Uncleboko wrote: To this day I think the drumming is awful - very twee, which is probably down to Joe Meek.
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Clem's only audible contribution to
Telstar is the 'galloping' rhythm which he plays on his closed hi-hat using brushes (you can hear him open it and let it ring for fractions of a second after the key-change to D). Because of the many overdubs any other drums are just lost in the background but there is certainly no snare to hold the beat - it is all down to the hi-hat rhythm (in the same way another world-famous No.1 record (Rock Around The Clock) has no regular snare, the beat is maintained by the slap bass).
The lead line for
Telstar was played (during a thunderstorm!) by Geoff Goddard using Joe's simple one-note-at-a-time Clavioline keyboard. The melody was later overdubbed by Peter Knight of The Moontrekkers a day or so later. He played an octave higher and an octave lower to make the sound stronger. Peter now owns that very Clavioline (he bought it after Joe's death) and you can see Peter talking about it on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBmZA8fzOLk.
Ray