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Arlon
Arlon centre with bell tower of St. Martin's Church
Flag Coat of arms
Arlon Location in Belgium
Coordinates: 49°41′N 05°49′E / 49.683°N 5.817°E / 49.683; 5.817
Country	Belgium
Region	Wallonia
Community	French Community
Province	Luxembourg
Arrondissement	Arlon
Government
• Mayor	Raymond Biren (cdH)
• Governing party/ies	cdH, PS
Area
• Total	118.64 km2 (45.81 sq mi)
Population (1 January 2011)[1]
• Total	27,986
• Density	240/km2 (610/sq mi)
Postal codes	6700, 6704, 6706
Area codes	063
Website	www.arlon.be (French)
Map of Arlon

(Margraviate) County of Arlon (Mark)grafschaft Arel (lb) (Margraviat) Comté d'Arlon (fr) (Mark)graafschap Aarle (li) (Mark)graafschap Aarlen (nl)
State of the Holy Roman Empire
← 950–1221 →
Capital	Arel (Arlon)
Government	Principality
Historical era	Middle Ages
- Established	950
- Raised to margraviate	ca 1167
- United with the     County of Luxembourg	1214
- Annexed to the     Duchy of Limburg	1221 1221

Arlon (French pronunciation: [aʁlɔ̃]; Luxembourgish: Arel; Dutch: Aarlen [Dutch pronunciation: [ˈaːr.lə(n)]]; German: Arel; Walloon: Årlon) is a Walloon municipality of Belgium located in the province of Luxembourg, of which it is the capital, and part of Arelerland (Land of Arlon). Despite the Luxembourgish majority population, the city was not included in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and an assimilation process to the French language continued undisturbed.^[2]

The municipality of Arlon includes the villages of Autelbas (Luxembourgish: Nidderälter), Autelhaut, Barnich, Bonnert (Bunnert), Clairefontaine, Fouches, Frassem, Freylange, Guirsch (Giisch), Heckbous, Heinsch (Häschel), Sampont, Sesselich, Seymerich, Sterpenich, Toernich (Täernech), Udange, Viville, Waltzing, and Weyler.

History[link]

Roman and medieval times[link]

Before the Roman conquests of Gaul, the territory of Arlon and a vast area to the southeast were settled by the Treveri, a tribe of mixed Celtic and Germanic origins. The local population adapted relatively easily to Roman culture. The number and quality of sculpted stones and monuments that have been unearthed in the area demonstrate that the vicus of Orolaunum quickly became a vibrant commercial and administrative centre of Roman civilization. The Germanic invasions of the 3rd century destroyed most of these early advances, despite the defensive walls that had been built on the Knipchen hill to protect the vicus.

During most of the Middle Ages, the population still used the earlier buildings such as the thermae. In 1060, Waleran I of Limburg, Count of Arlon, built a castle on the Knipchen hill. In the 13th century, the only feminine Cistercian abbey known to date was built in Clairefontaine.

15th century until the French Revolution[link]

The Duchy of Luxembourg itself, of which Arlon was dependent, became part of the Burgundian Netherlands under Philip the Good in 1441. After Charles V's abdication of his empire to his son Philip II of Spain in 1556, a troubled period started for the whole region as continuous wars opposed France, Spain, and the Southern Netherlands. In 1558, nearly half of the city, including its castle, was destroyed by the French troops of Francis, Duke of Guise. In the 17th century, Capuchin monks built a convent on the ruins of the castle and the French strengthened the defensive walls according to Vauban's designs. An accidental fire destroyed a large part of the city again in 1785.

St Donat's church, Arlon

Modern times[link]

On June 9, 1793, the French Revolutionary troops opposed the Austrians just outside of Arlon. The French emerged victorious and occupied the city. They expelled the Capuchin monks and used their convent as a hospital. After the Battle of Waterloo, Arlon's history is entwined with that of Belgium.

Arlon was one of the first victims of the German invasion in 1914 as 121 inhabitants were executed on August 26 on the orders of Colonel Richard Karl von Tessmar. Its territory was again among the first to be invaded at the onset of World War II. During the second world war the mayor collaborated with the Germans. He was shot in 1946.

Arlon today[link]

Being situated very close to the border with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Arlon has continued to expand with new residential areas and commercial development zones, and many people cross the border everyday to work in the Grand Duchy. One of the largest industrial employers is the Ferrero Rocher chocolate factory. Having the last station on the main Brussels—Luxembourg City railway line, all International express trains make a stop in Arlon.

Sights[link]

St Martin's church, Arlon

• Arlon is best known for holding one of the richest archæological museums in Belgium. It houses numerous examples of Roman sculpture and Merovingian funerary art.
• A fragment of the Gallo-Roman defensive wall that was built in the 3rd century still stands in Arlon.
• The Gaspar Museum is well known for its furniture, paintings, ceramics, and religious art.
• Saint Donat's church now stands on the Knipchen hill, where Waleran I of Limburg once built his castle and the Capuchin monks built their convent.

