There are only existing pictures of the artist / celebrant Joe Meek with a moustache, all of them now safely hidden in the archives of Coventry Cathedral (the Devil looking down, the angel looking up) or thereabouts. You have to wonder what he had to hide then that he didn't later (cf pictures of senior politicians as students in the 70s, trying to outdo June Whitfield for hair, cf Psychbloke, cf me).
Mrs Thatcher liked Telstar and played it while Dennis was egg boiling. Little Mark Thatcher, soon to be deadheaded like a fragile Daffodil ('wandered lonely with a cow' etc), grated his teeth and thunk for England.
The great thing about The Blue Men is that they still sound like a skiffle group. Debased perhaps or based but still resolutely earthly amongst all the space that Joe Meek opens up. It's otherwordly I suppose but it's closer to the attenuated mnemonica of the Ghost Box people - or else it's less like life on other planets than it is life on ours, seen from other planets. Which was maybe the point.
Still, if anyone has any of those pictures of Joe Meek with a moustache then let me know. I'm thinking of starting a collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment