Max Merritt was born in Christchurch on 30th April 1941 and from his early years was engrossed in music, beginning guitar lessons at the age of twelve. As a teenager he dreamed of being a “Rock Star” In his own words “I dreamed it and I talked it every waking moment”. Max and his friend Peter Sowden would ride their bikes back home from the “pictures” and play music into the night. Max would turn on his radio and listen to the music from Australia to catch up with the latest releases of Johnny O’Keefe or Col Joy and the Joy Boys. Very little teenage music was played on New Zealand, Government controlled, radio stations. Along with a family member, he started a small group and played at places such as the Crystal Palace Kids Club on a Saturday and came to the attention of Trevor King the Theatre Manager. From that point on Trevor took a personal interest in Max and his career giving a helping hand whenever possible. His mother, Ilene, became concerned seeing young people sitting around Cathedral Square on winter Sunday afternoons with nothing to do, so with the help of her family decided to hold Sunday dances. Trevor King with his experience as a Kerridge-Odeon Theatre manager provided his expertise to help set up a venue. The Christchurch Teenagers Club held in the Railway Hall in Sydenham, became so popular that up to 900 youngsters attended the dances held between 1pm and 6pm. For a charge of two shillings and sixpence, dance-goers were treated to music provided by a teenage Max Merritt and the Meteors, while a buffet tea of scones, sandwiches and hot saveloys was served by Mrs Merritt and her daughter Pam. Along with gigs at the Teenage Club, Max and the boys played many shows and charity concerts organised by Trevor King, and raised thousands of dollars for the charities over the next few years. In 1957, the Teenage Club was the only regular rock and roll venue in Christchurch and kept its high profile through 1958. In 1959, New Zealand signed the Antarctic Treaty with the USA and Operation Deepfreeze was set up at Christchurch Airport. This meant that there were a large number of American servicemen moving through Christchurch. These service men had their own base jukebox or their personal record collections which had a very different type of music from that available to the youth of Christchurch. When the servicemen became regulars at the Teenage Club, they would lend their records to Max and a week later he and his band would be playing these tunes. With the help of these recordings, Max's band moved away from their original influence of Haley and Presley, and used these obscure R&B records to develop a much rougher sound. The rest is history.
In April 1959, Harry M Miller organised a New Zealand tour for Australian rocker Johnny O'Keefe, and added Max Merritt and the Meteors as the support act for the Christchurch concerts. Once again they proved very popular, even upstaging O'Keefe at most of the shows. In November 1959, Harry M Miller flew Max to Auckland for a solo spot on the 'Summertime Spectacular'. On his return to Christchurch, and also because he was now a recording star, his popularity soared even higher. The group started doing lunchtime performances at record stores, with crowds spilling out onto the footpath, and audiences at the Teenage Club increased. Towards the end of 1959, HMV released their first single "Get A Haircut"/"Dixieland Rock". It was a huge hit in the Christchurch area, as was the follow-up single "Kiss Curl"/"You Made Me Love You". Both singles had been composed by Max, the first with the help of Dick Letussier, a regular from the Teenage Club. These singles were followed by the release of their debut album "C'mon Let's Go" at the beginning of 1960. By the end of 1962, Max came to the conclusion that if he was to be more successful, he would have to venture further a-field. The group gave a farewell concert to Christchurch in November 1962 and headed north. Max and the boys gigged their way up the North Island during December and arrived in Auckland just before Christmas. During 1963, Max retained the residency at the Top 20 club and also did some tours. When Max was offered a month long tour around the North Island, he needed a replacement band to mind his spot at the Top 20. He did not want to allow a local opposition Auckland group the opportunity, so he called another Christchurch group called the Playboys and offered them the gig. They jumped at the opportunity and headed north. The Playboys contained a female singer by the name of Diane Jacobs. She made the most of the groups time playing every night for the month. When Max finished the tour, the Playboys returned to Christchurch. Diane now had a taste for the big smoke and when the Playboys folded, she moved back to Auckland as Dinah Lee. Work as a singer was not easy to find, but she did manage to get a few spots with Max Merritt and Ray Columbus, and guest spots with a number of other established groups, before becoming famous as New Zealand's top female singer. In 1964 the group came under the management of Graham Dent, In December Dent took the group back to Australia. Where he organised a month long season at the Rex Hotel. While they were there, they also made their first Australian television appearance on Johnny O'Keefe's "Sing Sing Sing" series. Moving into 1966, the group had signed a new deal with the Parlophone label and released one single called "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"/"I've Been Trying", but after only six months with the group, Jimmy Hill left after reportedly having a fist fight with Max. The group had been signed to support the Rolling Stones / Searchers tour in February 1966, so Bill Fleming was called back temporarily for them to be able to fulfill their obligation. The 1966 line up was, Peter Williams (Lead Guitar), Billy Kristian (Bass Guitar) and Bruno Lawrence (Drums) Bruno soon influenced the group and it wasn't long before he changed their musical style. They recorded a couple of singles on Parlophone, the first, "You Deserve What You've Got"/"I Want So Much To Know You" didn't cause too much reaction, but in July the single "Shake"/"I Can't Help Myself" provided Max with his biggest New Zealand hit to date and also cracked the lower rungs of the Sydney charts. An EP called "Shake" was also released. It contained "I Can't Help Myself", "I Want So Much To Know You", "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" and "Shake". In August 1966 they returned to New Zealand for a national tour. While they were there, they appeared on television's "Let's Go", and also visited HMV studios in Wellington, where they recorded the single "Fannie Mae"/"Baby Come Home". The last release on Parlophone, it became one of their best and enduring hits over the years. The 1967 lineup comprised of Bob Bertles (Saxophone), Stewie Speer (Drums) and John 'Yuk' Harrison (Bass Guitar). They moved to Melbourne and debuted at the Martin Plaza Disco in May 1967 During 1968, Max Merritt and the Meteors were to become one of the most popular bands in Australia. Around mid-year they made regular appearances on the television show 'Uptight'. There was a touch of sympathy for the group and it seemed everyone was talking about them. Before long the journalists picked up on it and there always seemed to be articles on the group in all the trade magazines. Now hard-working and hard-living, they had a reputation of being live crowd pleasers. Max continued with the soul music and was now recognised as the 'soul king' of Australia. Late in 1970, they recorded another album called "Stray Cats". Compared to the previous album, it was quite a dismal effort. From it, RCA released two singles in 1971, "Good Feelin' "/"I Can't Wait" and "Hello LA Bye Bye Birmingham"/"Live Levis". In January 1971, Max decided to make the trip to England that he had always wanted to do, but had been delayed by a car accident where he lost the sight of his left eye. He did a National farewell tour of Australia and flew out to Singapore, performed at a few gigs and then flew on to London. In England, the group played the British pub circuit, slowly building up a solid following. As their popularity grew, they secured support roles for leading British bands, including Slade and the Moody Blues. Max Merritt and the Meteors returned to Australia in January 1972 to headline the first Sunbury Festival, after which they went on a national pub tour. They came back again in 1973 to do the Sunbury Festival again and then returned to England to concentrate on the British market. Once again by 1974 it looked like Max was starting to make headway in England when another major problem occurred. His then manager, Peter Raphael, departed, leaving the group with no money and a pile of debts. They were forced to sell their transport to survive, and as a result the band basically fell apart. Dave Russell returned to New Zealand, Bob Bertles accepted a position with top UK jazz band Nucleus and Stewie Speer toured Europe with Alexis Korner. Max was forced to go back to his original trade of laying bricks for a while. Max, always the determined fighter, never gave up and by the end of 1974 had put together another five-piece band. After Stewie finished the tour he joined back up with Max and together they added Barry Dugan on saxophone, John Gourd on guitar and piano, and Howard 'Fuzz' Deniz on bass guitar. Max also found a new manager, Bill Utley. In May 1975 Clive Davis, head of Arista Records arrived in London to establish a British branch of the US-based company. Following a recommendation to check out the Meteors on their pub circuit, he liked what he saw and contracted them as his first 'British' signing. A single was recorded and released in July called "A Little Easier"/"Long Time Gone". The single was ignored by most people, but Arista pressed on releasing an album also called "A Little Easier" in September. Released at the same time was another single from the album called "Slippin' Away"/"I Keep Forgetting". "Slippin' Away" caught the attention of radio programme directors in both Australia and New Zealand and with constant playing over the summer of 1975/76 it climbed to number 2 on the Australian national charts becoming their biggest Australian hit ever. The song was also well received in New Zealand where it climbed to number 5 and stayed on the charts for 6 months. Max released only two more singles in his career, "Growing Pains"/"Prove It" in 1982 and "Mean Green Fighting Machine"/"My Best Friend" in 1986, the second a promotional single for the Canberra Raiders Rugby League team. In 1986 Raven released a best of album called "17 Trax Of Max". It contained mainly his Australian releases and was re-released on CD as "23 Trax Of Max" in 1991, adding six extra songs. In 2001 EMI released the CD that everyone has been waiting for. "The Very Best Of Max Merritt and the Meteors" contains some of the early New Zealand singles and tracks from his first album, re-mastered from the best possible sources available. Now in 2007 Max will return from Los Angeles where he now resides, to undertake a 9 concert tour of the North Island in early March, performing as Max Merritt and the Meteors with Dinah Lee”. Max has made this tour as part of his return to Christchurch to take part in the 24/25 March ROCKONZ Rock and Roll Festival being held to celebrate the 50 years of Rock and Roll in Christchurch, which sprang from the seeds set in the Teenage Club in 1957. As Max says “You can take the boy out of Christchurch, but you can’t take Christchurch out of the boy”. |
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