Don Goddard (July 5, 1904—March 20, 1994) was a radio and television announcer and newscaster who later became known for his work with geriatric alcoholism and other addictions.

Goddard was born July 5, 1904 in Binghamton, N.Y. He attended Princeton University and had a first career in print and broadcast journalism. During the 1940s, he served as a reporter and radio announcer for the NBC Blue Network. In addition, he narrated a series of classroom-based teenage advice films, "You and Your Family" and "You and Your Friends", both in 1946, and he served as commentator for the early NBC News television show, "Watch the World".

He served as ABC's anchor of the "ABC Evening News", from 1958-59, succeeding John Cameron Swayze. While serving as a newscaster for ABC News, he was one of their primary announcers to break the news of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. While ABC announcer Ed Silverman was the first to announce the bulletin, it was Goddard who helmed the network's initial coverage of the tragedy. Goddard also was the host of the ABC television series Medical Horizons, an on-the-scene documentary about medical advances at American hospitals and research centers. He retired in 1970 as head of ABC's Biographical and History Archive, which he had helped to establish.

After retiring from broadcasting, Goddard collaborated with Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, on A.A. documentaries and the publication A.A. Grapevine. That experience led to his working with alcoholism after he retired and moved to Arizona, first becoming a consultant to the Mile High Council on Alcoholism and then joining the staff of St. Luke's Chemical Dependency Program in Phoenix as a consultant and therapist. As a therapist Goddard developed special treatments for older people with addictions. His "Top o' the Hill Gang" for patients over 55 at St. Luke's fostered similar programs at clinics across the country.

Goddard died March 20, 1994 in Sun City, Arizona.

References[link]

• "Don G. Goddard, 89, Expert on Alcoholism". New York Times. March 22, 1994. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/22/obituaries/don-g-goddard-89-expert-on-alcoholism.html?pagewanted=print. 

Robert George "Joe" Meek (5 April 1929 Newent, Gloucestershire – 3 February 1967 in London^[1]) was a pioneering English record producer and songwriter.

His most famous work was The Tornados' hit "Telstar" in 1962, which became the first record by a British group to hit #1 in the US Hot 100. It also spent five weeks atop the UK singles chart, with Meek receiving an Ivor Novello Award for this production as the "Best-Selling A-Side" of 1962.

Meek's other notable hit productions include "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O" and "Cumberland Gap" by Lonnie Donegan (as engineer), "Johnny Remember Me" by John Leyton, "Just Like Eddie" by Heinz, "Angela Jones" by Michael Cox, "Have I the Right?" by The Honeycombs, and "Tribute to Buddy Holly" by Mike Berry. Meek's concept album I Hear a New World is regarded as a watershed in modern music for its innovative use of electronic sounds.

Joe Meek was also producing music for films, most notably Live It Up! (US title Sing and Swing), a 1963 pop music film starring Heinz Burt, David Hemmings and Steve Marriott, also featuring Gene Vincent, Jenny Moss, The Outlaws, Kim Roberts, Kenny Ball, Patsy Ann Noble and others. Meek wrote most of the songs and incidental music, much of which was recorded by The Saints and produced by Meek.^[2]

His commercial success as a producer was short-lived and Meek gradually sank into debt and depression. On 3 February 1967, using a shotgun owned by musician Heinz Burt, Meek murdered his landlady before turning the gun on himself.

Biography[link]

Pre-London years[link]

Meek developed an interest in electronics and performance art at a very early age, filling his parents' garden shed with begged and borrowed electronic components, building circuits, radios and what is believed to be the region's first working television. A stint in the Royal Air Force as a radar operator escalated his life-long interest in electronics and outer space. From 1953 he worked for the Midlands Electricity Board. He used the resources of the company to develop his interest in electronics and music production, including acquiring a disc cutter and producing his first record.

London 1954–1959[link]

He left the electricity board to work as an audio engineer for a leading independent radio production company that made programmes for Radio Luxembourg, and made his breakthrough with his work on Ivy Benson's Music for Lonely Lovers. His technical ingenuity was first shown on the Humphrey Lyttelton jazz single "Bad Penny Blues" (Parlophone Records, 1956) when, contrary to Lyttleton's wishes, he 'modified' the sound of the piano and compressed the sound to a greater than normal extent. The record became a hit. He then put enormous effort into Denis Preston's Landsdowne Studio but tensions between Preston and Meek soon saw Meek forced out. During his time he recorded US actor George Chakiris for SAGA Records and it was this that led him to Major Wilfred Alonzo Banks and an independent career.

Triumph Records[link]

In January 1960, together with Barrington-Coupe, Meek founded Triumph Records. At the time Barrington-Coupe was working at SAGA records in Empire Yard, Holloway Road for Major Wilfred Alonzo Banks and it was the Major who provided the finance. The label very nearly had a #1 hit with Meek's production of Angela Jones by Michael Cox. Cox was one of the featured singers on Jack Good's TV music show Boy Meets Girl and the song was given massive promotion. As an independent label,Triumph was at the mercy of small pressing plants, which could not -or would not – keep up with sales demand. The record made a respectable appearance in the Top Ten, but it proved Meek needed the major companies' distribution muscle to get his records into the shops when it mattered.

In spite an interesting catalogue of Meek productions, its indifferent business results and Joe proving difficult to work with eventually led to the label's demise. Meek later licensed many Triumph recordings to labels such as Top Rank and Pye.

That year Meek conceived, wrote and produced an "Outer Space Music Fantasy"' concept album I Hear A New World with a band called Rod Freeman & The Blue Men. The album was shelved for decades, apart from some EP tracks taken from it.

304 Holloway Road[link]

	"Telstar" noicon "Telstar" featured a clavioline, a keyboard instrument with a distinctive electronic sound. The song won an Ivor Novello Award and sold over five million copies worldwide.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Meek went on to set up his own production company known as RGM Sound Ltd (later Meeksville Sound Ltd) with toy importer, Major Wilfred Alonzo Banks as his financial backer. He operated from his now-legendary home studio which he constructed at 304 Holloway Road, Islington, a three-floor flat above a leather-goods store.