Folklore[link]

• The carnival of Arlon takes place at mid-Lent. It includes the traditional handing of the city keys to the carnival prince and a colourful parade composed of various folkloric groups.
• The Maitrank (German for "drink of May") is the city's most popular refreshment. It is made of white wine in which a local flower, the asperula odorata, has macerated. Some recipes also add cognac or substitute woodruff for the asperula. The Maitrank festivities take place in the city every fourth Sunday of May.

People born in Arlon[link]

• Johann Kaspar Basselet von La Rosée, Bavarian general (1710–1795)
• Godefroid Kurth, historian (1847–1916)
• Benoît Lamy, film director (1945–2008)
• Ingrid Lempereur, swimmer (1969)
• Jeroen van Busleyden, humanist (1470-1517)

International relations[link]

Twin towns — sister cities[link]

Arlon is twinned with:

•  France: Saint-Dié-des-Vosges since 1962
•  Luxembourg: Diekirch
•  Germany: Bitburg since 1965
•  United States: Sulphur, Louisiana
•  France: Hayange
•  Italy: Alba since 1 March 2004
•  United Kingdom: Market Drayton

References[link]

See also[link]

• List of protected heritage sites in Arlon

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Arlon

• Official site
• Alternative to official site (French)
• Official Maitrank web site (French)
• Official Saint-Martin parish website of Arlon city (French)

v t e Municipalities of Luxembourg Province Arlon Arlon Attert Aubange Martelange Messancy Bastogne Bastogne Bertogne Fauvillers Gouvy Houffalize Sainte-Ode Vaux-sur-Sûre Vielsalm Marche-en-Famenne Durbuy Erezée Hotton La Roche-en-Ardenne Manhay Marche-en-Famenne Nassogne Rendeux Tenneville Neufchâteau Bertrix Bouillon Daverdisse Herbeumont Léglise Libin Libramont-Chevigny Neufchâteau Paliseul Saint-Hubert Tellin Wellin Virton Chiny Étalle Florenville Habay Meix-devant-Virton Musson Rouvroy Saint-Léger Tintigny Virton

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Deke Arlon (born Anthony Howard Wilson)^[1] is a British music publisher and music manager whose clients included Kenny Young, Sheena Easton, Ron Grainer, Elaine Paige, Dennis Waterman, Helen Watson, and Marti Pellow.

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Arlon began his own band Deke Arlon and the Tremors in 1959^[2] where the band established itself in the south coast England rock scene. In 1964, Deke Arlon and his then group The Offbeats recorded a session with 1960s pop producer Joe Meek. This resulted in one single, "I'm Just A Boy/Can't Make Up Mind" released on Columbia. He went on to record another single for HMV in 1964, and three more singles for Columbia during 1965 and 1966, all solo recordings. Arlon eventually went on to do theatre and television shows, such as Dad You're a Square, Thank Your Lucky Stars and Crossroads where he met his future wife, Jill. It was the prospect of securing a mortgage, with its demand of a ‘proper’ job with proof of a regular income that forced Arlon into what was to have been a temporary career move from performing to music publishing.

Within a year at Chappell Music he worked with artists to help produce songs such as "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong and "Ode to Billy Jo" by Bobbie Gentry. He worked on newly discovered trunk songs by Gershwin and the scores to theatrical successes like Fiddler on the Roof, Sweet Charity, Cabaret, and Canterbury Tales.

Arlon was sought out by CBS and at age 23 was made managing director and senior vice president of the newly formed April/Blackwood Music. It was 1968 and in the following heady years he discovered and worked with young writers who would become music business legends. These included Gilbert O'Sullivan, James Taylor, Nicky Chinn (of ChinnyChap), Chip Taylor, Al Gorgoni, Billy Vera, and bands Blood Sweat and Tears, and Chicago (band). He acquired major copyrights of "Everybody’s Talking" (Midnight Cowboy), "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix, and "Think" by Aretha Franklin. Film score credits included Scrooge and the award winning Z written by the imprisoned Greek composer Theodorakis.

1970 – 1989[link]

The mid–1970s saw him lured away from April Music by Yorkshire Television who, eager to set up their own record and publishing companies, offered him the additional position of managing director of three of its major subsidiaries. Two years later he set up his own independent company, not just as a publisher but as an artist manager too.

Many of his artists over the next thirty years was diverse but all were hugely successful. Kenny Young, a client from his early April Music days, sold millions of albums on both sides of the Atlantic with songs such as "Under the Board Walk" and "Captain of Your Ship." Additionally, there was Ron Grainer responsible for the themes to Dr Who, To Sir with Love, Tales of the Unexpected and the music for Robert and Elizabeth. With clients Ned Sherrin and Caryl Brahms, the Arlons entered the arena of theatre production. Their first venture together was the acclaimed musical Nickleby and Me, followed by I Gotta Shoe, Only in America, Okay, The Mitford Girls, and Side By Side By Sondheim. It was Sherrin’s performance in the hit Broadway version of the latter that led to his own television series We Interrupt this week. Devised by Sherrin and produced by him and Arlon this ran for 26 weeks on WNET, America. Back in Britain, the success of Side by Side spawned a long running TV series Song by Song by… again produced by the Arlons.

