THE MARVEL OF MEEK

A copy of the wonderful and rare 1959 EMI 33SX1158 Chris Barber in Berlin Vol.1 fell into my hands recently. I’m much more into blues than jazz but, as he straddled that particular fence in the 50s and 60s I had a shufti at the liner notes which were devoted to a description of the live event in the Deutschlandhalle and the difficulties in the process of recording the concert due to the size of the hall.

As an off-stage recording studio would have necessitated over 300 yards of cable for each mic and serious communications difficulties (no mobiles in those days!) the young ‘balance engineer’ (presumably today’s sound roadie) decided to record the show from the stalls and balance (and mix?) by ear alone. The quality of the resulting recording is quite remarkable; not only were the members of the band at their best but so were the 12,000 members of the audience, 25% of whom had travelled from East Berlin for the occasion. And also, quite obviously, the balance engineer surpassed himself despite commenting that he ‘ended the evening with the worst (technical) headache yet known in the history of mankind!’ The headache lessened and the balance engineer, Joe Meek (for it was he) became rightfully famous for his technical ingenuity and the quality of his ears.

by Mike Walker,
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