THE HAND OF TELSTAR Joe Meek 100 SINGLES

Spencer Leigh explores the diverse legacy of ‘Britain’s Phil Spector’, whose records can command values of £800+

To celebrate the release of the Telstar biopic of Joe Meek, here are 100 records that Joe Meek was associated with, whether as a recording engineer, producer or songwriter, and often in all three capacities. In order to give some structure to the feature, all the records were issued at the time and were all singles, thus omitting his work with Ivy Benson’s all-girls orchestra, his progressive jazz recordings with Kenny Graham’s Afro-Cubists and the experimental I Hear A New World (1960), a concept album which began what are now regarded as Joe Meek trademarks. He’d just bought an electronic keyboard, known as a clavioline, and the £40 purchase changed his life.

Once Joe Meek hit the top with his 1961 production of Johnny Remember Me, for John Leyton, he developed an eerie, echo-laden sound. Many records have an “out of this world” quality and yet they were, for the most part, made in a flat at 304, Holloway Road, in north London.

Joe Meek is a very different producer from, say, George Martin, who has made records that are dissimilar from each other and recorded with considerable budgets. Joe developed his sound on a shoestring, and despite big hits, the money wasn’t always forthcoming. In his case, necessity became the mother of invention and, for this reason, his failures are as …

by Spencer Leigh
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