The late 1970s and 1980s was an era of achievement after record producer Christopher Neil joined up with Arlon. With Neil producing and Arlon managing, the career of a young Sheena Easton was launched selling millions of records around the world. Songwriter singer Gerard Kenny was another success whose songs were recorded by the likes of Barry Manilow ("Made It Through The Rain"). The alliance of Neil and Arlon led to the sales of more millions of albums with artists including Dollar, Gerry Rafferty, Mike + The Mechanics, a-ha, Morton Harket, Cher, Rod Stewart, Lulu, the French super-star Julien Clerc and Celine Dion.

Television sales soared when Arlon took over the management of actor Dennis Waterman broadening the scope of his career with the production of several albums. Following on the success of The Sweeney, he starred in the highly rated Minder series which was based on an idea conceived especially for Dennis by Jill Arlon. Both Arlon and Waterman won Ivor Novello Awards for the title song to this series. It was with Waterman that Deke and Jill Arlon entered the film world with their first production, A Captain’s Tale - The First World Cup, followed by three two hour television films, Circles of Deceit written for him by Jill Arlon.

The steady rise of Elaine Paige’s career has been guided by Arlon for over twenty years. Her recording, albums, and tour were all produced and directed by Arlon^{[citation needed]} including appearing at The Great Hall in Beijing, and created legendary roles in musicals including Evita, Chess, Anything Goes, Piaff, Sunset Boulevard, both here and on Broadway, The King and I and Sweeney Todd with the New York Opera Company. More recently Arlon took on Ray Davies and the Kinks.^[2]

1990 – present[link]

In the mid 1990s in recognition of Arlon’s wide range of experience in so many fields, the music industry invited him to be executive producer for the debut of their first major award show. Now known as The BRIT Awards, it was Arlon who produced and directed the show for the first two years so creating a prestigious profile for British pop music. It was he who first brought it to television and who then went on to sell the TV rights world–wide on behalf of the British Phonographic Industry. Arlon received the gold Novello Award for his outstanding contribution to the music industry.

In 2001, Arlon was invited to join a major public music company as Chairman of the Entertainment Division and Chairman of Music Publishing. Along with those duties his other brief was to use his knowledge to acquire companies for the group; his most outstanding acquisition was Sir Elton John’s Management Company, Twenty First Artists which included the rights to Billy Elliot and the new international star James Blunt.

Arlon was called upon by the British music industry to promote and further the protection of music and theatrical copyrights around the world. He met with various official bodies in the Far East, Taiwan and Thailand. At the end of the 1980s, when Russia first opened its borders to the West, the music industry dispatched Arlon and his wife in their capacity as music business entrepreneurs and ambassadors to research and write a report on the infrastructure of the industry in Russia and to explore the possibilities of sharing our expertise and cultures. More recently, over the last four years, the Arlons were dispatched to visit various regions in China where they held many meetings with different senior government officials and discussions with sports and media experts in order to encourage the protection, collection and payment of copyright royalties for Eastern and Western artists, writers and performers in China and to liaise exchanges of ideas on programming, and artists not only in the field of arts but also sports.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Deke Arlon at the Internet Movie Database

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Lionel Bart
Bart in 1981, by Allan Warren
Born	Lionel Begleiter (1930-08-01)1 August 1930 Stepney, London, England
Died	3 April 1999(1999-04-03) (aged 68) Hammersmith,[1] London, England
Occupation	Composer
Years active	1952–1999
Relatives	Samuel Bergliter (nephew) Ella Bergliter (great niece)

Lionel Bart (1 August 1930 – 3 April 1999) was a writer and composer of British pop music and musicals, best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for Oliver!

Early life[link]

Bart was born Lionel Begleiter the youngest of seven surviving children in East London to Galician Jews, and grew up in Stepney. His father worked as a tailor in a garden shed in London E1. The family had escaped the deadly pogroms against Jews by Ukrainian cossacks in Galicia, which was then part of the Austrian Empire.

Lionel changed his name to Bart, derived from when he passed by St. Barts' hospital on the top deck of a bus after he had completed his National Service with the Royal Air Force.

As a young man he was an accomplished painter. At the age of six a teacher told his parents that he was a musical genius. His parents gave him an old violin, but he did not apply himself and the lessons stopped.

At the age of 14 he obtained a Junior Art Scholarship to St Martin's School of Art. One Friday afternoon, he was suspended for "mischievousness" with another student, John Groom, for making a noise with the rest of the class, involving set squares and other paraphernalia. On the following Monday, he returned to School with a long explanation of his peripheral involvement in the disturbance and was re-instated. After St Martin's, he gave up his ambition to be a painter and took jobs in silk-screen printing works and commercial art studios. He never learned to read or write musical notation; this did not stop him from becoming a significant personality in the development of British rock and pop music.

