Siblings 8

 top left to right: Kathy, Eddie, Rudy, middle: Eugene, Liz, Moana, & Haini front bottom: LeRoy
Like the Osmond's, the Jackson's and 5-Star before them, The Jets are all brothers and sisters. There are eight of them in the group so far. Roy 19, Eddie 18, Gene 17, Haini 16, Rudy 15, Kathy 14, Elizabeth 13, & Moana 12. And there a further five all ready and waiting to join them when they're old enough!

MAN WITH THE VAN
Mike quit his job in 1978 (by then the future Jets were already formed) and bought a van. He fitted it with folding chairs, and drove the group from concert to concert. Vake was the lead singer at the time.

Their career was tough in the beginning. The van was unheated and the Wolfgramms had to sleep in motorway rest areas. The group, then called Quasar, traveled all over the Mid-west of America and Canada.

OUT IN THE COLD
The Jets were left temporarily homeless once when a chain of hotels they were playing at went bankrupt. Fortunately, the hotel owners decided to find them somewhere to stay until some more concerts could be set up. "Dad always said that one person would know how to get us to the top," explains percussionist Eugene. That person turned out to be Don Powell, a former talent scout for Motown Records, who had also co-managed David Bowie and Iggy Pop.

ALL TOGETHER NOW
All eight of the Jets sing and can play several instruments. "Mom and dad finally got sick of me pounding on pots and pans, so they bought me a drum kit," says Roy. "I learned to play it from listening to the radio. The others picked up what they know in much the same way."

DANCE DATE
Their parents, Mike & Vake, met when Mike traveled the 200 miles from his island, Vavau, to dance on Vake's turf in Matahau.
The band that night played a mixture of Polynesian traditional music and American pop, something which The Jets have always been near to. "Our mother performed as a singer and dancer during each of her pregnancies," Rudy explains.

Mike & Vake moved to America in 1965 and settled in Salt Lake City, Utah. He supported his ever-growing family by working in a grocery store and doing some gardening, while his eldest sons formed a band that played at family parties.

JETTING TO THE TOP
Powell first saw the group perform in 1984, and offered to manage them shortly afterwards. "They were very nice kids, and completely dedicated," he says. "They were very rough as a group, but the magic was there."
After meeting Powell, the Jets began rehearsing for six hours each day. They would go to school, play at bars and clubs at night, and get home at two o'clock in the morning. Four hours later they would get up and start all over again!

HOME HELP
"They did it," says Powell, "Because they had to. The entire family was living in a very small, two-bed roomed home with one bathroom when I got involved with them. Our first move was to get them into a larger house."