Live It Up! ** (1963, David Hemmings, Steve Marriott, John Pike, Gene Vincent, Heinz) – Classic Movie Review 13,501

The 1963 British black and white second feature musical film Live It Up! stars David Hemmings, Steve Marriott, Gene Vincent, Heinz, and Kenny Ball, with songs by the equally legendary Joe Meek.

Director Lance Comfort’s 1963 British black and white second feature musical film Live It Up! stars David Hemmings, Steve Marriott and John Pike, along with Gene Vincent, Jennifer Moss, The Outlaws, Patsy Ann Noble, The Saints, Heinz Burt and Kenny Ball.

David Hemmings stars as the UK Post Office postal service messenger boy turned pop sensation, who finds himself defying his unsympathetic father Herbert (Ed Devereux) to realise his musical dreams of rock ‘n’ roll stardom, in this unimaginative musical that fails to hit the top notes.

Dave forms a beat group called the Smart Alecs with his messenger boy buddies Phil (John Pike), Ron (Heinz Burt) and Ricky (Steve Marriott), and they pool their resources to make a tape recording of their original song “Live It Up”. 

Jennifer Moss as Jill, Joan Newell as Margaret Martin, Veronica Hurst as Kay, Penny Lambirth as Barbara, Peter Glaze as Mike Moss, David Bauer as Mark Watson, Anthony Ashdown as Bob, Douglas Ives as Bingo, and Paul Hansard as film director also try to swing to the original story and screenplay by Lyn Fairhurst, as the whole ensemble battles some sub-standard songs and the low-voltage handling.

Ah, but then there is Sixties vintage music by Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen (“Rondo” and “Hand Me Down My Walking Shoes”), Gene Vincent (“Temptation Baby”), The Outlaws (“Law and Disorder”) and Sounds Incorporated (“Keep Moving”) to enjoy, plus the German-born British rock ‘n’ roll bassist, Andy Cavell and the Saints (Don’t Take You From Me”) and singer Heinz (“Live It Up” and “Don’t You Understand”). The songs may not be the greatest, but some of the performers are legendary.

Above all, the nostalgia value is extremely high in this early-Sixties time capsule. It is notable that the film features Steve Marriott (later singer and guitarist with Small Faces and Humble Pie), Mitch Mitchell, later the drummer of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Dave Clark as recording man, as well as Nancy Spain as columnist, Peter Haigh as announcer and Peter Noble as interviewer. 

All the music and lyrics are by the equally legendary English record producer and songwriter Joe Meek, except for “Accidents Will Happen” (sung by Trisha Noble, credited as Patsy Ann Noble), written by Norrie Paramor and Bob Barrett.

It was shot at Pinewood Studios and released by Rank Organisation.

US title: Sing and Swing.

David Hemmings, John Pike and Steve Marriott return for the follow-up: Be My Guest (1965).

On 3 February 1967, Meek killed his landlady with a shotgun owned by Heinz and then shot himself, aged 37.

Heinz is portrayed by J J Feild in Telstar, a 2009 film about the life of Joe Meek, which depicts him as Meek’s gay lover, though his former wife Della Burke said: ‘Heinz was definitely heterosexual.’

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,501

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