Songwriting[link]

He started his songwriting career in amateur theatre, first at The International Youth Centre in 1952 where he and a friend wrote a revue together called IYC Revue 52. The following year the pair auditioned for a production of the Leonard Irwin play The Wages Of Eve at Unity Theatre, London. Shortly after Bart began composing songs for Unity Theatre, contributing material (including the title song) to their 1953 revue Turn It Up, and songs for their 1953 pantomime, an agitprop version of Cinderella. While at Unity he was talent spotted by Joan Littlewood and so joined Theatre Workshop.^[2] He also wrote comedy songs for the Sunday lunchtime BBC radio programme The Billy Cotton Band Show.^[3]

He first gained widespread recognition through his pop songwriting, penning numerous hits for the stable of young male singers promoted by artist manager and music publisher Larry Parnes. Bart's pop output in this period includes the hits "Living Doll" (written for Cliff Richard) and "Rock with the Cavemen","Handful of Songs", "Butterfingers" and "Little White Bull" (for Tommy Steele). During this period, Mike Pratt as well as Steele were his songwriting partners. In 1957, he won three Ivor Novello Awards, a further four in 1958, and two in 1960. He wrote the theme song for the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love. His other hits include: "Do You Mind?" (recorded by both Anthony Newley and Andy Williams), "Big Time" (a 1961 cover by Jack Jones of his "Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be" show tune), "Easy Going Me" (Adam Faith) and "Always You And Me" (with Russ Conway).

Bart was also responsible for the discovery of two of Parnes' biggest stars. It was on his recommendation that Parnes went to see singer Tommy Hicks, whom he signed and renamed Tommy Steele, and Bart also suggested that Parnes see singer Reg Smith, who was then performing at the Condor Club. Although Parnes missed his performance, he went round to Smith's house and signed him up on the basis of Bart's recommendation. Smith went on to score a number of UK hits under his new stage name Marty Wilde.^[4]

Twenty-seven years after it became a number one hit for Cliff Richard, "Living Doll" was re-recorded by The Young Ones and Cliff Richard for Comic Relief and spent another three weeks at Number One.^[5]

Musical theatre[link]

Bart's first professional musical was the 1959 Lock Up Your Daughters, based on the 18th century play Rape Upon Rape, by Henry Fielding. Following that, Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be produced by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, was notable for encouraging the use of authentic Cockney accents on the London stage. Oliver! (1960), based on Dickens's Oliver Twist was a huge hit from the beginning, becoming the first modern British musical to be transferred successfully to Broadway. It has sustained its popularity to the present day, and for many years was the standard musical performed by UK schools. The original stage production, which starred Ron Moody and Georgia Brown, contained such song hits as "As Long As He Needs Me" and "Consider Yourself" and is also notable for featuring Australian satirist Barry Humphries in his first major stage role as Mr Sowerberry and future rock stars Steve Marriott^[6] (later the lead singer of The Small Faces and Humble Pie) and Phil Collins (of Genesis fame) as The Artful Dodger.

The music for Oliver! was transcribed by Eric Rogers who wrote and composed 21 scores for the Carry On films. Bart hummed the melodies and Rogers wrote the notes on his behalf as Bart could not read or write music.^[7]

In 1968 Oliver! was made into a film starring Ron Moody, Oliver Reed and Shani Wallis which won several Oscars, including best film. It is estimated that around this time Bart was earning 16 pounds a minute from Oliver!.^[8]

Bart's next two musicals, Blitz! (1962) (the song Far Away produced another hit for Shirley Bassey) and Maggie May (1964), had respectable West End runs (Blitz!, at the time London's most expensive musical ever, had a run of 568 performances),^[9] but Twang! (1965), a musical based on the Robin Hood legend, was a notorious flop and La Strada (1969), which opened on Broadway in New York City, closed after only one performance. By this time Bart was taking LSD and other drugs and was drinking heavily, and this evidently affected both his work and his business judgement—he rashly used his personal finances to try to rescue his last two productions, selling his past and future rights to his work—including Oliver! – in order to realise capital to finance the shows; Bart himself later estimated that this action lost him over UK£1 million.^[10] By 1972, Bart was bankrupt with debts of £73,000. He turned to drink, and a twenty-year period of depression and alcoholism ensued. He eventually stopped drinking and attended Alcoholics Anonymous, although the years of substance abuse seriously damaged his health, leaving him with diabetes and impaired liver function.^[10]

In May 1977 an autobiographical musical called 'Lionel' opened in the West End at the New London Theatre. It was loosely based on Barts early life as a child prodigy. Bart added some new songs for the show and expectations were high. The cast included Clarke Peters , Marion Montgomary and Adrien Poster. The role of Lionel was shared by a young Todd Carty and theatre unknown Chris Nieto. The show closed after 6 weeks losing £250,000.

He continued writing songs and themes for films, but his only real success in his later years was "Happy Endings", a 30-second jingle for a 1989 Abbey National advertising campaign which featured Bart playing the piano and singing to children.

