Plot
In the early 1960s self-taught electronics whizz Joe Meek amazingly produces a string of home made hit singles from his studio in his flat above a leather shop in London. His biggest success is the instrumental 'Telstar' but accusations of plagiarism delay royalties. Joe's mercurial temper causes his artists to forsake him for other labels,in particular his young lover Heinz Burt. Now in debt and after unwisely parting from his chief financier Major Banks,Joe finds himself unable to control his life. Increasingly paranoid,believing he is being bugged by rival record companies and that everybody is out to get him,the last straw comes when landlady Violet tells him she is selling the building in which he lives. Joe had once confiscated a shotgun from Heinz. Now it is dangerously close at hand and about to end the Joe Meek story.
Keywords: 1960s, accidental-shooting, archive-footage, based-on-actual-events, based-on-play, bathroom-sex, billboard, biopic, boyfriend-boyfriend-relationship, character-name-in-title
Hit after hit... someone's going to get hurt
Laurence Maurice "Larry" Parnes (1930 - 4 August 1989) was an English pop manager and impresario. He has been described as "the first major British rock manager... Parnes' stable encompassed most of the most successful pre-Beatles British rock singers."
Parnes was born in Willesden, London. After leaving school he began work in a clothing store, and by the age of 18 ran a women's clothing shop in Romford, Essex. He then bought a share in a bar in Romilly Street, Soho. He agreed to invest in a touring play, The House of Shame, which became both successful and notorious in 1954 after its publicist, John Kennedy, persuaded two actresses to stand outside the theatre dressed as prostitutes. In 1956, with Kennedy, he started to manage young rock and roll singer Tommy Hicks, who anglicised the name of his Swedish grandfather to become known as Tommy Steele. Steele achieved popular success, some of his songs being co-written by Parnes' friend Lionel Bart, and Parnes succeeded in presenting Steele as an "all-round entertainer".
Billy Fury (17 April 1940 - 28 January 1983), born Ronald Wycherley, was an internationally successful English singer from the late-1950s to the mid-1960s, and remained an active songwriter until the 1980s. Rheumatic fever, which he first contracted as a child, damaged his heart and ultimately contributed to his death. An early British rock and roll (and film) star, he equalled The Beatles' record of 24 hits in the 1960s, and spent 332 weeks on the UK charts, without a chart-topping single or album.Allmusic journalist, Bruce Eder, stated, "His mix of rough-hewn good looks and unassuming masculinity, coupled with an underlying vulnerability, all presented with a good voice and some serious musical talent, helped turn Fury into a major rock and roll star in short order". Others have suggested that Fury's rapid rise to prominence was due to his "Elvis Presley-influenced, hip-swivelling, and at times highly suggestive stage act."
Vince Eager (born Roy Taylor, 4 June 1940, Grantham, Lincolnshire) is a British pop singer.
As a teenager, he formed the Harmonica Vagabonds, later the Vagabonds Skiffle Group, with Roy Clark, Mick Fretwell, and bassist Brian Locking. The group reached the final round of a televised "World Skiffle Championship", and were offered a residency at the 2 I's Coffee Bar in London. There, they were signed by impresario Larry Parnes, who took Taylor into his stable of performers, and gave him one of his characteristic stage names, Vince Eager. After touring and releasing an EP as Vince Eager & The Vagabonds, Clark and Fretwell returned home. Vince Eager and Brian Locking remained in London, Locking performing with Marty Wilde before joining The Shadows.
During 1959 Vince Eager was a regular on BBC TV's Drumbeat, often accompanied by The John Barry Seven. In 1960 he was one of the contestants on A Song for Europe. His song, "Teenage Tears", in the semi-final was ranked last in the total of six entries for nomination to the Eurovision Song Contest. According to Vince Eager's website, "the death of his best friend Eddie Cochran in a car crash on Easter Sunday 1960 was to prove a turning point in Vince's career. He was disgusted with the manner in which Parnes sought to gain publicity from the accident and he began the process of getting away from the "Parnes Stable" of popsters."
Dickie Pride (21 October 1941 — 26 March 1969), born Richard Charles Kneller, was a British rock and roll singer. He was one of Larry Parnes' stable of pop music stars, who did not enjoy as successful a career as most of his contemporaries.
Pride was born at 74 Parchmore Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey. He attended John Newnham Secondary school [Addington] before he visited the School of Church Music in Croydon, where a career as an opera singer was suggested. Later on, Pride was a member of a skiffle group, the Semi-Tones.
He had several poorly paid jobs. Russ Conway heard him performing at the Castle public house in Tooting, South London. Conway recommended him to Larry Parnes, who immediately signed him. Parnes gave him his stage name, Dickie Pride. At 16, he gave his first concert, as Dickie Pride at the Kilburn Gaumont State Cinema, which was then the biggest cinema in the United Kingdom. The music magazine Record Mirror stated that "he ripped it up from the start" and that the theatre shook so much during his performance that he should be known "The sheik of shake".
John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949) is an English performance poet who first became famous during the punk rock era of the late 1970s when he became known as a "punk poet". He released several albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and continues to perform regularly.
His recorded output has mainly centred around musical backing from The Invisible Girls, which featured Martin Hannett, Pete Shelley, Bill Nelson, Paul Burgess and Steve Hopkins.
Clarke was born in Salford, Lancashire in 1949. His first job was a laboratory technician at the University of Salford. He began his performance career in Manchester folk clubs, where he began working with Rick Goldstraw and his band The Ferrets. His first releases were on the independent label Rabid, starting with the EP Innocents in October 1977. He toured with Bill Nelson's band Be-Bop Deluxe in 1978 and was signed by Epic Records, who issued the Nelson-produced debut album Disguise In Love in 1978. In 1979 he had his only UK top 40 hit with "Gimmix! (Play Loud)". Clarke toured with Linton Kwesi Johnson, and has performed on the same bill as bands such as Sex Pistols, The Fall, Joy Division, Buzzcocks, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Elvis Costello, Rockpile, and New Order (including at their May 1984 Music for Miners benefit concert at London's Royal Festival Hall). His set is characterised by lively, rapid-fire renditions of his poems, usually performed a cappella. Often referred to as "the bard of Salford", he usually refers to himself on stage as "Johnny Clarke, the name behind the hairstyle".