Do You Come Here Often The Meeksville Connection

Recording with Joe Meek, backing Billy Fury, summer seasons with Marty Wilde and Adam Faith, encounters with The Kray Twins and bleak journeys to remote venues - all the highs and lows of a recording and touring band are detailed here... Robb was a member of three groups, all managed by legendary producer Joe Meek. This book is a fascinating insight into the world of sixties music. Robb shares his memories of Joe Meek - his recording techniques and a whole lot more. Major label recordings were issued by The Saxons and The Tornados but hidden gems lie unreleased in the legendary Meek Tea-chest Tapes. The stories of sharing the bill with other groups and established old school variety artistes at summer season shows are numerous and insightful. Illustrated by many photos this is a marvellous roller-coaster read hurtling through the heady days of sixties rock and pop groups and jam packed with reminiscences. The title of the book is taken from "Do You Come Here Often" the single by The Tornados which was acclaimed to be the first openly gay pop record release by a UK major record label.

A fascinating biography of Joe Meek who was widely recognised as Britain's first real independent pop music producer and hailed as Britain's answer to Phil Spector. He turned out million-copy selling records such as 'Telstar' from his home recording studio and made the first recordings for stars like Rod Stewart, Tom Jones and David Bowie. Legendary for his obsessive secrecy and often bizarre behaviour, his private life was a tortured tangle of violence, sex, drugs, the occult and eventually murder. Includes a full discography and B & W photographs.

Set in the backdrop of early 60's London, Telstar is the story of the World's first Independent record producer, Joe Meek. A maverick genius who enjoyed phenomenal early success with 'Telstar', the biggest selling record of its time, before bad luck, depression, heart break and paranoia forced him to murder and suicide. A gay, amphetamine addicted, talented but deeply troubled soul who dabbled in the occult, Meek is already an iconic figure in the world of British pop, whose messy end had a bizarre inevitability. Far from being a maudlin tale, this stranger than fiction true story is a brilliantly sharp and beautifully observed satirical comedy. Telstar opened at the New Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End in June 2005, with a blistering central performance from Con O'Neill as Joe Meek.

Clem Cattini is the legendary drummer whose career spans over 60 years, beginning in the mid-1950s with Terry Kennedy's Rock and Rollers who played gigs across London, most notably at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, before the band were asked to join up with Terry Dene for a nationwide tour. In 1960 Clem teamed up with Johnny Kidd and The Pirates, resulting in the classic recording of arguably Britain's greatest rock and roll record, Shakin' All Over. Following on from the Johnny Kidd days, Clem became involved with maverick record producer Joe Meek. Needing a band to record demos in his Holloway Road 'studio', in reality the upstairs of a shop, The Tornados were formed, which led to the recording of the worldwide hit Telstar, the first British record to reach the number one spot in the American Billboard charts in 1963. (In the 2008 film of the same name, Clem was played by James Corden.) Tours backing Billy Fury followed, before Clem decided to call a halt to the incessant touring in 1965. When an opportunity arose to play studio sessions, meaning he could still enjoy playing music without the hassles of being constantly out on the road, Clem jumped at the chance. Meeting up and drinking coffee in cafes in Denmark Street with the likes of guitarists Big Jim Sullivan and Jimmy Page, bassist John Paul Jones, and drummers Bobby Graham and Tony Meehan, they were hired to put down the tracks for hundreds of hit records during those crazy days of the 60s and the 70s. Clem's career included a decade as a member of The Top of the Pops Orchestra. He was approached for tours by numerous stars, as well as being headhunted for the band that would become Led Zeppelin, and also for Paul McCartney's Wings, both of whom he decided to politely turn down. During his session days Clem played on recordings for artists as diverse as Cliff Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, Lou Reed, Lulu, Tom Jones, T. Rex and The Who, in the process racking up a mighty 42 No. 1 UK hit singles. Set against the backdrop of cultural and social development of post-war Britain, Through The Eye Of A Tornado is an affectionate look back over an unparalleled career, with Clem and friends recalling the early days of the British rock and roll scene around Soho, the life of a session musician, and revealing the stories behind the some of the best-known music made in the UK over the past 60 years.

Killing a bird with his slingshot as a boy, William Bellman grows up a wealthy family man unaware of how his act of childhood cruelty will have terrible consequences until a wrenching tragedy compels him to enter into a macabre bargain with a stranger in black. Reprint.

Covers various aspects of the Forest of Dean. This title describes the successive invasions from Romans to tourists.

Irwin Chusid profiles a number of "outsider" musicians - those who started as "outside" and eventually came "in" when the listening public caught up with their radical ideas. Included are The Shaggs, Tiny Tim, Syd Barrett, Joe Meek, Captain Beefheart, The Cherry Sisters, Daniel Johnston, Harry Partch, Wesley Wilis, and others.

Meredith Mitchell has joined her friend, archaeologist Ursula Gretton, in the Cotswold village farmland, digging for the old bones of Saxon warriors. But it's the discovery of some very new bones that brings Inspector Alan Markby to the ancient burial grounds to solve a modern day murder.