It was an ignominious finish to the troubled lifetime of a brilliantly artistic studio trailblazer. The tawdry particulars of February 3, 1967 are that Joe Meek took a shotgun owned by one of many artists he had produced, Heinz, shot the landlady of the London residence that additionally housed his studio, after which shot himself. He was simply 37.
However slightly than dwell on Meek’s private demons and the sorry final scene his life, let’s have a good time a producer who was a real grasp of sonic invention in British pop music. In 2014, an all-time High 50 producers record within the NME positioned Meek at No.1, forward even of Sir George Martin in a High 5 that additionally included Quincy Jones, Nile Rodgers, and Phil Spector.
This, too, at a time when sources have been restricted, hi-fi was fairly lo-fi, and he was engaged on budgets a tiny fraction of those who could be out there to others even earlier than the top of the Sixties. And all this from a person who couldn’t play a single instrument.
The little-known Toby Ventura
Meek labored with scores of artists, a few of whom he made into stars, some who remained in obscurity and a few who made their identify later. In these varied classes, the record included Tom Jones, John Leyton, Lonnie Donegan, the aforementioned Heinz, Shirley Bassey, the Honeycombs, Mike Berry, Cliff Bennett and the Insurgent Rousers, and the little-remembered the Sharades, the Shakeouts, and the gloriously-named Toby Ventura.
However the group with whom he had what many name his most interesting hour, and definitely his biggest industrial triumph, was the Tornados. Their fantastically evocative, space-age instrumental “Telstar” not solely topped the UK charts in 1962 however turned the primary file by a British group to go to No.1 in America.
Born in Gloucestershire on April 5, 1929, Meek was what we might now referred to as a “techie” from early years, dabbling in electronics as a schoolkid after which working with radar throughout his Nationwide Service. Preliminary jobs with the electrical energy board and as an audio engineer led him to the recording studio, the place he quickly confirmed his ingenuity by suggesting a change to the sound compression on Humphrey Lyttelton’s 1956 UK hit “Bad Penny Blues.”
Experiments in Holloway Street
At simply 30, within the new yr of 1960, Meek based his personal Triumph Information, and one in all his first productions, Michael Cox’s “Angela Jones,” reached No.8 within the UK in July of that yr. Establishing the manufacturing firm RGM Sound, he grew ever extra assured and experimental, working within the confines of his 304 Holloway Street residence and studio.
In such restricted environment, Meek created the haunting results that helped John Leyton to No.1 with “Johnny Remember Me.” The heartthrob actor-singer adopted it with additional Meek-produced hits “Wild Wind,” “Son This Is She,” and others. Numerous different younger hopefuls got here to the deal with within the hope of getting their careers superior by Meek’s manufacturing brilliance.
Many failed outright, and a few, together with the previous Tornados member Heinz, turned fleeting stars, in his case with the 1963 Eddie Cochran tribute “Just Like Eddie.” Meek’s personal album impressed by the area race, credited with the Blue Males, wasn’t even absolutely launched till 1991, however it was fittingly titled I Hear A New World.
After his third and remaining UK No.1 as a producer, on the Honeycombs’ “Have I The Right” in 1964, Meek discovered chart success more durable to return by and commenced to really feel more and more resentful and paranoid. However his unhappy loss of life ought to under no circumstances overshadow among the most quintessentially British, and endlessly modern, recordings in pop historical past.
Hearken to uDiscover Music’s Joe Meek: Hits and Misses playlist.
