Joe Meek was born in April 1929, in Newent, Gloucestershire, and died in February 1967, in London, when he shot himself. In the latter half of his life, he pioneered a production sound that paved the way for future generations of engineers and producers. His career began as a sound engineer in 1954 when he joined IBC, then one of London's leading independent recording studios. While there, he worked with the likes of Lonnie Donegan, Frankie Vaughan, Tommy Steele and Humphrey Lyttleton, eventually setting up his own operation, Lansdowne Studios, in 1960. Working with popular jazz artists, he launched his own label, Triumph Records, single-handedly pioneering the concept of recording music outside the confines of the UK music industry.
He relocated to a flat in north London, converting it into a semi-professional, makeshift studio, thereby creating some of the weirdest sonic experiments ever to dent the UK singles charts. For a few years in the early 1960s, Meek recorded and released hundreds of records, and the likes of John Leyton's Johnny Remember Me, The Tornados' Telstar, Heinz's Just Like Eddie and The Honeycombs' Have I The Right proved him to be a dab hand at creating swirling, echo-laden, strangely atmospheric hit records. Hailed as a true original, with an innovative flair for sonic production techniques unmatched by any of his rivals, Meek should have been sitting on top of his world. Alas, his troubles were deep-rooted.
His argumentative personality (which often bordered on the violent) distanced him from many of his friends and business colleagues. His homosexuality produced feelings of self-loathing, while his drug intake increased.
Bizarre and occasionally violent incidents in his life became the norm: chasing someone with a knife up a north London street, being found beaten up and unconscious in his car, attempting to contact Rameses The Great and Aleister Crowley, dressing in black from head to toe, problems with rent payment.
Ironically, the latter was what unbalanced him. After an argument with his landlady she decided to throw Meek out of his by now filthy flat-cum-studio. Unable to reconcile his life without his work, he blasted her with an old shotgun; then he reloaded it and turned it on himself. "Fade out of a pop man" ran a newspaper headline, as one of the final records he worked on was released: The Cryin' Shames' Nobody Waved Good- bye. It was a prophetic title and a cynical release, as his funeral in his home town attracted but a small gathering of people.
For further information go to www.concentric.net/ meekweb /telstar.htm