His first hit from Holloway Road was a UK #1 smash: John Leyton's Johnny Remember Me (1961) written by active psychic Geoff Goddard. This memorable "death ditty" was cleverly promoted by Leyton's manager, expatriate Australian entrepreneur Robert Stigwood. Stigwood was able to get Leyton to perform the song several times in an episode of ITV's short-lived^[3] department store-based TV soap opera Harpers West One in which he was making a guest appearance. Meek's third UK #1 and last major success was with The Honeycombs' Have I The Right? in 1964, which also became a number 4 hit on the American Billboard pop charts. The success of Leyton's recordings was instrumental in establishing Stigwood and Meek as two of Britain's first independent record producers.

When his landlords, who lived downstairs, felt that the noise was too much, they would indicate so with a broom on the ceiling. Joe would signal his contempt by placing loudspeakers in the stairwell and turning up the volume.

A privately manufactured "black plaque" (designed to ape the official blue plaque) has since been placed at the location of the studio to commemorate Meek's life and work.^[4]

Murder and suicide[link]

Meek was obsessed with the occult and the idea of "the other side". He would set up tape machines in graveyards in a vain attempt to record voices from beyond the grave, in one instance capturing the meows of a cat he claimed was speaking in human tones, asking for help. In particular, he had an obsession with Buddy Holly (claiming the late American rocker had communicated with him in dreams) and other dead rock and roll musicians.

His professional efforts were often hindered by his paranoia (Meek was convinced that Decca Records would put hidden microphones behind his wallpaper in order to steal his ideas), drug use and attacks of rage or depression. Upon receiving an apparently innocent phone call from Phil Spector, Meek immediately accused Spector of stealing his ideas before hanging up angrily.

Meek's homosexuality – illegal in the UK at the time – put him under further pressure; he had been convicted of "importuning for immoral purposes" in 1963 and fined £15: he was consequently subject to blackmail.^[5] In January 1967, police in Tattingstone, Suffolk, discovered a suitcase containing the mutilated body of Bernard Oliver. According to some accounts, Meek became concerned that he would be implicated in the murder investigation when the Metropolitan Police said they would be interviewing all known homosexual men in the city.

The hits had dried up and Meek's depression deepened as his financial position became increasingly desperate. French composer Jean Ledrut accused Joe Meek of plagiarism, claiming that the tune of "Telstar" had been copied from "La Marche d'Austerlitz", a piece from a score Ledrut had written for the 1960 film Austerlitz. This lawsuit meant Meek never received royalties from the record during his lifetime.

On 3 February 1967, the eighth anniversary of Buddy Holly's death, Meek killed his landlady Violet Shenton and then himself^[6] with a single barreled shotgun that he had confiscated from his protegé, former Tornados bassist and solo star Heinz Burt at his Holloway Road home/studio. Meek had flown into a rage and taken the gun from Burt when he informed Meek that he used it while on tour to shoot birds. Meek had kept the gun under his bed, along with some cartridges. As the shotgun had been registered to Burt, he was questioned intensively by police, before being eliminated from their enquiries.

Meek was subsequently buried at Cemetery lodge Newent, Gloucestershire. His black granite tombstone can be found near the middle of the cemetery.

The lawsuit against Meek was eventually ruled in Meek's favour three weeks after his death in 1967. It is unlikely that Meek was aware of Austerlitz, as it had been released only in France at the time.

Meek's legacy[link]

Despite not being able to play a musical instrument or write notation, Meek displayed a remarkable facility for writing and producing successful commercial recordings. In writing songs he was reliant on musicians such as Dave Adams, Geoff Goddard or Charles Blackwell to transcribe melodies from his vocal "demos". He worked on 245 singles, of which 45 were major hits (top fifty).

He pioneered studio tools such as multiple over-dubbing on one- and two-track machines, close miking, direct input of bass guitars, the compressor, and effects like echo and reverb, as well as sampling. Unlike other producers, his search was for the 'right' sound rather than for a catchy musical tune, and throughout his brief career he single-mindedly followed his quest to create a unique "sonic signature" for every record he produced.

At a time when many studio engineers were still wearing white coats and assiduously trying to maintain clarity and fidelity, Meek, the maverick, was producing everything on the three floors of his "home" studio and was never afraid to distort or manipulate the sound if it created the effect he was seeking.

Meek was one of the first producers to grasp and fully exploit the possibilities of the modern recording studio. His innovative techniques—physically separating instruments, treating instruments and voices with echo and reverb, processing the sound through his fabled home-made electronic devices, the combining of separately-recorded performances and segments into a painstakingly constructed composite recording—comprised a major breakthrough in sound production. Up to that time, the standard technique for pop, jazz and classical recordings alike was to record all the performers in one studio, playing together in real time, a legacy of the days before magnetic tape, when performances were literally cut live, directly onto disc.

Meek's style was also substantially different from that of his contemporary Phil Spector, who typically created his famous "Wall of sound" productions by making live recordings of large ensembles that used multiples of major instruments like bass, guitar and piano to create the complex sonic backgrounds for his singers.

In 1993, ex-Joe Meek session singer Ted Fletcher introduced a line of audio equipment named after Joe Meek, due to his influence in the early stages of audio compression. The name and product line were sold to the American company PMI Audio Group in 2003. This product line includes a microphone series called "Telstar", named after Joe Meek’s most famous work.^[7][8]

Meek's reputation for experiments in recording music was acknowledged by The Music Producers Guild who created The Joe Meek Award for Innovation in Production in 2009.^[9] MPG chairman Mike Howlett said the award was "paying homage to this remarkable producer’s pioneering spirit".^[9] The winner of the inaugural award in 2009 was producer and musician Brian Eno.^[9]

Artists Meek recorded[link]

He passed up the chance to work with the then unknown David Bowie, The Beatles (the latter he once described as "just another bunch of noise, copying other people's music") and Rod Stewart. John Repsch, in The Legendary Joe Meek recounts that upon hearing Stewart sing, Meek rushed into the studio, put his fingers in his ears and screamed until Stewart had left. He preferred to record instrumentals with the band he sang with – The Moontrekkers.

