On July 23, 1962, Telstar relayed a TV broadcast from the United States to Europe.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. Odd factoid I did know until Wikipedia clued me in:

The Tornados

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The Tornados were an English instrumental group of the 1960s that acted as backing group for many of record producer Joe Meek's productions and also for singer Billy Fury. They enjoyed several chart hits in their own right, including the UK and U.S. No. 1 "Telstar" (named after the satellite and composed and produced by Meek), the first U.S. No. 1 single by a British group. Today Dave Watts has his own version.

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"Do You Come Here Often?"

The B-side of the final single that the group released, in 1966, "Do You Come Here Often?", is considered to be the first openly "gay" pop record release by a UK major label.[3] It started off as a standard organ-inspired instrumental, but Joe Meek decided that the organ playing was a little too jazzy for the style of the group. To remedy this, around two-thirds in, a casual conversation between what appears to be two gay men (Dave Watts playing keyboards and Robb Huxley playing guitar) was overdubbed.[4] The song was featured, along with other gay-flavoured releases, on a 2006 compilation CD, Queer Noises.[4]

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[3] Petridis, Alexis (4 July 2006). "'Wilder, madder, gayer than a Beatle's hairdo'". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
[4] Jon Savage (12 November 2006). "Meek by name, wild by nature". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 27 January 2010.

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