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Joe Meek

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Image:JoeMeek.jpg Joe Meek (born Robert George Meek; April 5, 1929 in Newent, Gloucestershire, England—February 3, 1967) was a pioneering British record producer and songwriter acknowledged as one of the world's first and most imaginative independent producers. His most famous work was The Tornados' hit "Telstar" (1962), which became the first record by a British group to hit #1 in the US Hot 100. It also spent five weeks atop the UK singles chart, with Meek receiving an Ivor Novello Award for this production as the "Best-Selling A-Side" of 1962.

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[edit] Early years

Despite not being able to play a musical instrument or write notation, Meek displayed a remarkable facility for producing successful commercial recordings. To compose, he was dependent on musicians, who would transcribe his (or: recordings of his) singing. He worked on 245 singles, of which 45 were major hits (top fifty or better). He pioneered studio tools such as the compressor, and effects like echo and reverb, as well as sampling. Unlike other producers, his search was for the 'right' sound rather than for a catchy musical tune, and throughout his brief career he single-mindedly followed his quest to create a unique "sonic signature" for every record he produced.

A stint in the Royal Air Force as a radar operator, spurred a life-long interest in electronics and outer space. From 1953 he worked for the Midlands Electricity Board. He used the resources of his company to develop his interest in electronics and music production, including acquiring a disc-cutter and producing his first record.

He left the electricity board to work as a sound engineer at Radio Luxembourg. He made his breakthrough with his work on Ivy Benson's Music for Lonely Lovers. His technical ingenuity was first shown on the Humphrey Lyttleton jazz single "Bad Penny Blues" (1956). He built his own home studio at 304 Holloway Road, Islington, above a leathergoods store (now a bicycle shop). He then put enormous effort into Denis Preston's Landsdowne studio but tensions between Preston and Meek soon saw Meek forced out.

At a time when studio engineers were still wearing white coats and assiduously trying to maintain clarity and fidelity, Meek was producing everything on the three floors of his "home" studio and was never afraid to distort or manipulate the sound if it created the effect he was seeking. For John Leyton's hit song "Johnny Remember Me" he placed the violins on the stairs, the drummer almost in the bathroom, and the brass section on a different floor entirely.

Meek was indisputably one of the first producers to grasp and fully exploit the possibilities of the modern recording studio. His innovative techniques -- physically separating instruments, treating instruments and voices with echo and reverb, processing the sound through his fabled home-made electronic devices, the combining of separately-recorded performances and segments into a painstakingly constructed composite recording -- comprised a major breakthrough in sound production.

Up to that time, the standard technique for pop, jazz and classical recordings alike was to record all the performers in one studio, playing together in real time, a legacy of the days before magnetic tape, when performances were literally cut live, directly onto disc. Meek's style was also substantially different from that of his close contemporary Phil Spector, who typically created his famous "Wall Of Sound" productions by making live recordings of large ensembles that used multiples of major instruments like bass, guitar and piano to create the complex sonic backgrounds for his singers.

When his landlords, who lived downstairs, felt that the noise was too much, they would indicate so with a broom on the ceiling. Joe would signal his contempt by placing loudspeakers in the stairwell and turning up the volume.

[edit] Musical career

In January 1960, with the promoter William Barrington-Coupe, Meek founded Triumph Records. Indifferent business results and Meek again proving difficult to work with Barrington-Coupe soon led to Meek leaving. He went on to produce records for Wilfred Alonzo Banks as RGM Sound from his home studio. His first hit from his own studio was John Leyton's "Johnny Remember Me" (1961), produced by commission of his personal manager, expatriate Australian entrepreneur Robert Stigwood. This single was cleverly promoted by Stigwood, who managed to get Leyton to perform the song several times in the popular TV soap opera Harpers West One in which he was making a series of guest appearances. Meek's last big success was with The Honeycombs' "Have I The Right", a UK #1 in 1964, and which also became a #5 hit on the American Billboard pop charts as well.

