Joe Meek

Joe_Meek

Full Name: Robert George Meek
Birth: 5th April 1929
Place of Birth: Newent, UK
Nationality: British
Job Title: Record Producer, Sound Technician, Song Wirter
Partners: Lionel Howard
Died: 3rd February 1967, London

Many artists believe that their work will be their lasting legacy. A painter hopes that his creations will hang in galleries for years to come; filmmakers hope their movies will always be considered the best in their genre. Sometimes it isn’t the product itself which stands the test of time, but the methods used to produce it. This month’s Gay Great transformed his industry and changed the way music is produced forever.

Robert George Meek was supposed to have been a girl; at least that was what his mother had wanted. He was the last in a long line of boys and she was disappointed at gaining yet another son. From the outset treated him like a daughter; she even dressed him in girls’ clothes occasionally. But it soon became clear that Meek was naturally quite a feminine boy anyway. His early interests were theatrical rather than climbing trees or playing football and he would often create amazing sets and costumes and perform his own plays to his parents.

As he grew, a more masculine interest began to take hold. Like many young boys, Meek became fascinated by electrical equipment and would spend many hours taking apart and putting back together household appliances. As a teenager, he actually built a television, but was disappointed to find there was no signal in his area. His interest was especially aroused by recording equipment. He created his own recording devices and attempted to alter the sound he recorded by various means.

His fascination with sound soon made him popular locally as he began setting up sound equipment for parties and gatherings. Local fruit pickers were especially thankful to him for providing music during the picking season!

Despite his love of music and sound, Meek never learnt to play an instrument and had definite trouble with pitch when it came to singing. Nevertheless, his interest in the mechanical side of pop music continued to grow into his adult years. He was assigned to the RAF for his National Service and spent most of it working on radar equipment. Outside of work, he continued to borrow and create recording equipment to experiment on. As soon as he was demobbed, he headed for London and searched for a job in the recording industry. Although he was not officially trained, his talents were obvious and he was taken on by IBC studios as a technician.

Working in the music industry then was very different to today. Record producers were not considered artists but highly scientific technicians and even wore white coats to work.
However, Meek had a completely different approach to music. To him, recording was a creative art rather than a precise science. Although he tried his best to follow the rules, he often sneakily experimented with sounds, adding reverb and echo to tracks while nobody was looking. Although his life was ruled by lab technicians who did everything ‘the right way’, excitement about his unconventional work was beginning to bubble up in the music industry.

It was also about this time that Meek began to experiment in other areas of life. His homosexual feelings had been obvious to him since his teenage years and now as an adult in the capital he was free to follow his desires and seek out the homosexual underground. Before long, he had found a partner called Lionel Howard and for some time, the couple settled down together as best they could in pre-Wolfendon London. It was in the flat Meek shared with Howard that he created his first ever home studio. Although it was only for his own interest, Meek had started to break new ground by recording in his own home, something previously unheard of. His interest in writing songs took flight and he studied the charts for trends. He was especially inspired by Buddy Holly and became an avid fan.

Soon the restrictions of working at IBC began to take its toll and Meek started looking for other areas in which to use his talents. He moved on to help Lansdowne Studios with jazz producer Denis Preston. There he worked as an independent producer, a role which at last allowed him to take control and try out new ideas. Other studio workers would flinch as he took the backs off speakers or covered snare drums with coins in order to make a unique sound. Meek was now a single gay man and began to throw himself totally into his work and as a result became increasingly isolated. His song writing continued at Lansdowne and he used borrowed ‘down time’ at the studio to record them. However tensions were beginning to rise between Preston and Meek, so Meek decided to set up his own record label in partnership with a wealthy benefactor.

Ironically named Triumph, the record label failed to produce anything of real commercial value. But having extra time at the decks did help Meek produce an EP of his own creations. I Hear a New World was a rich mixture of futuristic sounds, none of which appealed to audiences of the 50s but have later become essential listening for electronic music lovers the world over. Meek also worked hard on material for other artists. Some days he would work so hard he would depend upon appetite suppressing diet pills to remove the need to seek out food.