In 1986 Bart received a special Ivor Novello Award for his life's achievement. Cameron Mackintosh, who owned half the rights to Oliver!, revived the musical at the London Palladium in 1994 in a version rewritten by Lionel Bart. Mackintosh gave Bart a share of the production royalties. At the peak of his career Bart was romantically linked in the media with singers Judy Garland and Alma Cogan^[3] although he was gay. His sexuality was known to friends and colleagues but he did not "come out" until a few years before his death.^[10]

Bart died in 1999 after a long struggle with cancer and his funeral took place at Golders Green Crematorium.

A musical play based on Bart's life and using his songs, It's a Fine Life was staged at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch in 2006.^[11]

West End theatrical credits[link]

• Lock Up Your Daughters (1959) – lyricist
• Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be (1959) – composer, lyricist
• Oliver! (1960) – composer, lyricist, writer
• Blitz! (1962) – composer, lyricist, writer
• Maggie May (1964) – composer, lyricist
• Twang! (1965) – composer, lyricist
• La Strada (1969) – co-composer, co-lyricist
• Lionel!(1977)- composer, lyricist

Work on Broadway[link]

• Oliver! (1963) – musical – composer, lyricist, and bookwriter – Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist, Tony nominations for Best Musical and Best Author of a Musical
  • A return engagement of the original production played in 1965, and a revival in 1984.
• La Strada (1969) – musical – composer and lyricist

See also[link]

Biography portal

Category:songs written by Lionel Bart

Notes and references[link]

• Bart! The Unauthorized Life & Times, Ins and Outs, Ups and Downs of Lionel Bart by David Roper ISBN 1-85793-330-3
• Samantha Ellis, "Lionel Bart's Oliver!", June 1960 The Guardian, June 18, 2003.
• Michael Coveney, Lionel Bart: Appetite for destruction, The Independent, 31 August 2006.
• Lionel Begleiter (Bart), Icons Gallery, circa-club.com.
• Lionel Bart, a composer of songs and musicals, The Queens Theatre (Hornchurch).
• Gerald Mahlowe, Songwriter Profile Lionel Bart, Songwriter magazine, International Songwriters Association (undated interview some time after 1985)
• The Story of Unity Theatre, by Colin Chambers, ISBN 0-85315-587-9
• Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be - The Lionel Bart Story, by David and Caroline Stafford, Omnibus Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84938-661-6

External links[link]

• Lionel Bart at the Internet Movie Database
• Lionel Bart at the Internet Broadway Database
• Lionel Bart at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Biographical info on Mike Pratt, songwriting partner, along with Tommy Steele

Robert George "Joe" Meek (5 April 1929 Newent, Gloucestershire – 3 February 1967 in London^[1]) 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.^[2]

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.

Biography[link]

Pre-London years[link]

Meek developed an interest in electronics and performance art at a very early age, filling his parents' garden shed with begged and borrowed electronic components, building circuits, radios and what is believed to be the region's first working television. A stint in the Royal Air Force as a radar operator escalated his life-long interest in electronics and outer space. From 1953 he worked for the Midlands Electricity Board. He used the resources of the company to develop his interest in electronics and music production, including acquiring a disc cutter and producing his first record.

London 1954–1959[link]

He left the electricity board to work as an audio engineer for a leading independent radio production company that made programmes for Radio Luxembourg, and made his breakthrough with his work on Ivy Benson's Music for Lonely Lovers. His technical ingenuity was first shown on the Humphrey Lyttelton jazz single "Bad Penny Blues" (Parlophone Records, 1956) when, contrary to Lyttleton's wishes, he 'modified' the sound of the piano and compressed the sound to a greater than normal extent. The record became a hit. He then put enormous effort into Denis Preston's Landsdowne Studio but tensions between Preston and Meek soon saw Meek forced out. During his time he recorded US actor George Chakiris for SAGA Records and it was this that led him to Major Wilfred Alonzo Banks and an independent career.

Triumph Records[link]

In January 1960, together with Barrington-Coupe, Meek founded Triumph Records. At the time Barrington-Coupe was working at SAGA records in Empire Yard, Holloway Road for Major Wilfred Alonzo Banks and it was the Major who provided the finance. The label very nearly had a #1 hit with Meek's production of Angela Jones by Michael Cox. Cox was one of the featured singers on Jack Good's TV music show Boy Meets Girl and the song was given massive promotion. As an independent label,Triumph was at the mercy of small pressing plants, which could not -or would not – keep up with sales demand. The record made a respectable appearance in the Top Ten, but it proved Meek needed the major companies' distribution muscle to get his records into the shops when it mattered.

In spite an interesting catalogue of Meek productions, its indifferent business results and Joe proving difficult to work with eventually led to the label's demise. Meek later licensed many Triumph recordings to labels such as Top Rank and Pye.

That year Meek conceived, wrote and produced an "Outer Space Music Fantasy"' concept album I Hear A New World with a band called Rod Freeman & The Blue Men. The album was shelved for decades, apart from some EP tracks taken from it.

