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Telstar; The Joe Meek Story
Topic Started: Jun 10 2012, 12:54 PM (261 Views)
waiting4atickle
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I watched this biopic on BBC2 last night. It was quite interesting, although rather depressing. Does anyone know how factually accurate the film is?

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rumbaba
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Dunno, but he was pretty weird. I guess it is more or less correct.
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caissier
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I'll try to see it. He must have been extremely creative and unorthodox -Telstar, the single, is an incredible work imo - and it's so unfortunate he came to kill himself. Maybe it was the times - he's a contempory of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell, I think - and the accommodation ..... frowsty bed-sits.
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rumbaba
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He used to record in the toilet, if I remember correctly.
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caissier
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I bet Phil Spector didn't do that.
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Hugh Mosby-Joaquin
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rumbaba
Jun 10 2012, 02:06 PM
He used to record in the toilet, if I remember correctly.
I think he once got a drummer to thump a rhythm in the toilet because he was overpowering everything; and at that distance, presumably 'down the hall, first left', gave an interesting echo.

I believe he gets a cameo role in Jake Arnott's trilogy 'The Long Firm'....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Arnott
....actually in the volume called 'He Kills Coppers'.
The entire trilogy is worth reading, as it seems to encompass all the sleazy bedsits in London, and their oft-times known inhabitants, of the 1960s to the 1980s.
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May-Cee

It's probably not true; but I like the story that, at tea breaks, they had to unplug the mixing desk to plug in the kettle.

His stuff has its charm; but it's a bunch of novelty records, innit?
To describe him - as some people still do - as "the English Phil Spector" is just daft.

(And, of course, Spector is a much more balanced fella who would never shoot a woman... )

Re: Orton...
'67 wasn't a good year for gay artists called Joe who lived in Islington bedsits, was it?
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rumbaba
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May-Cee
Jun 12 2012, 12:13 PM
It's probably not true; but I like the story that, at tea breaks, they had to unplug the mixing desk to plug in the kettle.

His stuff has its charm; but it's a bunch of novelty records, innit?
To describe him - as some people still do - as "the English Phil Spector" is just daft.

(And, of course, Spector is a much more balanced fella who would never shoot a woman... )

Re: Orton...
'67 wasn't a good year for gay artists called Joe who lived in Islington bedsits, was it?
I know what you mean May-Cee but I think people like Joe Meek, Link Wray or anyone else who created a 'sound', even on just one record, are important because they did something different and made lots of people go 'Wow, how did he get that sound? and inspired them to experiment themselves. Les Paul was hugely influential, he planted the seeds of a lot of modern production techniques because he was unusual in being both a musician and technician. Everybody's heard of Les, mainly through the Gibson guitar model, and he was hugely influential but who has any of his albums in their collection? Also, who remembers 'Tonto's Expanding Headband'?They didn't sell many of their own records but they more or less reinvented Stevie Wonder and had a big input into creating his best work on albums like 'Music of my mind', 'Talking Book and 'Innervisions'. The Tontos were a little different in that a lot of their production work is recognised as classic pop music.
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May-Cee

Point taken, Rum!

Actually, offhand, "Telstar" is the only one I can remember; maybe I should have engaged brain before opening trap...
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caissier
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Your actual Telstar ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuA-fqKCiAE

..... sound not the best sound but some bonzer period pop-graphics.

It's sublime for me. I might have it for the time when the curtain parts and I whirr away feet first. I've got it on a 45 vinyl so that'll be alright.

(I think about these things <laugh> )
Edited by caissier, Jun 13 2012, 06:07 PM.
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waiting4atickle
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Are you planning to have your ashes sent into orbit, caissier?
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caissier
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<laugh>

Set the controls for the heart of the sun, Steve ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3KtkrpAr9I&feature=related
Edited by caissier, Jun 13 2012, 09:11 PM.
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rumbaba
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I remember the first TV broadcast from the Early Bird satellite. They went all round the world. I was nine and not really sure what was so great about it. It seemed to go on for ages. I don't remember Telstar, except the tune. It was a couple of years before.
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Hugh Mosby-Joaquin
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Quote:
 
I remember the first TV broadcast from the Early Bird satellite. They went all round the world. I was nine and not really sure what was so great about it. It seemed to go on for ages. I don't remember Telstar, except the tune. It was a couple of years before.

Was that the broadcast that Raymond Baxter (who else?) announced "And I can see an image! Yes, we are receiving pictures from America via Goonhilly Down! And it's somebody's head! I can definitely say...it's somebody's head!"
Or was it the one where each country offered a piece of film for the world to peruse, and good old Britain had a live recording of the Beatles in studio? Highly critiscised by the 'stufferati' at the time, I believe. A bluddy bunch of long-haired johnnies representing England's finest hour? they blustered.

Exciting times, those. Staying up all night to watch "One small step for man....etc", all with the accompaniment in your mind from Joe Meek.
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rumbaba
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I remember a bull fight from Spain, I don't know why that sticks in the mind. I think it was Raymond Baxter doing the commentary.
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Hugh Mosby-Joaquin
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rumbaba
Jun 14 2012, 12:44 PM
I remember a bull fight from Spain, I don't know why that sticks in the mind. I think it was Raymond Baxter doing the commentary.
S'funny what sticks in the mind.....
Raymond Baxter was every Meccano-boys' uncle, though. So possibly was Christopher (Blue Peter) Trace, but Raymond had I think been a fighter-pilot in the war, and that gung-ho Britishness ooxed out of him, in a pleasant sort of way. He used to do The BBC Motoring Program before it was hi-jacked by new-age petrol-head Clarkson.
However, I remember him on Tomorrow's World demonstrating a new bullet-proof vest, where the inventor (bespectacled Barnes-Wallis sort of chap, doubtless with a shed) wore the breastpate of his own making whilst our Raymond fired various handguns at him., outside Broadcasting House. And blanks were not used, because afterwards the camera focussed on the dents close-up. I don't know whether he (the inventor) is still alive, but he seemed unpeturbed by the televised experiment. I think H&S would step in nowdays!
I'm sure I'm not making this up....
..can I just add; I don't know what would have happened had Mr Baxter not been a reasonable shot, and hit the guy in the head. I think it would have been a television first....
Edited by Hugh Mosby-Joaquin, Jun 14 2012, 01:03 PM.
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rumbaba
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TV gold :) <ok>
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becky sharp
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In the Arena programme, on BBC, a while ago Heinz said he hadn't had a sexual relationship with Joe Meek which wasn't how the film showed it.

I'm surprised, given the way he acted half the time, that anyone worked with Joe Meek ...

Telstar was Maggie Thatcher's favourite pop song.......


Did anyone notice that John Leyton played Sir Edward Lewis of Decca records who presented Joe with an award in the film?
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