Despite their evident skill surpassing commercial fortune in the record trade, the Mirage appeared repeatedly on the cusp of major success across their run from 1964 to 1970, yet never secured the chart breakthrough that might have brought lasting prosperity. Still, admirers of 1960s British rock have come to value the group for their capable instrumental work, fine vocal blends, clever songcraft, and stylistic progression that moved from Beat-period rockers through subtly hallucinatory pop in the Beatles mold, aggressive pre-glam guitar drive, and even early intimations of roots rock. No album appeared under the Mirage name during their original years, with many strong performances surviving only as radio captures or unissued demos, but the exhaustive 2022 anthology The World Goes on Around You: The Anthology supplies a complete and authoritative survey of their history.
The group’s origins trace to Hunsdon, a Hertfordshire village in southern England. There the beat outfit the Venders formed from earlier participants in the skiffle act the Missin’ Links and the more rock-focused Del Vincent and the Delmen. The Venders’ roster included Del Vincent on lead vocals, Pat Hynes on lead guitar, brother Pete Hynes on rhythm guitar, Percy Bishop on keyboards, Colin Felstead on bass, and a third Hynes sibling, Dave, on drums. While performing at local spots and occasional U.S. air force bases, they encountered the Diamonds, another local act whose lead guitarist Ray Glyn Mynott owned a rare British Fender Stratocaster. After Pat Hynes injured a finger and could not play one engagement, Mynott substituted and impressed the band enough to receive a permanent invitation. He accepted, prompting a reshuffle that placed Pete Hynes on lead vocals, Mynott on lead guitar, Pat Hynes on rhythm guitar, Dee Murray on bass, and Dave Hynes on drums. The revised lineup debuted as support for the Tornados, known for “Telstar,” at Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire on Christmas Eve 1964. Early in 1965 the musicians adopted the more contemporary name the Mirage.
Several members already worked as session players, an activity that introduced them to publisher Dick James. James maintained a London studio for cutting songwriting demos, and the Mirage soon served as one of his regular house bands while also joining his staff as songwriters. Through studio contacts they befriended Graham Nash and Allan Clarke of the Hollies, whose endorsement helped secure a CBS contract. Their debut single, the gender-switched cover “It’s in Her Kiss” backed with “What’ye Gonna Do ’Bout It,” appeared in June 1965 but failed to chart. Greater radio response greeted the November 1965 follow-up “Go Away” b/w “Just a Face,” produced by Nash and Clarke. Although the modest airplay of “Go Away” and the placement of “I’m Gonna Leave Her” in the film Georgy Girl generated some attention, CBS hesitated to approve a third single, leaving the band to record new material at the Dick James facility. Eventually dropped by CBS, they were picked up by entrepreneur Larry Page, an associate of James, who arranged a Phillips release. The agreement barred the musicians from session work outside the James/Page circle, prompting Ray Glyn Mynott to adopt the stage name Ray Glynn to circumvent the clause.
Because Dick James published the Beatles, the Mirage obtained permission to record “Tomorrow Never Knows” from the yet-unreleased Revolver as their first Phillips A-side, paired with the original “You Can’t Be Serious.” Internal disagreements at Phillips delayed the single until December 1966, long after the Beatles’ version had appeared, and the Mirage recording met with little commercial response. They pressed on with a second Phillips release, the originals “Hold On” b/w “Can You Hear Me,” issued in March 1967, followed in May by the pop-psych single “The Wedding of Ramona Blair” b/w “Lazy Man.” Pirate stations and scattered BBC Light Programme spins gave “Ramona Blair” some exposure without producing a hit. Phillips ended the relationship, and the musicians returned to session duties, demo work, and backing other James/Page artists, including supporting Reg Dwight on the album Regimental Sgt. Zippo, which remained unreleased until 2021 after Dwight had achieved fame as Elton John. Live performances continued, notably at the Great South Coast Bank Holiday Pop Festivity on the Isle of Wight in August 1968 before a 10,000-strong audience that also saw Jefferson Airplane, the Pretty Things, the Move, Fairport Convention, and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
Larry Page next signed the Mirage to his Page One label. Their July 1968 debut single for the imprint, “Mystery Lady,” was a lightweight number co-written by Page under the pseudonym Larry Stein, much to the band’s dismay. The September 1968 release “Here Comes Jane” appeared under the alias the Yellow Pages. Another Page composition, “Carolyn,” followed in October 1968, prompting the group to dissolve in order to escape the contract. Shortly afterward Ray Glynn, Dave Hynes, Pete Hynes, keyboardist Kirk Duncan, and bassist Jeff Peters joined the new Carnaby label founded by promoter Mervyn Conn. Unable to use the Mirage name, they recorded as Portobello Explosion, issuing the Hynes brothers’ “We Can Fly” backed with a cover of Bubble Puppy’s “Hot Smoke and Sassafras.” The single attracted little notice. Around the same time Dave Hynes and Kirk Duncan, impressed by the Band’s early albums, steered the music toward rustic country-rock. The name Jawbone, drawn from a track on The Band’s 1969 album, was adopted, and their self-titled debut LP—an amalgam of Beatles-styled pop and Americana—emerged in May 1970. Reviews were lukewarm, no live dates supported the release, and sales remained poor, leading to the group’s breakup. All members except Pete Hynes later joined Joe Brown’s roots-oriented band Brown’s Home Brew.
Though the Mirage’s career concluded quietly, collectors of British Beat and psychedelic pop later prized their scarce singles, especially “The Wedding of Ramona Blair.” An unofficial compilation, You Can’t Be Serious, surfaced in 2000 with most single sides plus demos, alternate takes, and BBC session highlights. RPM issued an authorized collection, Tomorrow Never Knows – The Pop Sike World of the Mirage: Singles & Lost Sessions, in 2006, again focusing on rare 45s, demos, and broadcast recordings. Grapefruit Records released the definitive anthology The World Goes on Around You: The Anthology in 2022, encompassing every Mirage, Yellow Pages, and Portobello Explosion single alongside BBC performances, numerous unreleased demos, and the complete Jawbone album.
