From GaydarNation with Conn O'Neill & Nick Moran:

I understand that JJ Field (who played Heinz Burt) was a little bit nervous about the sex scene. How did you help him out?

O’Neill: I seem to remember he wasn’t so nervous about the sex scene, but he was about the kissing scene. He came into my room and he was talking about it and I figured because of the schedule we were on we could stand around and talk about it for hours or I could just go up and kiss him. So I just went over and kissed him. He’s a good kisser it has to be said. Then we went down to the set and we shot it. I have to say I think it’s a really romantic man on man kiss. I think it’s very well done.

 

Moran: I had to prune it down. It went on for much longer than we’d initially planned, but the producers said, (adopts pious voice) “There’s quite enough of that now. Cut out of that sooner”. So we came up with this elaborate cross fade, but one the things that is very specific to the play that not many people picked up on is that everyone talks about the romance as if it’s a heterosexual romance. No one says anything derogatory about it until right at the end when Heinz calls him a bender.

 

JJ (and Ralf) interviewed by BritFilms.tv. Interesting spelling...

Feilds who plays Tornado’s bassist Heinz Burt however, was not as keen with his first encounter. Son of Tim Feilds, member of the 60s band, The SpringFeilds and not quite having the musical talent pass from father to son, Feilds’ idea of getting behind a microphone with a guitar wasn’t on the top of his to do list (particularly after his Dad laughed his head off at the news of what role he was down for). Considering the massive musical aspect the film had, the actor was worried that the lack of musical talent would prove a bit of a problem, but as Feilds explained Moran thought this was actually key to the character.

“Nick phoned me up and I basically admitted, ‘look Nick I can’t play the guitar – I’m tone deaf, I can’t sing at all’. ‘Perfect’, he said, ‘Heinz was rubbish’ (laughs).”

Willing to put at least some effort into the musical side eventually Feilds learnt the guitar, now finally coming to terms with the result it would have on his fingers.

"It really hurts your fingers, does it ever stop hurting?”

“They’ve all got great senses of humour.” Feilds said, admitting that their liveliness is still as strong now as it was then.
“This is from a time when it was the beginning of the bad boys of rock n roll. They loved certain scenes and still debated over the events they’re connected, but in a jokey sense. They used to argue about who won this fight or who did that and what Heinz did, they loved the fun and the humour of it.”

JJ was in a much more difficult situation compared to Ralph Little, stepping into the shoes of a man who had long since passed, there were no conversations, no get together between actor and the man he was supposed to play, for JJ it was intense DVD sessions and a new doo...

“Becoming Heinz was something that I’m mostly thankful to Nick for, the script he wrote and the massive preparation. We all had these packs to each one was jammed with DVDs, photographs, literature. I just had my DVDs on a loop, and just talked to myself trying to find Heinz voice, I drove myself completely nuts. Until I felt I was talking to myself – then I peroxided my hair – yeah, my performance is all in the hair (laughs).”

JJ went on to discuss Moran’s desperation to get the story told, even resulting to the most daring lengths...
“We went to Holloway Road and I don’t know if we should say this but we didn’t have the rights, so Nick had a bunch of people dressed up as policeman cutting off the traffic (laughs) – I didn’t know, took him aside and he just explained, ‘yeah none of these are policeman’ (laughs)...”

...proper guerrilla filmmaking – love it.

“...As for the majority of the sets”, JJ continued, “they were all filmed close together, (six in total) to add to this claustrophobia. Nick actually stayed there most nights to get it right, plan the shots etc –it was such a labour of love for him.”

One of the surprising highlights of the film is that between the likes of James Corden and Ralph Little there’s a brief appearance from some fella named Kevin Spacey – who, judging by the lads, was kind of a big deal – even if he was ginger.

“Kevin is a great believer in British cinema and theatre and this reflects his support for it,” Feilds explained, “he now lives in London and runs the Old Vic so he’s a firm believer in British film and talent.”

“He’s still a hero to the early recorders,” JJ adds. “They don’t know how he managed to record sound on two track, he was the first to split sounds into different rooms. He was the first to separate tracks which we now take for granted.”

But like so many innovators before him, Meek would eventually hit dark times and the gradual shift between the good times and bad was something that was carefully handled amongst those involved as JJ explained...

“We took every scene independently, which you have to do with any film that has a huge journey to it. You see a scene that’s hilariously funny and just live that for whatever it is, and then with people like Con O’Neill (who plays Meek), threading underneath. To gently season it with what’s to come, that’s the brilliance of Nick’s directing, that’s probably because he lived with it for so long.”