Joe Meek
The Joe Meek Story


Tracks:

1 My Baby Boll - Mike Berry & the Outlaws 1961
2 Walk With Me My Angel - Don Charles 1962
3 Can Can 62 - Peter Jay & the Jaywalkers 1962
4 There Was A Time - Tony Victor 1962
5 Guess That's The Way It Goes - Don Charles 1962
6 Telstar - Tornados 1962
7 Dreamin' On A Cloud - Tornados 1962
8 Jack The Ripper - Screaming Lord Sutch 1963
9 Angel Of Love - Don Charles 1963
10 Christmas Stockings - Roger LaVern & The Microns 1963
11 Who Told You? - Fredie Starr & The Midnighters 1963
12 Keep Moving - Sounds Incorporated 1963
13 All The Stars In The Sky - the Tornados 1963
14 Dreams Do Come True - Heinz 1963
15 My Friend Bobby - Pamela Blue 1963
16 Monster In Black Tights - Screaming Lord Sutch 1963
17 Country Boy - Heinz 1963
18 Totem Pole - Peter Jay & the Jaywalkers 1963
19 Life On Venus - Tornados 1963
20 Just Like Eddie - Heinz 1963
21 In My Way - Davy Kaye 1965
22 Saxon Warcry - The Saxons 1965
23 Wishing Well - The Millionaires 1966
24 Please Stay - Cryin' Shames 1966

Line up:

Ritchie Blackmore - Guitar (on tracks 14, 17 & 20)

Record Label / Year of Release:

Decca 1977

Notes:

Robert George "Joe" Meek (5 April 1929 Newent, Gloucestershire – 3 February 1967 in London) was a pioneering English record producer and songwriter.

His most famous work was The Tornados' hit "Telstar" in 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.

Meek's other notable hit productions include "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O" and "Cumberland Gap" by Lonnie Donegan (as engineer), "Johnny Remember Me" by John Leyton, "Just Like Eddie" by Heinz, "Angela Jones" by Michael Cox, "Have I the Right?" by The Honeycombs, and "Tribute to Buddy Holly" by Mike Berry. Meek's concept album I Hear a New World is regarded as a watershed in modern music for its innovative use of electronic sounds.

Joe Meek was also producing music for films, most notably Live It Up! (US title Sing and Swing), a 1963 pop music film starring Heinz Burt, David Hemmings and Steve Marriott, also featuring Gene Vincent, Jenny Moss, The Outlaws, Kim Roberts, Kenny Ball, Patsy Ann Noble and others. Meek wrote most of the songs and incidental music, much of which was recorded by The Saints and produced by Meek.

His commercial success as a producer was short-lived and Meek gradually sank into debt and depression. On 3 February 1967, using a shotgun owned by musician Heinz Burt, Meek murdered his landlady before turning the gun on himself.

After the death of Joe Meek the thousands of recordings Meek hid at his studio remained unreleased and preserved by Cliff Cooper of The Millionaires. At the time of Joe's death in 1967, Mr. Cooper is said to have purchased all of Joe's recordings for £300. These recordings were called the "Tea Chest Tapes" among fans, as they were stored in a tea chest when Cooper took them out of his apartment. Alan Blackburn, former president of the Joe Meek Appreciation Society, is the only person known to the public who has listened to all these tapes, as he catalogued all of them in the mid-1980s.

On 4 September 2008 these unreleased recordings went up for auction in Fame Bureau's 'It's More Than Rock 'N' Roll' auction. The auction website states they fetched £200,000, but others have said considerably more was taken. The auction site says that there are over 5000 recordings on 1850 tapes containing recordings by David Bowie as singer and sax player with the Konrads, Gene Vincent, Denny Laine, Billy Fury, Tom Jones, Jimmy Page, Mike Berry, John Leyton, Ritchie Blackmore, Jess Conrad, Mitch Mitchell and Screaming Lord Sutch. The tapes also contain many examples of Joe Meek composing songs and experimental sound techniques. Tape 418 has Meek composing songs for the film Live It Up!.

The future of these unreleased Joe Meek "Tea Chest Tapes" recordings remains unknown.

Re-issue in 1991 on Sequel Records as "The Joe Meek Story: The Pye Years" on 2 CD.