In 1963 Meek worked with a then-little-known singer Tom Jones, then the lead vocalist of Tommy Scott & The Senators. Meek recorded seven tracks with Jones and took them to various labels in an attempt to get a record deal, with no success. Two years later after Jones gained popularity with the worldwide hit It's Not Unusual in 1965, Meek was able to sell the tapes he'd recorded with Jones to Tower (USA) and Columbia (UK).^[10] Meek also recorded the following artists:

Robb Shenton, Screaming Lord Sutch and The Savages, The Tornados, The Honeycombs, The Syndicats, The Buzz, Mike Berry, The Outlaws, The Moontrekkers, Gene Vincent, Billy Fury, Deke Arlon and The Offbeats, David John and the Mood, John Leyton, Geoff Goddard, Petula Clark, Lonnie Donegan, Humphrey Lyttelton, Diana Dors, The Blue Men, Tom Jones, Tony Dangerfield and the Thrills, Heinz and The Wild Boys, Dave Adams, Joy and Dave, Chico Arnez, Jimmy Miller and the Barbecues, Mike Preston, Emile Ford and the Checkmates, Chris Williams and the Monsters, Lance Fortune, Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, Yolanda^{[disambiguation needed ]}, Big Jim Sullivan, Ricky Wayne and The Offbeats, George Chakiris, Michael Cox, Frankie Vaughan, Iain Gregory, Danny Rivers, Gerry Temple, Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, The Charles Blackwell Orchestra, Don Charles, The Stonehenge Men, Andy Cavell, The Dowlands, Houston Wells and the Marksmen, The Packabeats, Jenny Moss, Burr Bailey and the Six Shooters, The Checkmates, The Saints, The Cameos, Sounds Incorporated, The Puppets, The Beat Boys, Mike Sarne, The Ambassadors, Pamela Blue, Glenda Collins, The Sharades, Roger LaVern and the Microns, Gunilla Thorne, Kim Roberts, Billie Davis, Freddie Starr and the Midnighters, Shade Joey and the Night Owls, Flip and the Dateliners, Valerie Masters, Alan Dean and his Problems, The Blue Rondos, Peter Cook, Jess Conrad, The Saxons, The Shakeouts, Bobby Rio and the Revelles, Peter London, The Four Matadors, The Cryin' Shames, The Riot Squad, The Millionaires, The Impac, Shirley Bassey, Anne Shelton, Kenny Graham and the Satellites, Tommy Steele, Chris Barber, The Fabulous Flee-Rakkers, Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, Brian White & The Magna Jazz Band, The Ferridays (Scorpions), Ray Dexter and The Layabouts, Neil Christian, Kenny Hollywood, Jamie Lee and The Atlantics, Toby Ventura, Wes Sands, The Thunderbolts, Silas Dooley Jr., Bobby Cristo and The Rebels, Malcolm and The Countdowns, The Diamond Twins, The Hotrods, Charles Kingsley Creation, Danny's Passion, The Classics, The Manish Boys, Pete, Chris and The Outcasts, Simplicity Pattern, and Joe Meek himself.

Unreleased recordings aka the Tea Chest Tapes[link]

After the death of Joe Meek the thousands of recordings Meek hid at his studio remained unreleased and preserved by Cliff Cooper of The Millionaires. At the time of Joe's death in 1967, Mr. Cooper is said to have purchased all of Joe's recordings for £300. These recordings were called the "Tea Chest Tapes" among fans, as they were stored in a tea chest when Cooper took them out of his apartment.^[11] Alan Blackburn, former president of the Joe Meek Appreciation Society, is the only person known to the public who has listened to all these tapes, as he catalogued all of them in the mid-1980s.^[12]

On 4 September 2008 these unreleased recordings went up for auction in Fame Bureau's 'It's More Than Rock 'N' Roll' auction. The auction website states they fetched £200,000, but others have said considerably more was taken. The auction site says that there are over 5000 recordings on 1850 tapes containing recordings by David Bowie as singer and sax player with the Konrads, Gene Vincent, Denny Laine, Billy Fury, Tom Jones, Jimmy Page, Mike Berry, John Leyton, Ritchie Blackmore, Jess Conrad, Mitch Mitchell and Screaming Lord Sutch. The tapes also contain many examples of Joe Meek composing songs and experimental sound techniques. Tape 418 has Meek composing songs for the film Live It Up!.^[13]

The future of these unreleased Joe Meek "Tea Chest Tapes" recordings remains unknown.

Tributes and references[link]

Songs[link]

