bugsmoran29 I really enjoyed this movie about Joe Meek, the English musical pioneer and the producer of numerous hit singles during the Sixties. The song "Telstar" was a major hit on the radio when I was a child during the Kennedy years of the early Sixties. Oddly enough I did see Joe Meek's movie "Live It Up" at the theater. I think it was paired with "A Hard Day's Night."I recently watched a BBC documentary from 1994 about Joe Meek's career, as well as his troubled life and violent suicide. I was fascinated by how the man had constructed his own tiny home recording studio that actually produced great records by the Tornadoes, Mike Berry, Jonathan King, Screaming Lord Sutch and the Honeycombs. I had to track down the DVD at amazon.com.I enjoyed this movie and being introduced to some of the early rock stars of Great Britain that were big before the Beatles, the Dave Clark Five and the Rolling Stones. I enjoyed the music very much. I also regret that Joe Meek didn't stick around longer: what he could have done for Pink Floyd. Obviously I quickly made a connection between Joe Meek and Phil Spect0r, another rather sinister and unlikable genius.

john_s_napper I really wanted to see this film at the cinema, but somehow it passed me by. Maybe it didn't come to my local cinema which would have been a shame.Anyway, I forgot about it until I stumbled across the DVD online, ordered a copy and finally got to see it 8 years late! It was well worth waiting for.If you know about Joe Meek's life (and death), you will no doubt spot a few moments of artistic licence where some details are not exactly right such as his refusal to speak to Tom Jones when in reality he did record him. However, on the whole it is the story that I was aware of.Most importantly, it is well written, well directed, extremely well acted by all concerned and extremely entertaining despite the sad ending. It is worth noting that many of the people portrayed in the film are credited with cameo roles in the film so I think it is fair to say that those around at the time approved of the script and were happy to take part in it as well as give advice to the actors. For example, in the extra interview film on the DVD, James Cordon tells how Clem Cattini coached him in order to look convincing as a drummer – and he did a really good job in my opinion! I would add that although Kevin Spacey has clearly been included in the cast in order to try to sell this film to the USA, plus he is a big Hollywood name that would no doubt attract a few British cinema-goers who might other wise pass this film by, his performance as the very British Major was excellent. The first time I have ever seen an American play a Brit convincingly.I'm soiled that I bought the DVD because I can now see this film again and again, which I certainly will.

Thomas Aitken Unfortunately all this film did was portray Joe Meek as a disturbed and mildly successful music producer - anyone who didn't know much about music history, or who didn't have the gumption to research the life of Joe Meek any further, could be mistaken for thinking that making a movie about Meek and his final years was a rather odd thing to do.What was sorely lacking from this film was any proper focus on the innovative nature of his work in the recording industry (something which is hinted at in places, but never really explored in any detail until the closing credits tell us that he is considered a visionary pioneer in mus recording).Another glaring omission was the fact that no explicit mention is made of his apparent lack of musical writing abilities and skills (something quire amazing when you consider that he was involved in so many chart busting hits).I also found some of the details rather odd, like the decision to have him accidentally shoot his landlady - something that the eyewitness accounts don't support, or the brief moment in the movie when we are led to believe that Meek was not at all interested in Tom Jones (the 'Welsh' artist that he is told about during one scene in the film) when in actual fact he recorded Jones and then shopped those recordings around major record companies before Jones had his first major success.Then there are also the odd things, like the inclusion of footage of the Beetles becoming hugely successful (news footage shown on TV at one point), without a very clear prior explanation/presentation of the fact that Meek written off the Beatles, believing that they would never make it big.It also seems (not that I was a huge Joe Meek expert before seeing this movie) that the way Meek is played in this movie is far too campy and weird when compared with the actual man himself.In the end, this movie was rushed, and as a result it's narrative becomes a little bit too confused, giving watchers only bits and pieces of information, while missing other vital things out, and then all of a sudden we're watching him shoot his landlady and himself and the credits are rolling.Watchable, but feels like something that the Reader's Digest would make if they were into making film biographies.

GrahamEngland I do know something about the mad genius that was Joe Meek. Enough to know that putting his turbulent life into one film is not easy, others have questioned why other formative elements of his life was missed out, if a film is good enough though, surely it will engage those who have seen and enjoyed it to look into it further, using the medium we are now, the internet?Con O'Neill is excellent as the troubled Meek, he has to dominate the film and this he does. While it's true that others in the story were sometimes rather younger than the actors playing them, remember back in this period, the 'teenager' as we now understand it, was only starting to emerge, young people then still often looked, acted, dressed older.They usually left school at 14-15, at around 18 (like Meek) many had to do military service, hand me down clothes from parents were common. All this was changing, as part of the social changes sign posted by the music, which Meek played a part in but, as shown by his dismissal of The Beatles he was doomed not to recognise fully and play a further part in.Meek was the British Phil Spector. But he, as the film well shows, did not enjoy the financial rewards of hits, but both were innovative, reclusive, obsessive and dangerous around firearms. (Given just how many times Spector drew guns on some of the most famous music stars, as well as lovers, business associates, was anyone really surprised at the tragic events at Spector's home in 2003, I certainly thought 'he's finally done it'.)Most music or music based biopics fail as films, while 'Telstar' is not up there with the stunning exception that is Ian Curtis biopic 'Control', it's way better than 'Great Balls Of Fire'.I was certainly kept engaged by this film.