304 Holloway Road[link]

	"Telstar" noicon "Telstar" featured a clavioline, a keyboard instrument with a distinctive electronic sound. The song won an Ivor Novello Award and sold over five million copies worldwide.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Meek went on to set up his own production company known as RGM Sound Ltd (later Meeksville Sound Ltd) with toy importer, Major Wilfred Alonzo Banks as his financial backer. He operated from his now-legendary home studio which he constructed at 304 Holloway Road, Islington, a three-floor flat above a leather-goods store.

His first hit from Holloway Road was a UK #1 smash: John Leyton's Johnny Remember Me (1961) written by active psychic Geoff Goddard. This memorable "death ditty" was cleverly promoted by Leyton's manager, expatriate Australian entrepreneur Robert Stigwood. Stigwood was able to get Leyton to perform the song several times in an episode of ITV's short-lived^[3] department store-based TV soap opera Harpers West One in which he was making a guest appearance. Meek's third UK #1 and last major success was with The Honeycombs' Have I The Right? in 1964, which also became a number 4 hit on the American Billboard pop charts. The success of Leyton's recordings was instrumental in establishing Stigwood and Meek as two of Britain's first independent record producers.

When his landlords, who lived downstairs, felt that the noise was too much, they would indicate so with a broom on the ceiling. Joe would signal his contempt by placing loudspeakers in the stairwell and turning up the volume.

A privately manufactured "black plaque" (designed to ape the official blue plaque) has since been placed at the location of the studio to commemorate Meek's life and work.^[4]

Murder and suicide[link]

Meek was obsessed with the occult and the idea of "the other side". He would set up tape machines in graveyards in a vain attempt to record voices from beyond the grave, in one instance capturing the meows of a cat he claimed was speaking in human tones, asking for help. In particular, he had an obsession with Buddy Holly (claiming the late American rocker had communicated with him in dreams) and other dead rock and roll musicians.

His professional efforts were often hindered by his paranoia (Meek was convinced that Decca Records would put hidden microphones behind his wallpaper in order to steal his ideas), drug use and attacks of rage or depression. Upon receiving an apparently innocent phone call from Phil Spector, Meek immediately accused Spector of stealing his ideas before hanging up angrily.

Meek's homosexuality – illegal in the UK at the time – put him under further pressure; he had been convicted of "importuning for immoral purposes" in 1963 and fined £15: he was consequently subject to blackmail.^[5] In January 1967, police in Tattingstone, Suffolk, discovered a suitcase containing the mutilated body of Bernard Oliver. According to some accounts, Meek became concerned that he would be implicated in the murder investigation when the Metropolitan Police said they would be interviewing all known homosexual men in the city.

The hits had dried up and Meek's depression deepened as his financial position became increasingly desperate. French composer Jean Ledrut accused Joe Meek of plagiarism, claiming that the tune of "Telstar" had been copied from "La Marche d'Austerlitz", a piece from a score Ledrut had written for the 1960 film Austerlitz. This lawsuit meant Meek never received royalties from the record during his lifetime.

On 3 February 1967, the eighth anniversary of Buddy Holly's death, Meek killed his landlady Violet Shenton and then himself^[6] with a single barreled shotgun that he had confiscated from his protegé, former Tornados bassist and solo star Heinz Burt at his Holloway Road home/studio. Meek had flown into a rage and taken the gun from Burt when he informed Meek that he used it while on tour to shoot birds. Meek had kept the gun under his bed, along with some cartridges. As the shotgun had been registered to Burt, he was questioned intensively by police, before being eliminated from their enquiries.

Meek was subsequently buried at Cemetery lodge Newent, Gloucestershire. His black granite tombstone can be found near the middle of the cemetery.

The lawsuit against Meek was eventually ruled in Meek's favour three weeks after his death in 1967. It is unlikely that Meek was aware of Austerlitz, as it had been released only in France at the time.

Meek's legacy[link]

Despite not being able to play a musical instrument or write notation, Meek displayed a remarkable facility for writing and producing successful commercial recordings. In writing songs he was reliant on musicians such as Dave Adams, Geoff Goddard or Charles Blackwell to transcribe melodies from his vocal "demos". He worked on 245 singles, of which 45 were major hits (top fifty).

He pioneered studio tools such as multiple over-dubbing on one- and two-track machines, close miking, direct input of bass guitars, the compressor, and effects like echo and reverb, as well as sampling. Unlike other producers, his search was for the 'right' sound rather than for a catchy musical tune, and throughout his brief career he single-mindedly followed his quest to create a unique "sonic signature" for every record he produced.

At a time when many studio engineers were still wearing white coats and assiduously trying to maintain clarity and fidelity, Meek, the maverick, was producing everything on the three floors of his "home" studio and was never afraid to distort or manipulate the sound if it created the effect he was seeking.

Meek was one of the first producers to grasp and fully exploit the possibilities of the modern recording studio. His innovative techniques—physically separating instruments, treating instruments and voices with echo and reverb, processing the sound through his fabled home-made electronic devices, the combining of separately-recorded performances and segments into a painstakingly constructed composite recording—comprised a major breakthrough in sound production. Up to that time, the standard technique for pop, jazz and classical recordings alike was to record all the performers in one studio, playing together in real time, a legacy of the days before magnetic tape, when performances were literally cut live, directly onto disc.