• Franco-English pop singer-songwriter MeeK chose his stage name as a homage to the British producer.
• British punk Wreckless Eric recounts Meek's biography and recreates some of his studio effects in his song "Joe Meek" from the album Donovan of Trash.^[14]
• According to some, the song "Green Door" alludes to Meek. "When I said, 'Joe sent me,' someone laughed out loud behind the green door".^[15]
• The Marked Men, a Texas punk band, have a song titled "Someday" with lyric: "Joe Meek wanted all the world to know about the news he found."
• The Frank Black song "White Noise Maker" deals with Meek's suicide by shotgun, the white noise maker of the title. "It's been so long since my Telstar."
• The Bleeder Group, a Danish alternative rock group recorded a song on their second album Sunrise, called "Joe Meek Shall Inherit The Earth"
• Matmos, an Electronic duo, have a song on their 2006 album The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of the Beast called "Solo Buttons for Joe Meek".
• Pluto Monkey, British left field artist, released a three track CD single on Shifty Disco featuring the tracks "Joe Meek" and "Meeksville Sound Is Dead"
• Swing Out Sister include a short instrumental named "Joe Meek's Cat" on their 1994 album Shapes and Patterns, inspired by Joe's 1966 ghost-hunting expeditions to Warley Lea Farm during which he allegedly captured recordings of a talking cat channeling the spirit of a former landowner who committed suicide at the farm
• Graham Parker's 1992 album Burning Questions includes the cryptic "Just Like Joe Meek's Blues"
• Sheryl Crow claimed that her song "A Change Would Do You Good" was inspired by an article she read about Joe Meek
• Jonathan King recorded a song about Meek called "He Stood In The Bath He Stamped On The Floor".^[16]
• Johnny Stage, Danish producer and guitarist released an album in tribute of Meek, entitled The Lady with the Crying Eyes featuring various Danish artists, on 3 February 2007(www.myspace.com/joemeektribute
• Dave Stewart (the keyboardist) and Barbara Gaskin recorded the song "Your Lucky Star" dealing with the life and death of Joe Meek, released on the 1991 album "Spin".
• Dave Stewart also recorded a version of Joe Meek’s "Telstar" hit on the occasion of its 40th anniversary in 2002. This was later released on the Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin 2009 mini-album “Hour Moon”. The album also features the duo’s previously released Meek tribute "Your Lucky Star" from their 1991 album "Spin".
• The Spanish label Spicnic released in 2001 a tribute CD, "Oigo un nuevo no mundo. Homenaje a Joe Meek", featuring various Spanish bands.^[17]
• Trey Spruance from the band Mr. Bungle has stated that the 10 part song/instrumental "The Bends" from their album Disco Volante is inspired by Joe Meek's music. Specifically "I Hear a New World".
• Thomas Truax regularly performed his Meek tribute "Joe Meek Warns Buddy Holly" on his 2008 tours, a song apparently about Meek's supposed warning via spirit-writing predicting Buddy Holly's death. A single and accompanying video was scheduled for release on 3 February 2009, the 50th anniversary of Holly's demise, also the date of Meek's suicide.
• Robb Shenton released /*Lonely Joe*/ as a tribute to the legendary producer on 28 October 2008. Robb was one of Joe's artists and was with five Meek bands between 1963 and early 1966: The Bobcats, David John and the Mood, The Prestons, The Nashpool and Flip and the Dateliners. He also sang backing vocals with many others.
• 'Meet Joe Meek' sometimes known as 'Just like Joe Meek' by the Babysitars sampled the BBC2 Arena documentary on Joe Meek and their composition 'Crazyhead' said to be inspired by Joe Meek himself.

[edit] Telstar: The Joe Meek Story – play and film

Telstar: The Joe Meek Story, a stage play by Nick Moran and James Hicks which premiered in 2005, is a dramatisation of Joe Meek's life and starred Con O'Neill as Meek and Linda Robson as his landlady.^[18] It was also made into a film, released in the UK in June 2009, directed by Nick Moran starring Kevin Spacey, Ralf Little and Pam Ferris with O'Neill reprising his stage role.^[19][20]

Documentary film[link]

• A Life in the Death of Joe Meek, an independent American documentary,^[21] by Howard S. Berger and Susan Stahman.

The production includes over 60 interviews with Meek's family, close friends, associates, musicians and pop culture movers and shakers.

• The Very Strange Story of the Legendary Joe Meek A 1991 UK TV documentary from BBC TV's Arena series.^[22]

Radio play[link]

In March 1994, BBC Radio 4 broadcast Lonely Joe, a radio play based on the life of Joe Meek, written by Janey Praeger and Peter Kavanagh.

Literatur[link]

• John Repsch: The Legendary Joe Meek (UK; 1989, Jul 2003) ISBN 1-901447-20-0
• Barry Cleveland: Creative Music Production – Joe Meek's BOLD Techniques (USA; Jul 2001) ISBN 1-931140-08-1
• Nick Moran with James Hicks: "Telstar – The Joe Meek Story", (UK, Oberon Books 1/2007) ISBN 978-1-84002-588-0^[23]
• The penultimate chapter of Alan Moore's spoken word piece "The Highbury Working" concerns Joe Meek's last moments.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Joe Meek at the Internet Movie Database
• Photo of Meek's grave
• BBC Music Profile: Joe Meek
• Biography by John McCready (Mojo Magazine)
• Joe Meek discography at Discogs

Geoff Goddard (19 November 1937 – 15 May 2000)^[1] was an English songwriter. Working for Joe Meek in the early 1960s, he wrote songs for Heinz, Mike Berry, Gerry Temple, The Tornados, Kenny Hollywood, The Outlaws, Freddie Starr, Screaming Lord Sutch, Gunilla Thorne, The Ramblers, Carter-Lewis and the Southerners and John Leyton.^[2]

Biography[link]

Goddard was born in Reading, Berkshire, England. He recorded four singles as solo artist, produced by Joe Meek:

• "Girl Bride" / "For Eternity" HMV POP 938 October 1961
• "My Little Girl's Come Home" / "Try Once More" HMV POP 1068 September 1962
• "Saturday Dance" / "Come Back To Me" HMV POP 1160 May 1963
• "Sky Men" / "Walk With Me My Angel" HMV POP 1213 October 1963^[1]

He was originally promoted by Meek as a Russ Conway/Liberace styled singer named Anton Hollywood,^[2] but eventually he released his solo records under his real name. His best known efforts were penning "Johnny Remember Me" for John Leyton. It became a #1 hit single in the UK Singles Chart. Goddard also played keyboards on various of Meek's productions, most notably another chart-topper, The Tornados' hit single, "Telstar".^[2] Despite his considerable track record as a songwriter, Goddard withdrew from the music industry after falling out with Meek. In addition, in July 1965, it was decided in the High Court in London that The Honeycombs' hit "Have I The Right" was the work of Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, and did not infringe the copyright of Goddard's own "Give Me The Chance".^[3]

Subsequently, Goddard worked for many years in the catering department of the University of Reading. In 1985, the royalties from the Marc Almond and Bronski Beat cover version of "Johnny Remember Me" came as a complete surprise to him.^[2]

Goddard died in May 2000, at the age of 62.^[1]

Releases as songwriter (RGM productions)[link]

