the same time as releasing their singles, by 1968 they had amassed a collection of material that would have made an excellent album, and this is what it would have sounded like.
01 The World Goes On Around You
02 I See The Rain
03 The Wedding Of Ramona Blair
04 Ebaneezer Beaver
05 My Door No. 4
06 Chicago Cottage
07 Can You Hear Me
08 You Can't Be Serious
09 Mrs Busby
10 Gone To Your Head
11 One More Time
12 Is Anybody Home
13 Hello Enid
14 What Do I Care
15 Love Is Where You Find It