But despite his hard work, Triumph only lasted a year. With only modest funds available, Meek decided the time had come to set up his own studio free from all interference. He hired a flat in Holloway Road, and set up RGM sound studios. As a single man, he devoted as much possible space in the flat to sound recording, dispensing with many domestic necessities. The situation suited him fine. Now he could actually live among his work.

The idea of having hit singles recorded in a residential home was a new concept and the music industry was nervous of Meek’s methods. Stories would reach top producers of how he would attach microphones to the banisters with bicycle clips, record violins in the bathroom for acoustic reasons and generally break all the ‘science of sound’ rules, much to the annoyance of his landlady Violet Shenton who constantly banged her broom on the ceiling in an attempt to stop the noise.

Meek’s music slowly began to be noticed. Young people cared little what artist or track they were buying, as long as his name was on the label. His work was gradually being recognised by record companies, who were now forced to press more records to meet demand. But some still refused to accept it. On more than one occasion, sound engineers refused to master his latest work for fear it would ’ruin’ their equipment.

In his personal life, Meek had started to delve into the underworld of a gay man in London. Cottaging had become a favourite pastime and a way to ease sexual tension after a hard day working. But Meek also had more romantic desires. For many years he was ‘obsessed’ with Heinz Burt, the bass player of his ‘in house’ band The Tornadoes. Over the years Meek wrote many love songs, all performed by women, which were obviously aimed at Burt. At one point, the young bass player was even living in Holloway road with Meek. But sadly Burt did not feel the same and nothing sexual ever happened between the two men.

Musically, Meek was riding high. His first No 1 came in 1961 with the classic death ballad, Remember Me Johnny, which stayed at the top of the charts for 15 weeks. He also created what was arguably the first ever gothic pop song. He had dabbled in the occult and often attempted to talk to his hero Buddy Holly, and was therefore well placed to add a bit of Gothic flair to British music. He worked on a song with The Moontrekkers called Night of the Vampire. The track was banned by the BBC which only served to make it more popular with a cult audience.

Meek didn’t stay with Gothic music for long and was soon back to creating space age sounding tracks. In 1962, his house band, The Tornadoes, released Telstar, a single named after the recently launched satellite of the same name. The song was a massive hit and stayed at No 1 for six months. He had certainly reached his zenith and was riding high.

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However, behind the music Meek was gradually showing signs of mental illness. As the pressure on him grew, he began to develop fears and anxieties. He was certain other record companies were bugging his flat and that there was a conspiracy against him. At one point, he even bugged his own flat to monitor what was being said when he was out of the room. Aside from his mental illness, he was also beginning to take copious quantities of diet pills as well as experimenting with LSD and drinking heavily.

A further blow hit the struggling star on 11th November 1963 when Meek was arrested for ‘importuning’ in a public toilet. Although he claimed he was set up, the papers had a field day with the story. He was made to feel guilty and ashamed and his reputation suffered greatly. The arrest also made life at Holland Road difficult. Rocks were thrown through his window. People would knock on his door and attempt to blackmail him. Artists who visited Meek’s studio felt equally threatened and few risked walking the short distance to the tube station after a recording session. Black cabs became a familiar sight outside his door.

Things went from bad to worse. Meek began to fall out with many of his recording allies. He began to loath his sexuality and started hiring prostitutes to ‘straighten him out’. In addition his paranoia became worse and soon everybody was a potential enemy. The final blow came when the body of one of his young male friends was found dismembered in a suitcase. The police stated their intention to interview everybody in the gay underworld who knew the youth. Meek lived in fear of the police calling round.

His frustrations led to an ever more violent temper and on the night of February 3rd, his landlady made the fatal mistake of going upstairs to discuss his outstanding rent. It was the eighth anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death and Meek was already in a pretty poor state of mind. After a fierce argument he fetched a gun that Heinz had left behind when he moved out and put a bullet through her head. Soon after, he turned the gun on himself.

Meek’s input into music is not widely known and is often dismissed. However, it is undeniable that he was the first to transform music recording from science to art, bridging the gap between artist and technology, something which is taken for granted in today’s industry.