• The Flee-Rekkers – "Lone Rider" – Pye 7N35006 A-side (June 1961)
• John Leyton – "Johnny Remember Me" – Top Rank JAR577 A (July 1961)
• The Outlaws - "Valley of the Sioux" (September 1961)
• Mike Berry & The Outlaws – "Tribute to Buddy Holly" – HMV POP 912 A (September 1961)
• John Leyton – "Wild Wind" – Top Rank JAR585 A (September 1961)
• Gerry Temple – "Seventeen Come Sunday" – HMV POP 939 A (October 1961)
• John Leyton – "Voodoo Woman" – HMV CLP1497 LP (November 1961)
• John Leyton – "Oh Lover" – HMV CLP1497 LP (November 1961)
• John Leyton – "Son This Is She" – HMV POP 956 A (December 1961)
• Don Charles – "Walk with Me My Angel" – Decca F 11424 A (January 1962)
• Mike Berry & The Outlaws – "Little Boy Blue" – HMV POP 979 B side (January 1962)
• John Leyton – "Lone Rider" – HMV POP 992 A (March 1962)
• John Leyton – "Lonely City" – HMV POP 1014 A (April 1962)
• The Tornados – "Jungle Fever" – Decca F11494 B (August 1962)
• John Leyton – "Lonely Johnny" – HMV POP 1076 A (October 1962)
• Kenny Hollywood – "The Wonderful Story Of Love" – Decca F11546 B (December 1962)
• Mike Berry & The Outlaws – "Don't You Think It's Time" – HMV POP 1105 A (December 1962)
• The Outlaws – "Texan Spiritual" – HMV POP 1124 B (February 1963)
• Toby Ventura – "If My Heart Were A Storybook" – Decca F11581 A (February 1963)
• Mike Berry & The Outlaws – "My Little Baby" – HMV POP 1142 A (March 1963)
• Freddie Starr & The Midnighters – "Who Told You" – Decca F11663 A (May 1963)
• Heinz – "Just Like Eddie" – Decca F11693 A (July 1963)
• John Leyton – "On Lover's Hill" – HMV POP 1204 LP (September 1963)
• Screaming Lord Sutch – "Monster In Black Tights" – Decca F11747 B (September 1963)
• Pamela Blue – "My Friend Bobby" – Decca F11761 A (October 1963)
• Heinz – "Country Boy" – Decca F11768 A (November 1963)
• The Ramblers – "Dodge City" – Decca F11775 A (November 1963)
• Gunilla Thorne – "Merry Go Round" – HMV POP 1239 A (November 1963)
• Heinz – "You Were There" – Decca F11831 A (February 1964)
• Heinz – "Hush-A-Bye" – Decca LK4599 LP (March 1964)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Obituary: The Guardian, Thursday May 25, 2000
• A Tribute on myspace
• http://www.geoff-goddard.com/ extensive fan site
• Geoff Goddard discography at Discogs

Ezra Levant
Ezra Levant in 2008
Born	February 20,[citation needed] 1972 Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Education	B.Comm; LLB
Alma mater	University of Calgary, University of Alberta
Religion	Judaism
Website
Ezra Levant

Ezra Isaac Levant (born 1972) is a Canadian media personality, conservative political activist and author. He is the founder and former publisher of the Western Standard, is a broadcaster and columnist for Sun Media and has written several books on politics and public policy.

Early life and education[link]

Born in Calgary, Levant holds a commerce degree from the University of Calgary and a law degree from the University of Alberta. His great-grandfather emigrated to Canada in 1903 from Russia to establish a homestead near Drumheller, Alberta.^[1] Levant grew up in a suburb of Calgary. He attended a Jewish day school in his childhood before transferring to a public junior high school.

Levant campaigned for the Reform Party of Canada as a teenager and joined it as a university student.^[1] In 1992, while at the University of Calgary, his two-person team won the "best debating" category in the Intercollegiate Business Competition held at Queen's University.^[2] In 1994, he was featured in a Globe and Mail article on young conservatives after accusing the University of Alberta of racism for instituting an affirmative action program of hiring women and aboriginal professors. His actions outraged aboriginal law students, feminists, and a number of professors, and he was called to a meeting with the assistant dean who advised him of the university's non-academic code of conduct and defamation laws. As head of the university's speakers committee, Levant organized a debate between Doug Christie, a lawyer known for his advocacy in defence of Holocaust deniers and accused Nazi war criminals, and Thomas Kuttner, a Jewish lawyer from the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.^[1]

Levant gained a reputation as the university's leading conservative. He was invited to write a guest column for the Edmonton Journal and interviewed on television.^[3] He spent the summer of 1994 in Washington, D.C., in an internship arranged by the libertarian Charles G. Koch Foundation Summer Fellow Program. He worked for the Fraser Institute in 1995, writing Youthquake, which argued for smaller government, including privatization of the Canada Pension Plan. Levant saw "youthquake", the term he used to describe what he identified as a conservative youth movement of the 1990s, as similar to the 1960s civil rights movement except that instead of being enslaved by racism, his generation was "enslaved by debt" and, in order to liberate itself, society needed to dismantle elements such as trade unions, the minimum wage, universal health care, subsidized tuition and public pension plans.^[4]

Political activism[link]

Views on Quebec[link]

Levant favoured Quebec separatism and a yes vote during the 1995 Quebec referendum in a Calgary Sun column titled "10 Reasons to Hope for a Yes Victory"^[5] Among his 10 reasons were Levant's views that the departure of Quebec from Canadian confederation would lead to the elimination of bilingualism and multiculturalism, that it would give the Canadian government the "fortitude" to say no to "other special interest groups" such as First Nations and environmentalists; it would end corruption in Parliament, which Levant blamed on Quebec politicians, and clear the way for Preston Manning to become Prime Minister of Canada.^[6]

In 1996, Levant wrote a column saying that if the federal Liberals were re-elected, Alberta could separate from Canada making it "free from Quebec's demands."^[6]

Uniting the right[link]

In 1996, Levant worked with David Frum to organize the "Winds of Change" conference in Calgary, an early attempt to encourage the Reform Party of Canada and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to merge so that a united rightwing party could defeat the Liberal Party of Canada in the subsequent election.^[7] While unsuccessful, the conference anticipated future attempts at a Unite the Right movement which ultimately led to the formation of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. Levant supported Preston Manning's United Alternative initiative in 1999, a more advanced attempt to unite the country's conservative movement^[8] and was one of the leaders of the movement to create the Canadian Alliance as an attempt to broaden the party's base.^[9]

Political organizer and aide[link]

While he was a student-at-law, Levant was an active political organizer in the Reform Party, and guided the successful attempts by Rahim Jaffer (as the campaign manager for his nomination in Edmonton-Strathcona and later as his communications-director during the 1997 Federal Election) and Rob Anders to win party nominations.^[10] In 1997, he went to Ottawa to work for the Reform Party, becoming a parliamentary aide to party leader Preston Manning and being put in charge of Question Period strategy.^[6] Along with newly-elected MP's Rob Anders, Jason Kenney and Rahim Jaffer, Levant was part of an up and coming group of young Reformers which pundits dubbed the "Snack Pack" due to their relative youth.

