Joe Meek
The stories are hard to believe, yet however strange, they are true. A flat on Holloway Road containing a home-made studio, above a leather goods store. A procession of musicians would clamber up the stairs carrying drum kits, guitars and dreams of making the hit parade. People bang their feet on the stairs to accent a bass drum sound. The string section is in the kitchen and the singer in the bathroom. Joe was known to the few as the first recording engineer to form his own studios and record label. Triumph would last little over a year, but its status as the first truly independant label remains. Joe Meek would be the first independant producer, under the name RGM Sound, recording the artists himself then licensing / selling the results to the major labels. Meek is rarely credited for the full contribution he made during the sixties. Innovations such as backwards recording, compression and echo techniques among others were pioneered by Meek years before becoming common-place. His was a Britain of the fifties, he'd been brought up when we still had an empire and music hall ruled surpreme. He was also homosexual, and whilst being in the music industry was perhaps one of the best places for a homosexual to safely earn a living, let us remember both Meek and Brian Epstein would end up taking their own lives. Meek had an inferiority complex that resulted in control freak tendencies in the studio. It was either recorded his way or no way. Perhaps he turned down The Beatles not because he didn't like them, as is often stated, but because they had a little too much independence? It's hard to imagine John Lennon and the guys ever toeing the Meek party line or recording in a kitchen, although many others did and enjoyed chart-topping status for their efforts.
He produced three UK number one hits in three different styles, quite something. The first was 'Johnny Remember Me', a dramatic 'death-disc' epic with a galloping rhythm and fine, soaring vocals from Johnny Leyton, an actor-turned singer. The 2nd number one was the most famous Meek recording of all, The Tornados 'Telstar'. With a spooky electronic lead melody line, that same galloping rhythm amidst outer space sounds, 'Telstar' became the first single by a British group to hit number one in America. Numerous sound-alike follow-ups were recorded by Meek, one merely using the same tune over which vocals were added. Something about a 'magic star' and lyrics mentioning being lonely. The third and final Meek number one would be 'Have I The Right', a hit right in the middle of the beat-boom. With those floorboards well and truly stomped, with a female drummer that directly inspired Karen Carpenter to take up the drums, The Honeycombs were a great act that unfortunately failed to repeat their intial Meek produced success.
February 3rd 1967, Meek took a shotgun and summoned his long suffering landlady upstairs and blasted her to death before turning the gun on himself. All the funds from 'Telstar' were held up in a court case, it claimed Meek had stolen the melody. By the time the case was settled in his favour, it was all too late. By 1967 Meek was facing eviction, facing financial ruin although with an offer on the table from EMI to become one of their in-house producers. He felt the walls closing in on every front, feared he would be held up over a then recent and unrelated homosexual murder. No doubt his mind wandered back to his first four years on this earth, brought up by his mother as a girl. A fascination with radios and record players, which he'd take apart led to him building his own electronics and becoming a budding DJ around his local area. Taken on by IBC studios as an engineer circa 1953, he learned the ropes. Joe would try to stamp his own personality and sounds on recordings whether the studio and artists wanted him to, or not. Often termed the first ever concept LP, his 1960 effort 'I Hear A New World' was pressed as a stereo-demonstration disc. Never actually released until 1991, it has since been hailed as a visionary classic, inspiring many different artists, electronic act Orbital among them. Kind of like a brother to Aphex Twin forty years too early.
Despite comments Meek never progressed with the times once The Beatles swept all before them, recordings Meek made 1964-1966 showed he had a growing knack for recording beat-music after all. The likes of the sizzling, barely containable frenzy of The Syndicats 'Crawdaddy Simone' effectively predated acid, garage and psychedelic punk by a good two/three years. Nobody much noticed at the time. For a man perceived as being square and out of fashion, for a growing cult to surround his life and work is fascinating. At a time where the perceived cannon of classic rock and pop music is seemingly fixed in stone and you almost have to mention The Beatles somewhere in any conversation concerning the Sixties, more and more youngsters are turning to the weird and out-there music of Joe Meek for what they perceive to be a more authentic, alternative view of The Sixties.