Melvyn J Taub

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Melvyn J Taub is a London-based pop/rock singer and some-time actor, primarily known for his role as singer in 1980s bubblegum pop band The Jetset and as a part of Mari Wilson's touring revue band The Wilsations.

Along with school friend Paul Bevoir, Taub formed the Jetset and the band developed their style under the guidance of former Advertising and Secret Affair drummer Paul Bultitude, gaining valuable live experience as a touring support act to Secret Affair during 1981 and 1982. Through their connection with Bultitude, Bevoir and Taub had temporarily joined Mari Wilson's Wilsations as backing vocalists in 1981. Bevoir soon left to focus on his own music, while Melvyn J went on to enjoy chart success with the Wilsations, before returning to work with Bevoir in The Jetset.

The band set about crafting perfectly executed and packaged bubblegum pop, inspired by the music and merchandising of The Monkees and The Beatles. From the beginning The Jetset presented themselves as already every bit as famous as their Sixties heroes. The band’s marketing sowed the seeds of Jetset myth before they were even well known. An eye-catching EP sleeve included the band clowning around in stills “from their forthcoming TV series”, hanging out of the Monkee-influenced ‘Jetsetmobile’ (a very English Ford Capri with customised ‘JETSET’ number plates). They even had a suitably barmy Jetset cartoon strip that appeared in Shadows & Reflections, the underground magazine of long-time Jetset champion Chris Hunt.

Melvyn J added the trademark nasal vocals to The Jetset's authentic Sixties pop sound and the band went on to record five albums before their acrimonious split in 1988. As Paul Bevoir started to assume more control of the band's direction and sound, and took on more of the singing duties, Bultitude and Taub found they were surplus to requirements and quit the band, leaving Bevoir to finish the final Jetset album without them. Bevoir had occasionally appeared live as The Jetset without Taub, most notably on a tour of the USA in 1986, but he could never replicate the voice of a singer known, within the band, as "The Legend".

As an actor Melvyn J appeared in an Arena television film in the early 1980s, starring alongside Koo Stark and directed by Julien Temple.

Early demos recorded by Melvyn J have subsequently been released under the name of Melvyn And the Smartees, but after the demise of The Jetset he turned his back on the legend of the band and continued to work in the music industry in a PR role.