In 1999, after being dismissed as Preston Manning's legislative-assistant, Levant left Ottawa to join the editorial board of the fledgling National Post newspaper in Toronto.^[9][11] A close friend of Stockwell Day's son Logan, Levant proclaimed himself a "Stockaholic"^[12] and supported the elder Day in his successful attempt to defeat Reform Party leader Preston Manning for the leadership of the new Canadian Alliance.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2001, he returned to Ottawa as communications director to Day.^[13] In May of that year he resigned after leaking to the National Post a letter that he sent to dissident MP Chuck Strahl in which he threatened to sue over Strahl's criticisms of his office.^[14][15][16]

Candidacy and resignation[link]

Later in 2001, Levant returned to Calgary to practice law. By February 2002 he had won the Canadian Alliance party nomination for the riding of Calgary Southwest,^[17] but stepped aside after public pressure so that new party leader Stephen Harper could run there in a 2002 by-election. When the by-election was called, Levant, who said he spent over $150,000 to gain the nomination,^[18] announced on March 28 that he would not step aside.^[12][19] Later that night, however, he relented after widespread pressure from the party and accusations that he was putting himself ahead of the party.^[20]

Publishing[link]

In 2004 Levant co-founded the Western Standard, an Alberta-based magazine with an emphasis on Western Canada, political conservatism, and libertarianism.^[21] In October 2007 the magazine stopped publishing its print edition after failing to become profitable,^[22] becoming an online magazine. Levant later sold the publication's remaining assets to Matthew Johnson, the former legislative aide to Rahim Jaffer.^[23]

Levant wrote an irregular column for the Calgary Sun for ten years, until he was dropped in October 2007 because of "internal decisions."^[24] He continued to write occasional columns for the National Post on a freelance basis.^[25]

In 2010, Levant joined Sun Media a columnist and now has an on-air position on the Sun TV News Channel as host of The Source.^[26]

Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy[link]

In February 2006, the Western Standard published the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons depicting Muhammad.^[27] Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada and the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities complained about the publication to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission and a hearing was scheduled for January 2008. On the day of the hearing Levant republished the cartoons on his website.^[25]

At the request of Levant and his lawyers Levant was allowed to videotape his interview with Shirlene McGovern, a human rights investigator with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Levant later published that video on YouTube where it spent several days among the top-ten viewed videos. Soharwardy's complaint was ultimately withdrawn,^[28] and a complaint he filed with Calgary police came to naught. An identical complaint by the Edmonton Muslim Council was dismissed by the Commission on August 5, 2008.

The timing of the Levant case was notable in that it coincided with a high-profile case considered by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (which Levant has criticized), the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and the Ontario Human Rights Commission regarding complaints by the Canadian Islamic Congress about a column by Mark Steyn in Maclean's Magazine. None of the complaints obtained a ruling against Steyn or Maclean's.

Stance against the Alberta Human Rights Commission[link]

Levant is a fierce critic of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, particularly concerning Rev. Stephen Boissoin, who in the Lund v. Boissoin matter was fined $7,000 and banned from publicly "disparaging ... gays and lesbians" in May 2008. This case concerned a letter published by the Red Deer Advocate in 2002 in which Boissoin attacked the "homosexual agenda" as "wicked". In June 2008, Levant republished Boissoin's letter on his blog.^[29] When the AHRC dismissed the resulting complaint in November 2008, Levant accused the HRCs of religious discrimination, asserting that "100% of the CHRC's targets have been white, Christian or conservative" and that "It's legal for a Jew like me to publish [Boissoin’s letter]. It's illegal for a Christian like Rev. Boissoin to publish it."^[30] The HRC's ruling was overturned by the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta in 2009, on the grounds that Levant had the right to free speech.^[31]

Support and criticism[link]

Levant's case has attracted the attention of organizations such as PEN Canada,^[32] the Canadian Association of Journalists,^[33] and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association^[34] — all of which have called for reform of the commissions. He has been featured on Glenn Beck's show on CNN.^[35] Levant supported the Canadian government's decision to refuse George Galloway entry into Canada in March 2009. Although Levant described it as "an immigration matter", free speech advocates protested this move, citing it as a hypocritical double standard.^[36]

Ezra has been a frequent critic of Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, who is Muslim, calling him an "anti-Christian bigot".^[37][38]

Libel cases[link]

In 1988, Levant wrote a Reform Party fundraising letter in which he criticized Alberta Progressive Conservative Senator Ron Ghitter . Ghitter sued for defamation and in 2000, Canadian Alliance MP Rob Anders and Levant admitted liability and issued a formal apology and undisclosed damages to settle the suit.^[39][40]

According to Levant, after the HRC cases against him were dismissed, "the most aggressive members of the human rights industry proceeded to punish [him] by filing over 20 law society complaints and five defamation suits against [him]. ... the point of all these lawsuits [is] just to bury [him] in an avalanche of paperwork and bills, to get [him] to shut up. So far, it ain't working."^[41]

The Law Society of Alberta had found that Levant violated the following rules of professional conduct: to “respect and uphold the law in personal conduct,” to “seek to improve the justice system,” to not “ act in a manner that might weaken public respect for the law,” to be “courteous and candid,” and to not “harass any person or discriminate against any person” on various prohibited grounds and ordered Levant to attend a "mandatory conduct advisory" after which the matter was dropped.^[42]

