Joe Meek - Britain's First Indie Record Producer
Joe Meek
(1929 - 1967) |
Joe Meek was a pioneering English 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.
"If it sounds good, it is good." - Joe Meek
Meek's innovative album I Hear A New World is regarded as a watershed in modern music.
In addition to Telstar, Meek's other hit productions included "Johnny Remember Me" by John Leyton, "Just Like Eddie" by Heinz, and "Have I The Right" by The Honeycombs which charted on both sides of the Atlantic.
Meek's career was not only remarkable for his distinctive production techniques but also for the fact that much of his recorded output was created in his home studio above a butcher's shop on London's Holloway road. Having been fascinated by electronics as a child he served time in Britain's Royal Air Force as radar technician and eventually built much of the equipment on which his signature sound, heavy echo, intense compression, relied. In addition Meek was notable for signing many acts himself before leasing the subsequent recordings to major lables for release. Sadly his success was short lived and on February 3rd 1967, using a hunting rifle owned by Heinz, Meek murdered his landlady before turning the gun on himself. Not yet 38 he died eight years to the day after Buddy Holly.
A pioneer of innovative recording techniques |
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His Legacy
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 artificial multi-tracking on one- and two-track machines, close miking, direct input of bass guitars, 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.
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 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 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.
The Artists
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, then the lead vocalist of Tommy Scott & The Senators. 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).
Many artists contributed to the legacy of Joe Meek, including:
The Tornados,
The Honeycombs,
Mike Berry,
The Outlaws,
Gene Vincent,
Billy Fury,
John Leyton,
Petula Clark,
Lonnie Donegan,
Humphrey Lyttelton,
Diana Dors,
The Blue Men,
Tom Jones,
Heinz and The Wild Boys,
Dave Adams,
Billie Davis, and
The Riot Squad.
Troubled Genius |
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The Tragic End
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 him 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.
Article courtesy of www.wikipedia.org
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