There's a lot of information to process during "A Life In The Death of Joe Meek".
The success of such a venture is largely down to access. Not only to people who were there but also to individuals with a passion for the subject. Short of digging out the old ouija board and doing the Captain Howdy with Meek himself, the filmmakers have amassed a wealth of material. Of course, it gets to the stage that it's perhaps all too much but this "work in progress" cut set out the stall very well. It was good to see George Miller and Mike Stax in there with Chas Hodges and an array of the musicians who recorded with him during his short tenure on this earth. The Edwyn Collins clips are kind of precious too. Would it benefit from having your Jimmy Page or Richie Blackmore and the like in there? In my opinion, not much - other than status but I imagine it would be easier to make people who need crowbarring take notice. The freedom of ownership of the film means that this could actually be customised to any specific audience that sees it. There could be a template that ranged from informative introduction all the way through to a marathon nowt left unsaid. This one clocked in at 119 minutes which went in a lot faster that I expected it to. LITD doesn't pander to the usual stream of alleged experts and professional talking nappers. It went further and deeper.
I'm not sure what Alex Kapranos added to the debate. Evidently a fan but with nothing tangible to bring to the table - we are in Glasgow after all -Franzdabbidozi, all well and good but however, it's quite possibly just me... NBT readers will find a lot to love in this film and to that end, expect a nod to it's whereabouts as screenings gather momentum over the weeks and months. I think that Howard S. Berger and Susan Stahman have come up with a unique slant on a profoundly British institution. Not an easy thing to pull off in any case but pull it off they indeed have.
