TELSTAR- THE JOE MEEK STORY

[captainhaddock]

One of the more modern examples of borrowing a tune is "Millenium" by Robbie Williams.Which has elements of "You Only live twice". I note that it now has composer credits of Robbie Williams, Guy Chambers, John Barry, Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley.
The Men at work single "Down Under" has been the subject of a protracted legal battle due to the fact that the riff played on flute is reckoned to have been stolen from the Aussie "Cookaburra"song. Men at Work eventually lost the case and are liable to pay compensation of 5% of the royalties from 2002 on, aconsiderable reduction on the 40-60% which was claimed at the outset of the case.
Perhaps the most famous example of Plagiarism, is George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" which bears more than a passing resemblance to "He's So Fine" by The Chiffons. The resultant legal case meant that Harrison had to pay almost $600 000 to the owner of the copyright, Allan Klein, who happened to be a former manager of The Beatles.

[Arpeggio]

I have my own thoughts on a lot of this subject matter - but it really belongs on Joe Meek sites / forums. There is definitely absolutely no possibility whatsoever that Joe Meek had ever seen the 'Austerlitz' film or ever heard Jean Ledrut's music from it. The fact that Joe Meek's original 'vocal demo' (viz: Joe tunelessly screeching and wailing what is nevertheless still identifiable as the "Telstar" melody over a completley incongruous Mike Berry record at c.3.00am in the morning) still exists is powerful evidence. The fact that a handful of notes from Jean Ledrut's film score just happen to sound like a bar or two from "Telstar" was simply a remarkable coincidence. Sad to say, Jean Ledrut's actions (which he doubtless saw as being completely legitimate) more than anything else ultimately destroyed Joe Meek. The court case (largely deciding in Joe's favour) had dragged on until 1968 (over a year after Joe Meek's death). The film was seriously flawed - but - Nick Moran had initially subtitled his original stage play "The Curse Of Britain's Biggest Hit". Me? I still curse Jean Ledrut.

Rob

[Martin Page]

Getting back to the film, the actor who played Heinz had the completely wrong accent. Our band, The Gass Company backed Heinz for a couple of months back in 1967 and he had a real West Country brogue - he hailed from Plymouth.

Martin.

[dave robinson]

. . . . . . . eyes beginning to glaze over . . . . . . . . . there were people who were there at the time actually performing as other characters in the film, e.g. Clem Cattini, John Leyton, Chas Hodges, Jess Conrad - surely they must have thought the story accurate enough, why can't folks just enjoy it as entertainment without the inquest every time.

[Arpeggio]

Martin,
Although actually born in Germany - Heinz spent the whole of his childhood & youth growing up in Southampton. Then, not surprisingly, he lived in London before returning to the Southampton / Eastleigh area. He died in Southampton in 2000.

Dave - entertainment is all very well...but it can be annoying / upsetting if events are falsified & fiction is presented as truth. There are parallels with programmes about Harry H Corbett in which events depicted in his life (& accepted as 'fact' by fans who never knew him - & some of these 'facts' were somewhat unpleasant) were later shown to be complete and utter fabrication by the writers. It caused a lot of distress to Harry's family & people who did know him. Many of Joe Meek's artists were fairly happy with the film, many weren't. Joe Meek's friends & family were happy with some aspects of the film - less happy with other parts of it (especially when it was pure invention). Inevitably - it was a bit of a compromise. It's hard to be completely dispassionate when you get too close to the subject matter. Some musical aspects were inaccurate too. OK - imagine a similar film about The Shadows (now there's a thought) - opening with a shot of Hank recording "Apache" - with a Gretsch. Imagine this was depicted as a 'fact'. Now...how would people on this site react.....i wonder? Just a thought!

Bests....Rob

[dave robinson]

OK Rob I take your point, maybe if you know, you would fancy correcting some of the 'wrongs' so that we may all share the facts - that would be nice.

[Arpeggio]

OK Dave. Will do.Probably tomorrow.

Bests.....Rob

[anniv 63]

There is an interesting version out there of Telstar by the Band of the Coldstream
Guards which certainly gives something of a military flavour to the tune much the same
way as the Austerlitz March film music.
It certainly gives a point of comparison!!

Mike

[JimN]

Mention of the 1960 "Austerlitz" film and its incidental music immediately reminded me of this 1979 movie about a French phenomenon of the music hall stage. The Austerlitz-related sequence starts at 04:00 and shows one M. Pujol in his days of military service doing an audio impression of the opening cannonade at that very battle:



JN

PS: The whole film is worth watching.
PPS: The Youtube URL marker won't let me link to 04:00.

[RayL]

Nick Moran's film about the life of Joe Meek was derived from his stage play, which in turn derived from a 'work-in-progress' that he developed in small London venues. His source material would have had to have been John Repsch's original book about Joe Meek, published in 1989 (there was no other source at the time).

However, as an actor, he made a play and then a film for actors. Out went accuracy about history and people in favour of strong parts for actors, especially that of the leading role. An unexpected or mysterious death is ideal as the basis for a drama and Joe Meek has now followed others such as Glenn Miller and Buddy Holly in providing an emotionally-charged storyline.

I saw the stage play (which had many elements of an end-of-pier farce) and then the film and both made me feel uncomfortable. Since I find soaps such as Eastenders or Coronation Street similarly unwatchable, perhaps what made me feel uncomfortable was that the life of a talented record producer and composer had been turned into a soap.

Ray