As a result of one lawsuit, Levant was ordered to pay $25,000 to Giacomo Vigna, a Canadian Human Rights Commission lawyer, for libelling him with "reckless indifference" in his blog. Justice Robert Smith ruled that Levant "spoke in reckless disregard of the truth and for an ulterior purpose of denormalizing the Human Rights Commission across Canada which makes his statements malicious in that sense" and ordered Levant to remove the libellous materials from his blog.^[43]

Lawyer Richard Warman is also suing Levant as well as Kathy Shaidle, Kate McMillan of Small Dead Animals and several other conservative bloggers for libel over statements made about Warman on Free Dominion.^[44] Levant says this "lawsuit isn't logical, or serious. It's a nuisance suit."^[45]

Levant is also being sued by Warren Kinsella for libel, asking for $5,000,000. Levant has called Kinsella's suit "laughable".^[46]

George Soros[link]

In September 2010, Levant wrote a column for Sun Media accusing George Soros of funding avaaz.org, a group lobbying to stop Sun Media being granted a license for Sun TV News Channel, and strongly attacking Soros's character and history by alleging that as a child he collaborated with the Nazis.^[47] Soros threatened to sue Sun Media for libel^[47] and on September 18, Sun Media issued a retraction and apology to Soros.^[48]

Recent activities[link]

In July 2008, Levant was invited to be a witness before the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus "about the threat posed by radical Islam using Western legal mechanisms as weapons".^[49]

From 2009 until 2010, Levant worked as a lobbyist for Rothman's Incorporated, a manufacturer and distributor of tobacco products.^[50]

In March 2010, Levant accompanied U.S. conservative personality Ann Coulter on a Canadian speaking tour. Her speech at the University of Ottawa was canceled at the last minute, apparently by its organizers, because of what Levant called "physical danger to Coulter and the audience" from protesters. The Ottawa Police later disputed any claims of unrest or violence.^[51][52][53]

Ethical Oil[link]

In September 2010, Levant published a book, Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands, arguing a moral case for developing the Athabasca oil sands rather than importing oil from nations with bad records concerning human rights and the environment.^[54] The book was the winner of the 2011 National Business Book Award, awarded on May 12, 2011 in Toronto.

Sun Media[link]

Levant hosts The Source, an evening talk show host on the Sun News Network and writes a regular column for the Sun Media chain of newspapers.^[55]

CBC opponent[link]

Sun Media, owned by Quebecor, has also systematically opposed funding for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, led by Levant and Brian Lilley.^[56]

Books[link]

• Youthquake. Fraser Institute. 1996. ISBN 0-88975-167-6. 
• Fight Kyoto: The plan to protect our economy. Essence Publishing. 2002. ISBN 1-55306-546-8. 
• The War On Fun. Western Standard. 2005. ISBN 0-9739541-0-8. 
• Shakedown: How our government is undermining democracy in the name of human rights. McLelland & Stewart. 2009. ISBN 0-7710-4618-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=Cf10fE2hP4cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=shakedown+levant#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands. McLelland & Stewart. 2010. ISBN 0-7710-4641-3. 
• The Enemy Within: Terror, Lies, and the Whitewashing of Omar Khadr. McLelland & Stewart. 2011. ISBN 0-7710-4621-9. 

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Ezra Levant's blog
• YouTube Account

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2009)

Don Cherry
Don Cherry at the 2002 Winter Olympics
Born	(1934-02-05) February 5, 1934 (age 78) Kingston, ON, CAN
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight	180 lb (82 kg; 12 st 12 lb)
Position	Defence
Shot	Left
Played for	Hershey Bears Boston Bruins Springfield Indians Trois-Rivières Lions Kitchener-Waterloo Beavers Sudbury Wolves Spokane Comets Rochester Americans Tulsa Oilers Vancouver Canucks
Playing career	1954–1972

Donald Stewart "Grapes" Cherry (commonly referred to as Don Cherry) (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian ice hockey commentator for CBC Television. Cherry co-hosts the "Coach's Corner" intermission segment (with Ron MacLean) on the long-running Canadian sports program Hockey Night in Canada, and has also worked for ESPN in the United States as a commentator during the latter stages of the Stanley Cup playoffs. He is known for his outspoken manner, flamboyant dress, and staunch patriotism.^[1]

Prior to his broadcast career, Cherry was a professional hockey player and National Hockey League coach. He played one game with the Boston Bruins, and later coached them for 5 seasons, starting with Bobby Orr's final 93 games as a Bruin. He is also well known as an author, syndicated radio commentator for the Sportsnet Radio Network,^[2] creator of the Rock'em Sock'em Hockey video series, and celebrity endorser. Cherry was voted as the seventh greatest Canadian on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's television special, The Greatest Canadian. In March 2010, his life was dramatized in a two-part Canadian Broadcasting Corporation made-for-television movie, Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story, based on a script written by his son, Timothy Cherry. In March 2012 CBC aired a sequel, The Wrath of Grapes: The Don Cherry Story II.

Biography[link]

Early life and family[link]

Cherry was born in Kingston, Ontario to Delmar (Del) and Maude Cherry.^[3] His paternal grandfather, John T. (Jack) Cherry, was an original member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and a Great Lakes ship captain. His maternal grandfather, Richard Palamountain, was a British orphan of Cornish parentage who was emigrated to Canada as one of the Home Children. The name Palamountain is a corruption of the Cornish language 'pol-mun-tyr' meaning 'pool by the mineral land'.^[4] Palamountain was also a veteran of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.^[5] Cherry's father Del was an amateur athlete and worked as an electrician with the Canadian Steamship Lines.^[3] On the March 15, 2008 edition of Coach's Corner, Cherry wore the green and gold colours of County Kerry, Ireland. In his segment following the game, he claimed ancestry from that region. Cherry's younger brother, Dick Cherry played hockey at various levels, including two seasons in the National Hockey League with the Philadelphia Flyers.^[6]

In his first year with the Bears, he met his future wife Rosemarie (Rose) Cherry née Madelyn Martini (born 1935 in Hershey, Pennsylvania). Rose was hugely influential in Don's life—because of Don's minor-league hockey lifestyle, they moved 53 times; they rarely had decent housing or furnishings, and Don was often away playing during major events, such as the birth of their daughter and first child, Cindy Cherry.^[7] Six years after Cindy's birth, Rose gave birth to son Tim Cherry.^[8] When Tim needed a kidney transplant at age 13, Cindy donated one of hers. The two currently live across the street from each other, around the corner from their father, in Mississauga.^[9]

Rose died of liver cancer on June 1, 1997 and in honour of her perseverance, Don created Rose Cherry's Home for Kids.^[7] Her name has motivated Cherry to always wear a rose on his lapel. Cherry contributed in developing Rose Cherry's Home for Kids which has since been renamed to The Darling Home for Kids, in Milton, Ontario.^[10] The Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario is located on "Rose Cherry Place," a street named for his late wife.

