Telstar: The Joe Meek Story

Hey, what do you know? Someone finally thought that Americans would pay to see the Joe Meek story on the small screen. For those who haven't heard of him (nearly everybody), Joe Meek was a forgotten legend of rock history--the most famous producer you've never heard of. Working in his home studio in the pre-Beatles 1960s, he wrote and produced a string of hits, misses, and completely berserk productions; the most famous single he wrote was the namesake of the film, "Telstar". It sold five million copies worldwide, was the first song by a British group to hit #1 in American, proved to the British Invasion bands that a great deal of money and fame awaited them in the States, and was named after a communications satellite.

The movie compresses the last six or seven years of Joe Meek's life into an hour and a half of frenetic activity, doomed romance (Meek was gay at a time when it was criminal to be a homosexual in Britain, whether or not one actually had sex with members of the same sex), strange music, occasional triumphs and longer and longer stretches of failure as the music world passed him by. I'm almost certainly a bigger fan of Meek than whoever's reading this; let me just say that the liberties taken with the truth and with the real story serve the film and make it a stronger work. The percussion track on "Have I the Right?", for example, was people stamping on the wooden stairs in Meek's flat in real life, not everyone in the cast playing drums. Does it matter? Not in the least. The script is strong, Con O'Neill is revelatory as Joe Meek, Kevin Spacey is nearly unrecognizable as Major Banks, the man footing the bill for all the pop singles Meek's working on, and the stream of musicians working as the house band all acquit themselves magnificently. The story jumps forward and backward in time during the last night of Joe Meek's life, giving the viewer a front row seat to his successes and failures as things spiral from bad to worse in the "present" of February 1967.

This film gets my highest possible recommendation for anyone with an interest in pop music. And thankfully, three years after it was released in the UK, there's a legitimate DVD release. I'm so happy I now have the option to watch the movie after paying the filmmakers.

3.8 stars

This started out so well that I thought I might be in for one of the best movies I'd ever seen. The exceptionally crisp opening scene stuffs about five minutes of exposition into one, then a truly exemplary credit sequence not only provides endless split-screen eye candy but also clues us into the basics of where we are and how we got there. Genius, one of the best opening few minutes of any film I can think of.

Buuut, then things begin to slow down and never really pick up. Con O'Neill is very good indeed, as are almost all of the actors, but the script is about 30 minutes too long. The story drags on and as Joe's life unravels so does this film. By the end I was just glad it was over.

Spacey's opening scenes are wonderful and you'd hardly recognize him. But then his Brit accent seems to fade as the film goes on and his role loses its lustre. It was funny to see portrayals of the young Ritchie Blackmore and Mitch Mitchell (his gun scene is a highlight), but the Blackmore guy was just lame at faking guitar playing. RB was and is a true guitar great, even on his early Joe Meek cuts, and this guy is clueless. Bad casting.

There are some fine moments scattered throughout, however, and Con carries this one all the way. Meek's gayness is dealt with pretty well, and his obsession with Heinz comes across with real edge. But the film shines most in its light moments, and as it wears on Meek's life has precious few of them, so don't expect fun and games after the first hour.

Worth seeing if you recall the great Telstar fondly (it is a classic tune, no doubt), or are interested in the London music scene back then, or just find bios of odd genius types interesting.

But if you really love great film making and ever get a chance, do watch
that opening few minutes. Pure genius.

I'm old enough to remember when the pop hit "Telstar" was first released in the US and the impact it had. I knew that Producer Joe Meek was responsible for it and that - like Phil Spector - he was an "eccentric". So I was looking forward to this DVD of the 2008 film made in England. As I looked at the opening credits I didn't recognize any of the actors' name except Kevin Spacey and when he appeared on the screen I hardly recognized him.

As the 119-minute film began I watched as Spacey - as a plastics company owner who was funding Meek on his first record - and Meek (Con O'Neill) started running around the make-shift studio on the second floor, above a handbag store, and yelling. For at least the next 20 minutes the film had this high energy and lots of yelling (and MANY expletives - not that that's wrong but making you aware of them). The film jumps back and forth between Meek's first production and his death - 6 years later. This can be confusing and the Director puts in a lot of symbolism too.

Meek was certainly a strange guy - not unlike Spector in many ways - and had internal
demons to deal with. He was gay - in a period when this was not openly acceptable - and used his "love" for the mono-syllable-named Heinz - to promote the career of this guy who - though early in his career was "backed" by the Rolling Stones! - couldn't really sing. And we have "drop in" lines such as when Meek is offered to work with both the Beatles - before they hit it big - and "some Welsh guy named Tom", who he also turns down to concentrate on his artist/lover Heinz.

The film continued and kept repeating itself - at least for me - and, though we learn some things about Meek's two "hits" (the other was "Have I The Right?" under the group name Honeycone) , the film seems to go on forever. The director used the actual recordings for the soundtrack but the lip-synching seemed fake. The film is graphic as well with implied sex and gore at the end (sorry if you think this is a "spoiler" but you need to know where it's heading before looking forward to the standard "pop music bio".

After I finished watching it, I knew a bit more about Meek than before but felt that the two hours could have been better served.

There are no extras here except the film's trailer.

Other reviewers - especially Meek fans - will probably disagree with me but I can't really recommend this DVD to anyone other than a die-hard fan of the early British rock scene.

I hope you found this review both informative and useful.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

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