Joe Meek - s/d

That old documentary about Joe was on last night. Sad sad sad - esp. when you consider Lord Sutch killed himself too. But the tape recording of Joe conducting a conversation with a cat in a graveyard remains one of the funniest things ever:

Cat: "Miaow. Help me, miaow"
Joe: "Hello"
Cat: "Help me, help me, help"
Joe: "Do you want help? Are you trying to talk to us?"
Cat: "Help"

am halfway through the second two-thirds of this (forgot it was on, then set the tape recorder, watched this morning). have just seen the bit with jonathon king taking it as a slight that JM didn't grope him and now there's a clip of JM saying how all the pluggers hate his success. odd stuff.

there is a new film in production(?) featuring bloke from the Darkness as Sutch

http://www.thehighwaystar.com/thsblog/2007/08/22/joe-meek-movie/

# Carl Barat (The Libertines) plays Gene Vincent
# Justin Hawkins (The Darkness) plays Screaming Lord Sutch
# Jon Lee (S Club 7) plays Billy Fury

oh, is based on the Nick (Get A Brain) Moran thing

Shudder to think who'll be playing Joe. Dench as Mrs Shenton? Or Mirren?

Oh, didn't check link!

Nigel Harman plays Jess Conrad

Wow, absolutely, he was born to play Jess Conrad!!!!

Ralf Little plays Chas Hodges (The Outlaws’ bassist)

Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!

Martine McCutcheon plays "Lady Victim"

Where's Victim then? Anywhere near Bracknell?

Spooky:

http://www.frenchpix.com/images/jess-conrad.jpg

http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/nigel_harman_06-01.jpg

GTFOUTAHERE!

Weird innit? Joe would love it! And Nigel, no doubt.

Trailer for the upcoming feature-length documentary on Joe Meek, Something I've Got to Tell You.

"HIS ONLY CRIME... HE HEARD A NEW WORLD"

Well, that and blowing a hole in his landlady with a 12 bore shotgun. That trailer is hideous.

and now the Nick Moran connection makes sense.

The Razorblade collection is probably all most people need.

-- Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:15 (2 years ago) Bookmark Link

What is this - and does it contain Moontrekkers?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joe-Meek-Alchemist-Rarities-1958-1966/dp/B000062R61/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1210767165&sr=8-1

...is outstanding for a tenner or so. You should get that. I was going to recommend the box set, as it was about £20 when I got it, but I see that it's £35 now. Still worth it though - you might find one cheaper on ebay.

And it's got the Flee-Rekkers on as well! Bonus. Thanks.

You need 'Country Boy' (or is it 'Country Boy Love'?) by HEINZ.

what else sounds like Diane and the Javelins' "Who's That Girl"?

uh... hey guys... http://rideyourpony-twighlightzone.blogspot.com/

they've posted a meek box, joe meek freakbeat, meek's girls over the past week or so.

where are the links?

in teh comments

I was ogling that freakbeat comp at the record store the other day

was mad gay.'nuff said.

but he straight on headphones

I could listen to Please Stay on a loop for ever, it has hidden depths

trailer for Telstar

anticipate?

hell yeah

perfect choice of music for trailer too

Dunno if the thread reviver realised that he died 42 years ago today.

when the fuck is this movie coming out, again?

Finally saw Telstar yesterday. Hmdjchcjdspdppfffffff I guess it shoulda gone straight to DVD.

ahaha that bad?

Very stagey. That portly british comedian dude was there too, Croyden or whatshisname. I can't stand him.

So much wrong with the casting. As well as James Corden being in it at all, there's Carl Barat as Gene Vincent (!), Ralf Little as half of Chas'n'Dave, and Justin "Darkness" Hawkins as Screaming Lord Sutch (!!)

Watching it now.

It's pretty good, compare it to how ba it could have been.

Stagey, yeah, but.

I didn't think any of the 'cameos' were particularly bad, but it was noticeable that the amount of actual acting they had to do was restricted..

So after being a vaguely casual fan I've taken a more dedicated plunge this year -- though I'll probably stop where I'm at, since trying to track down everything is a pointless wormhole and a half and inevitable duplication crops up. Still, I think I've done well in getting these:

The big Portrait of a Genius: The RGM Legacy box.

The not-much-overlap The Alchemist of Pop 2 CD comp.

The Let's Go (Joe Meek's Girls) comp on RPM back in the 1990s.

The They Were Wrong! Joe's Boys Volume One 2 CD collection (I gather no further volumes because Castle shut down/was absorbed soon after)

The Vampires, Cowboys, Spacemen & Spooks - The Very Best Of Joe Meek's Instrumentals 2 CD collection.

And the Joe Meek Freakbeat (You're Holding Me Down) comp.

Somewhere in my binders I know I also have the RPM issue of I Hear a New World kicking around.

Kinda curious now if there's a particular good book and/or documentary on him, I gather one of the latter is mentioned above in the thread but maybe more since?

The documentary with this in it, you mean?

But the tape recording of Joe conducting a conversation with a cat in a graveyard remains one of the funniest things ever:

Cat: "Miaow. Help me, miaow"
Joe: "Hello"
Cat: "Help me, help me, help"
Joe: "Do you want help? Are you trying to talk to us?"
Cat: "Help"

Sounds like!

the Portrait Of A Genius box is excellent. I particularly like Powercut by the Cameos which Meek apparently pitched up into a different key after recording to get this wayward, frantic sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcuMHXxNV7Q

I do appreciate how these sets -- collectively more than anything else -- underscore the mix of a chancer trying out anything with the technical skill to make it happen. I try not to hear them as demo reels though sometimes there's that effect, but they're always more than just that -- he didn't want to do things that were unheard.

thanks for those links, Ned - recently heard the bootleg LP that Mississippi put out and started down the wormhole (again)

His production for Glenda Collins is top notch

BTW that documentary Tom D mentions is here

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs9zAgLmBvnn9EqSfFWJEeOPiaNEWUUNK

Great watch, but also really weird in terms of thinking how strange and distant it seems already, and you get more than a whiff of Thatcherism-era disapproval of Joe's preferences.

Idly turning on Talking Pictures to see what creaky British movie they were showing I happened to catch the the end of Live It Up!, with Gene Vincent, Heinz, the Outlaws etc - and Stephen Marriott as a drummer and also, though I didn't spot him, John (Mitch) Mitchell not as a drummer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_It_Up!_(film)

i saw about 10 minutes and let's just say it didn't hold my attention

If you don't have the Kenny Gaham and his Satellites' Moondog and Suncat Suites get it, Johnny Trunk reissued it several years ago.
Other than that, I didn't usually find the deeper excavation of his work rewarding. The first things that came out were really the best.

I read Barry Cleveland's book many years ago and was kinda disappointed. It wasn't nearly as technical as I expected, and much heavier on biographical filler.

fascinating interview with the lead singer (sic) of the tornados on ugly things podcast, including a credible alternate theory of his death. https://www.iheart.com/podcast/338-ugly-things-100854887/episode/joe-meek-robb-huxley-interview-296022703/