In the 60s Joe Meek wrote songs such as Johnny, Remember Me, Have I The Right and Telstar. Telstar: The Joe Meek Story is a 2008 drama / biopic, based on his increasingly chaotic life. Which ended in tragedy when he had a psychotic episode and shot his landlady and then committed suicide.

It was released in UK Cinemas on June 19^th 2009 and there’s a lengthy, but interesting, piece about Meek here and you can hear the 1962 The Tornados hit here.

The production budget it estimated to have been around £1.2m.

Unfortunately, the box office receipts were only $109,339, so it was a huge flop.

I’m not a massive film fan but found this surprisingly entertaining and stuck with it to the end (although looking at the reviews – a lot of people hated it). Clip below gives you a taste of the soundtrack and the energy of it.

The character of control freak, paranoid, drug addict Joe is played by Con O’Neill – but the cast also includes:

• Kevin Spacey
• Pam Ferris
• James Corden
• Ralf Little
• Nigel Harman
• Marcus Brigstocke
• Justin Hawkins
• Rita Tushingham

And, playing the role of “Gentleman” one Jimmy Carr.