Although his name was initially made by the records he masterminded for The Tornados and Heinz, Joe Meek – the selfstyled Spector of London’s Holloway Road – kept himself busy with numerous less acclaimed projects. Diamond Joe brings together 20-odd cuts that failed to find an audience in the late 50s and early 60s, but remain of huge interest to collectors.
Carter-Lewis & The Playboys, a band which featured virtuoso guitarist Albert Lee and a young Chas Hodges (of Chas & Dave fame), are represented by four rather primitive stabs at the British beat group sound, while Ray Dexter’s contributions lean more towards the country stylings of Buck Owens, albeit with an echoladen organ-and-guitar track, something faintly reminiscent of what Alvin Stardust would attempt a decade later.
The title song comes courtesy of brother and sister act Joy & Dave, the Donny & Marie of the Soho coffee bar set. There’s also space for a couple of instrumental novelties by The Saints, including a version of Happy Talk (from the musical South Pacific), which later gave Captain Sensible a charttopper. Nothing here is earthshattering on the scale of Telstar, though the overall impression is that of a man daring himself to dabble ever further with fledgling technology.