In 1960 Meek conceived, wrote and produced an "outer space music fantasy" concept album I Hear A New World with a band called The Blue Men, which was shelved for decades except for some EP tracks taken from it.

Image:Joemeek1963.jpg

He passed up the chance to work with David Bowie, The Beatles (the latter he once described as "just another bunch of noise, copying other people's music") and Rod Stewart. John Repsch, in The Legendary Joe Meek recounts that upon hearing Stewart sing, Meek rushed into the studio, put his fingers in his ears and screamed until Stewart had left. He preferred to record instrumentals with the band he sang with - The Moontrekkers.

In 1963 Meek worked with a then little known singer Tom Jones, previously the lead vocalist of Tommy Scott & The Senators, whose real name is Thomas Jones Woodward. Meek recorded seven tracks with Jones and took them to various labels in an attempt to get a record deal, with no success. Two years later after Jones gained popularity with the worldwide hit "It's Not Unusual" in 1965, Meek was able to sell the tapes to Tower (USA) and Columbia (UK).

[edit] Later years

Meek was obsessed with the occult and the idea of "the other side". He would set up tape machines in graveyards in a vain attempt to record voices from beyond the grave. In particular, he had an obsession with Buddy Holly and other dead rock and roll musicians.

His efforts were often hindered by his paranoia (Meek was convinced that Decca Records would put hidden microphones behind his wallpaper in order to steal his ideas), drug use and attacks of rage or depression. He had been charged with "importuning for immoral purposes" in 1963 and his then-illegal homosexuality put him under further pressure. In January of 1967, police in Tattingstone, Suffolk, discovered a suitcase containing the mutilated body of Bernard Oliver, an alleged rent boy who had previously associated with Meek. According to published accounts, Joe began to panic when he realised he would be a prime suspect in this murder.

On February 3, 1967, the eighth anniversary of Buddy Holly's death, Meek killed his landlady Violet Shenton and then himself with a single barreled shotgun that he had confiscated from his protegé, former Tornados bassist and solo star Heinz Burt at his Holloway Road home/studio. Meek had flown into a rage and taken it from Burt when he informed Meek that he used it while on tour to shoot animals. Meek had kept it under his bed, along with the shells. As the gun had been registered to Burt, he was questioned intensively by police, before being eliminated from their enquiries. A blue plaque has since been placed at the location of the studio to commemorate Meek's life and work.

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[edit] Songs about Joe Meek

British punk Wreckless Eric recounts Meek's biography and recreates some of his studio effects in his song "Joe Meek" from the album Donovan of Trash:

On the second floor of number 304
Above a handbag store and the heavy roar
Of traffic rolling down the Holloway Road
A one time bedroom housed the studio of Joe Meek
Where he conjured with the sound of another world
That Tin Pan Alley thought was too absurd
But miles of wire and recording tape
Brought fortune fame and no escape for Joe Meek
As he stirred up the sound of a hurricane
Joe Meek
Called upon forces from beyond the grave
Joe Meek
Suffered alone for his madness and pain
These were the only rewards that the hit parade
Held in store for Joe Meek
Joe Meek [1]


Texas punk band, The Marked Men have a song titled "Someday" with lyric: "Joe Meek wanted all the world to know about the news he found."

Danish alternative rock group The Bleeder Group has a song on their second album Sunrise, called "Joe Meek Shall Inherit The Earth"

Electronic duo Matmos have a song on their 2006 album The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of the Beast called "Solo Buttons for Joe Meek".

[edit] Books

  • John Repsch: The Legendary Joe Meek (UK; 1989, Jul 2003) ISBN 1-901447-20-0
  • Barry Cleveland: Creative Music Production - Joe Meek's BOLD Techniques (USA; Jul 2001) ISBN 1-931140-08-1

[edit] Photographs

  • Clive Bubley: [2]
  • David Peters [3] (enter Joe Meek in search box) These 3 photos are the only genuine colour photos of Joe ever taken

[edit] External links

[edit] Exhibition

[edit] Film

[edit] Books

[edit] Soundfiles

fr:Joe Meek pl:Joe Meek

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