Meek's style was also substantially different from that of his contemporary Phil Spector, who typically created his famous "Wall of sound" productions by making live recordings of large ensembles that used multiples of major instruments like bass, guitar and piano to create the complex sonic backgrounds for his singers.

In 1993, ex-Joe Meek session singer Ted Fletcher introduced a line of audio equipment named after Joe Meek, due to his influence in the early stages of audio compression. The name and product line were sold to the American company PMI Audio Group in 2003. This product line includes a microphone series called "Telstar", named after Joe Meek’s most famous work.^[7][8]

Meek's reputation for experiments in recording music was acknowledged by The Music Producers Guild who created The Joe Meek Award for Innovation in Production in 2009.^[9] MPG chairman Mike Howlett said the award was "paying homage to this remarkable producer’s pioneering spirit".^[9] The winner of the inaugural award in 2009 was producer and musician Brian Eno.^[9]

Artists Meek recorded[link]

He passed up the chance to work with the then unknown David Bowie, The Beatles (the latter he once described as "just another bunch of noise, copying other people's music") and Rod Stewart. John Repsch, in The Legendary Joe Meek recounts that upon hearing Stewart sing, Meek rushed into the studio, put his fingers in his ears and screamed until Stewart had left. He preferred to record instrumentals with the band he sang with – The Moontrekkers.

In 1963 Meek worked with a then-little-known singer Tom Jones, then the lead vocalist of Tommy Scott & The Senators. Meek recorded seven tracks with Jones and took them to various labels in an attempt to get a record deal, with no success. Two years later after Jones gained popularity with the worldwide hit It's Not Unusual in 1965, Meek was able to sell the tapes he'd recorded with Jones to Tower (USA) and Columbia (UK).^[10] Meek also recorded the following artists:

Robb Shenton, Screaming Lord Sutch and The Savages, The Tornados, The Honeycombs, The Syndicats, The Buzz, Mike Berry, The Outlaws, The Moontrekkers, Gene Vincent, Billy Fury, Deke Arlon and The Offbeats, David John and the Mood, John Leyton, Geoff Goddard, Petula Clark, Lonnie Donegan, Humphrey Lyttelton, Diana Dors, The Blue Men, Tom Jones, Tony Dangerfield and the Thrills, Heinz and The Wild Boys, Dave Adams, Joy and Dave, Chico Arnez, Jimmy Miller and the Barbecues, Mike Preston, Emile Ford and the Checkmates, Chris Williams and the Monsters, Lance Fortune, Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, Yolanda^{[disambiguation needed ]}, Big Jim Sullivan, Ricky Wayne and The Offbeats, George Chakiris, Michael Cox, Frankie Vaughan, Iain Gregory, Danny Rivers, Gerry Temple, Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, The Charles Blackwell Orchestra, Don Charles, The Stonehenge Men, Andy Cavell, The Dowlands, Houston Wells and the Marksmen, The Packabeats, Jenny Moss, Burr Bailey and the Six Shooters, The Checkmates, The Saints, The Cameos, Sounds Incorporated, The Puppets, The Beat Boys, Mike Sarne, The Ambassadors, Pamela Blue, Glenda Collins, The Sharades, Roger LaVern and the Microns, Gunilla Thorne, Kim Roberts, Billie Davis, Freddie Starr and the Midnighters, Shade Joey and the Night Owls, Flip and the Dateliners, Valerie Masters, Alan Dean and his Problems, The Blue Rondos, Peter Cook, Jess Conrad, The Saxons, The Shakeouts, Bobby Rio and the Revelles, Peter London, The Four Matadors, The Cryin' Shames, The Riot Squad, The Millionaires, The Impac, Shirley Bassey, Anne Shelton, Kenny Graham and the Satellites, Tommy Steele, Chris Barber, The Fabulous Flee-Rakkers, Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, Brian White & The Magna Jazz Band, The Ferridays (Scorpions), Ray Dexter and The Layabouts, Neil Christian, Kenny Hollywood, Jamie Lee and The Atlantics, Toby Ventura, Wes Sands, The Thunderbolts, Silas Dooley Jr., Bobby Cristo and The Rebels, Malcolm and The Countdowns, The Diamond Twins, The Hotrods, Charles Kingsley Creation, Danny's Passion, The Classics, The Manish Boys, Pete, Chris and The Outcasts, Simplicity Pattern, and Joe Meek himself.

