Max Merrit & His Meteors "C'mon, let's go" 1960

To most New Zealanders, Max Merritt – who died in September 2020, aged 79 – is best known for 'Slipping Away', a Kiwi anthem from the mid-1970s. But his career stretches all the way back to the very beginning of rock and roll in New Zealand...

…In 1975 Max Merritt and The Meteors were struggling in London and playing the same venues as the then-emerging punk bands. They’d been signed to the fledgling Arista label but the A Little Easier album met with little success. The band had been largely forgotten in Australia and New Zealand when a second single, 'Slipping Away', was released off the album, which would give Max Merritt the biggest hit of his career, 16 years after his first record. Maxwell James Merritt was born in Christchurch on April 30, 1941. At age 12 he was taking guitar lessons with no great enthusiasm, impatient to replicate the hit songs of the day without having to endure endless renditions of 'Home On The Range'. The boredom was sorted when his teacher, a second-hand dealer, was imprisoned for receiving stolen property. Leaving school at 15 to serve as an apprentice bricklayer with his father, his interest in the guitar waned until 1956 when he heard 'Rock Around The Clock', 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'Be Bop A Lula' etc. He purchased an electric guitar and with cousin Tony Merritt on guitar and Davey Burns on drums, they attempted to play Elvis, Haley, Little Richard. It didn't work out, but Max had the bug. In 1957 Christchurch authorities were alarmed about a growing number of incidents associated with rock and roll. A particular worry was the hundreds of teens who congregated every Sunday afternoon in The Square. A meeting of concerned citizens was arranged by theatre manager Trevor King, which was attended by Jim and Ilene Merritt and their 15-year old son Max. The result was The Teenage Club, held 2pm to 6pm every Sunday and managed by King and the Merritts, which is where Max Merritt and the Meteors evolved. The Teenage Club was Christchurch’s first rock and roll venue and Max Merritt and The Meteors were the city’s first rock and roll band. “We started off at the Winton Street Hall,” Merritt remembers, “but we were evicted after complaints about noise and kids hanging around outside. I think the hall in England Street was next and the same thing happened there. We went through five or six venues before the Railway Hall. It was a bit like Footloose – all the elders and church folk were agin us!”
Despite the opposition, the club flourished – at its peak, it boasted 1,200 members and by the end of 1957 it was attracting weekly crowds of 800 jiving teenagers. Max Merritt became a local legend and a reluctant spokesperson for the rock and roll generation. - to be continued - audioculture...

trax:
1. I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen 2. Sea Cruise 3. I Was The One 4. The Way I Walk 5. Shine That Ring 6. Diamond Ring 7. Little Angel 8. Tennessee Waltz 9. Too Much Tequila 10. Hallelujah, I Love Her So 11. C'mon Everybody 12. Teen Beat
…served by Gaius…