Rock and roll has it’s bizarro shooting stars. The weird and otherworldly Heinz Burt is one of the odder entries in rock’s “where are they now” files.

Heinz was the creation of producer Joe Meek, the Dr. Frankenstein of British pop. In an attempt to replicate the success of American rockabilly idols like Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent, Meek took a talent deficient German kid, peroxided his hair, stuffed him into a pair of winklepickers and put him in the recording studio. Meek thought he had found his Eddie Cochran (and rockabilly rent boy). After several recordings bombed , Meek and Burt finally snagged a top ten UK hit with an Eddie Cochran tribute song called Just like Eddie which reached number 5 in 1963. There was no second hit.

Meek, who had become a paranoid nutjob, went out with a bang in 1967 when he killed his landlady and then himself using a shotgun that belonged to Heinz.

In this 1964 video, Heinz, looking like an extra from Village Of The Damned, is joined by a guitar playing David Hemmings and Steve Marriot on drums.

Unnoticed by his headbobbing band mates, the bass player is quietly transforming into a werewolf.