Joe Meek (April 5, 1929 – February 3, 1967)

Born Robert George Meek in Gloucestershire, England, Meek is known as England’s first independent record producer. He broke new ground in recording techniques and introduced a DIY approach to the music industry that was unheard of. Despite not being able to play an instrument or write musical notation, he had an incredibly gifted ability to write and produce successful commercial recordings. He was the first producer to record many artists prior to launching into major recognition, including Marc Bolan, Tom Jones, Ritchie Blackmore, and Jimmy Page. He decided to not record David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, or the Beatles, stating the latter was “just a bunch of noise, stealing other people’s music.” One of Meek’s recording artists was Screaming Lord Sutch (remember that guy?).

Meek recorded in a small flat upstairs at 204 Holloway Road, North London, between 1960 and 1967.  From this studio he recorded his most well known hit is The Tornados’ “Telstar”, which was the first UK song to reach number one on Billboard in the US. He was named the greatest producer of all time by NME (New Music Express).

As a child Meek showed an interest in electronics, filling his parents’ gardening shed with various electronic parts to build circuits, radios, and what has been speculated to be the region’s first working television. He apparently was raised for the first 4 years of his life as a girl, as his mother desperately wanted one.

After serving in the Royal Air Force as a radar technician, his interest in electronics and outer space deepened. One of his least popular albums was an “Outer Space Music Fantasy” concept album titled I Hear a New World which was a pet project for Meek in his attempt to "to create a picture in music of what could be up there in outer space". 

Meek was obsessed with the occult and would set up tape recorders in cemeteries in hopes of hearing sounds from beyond the grave; once he recorded sounds of a cat which he then claimed was speaking in a human-like manner, pleading for help.  In addition to the occult he was also infatuated with Buddy Holly, stating that he would communicate with him in his dreams in addition to other dead rock stars. In addition to being plagued with paranoia, Meek felt additional pressure as a gay man during a time when homosexuality was illegal in the UK.

Meek’s depression and paranoia increased in the mid 60’s and as a result, was no longer producing the musical successes he once had. He was convinced that Decca Records (a former British record label) were putting hidden microphones behind his wallpaper to steal his ideas. According to the spokesman for the Joe Meek Society, David Peters (who knew Meek personally) commented once that most people who met Meek were subjected to his paranoia and unstable temper, which worsened with his considerable intake of amphetamines. “If anything went wrong, he would explode. He was a Jekyll and Hyde character…He didn’t trust nobody, he thought people were spying on him, thought the room was bugged.”

French composer Jean Ledrut wrongly accused Meek of plagiarism, claiming that the song “Telstar” had been copied from “La Marche d’Austerlitz”, a musical piece from a score Ledrut wrote for the film Austerlitz.  Essentially it all boiled down to Meek never receiving royalties from the record during his lifetime, yet it was resolved 3 weeks after his death. 

On the 8^th anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death, his studio assistant Patrick Pink recalled Meek burning several letters and other documents in the bathtub and then handed him a note saying, “I’m going now. Goodbye.” Meek then did some work in the the control room with some recordings he had made with Pink the night before, then asked Pink to get the landlady, Violet Shenton. Meek then murdered Shenton (who was oftentimes irritated with his late rent payments and the noise he would make upstairs from his music) in front of Pink prior to turning the single barreled shotgun on himself. He was 37 years old.