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Wonder if the bit about The Krays wanting to manage The Tornados was true though never heard that story before!

Dunno .. it looked as if everything was reliably researched. Twins could have been looking to diversify just like the guy from the plastics factory who was Meek's business partner.

Ronnie Kray was probably more interested in the young guys in the music industry. Heinz probably had a lucky escape.

>>>Heinz probably had a lucky escape.

I watched the Telstar / Joe Meek film the other night.

I knew some of it but a lot of it was new to me.

The film was "hard work" as Meek himself was very highly strung and seemed to spend the whole film shouting and swearing at people, and threatening them.

I think Heinz had a lucky escape from Joe Meek, as the film shows Meek threatening Heinz with a gun, before Meek then killed the lady who owned the shop downstairs, and then killed himself.

I notice from the credits that a number of people who knew Meek and worked with him, like Jess Conrad and Johnny Leyton, had bit parts in the film.

And did anyone notice Jimmy Carr as the man in the shop with his wife trying to buy a suitcase before the noise outside scared them off.

If Meek had gone to work at Abbey Road you do wonder what things he may have produced, though did he need all his personal equipment to get his sounds.

Abbey Road studios in those days was so straight laced, I doubt if Meek would have got past the commissionaire on the door.

Found a great clip on YouTube which I have never seen before and has that Joe Meek sound of the early '60s.

A very plastic Heinz is singing 'Don't you Understand', but far more importantly a 16yo Steve Marriott is playing drums with David Hemmings on guitar, the second guy on guitar looks very familar but just not able to place him. Could be one of the later Small Faces?

andy at handiwork wrote:

> Abbey Road studios in those days was so straight laced, I doubt
> if Meek would have got past the commissionaire on the door.

Was it that straight-laced? The Beatles were not exactly innocents in their field and the EMI chairman Sir Joseph Lockwood was homosexual.

David Hemmings thats interesting as i didnt know he was in a band but saw his name on a Medicine Head LP once on the back

At the time before depression amongst other things, wrecked his career, it would have very different at Abbey Road to how it became later with the Beatles. Engineers still wore lab coats in the studio, and producers were referred to as 'Sir' by recording artists. As for the sexual leanings of the chairman, that would for obvious reasons (mainly it was illegal before 1967) not have had any positive benefits for homosexuals like Meek. The fact that Meek had a conviction for "importuning for immoral purposes" in 1963 and had been fined ?15 would have made passage through the doors at No. 3 Abbey Road even less likely.

And they would certainly have asked him to leave the shotgun at home.