Max Merrit & The Meteors "Get a Haircut" 1960

...To accommodate demand, Merritt added Wednesday and Saturday night dances at other Christchurch halls, notably the Hibernian, a well-known trouble spot. Merritt: “There’d be Māori boys in one corner and Samoans in another. A local bodgy gang, the Demo Boys, were generally hanging around and there were seamen over from Lyttelton. It got sure got volatile at times!”
To avoid eviction, a solution arrived with guitarist Geoff Cox, a South Island boxing champion. Whenever a fight erupted, Cox would down his guitar, jump into the fray, eject the troublemakers and be back onstage for the last verse…

…A dozen musicians played in The Meteors between 1957 and 1962, with only Merritt and drummer Pete Sowden as constant members. The band’s recording career began in 1959, and over the next two years HMV released half a dozen singles and a full-length album, C’mon Let’s Go. The first release, ‘Get A Haircut’ (written by Merritt and Teenage Club regular Dick Letussier), was launched at a packed Christchurch record store with hundreds spilling onto the street. “HMV was hopeless,” Merritt says. “We did everything ourselves, arranging the recordings and promotion, the record stores. We recorded at Keith Robbins’ home studio, and the album was recorded at the 3YA studio and we more or less produced everything ourselves.”
Although Merritt was a proficient songwriter, The Meteors’ repertoire was reliant on covers. Max – “I had a Grundig tape recorder and I’d get home after the Saturday dance around midnight and stay up recording Australian radio stations broadcasting the latest releases. On Sunday night we’d choose the most suitable songs, rehearse them on Monday night and be playing them at the Wednesday dance.”
Another source of material came from American servicemen stationed at Christchurch Airport as part of Operation Deepfreeze, who would bring Max mostly obscure recordings. Not many NZ bands were playing Albert King and Ray Charles in 1960 (Charles’ ‘Hallelujah I Love Her So’ features on The Meteors’ 1960 debut album). - to be continued - audioculture...

trax:
1. Get A Haircut 2. Dixieland Rock 3. Kiss Curl 4. You Made Me Love You 5. Mr Loneliness 6. If You Want My Lovin' 7. Weekend 8. Easy To Dream 9. Cossack 10. The Slow One 11. Valley Of The Sioux 12. Laughing Girl
…served by Gaius…