Heinz variety

Actors Ralf Little and JJ Feild tell Steve Pratt about recreating the era and playing real-life pop stars.

ACTOR JJ Feild was bemused when approached to play Sixties singer Heinz, of the Tornados, in a new movie. “I told director Nick Moran, ‘I can’t play the guitar and I can’t sing because I’m tone deaf’. And he said, ‘perfect – Heinz was rubbish’,” he recalls.

“He said not to worry because I wouldn’t have to sing in the film at all. Then on the day, he made me sing the song where Heinz was awful and was booed off the stage. That was me. I’d like to say I sang the good songs, but I only sang when he was supposed to be bad.”

He did, however, learn to play the guitar to portray the peroxided singer, a key figure in the life of maverick record producer Joe Meek, who changed the face of British pop music in the pre-Beatles era.

Meek was also temperamental, moody and in love with Heinz. The infatuation led him to promote the singer’s career at all costs, damaging his own career in the process.

The film Telstar, first seen as a stage play, tells the story of musical genius Meek. His biggest success was with The Tornados and Telstar, the biggest-selling record of its time and the first British band single to reach the top of the US charts.

Heinz, who worked painting buses and as a postman before attempting a comeback on the Sixties revival tours, died in 2000. The musician, played by Ralf Little, from TV comedies The Royle Family and Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps, is very much alive and gigging – Chas Hodges, of Chas ’n’ Dave fame.

“I spent a lot of time with Chas,” says Little.

“Any time you’re playing someone who’s still around and is a real-life character, there’s a kind of responsibility to try to do them justice.

This particular story is really important to a lot of people who really care about Joe Meek and preserving the legacy.

“Chas was really amenable and keen to get involved. First, he said, ‘I’m delighted you’re doing it’, which is really sweet because you’re always worried that they might be a bit disappointed.

“The best thing about the meeting was he texted me and asked if I fancied lunch and sent an address. I turned up, got out of the taxi and it was a pie and mash shop in East London. And I just thought, ‘I’m having pie, mash and jellied eels with Chas of Chas ’n’ Dave – it doesn’t get Cockney-er than this’.”

Hearing about the attitudes of the musicians of the time was a valuable lesson. “He said they just wanted to play and have fun. He turned round and said to me, ‘do you know what? – your generation didn’t invent lads’. That’s exactly it. A lot of the time they probably thought it was as ridiculous as we thought it was watching it. They took the p*** out of each other and had a great time.

“On set, that came through to us, and when we had a little bit of time while they were setting up new shots, we’d go off into the green room and just kind of banter in the same way they did.”

Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels star Nick Moran, who co-wrote and directed the movie, provided the actors with information packs about their characters, containing video footage, photographs and literature.

Feild was working in the US and returned two days before beginning filming as Heinz. “I remember putting the DVDs on and looping them on the telly and just talking to myself, because he had such a distinctive voice.

“I talked at the computer for two days and drove myself completely nuts, until I felt I was talking to myself. Which sounds a bit methody, which is not my thing. I just had to do it, I was so scared.”

He can claim a connection with the pop world of that era – his father, Tim, was guitarist with Sixties group The Springfields, which featured Dusty Springfield.

“My dad remembers Joe Meek, as he was performing at the same time. I didn’t inherit the musical genes from my dad, unfortunately, but I was very proud to call him, and say, ‘I’m playing the guitar in the story of Joe Meek’, and he just laughed his head off,” says Feild.

Moran discovered the family connection and put a framed picture of The Springfields on the set of Heinz’s bedroom. This led to a bizarre situation in a scene involving Meek and his protege.

“Above the bed is a photo of the Springfields – and I’m kissing a man underneath a picture of my dad,” Feild points out.

Both actors pay tribute to Moran’s attention to detail and determination to tell the story as it was. “It’s a labour of love, it’s not a case of making things up. You don’t need to. In fact, if it was a fictional story, people would go, ‘it’s too unbelievable’,” says Little.

WHATEVER happened in his private life, there’s no doubt that Meek was responsible for changing the face of British music. He took music out of the recording studio and did it independently, from his chaotic studio above a handbag shop, in London’s Holloway Road.

“You’re watching the emergence of a whole new culture, a new generation stepping out and creating something new,” says Little.

“Every generation has something that’s important.

Mine was Brit Pop, which wasn’t quite so exciting as punk, but even so everyone’s got their own artistic references and influences.

It’s like we’re playing characters at the forefront of this. They were changing the world in a way that’s rarely been seen since.”

Looking at Heinz’s career, Feild became aware of someone made famous by someone else’s talent and the similarity to today’s TV talent shows.

“Then you take that away and that person collapses. We see that every day in the X Factor final rubbish, where you force someone into the limelight. We’ve seen with that poor woman from Britain’s Got Talent. It’s bedlam, that show. I find it frightening. This was happening back then and there was a parallel.

“I found it very interesting that Heinz was very much a warning of someone else’s brilliance throwing you in the limelight and how do you deal with it.”

■ Telstar (15) is now showing in cinemas.