In 1999, Don married his second wife, Luba.^[11]

Playing career[link]

Cherry played junior hockey with the Barrie Flyers and the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey Association. Cherry won the Memorial Cup as a defenceman with Barrie in 1953. He dropped out of high school, and in 1954 he signed with the American Hockey League's (AHL) Hershey Bears.^[12]

Cherry had a long playing career in professional minor hockey, and in 1955 played his only NHL game when the Boston Bruins called him up during the playoffs. According to Cherry, a baseball injury suffered in the off season kept him from making the NHL despite his almost 20 years playing in the minor leagues. He retired as a player in 1970.^[12] Cherry won the Calder Cup championship (AHL) four times—1960 with the Springfield Indians, and 1965, 1966, 1968 with Rochester Americans. He also won the Lester Patrick Cup, the Western Hockey League Championship, with Vancouver Canucks in 1969.

Career statistics[link]

Coaching career[link]

After the end of his playing career, Cherry struggled for a time as a Cadillac salesman and a construction worker. He worked as a painter earning $2 per hour.^[13]

In the middle of the 1971–72 season, Cherry became the coach of the American Hockey League's Rochester Americans and won Coach of the Year. The following year, the title of General Manager was added. In his third season behind the bench, Cherry was voted the AHL's "Coach of the Year". After his three-year stint in Rochester, he was promoted to the NHL as head coach of the Boston Bruins, a team that was coming off a successful run of two Stanley Cups and three first-place finishes, but would soon see the exit of superstars Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito.^[14]

Cherry quickly developed a reputation for being an eccentric, flamboyant coach who strongly encouraged physical play among his players. It has been alleged he modeled the Bruins' playing style after that of his dog, Blue, a feisty bull terrier. While the team had previously been known for Orr and Esposito who were highly skilled scorers, their impending departures had Cherry remake the team with enforcers and grinders which became known as the "lunch-pail gang" (or "lunch pail A.C.") and "the Big Bad Bruins". Albeit for a brief slump until Esposito was traded to the New York Rangers for Brad Park, as Esposito disagreed with Cherry's coaching while Park would thrive under it, this approach rejuvenated the Bruins as they continued to be one of the NHL's best teams during the latter half of the 1970s, capturing the division title four straight seasons from 1975-76 through 1978-79. In the 1977–78 season, Cherry coached the Bruins team to an NHL record of 11 players with 20 goals or more on a single team. Cherry won the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year in 1976.^[15]

The Bruins were able to defeat the rough Philadelphia Flyers twice in the playoffs under Cherry's tenure. The Bruins made the Stanley Cup finals twice, both times losing to their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, in both 1977 and 1978. In the 1979 semi-final playoff series against the Canadiens, Cherry's Bruins pushed the series to the limit but they were undone by a late penalty in the seventh game. Up by a goal with less than two minutes left in the seventh game, the Bruins were called for having too many men on the ice. The Canadiens' Guy Lafleur scored the tying goal on the subsequent power play and ultimately won the game in overtime. Montreal went on to defeat the New York Rangers for their fourth straight Cup title. Cherry, who had an uneasy relationship with Bruins General Manager Harry Sinden, was fired by the Bruins afterward.

Cherry went on to coach the Colorado Rockies the following season. Under his tenure, the Rockies adopted the motto "Come to the fights and watch a Rockies game break out!" and the slogan could be seen on billboards all over Denver in the 1979–80 season. Cherry's hiring as head coach immediately rejuvenated the ailing franchise's fortunes.

However, as he later admitted, his outspokenness and feuding with Rockies general manager Ray Miron did not endear Cherry to management. While Cherry did much to motivate the players, goaltending was still the team's weakness as Miron refused to replace Hardy Åström, whom Cherry dubbed the "The Swedish Sieve". Cherry recalled one game where his players had got ten shots on goal without scoring, but Åström then conceded a goal from the opponent's first shot and so was yanked from net. Of course, Cherry didn't help things when, after watching defenseman Mike McEwen ignore him and refuse to come off during a game, he reached over the boards and manhandled McEwen to the bench. His NHL career and the Rockies ended on a positive note when they defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-0 in the final game of the season held at home. Years later, while commentating during the 2001 Stanley Cup final between the Colorado Avalanche and New Jersey Devils (the Rockies franchise moved to New Jersey after 1982), Cherry recalled the experience of the Rockies' last game where he was wearing cowboy boots and after it ended, the Rockies players formed two lines so he could depart the ice between them while acknowledging the cheers of the crowd.

In 1983, Cherry was asked by businessman Bill Hunter, who attempted to purchase the St. Louis Blues and move them to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to coach his team in Saskatoon. However, the NHL's Board of Governors rejected the move, and the Blues remained in St. Louis.

Internationally, Cherry was an assistant coach for Team Canada at the 1976 Canada Cup and was head coach for Canada's team at the 1981 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Cherry was the part-owner and the former coach of the Ontario Hockey League's Mississauga IceDogs. As owner and general manager, he gained notoriety by refusing to take part in the CHL import draft, and only play North American born players. The IceDogs' first three seasons were difficult ones with the team winning a total of 16 games combined. Cherry took over coaching duties in the fourth season. During Cherry's one season as head coach of the Mississauga IceDogs, the team managed 11 victories (only a slight improvement) and failed to make the playoffs for the fourth straight year. Cherry drew some criticism for his sudden decision to allow European born players onto the IceDogs line-up during the one season he coached the team.

Coaching statistics[link]