Unreleased recordings aka the Tea Chest Tapes[link]

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.^[11] 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.^[12]

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!.^[13]

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

Tributes and references[link]

Songs[link]

• Franco-English pop singer-songwriter MeeK chose his stage name as a homage to the British producer.
• British punk Wreckless Eric recounts Meek's biography and recreates some of his studio effects in his song "Joe Meek" from the album Donovan of Trash.^[14]
• According to some, the song "Green Door" alludes to Meek. "When I said, 'Joe sent me,' someone laughed out loud behind the green door".^[15]
• The Marked Men, a Texas punk band, have a song titled "Someday" with lyric: "Joe Meek wanted all the world to know about the news he found."
• The Frank Black song "White Noise Maker" deals with Meek's suicide by shotgun, the white noise maker of the title. "It's been so long since my Telstar."
• The Bleeder Group, a Danish alternative rock group recorded a song on their second album Sunrise, called "Joe Meek Shall Inherit The Earth"
• Matmos, an Electronic duo, have a song on their 2006 album The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of the Beast called "Solo Buttons for Joe Meek".
• Pluto Monkey, British left field artist, released a three track CD single on Shifty Disco featuring the tracks "Joe Meek" and "Meeksville Sound Is Dead"
• Swing Out Sister include a short instrumental named "Joe Meek's Cat" on their 1994 album Shapes and Patterns, inspired by Joe's 1966 ghost-hunting expeditions to Warley Lea Farm during which he allegedly captured recordings of a talking cat channeling the spirit of a former landowner who committed suicide at the farm
• Graham Parker's 1992 album Burning Questions includes the cryptic "Just Like Joe Meek's Blues"
• Sheryl Crow claimed that her song "A Change Would Do You Good" was inspired by an article she read about Joe Meek
• Jonathan King recorded a song about Meek called "He Stood In The Bath He Stamped On The Floor".^[16]
• Johnny Stage, Danish producer and guitarist released an album in tribute of Meek, entitled The Lady with the Crying Eyes featuring various Danish artists, on 3 February 2007(www.myspace.com/joemeektribute
• Dave Stewart (the keyboardist) and Barbara Gaskin recorded the song "Your Lucky Star" dealing with the life and death of Joe Meek, released on the 1991 album "Spin".
• Dave Stewart also recorded a version of Joe Meek’s "Telstar" hit on the occasion of its 40th anniversary in 2002. This was later released on the Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin 2009 mini-album “Hour Moon”. The album also features the duo’s previously released Meek tribute "Your Lucky Star" from their 1991 album "Spin".
• The Spanish label Spicnic released in 2001 a tribute CD, "Oigo un nuevo no mundo. Homenaje a Joe Meek", featuring various Spanish bands.^[17]
• Trey Spruance from the band Mr. Bungle has stated that the 10 part song/instrumental "The Bends" from their album Disco Volante is inspired by Joe Meek's music. Specifically "I Hear a New World".
• Thomas Truax regularly performed his Meek tribute "Joe Meek Warns Buddy Holly" on his 2008 tours, a song apparently about Meek's supposed warning via spirit-writing predicting Buddy Holly's death. A single and accompanying video was scheduled for release on 3 February 2009, the 50th anniversary of Holly's demise, also the date of Meek's suicide.
• Robb Shenton released /*Lonely Joe*/ as a tribute to the legendary producer on 28 October 2008. Robb was one of Joe's artists and was with five Meek bands between 1963 and early 1966: The Bobcats, David John and the Mood, The Prestons, The Nashpool and Flip and the Dateliners. He also sang backing vocals with many others.
• 'Meet Joe Meek' sometimes known as 'Just like Joe Meek' by the Babysitars sampled the BBC2 Arena documentary on Joe Meek and their composition 'Crazyhead' said to be inspired by Joe Meek himself.

[edit] Telstar: The Joe Meek Story – play and film

Telstar: The Joe Meek Story, a stage play by Nick Moran and James Hicks which premiered in 2005, is a dramatisation of Joe Meek's life and starred Con O'Neill as Meek and Linda Robson as his landlady.^[18] It was also made into a film, released in the UK in June 2009, directed by Nick Moran starring Kevin Spacey, Ralf Little and Pam Ferris with O'Neill reprising his stage role.^[19][20]

Documentary film[link]

• A Life in the Death of Joe Meek, an independent American documentary,^[21] by Howard S. Berger and Susan Stahman.

The production includes over 60 interviews with Meek's family, close friends, associates, musicians and pop culture movers and shakers.

• The Very Strange Story of the Legendary Joe Meek A 1991 UK TV documentary from BBC TV's Arena series.^[22]

Radio play[link]

In March 1994, BBC Radio 4 broadcast Lonely Joe, a radio play based on the life of Joe Meek, written by Janey Praeger and Peter Kavanagh.

Literatur[link]

• John Repsch: The Legendary Joe Meek (UK; 1989, Jul 2003) ISBN 1-901447-20-0
• Barry Cleveland: Creative Music Production – Joe Meek's BOLD Techniques (USA; Jul 2001) ISBN 1-931140-08-1
• Nick Moran with James Hicks: "Telstar – The Joe Meek Story", (UK, Oberon Books 1/2007) ISBN 978-1-84002-588-0^[23]
• The penultimate chapter of Alan Moore's spoken word piece "The Highbury Working" concerns Joe Meek's last moments.

References[link]