THE TORNADOS - “Telstar”
(6th October 1962)
“Telstar” leads the instrumental beat boom to the wonderful land, packs it on a rocket and sends it to the stars - its all-or-nothing optimism is inspiring and bittersweet. Inspiring because Joe Meek wrote a hymn for a better future than he or we got, and the world heard it. Bittersweet because the valves and echo chambers, the clockwork, spit and blu-tack that Meek built his future out of were already beginning to creak and decay. “Telstar” - a beautiful modernist shock to the charts - still sounds thrilling now but also seems ancient and time-lost, as proud and sad as old Dan Dare comics.
But the thing with satellites is how many of them never come back to Earth. They just stay up there, blinking silently in the dark - the professionals forget about their signals and move on, leaving amateurs and enthusiasts to pick up the traces briefly through the static. Telstar itself went dead less than a year after launch; but “Telstar” was a sort of satellite too, opening channels back to America and rising up that country’s charts while its namesake beamed live into British living rooms. And after Joe Meek faded and died his satellite kept on transmitting, telling anyone who could pick it up (an Italian songwriter in Munich, a floppy-haired Sheffield fop, a Cornish mentalist) that here was a different way to make pop music. “Telstar” promised music which would walk forward hand in hand with technology, using it to do what pop does best - amplify the buzz of being alive. Here comes tomorrow! 9
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Joe Williams on August 29th, 2005
A good record forever tainted by Margaret Thatcher mentioning that she liked it. Evil bitch.
Dave on September 25th, 2005
Over 40 years on, Telstar still stops me when ever I hear it, as then just a teenager, it sparkled to me with such promise , which as has been said, never materialised. Maggie did her job as was needed. Look at Europe now to see where we would have become without her!
Anonymous on October 23rd, 2005
So the Cornish mentalist is Richard James, I assume the Sheffield-based fop is Philip Oakey, but who’s the Italian-in-Germany? Giorgio Moroder?
Lena on February 14th, 2006
Look at it this way: it’s a song so good that even Thatcher can like it. Kind of a clock-stopped-is-right-two-times-a-day thing.
Lena on February 19th, 2006
And wow, this was #1 when Plath was writing all her great Ariel poems - here comes the future indeed…
Doreen Collinson on February 28th, 2007
I first heard this absolutely fabulous tune played on a car radio on the way to Manchester Airport following my Wedding on 1 September 1962. We were on our way to fly to the Isle of Man (UK) which was quite an experience in those quite early days of flying. The tune was scintillating and stopped me talking in the car. It was “our tune” until the early demise of my husband in 1994.
Marcello Carlin on February 28th, 2007
I’m sorry to hear that, Doreen.
Certainly I think “Telstar” still my favourite of all the number ones. It sort of wordlessly says everything.
There was an interesting three-part documentary on Meek on Radio 2 recently, during which Dave Stewart demonstrated exactly how “Telstar” was built up. Made me wonder how someone so lucid and knowledgeable could come up with such rubbish music (Dave Stewart, that is).
Oh, and it’s worth missing a meal or two to buy the Joe Meek Story box set if only to hear Meek singing the demo of “Telstar” with his, er, unique sense of pitching…
Grant on August 29th, 2007
Makes you wonder if this sort of musical backdrop might have inspired the son of Tornados’ guitarist, George Bellamy, to become hailed as the greatest guitarist since Hendrix. Matt Bellamy’s band, Muse, already the biggest act in Europe and now ruthlessly conquering the States, is said to be one of the greatest live acts around. Go to Youtube.com, listen to Knights Of Cydonia and tell me that Telstar didn’t inspire the opening sequence to this fine song.
FT's Lena on August 30th, 2007
Who is the Cornish mentalist?
Marcello Carlin on August 31st, 2007
Aphex Twin.
Alan on October 4th, 2007
You can hear the Tornados perform Telstar live at the Joe Meek festival weekend on 27/28th October at Newent, Gloucestershire (Joe’s birthplace). See Newent web pages for detail of events.
BYRON ELWELL on February 4th, 2008
As a point of interest I write and record Joe Meek inspired instrumentals under the guise of the Space Babes. I have released two 21 track instrumental cd albums. Full reviews in JMS Thunderbolt magazine and Tom Hammonds Tornado’s web site. All details and a jukebox page on my web site at http://www.chestnutbankproductions.co.uk
Relive the Telstar era.
Volkan Gorsel on August 3rd, 2008
Even it was released 12 years before I was born, Telstar has a strange affection on me. It leads me to distant images of my beloved, when they were young and full of life. I would love to live in 1962…