Max Merritt and the Meteors

To New Zealand Max Merritt and the Meteors were pioneers of rock and roll. To Australia they would represent the high mark in musicianship. The group’s New Zealand and Australian recordings are by no way a measure of Max Merritt and the Meteors’ significance.

Max was born in Christchurch in 1941. At the age of twelve he started taking guitar lessons. Three years later, after hearing the music of Bill Haley and Elvis Presley, he formed his own group, the first version of Max Merritt and the Meteors. They began as a part-time group while Max worked during the day as a bricklayer. The Meteors were introducing rock and roll to “the city of churches” at charity concerts and youth club performances. Max became a household name in Christchurch and scored a local hit in 1958 with the gimmicky ‘Get A Haircut’.

In 1959 the US army set up a base at Christchurch and some of the servicemen discovered Max playing at the local ‘Teenage Club’. They started lending Max copies of the latest rhythm and blues records in their possession, but not released in New Zealand; the basis of Max Merritt’s repertoire. When Max and his group moved to Auckland they quickly became the second most popular group in New Zealand, second only to the more pop oriented Ray Columbus and The Invaders.

Before making the next big move in their career, to base themselves in Sydney, Max Merritt and the Meteors released ten singles, two EPs and two albums; and they backed Dinah Lee on her initial ska/bluebeat releases.

The first trip to Australia came in November 1963, for six months, during which they virtually starved out of neglect. The second trip couldn’t have been more different. What was initially supposed to be a four-week booking at the Rex Hotel in Sydney ended up being extended and extended until Max and his group had made Australia home. In April 1965 the group released its first Australian single, ‘So Long Baby’. In September Billy Thorpe raided the Meteors for a new rhythm section and Max was forced to re-organize his own ranks.

Whatever the line-up Max and the Meteors were and continued to be the most respected band in the land, the group the musicians went to watch when they weren’t on stage themselves. In 1967 Max and his latest line-up made plans to make another big career move and head for England. But, just as they were making their farewell performances, the band was involved in a serious head on car accident, in which Max lost the sight in his right eye and drummer Stewie Spears spent four months in hospital. The London plans were dashed, but the group returned to re-establish itself as one of the most admired and highest paid bands in the land. They even scored a hit record with their version of ‘Western Union Man’.

Max Merritt and the Meteors finally arrived in London in October 1971. After a promising start, Max was reduced to taking a job in a timber yard. A reassembled group made a triumphant return to Australia in January 1972 as the star attraction at the first Sunbury Pop Festival. They returned to London and gradually made their way into the fabric of the London music scene. Apart from a Sunbury 73 repeat performance Australia had all but forgotten Max when he suddenly hit the airwaves in 1976 with his London-recorded hit ‘Slipping Away’, from an album called ‘A Little Easier’.

At the end of 1996 Max finally disbanded the Meteors and moved to Los Angeles to make a living as a solo performer and recording artist. In 2003, following the enthusiastic response to his appearance on the A Long Way To The Top Tour Max moved back to Australia.