Joe Meek’s Tea Chest Tapes

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Cherry Red Records have acquired legendary producer Joe Meek’s ‘Tea Chest Tapes’ – a near mythical collection of almost 2,000 reels that contain a vast amount of the producer’s work.

In the early 60s, Meek had a string of UK No 1s, including Telstar, which was the first song by a British artist to top the US charts. Meek pioneered numerous recording techniques in his studio flat (304 Holloway Road in North London). Following Meek’s death in 1967 the tapes passed on to Cliff Cooper, who worked with the producer when playing bass with the Millionaires and went on to found Orange Amplification.

The fabled quarter-inch tapes got their name because they were contained and sold in 67 tea chests. Amongst the recordings are previously unheard songs by David Bowie’s first band The Konrads, recordings by Billy Fury, several songs by Tom Jones, and unheard material from The Honeycombs, Heinz and John Leyton (who had a UK No 1 with Meek). Also included are mastered recordings of Mike Berry, Glenda Collins, Michael Cox, The Cryin' Shames, The Outlaws, Screaming Lord Sutch and The Tornados - recordings which have languished in the vaults for five decades and should finally now see the light of day.

Further the tea chests contain demo recordings of (among others) Ray Davies, (who wrote some songs for The Honeycombs), Georgie Fame, Jonathan King, Alvin Lee, Gene Vincent, Rod Stewart, Steve Marriott and an early line-up of the band who became Status Quo. Finally it is said that there is also a demo tape of a certain Mark Feld, who later found fame under the name Marc Bolan with his band T. Rex.

Cherry Red plan to work closely with Alan Wilson at Western Star on the tape digitization and mastering side, as well as Pete Rochford and the Joe Meek Society to bring these amazing sounds to an audience who have been waiting patiently for many years.

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We owe so much to unknown fans and archivists who preserve older material while the rest of us just get on with our lives. The hoarders, the collect-aholics and yardsale junkies all matter so much, even though others don’t appreciate their efforts.

internationalicon
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It's an amazing thing that these tapes survived and weren't destroyed way back when. It's wonderful that they have found the absolutely correct home and the mass of Joe Meek fans will one day be fortunate to hear them, it's a great feeling to have that specific anticipation

GhostOfATotalStranger
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Brilliant news! This will be a huge RGM box set when it comes out and as a big Joe Meek fan, I will be one of the first in line to buy it 😎👍

Tordyboy
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Brilliant.... Joe Meek truly was the beginning inspiration to much in our musical history - a very different person of his time who encouraged and introduced so many of UK's early stars. JoeMeek was my late friend Sir Dr Alan Clemens friend & Alan told me much of those days. Some recorded prior to Alans death esp of how he had to watch the Decca Man from spying on Joe's inventions etc.We were lucky to have lived through these times, the beginning far more inspirational than these days I feel especially in my musical times. Thank you so much for posting

OAKuk
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Amazing! Look forward to hearing these.

Ozmulki
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My old mate Dennis D'Ell (Dalziel) RIP - former front man with The Honeycombs, used to recount the stories of recording in Joe Meek's place in Holloway Road . . . Fascinating stuff !
Good luck with this project . . .

picknick
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What a lovely bloke Cliff Cooper seems!

urasam
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Brilliant news indeed. I'm looking forward to hearing some of that wonderful archive material

karlbarlow
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Really brilliant stuff. I'm a big Joe Meek fan and I have featured him several times in my daily Facebook music blog.

Joefigueiredo
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What a treasure trove 😍Cliff (Mr Orange 🍊 and the premier music industry landlord 🤭) really deserves a medal 🎖 for keeping this wonderful archive in such good condition.

cyclesgoff
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Fascinating stuff! Wonderful to see Cliff Cooper talk at length and a far remove from when he was regularly accosted by well-meaning folks who didn't know what was going on behind the scenes trying to persuade him to give up the tapes.
One note of caution I'd place here. The thought that ALL old tapes need baked is somewhat wide of the mark. The old EMITAPE, BASF etc. compounds are very stable and do not suffer from sticky shed. That was a problem that arose later with Ampex, Zonal etc. more in the '70s/'80s era. I don't know about the Russian tape, but given the age of it I'd suspect it may well be stable too. My cautious feeling here is that baking some of these will be most likely to dry out the splices on them (I'm sure there'll be many!), rather than improve their stability.
Another thought: perhaps Alan Wilson's comment about Dolby use on old tapes was a general one, but Joe Meek had no Dolby noise reduction equipment in his kit at Holloway Road, so he won't be needing to align for that!

johncavanagh
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Fantastic, if one thing this interview proves what a sham the film of Moran’s is and how it portrayed Joe.

christopherth
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This is amazing! Being in my mid 50's and a Ted in my youth. Lv Joe's work 👍🏻

PerAnkh
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I believe they're rumoured to be Stereo versions of many of Meek's tracks tucked away on these tapes. It would be wonderful to hear these eventually, even if they're incomplete or missing overdubs, I just love hearing how his recordings come together.

goodiesguy
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Wow....amazing re-discovery!!! I hope that the tapes for "I Hear A New World" still exist!

kelhard
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Being someone who has been hugely influenced by 1960's & 70's culture since a child of the 80's and having a fascination for record players and music of the eras, and although i bought the many 45rpm singles that were produced by joe meek in the 90's without knowing who he really was for years unti fairly recently.
I was highly surprised how joe had very closely the same interests as myself.

This is incredible that these unknown joe meek recordings have been well looked after and kept safely in storage.
I really cannot wait to hear so much more of joes history.
How fascinating. Very well done to you cliff for saving some of our music history heritage.
I think it would be a good idea to release some of these recordings the way joe would of liked onto gramophone records!🙂

Psychedelicxylophone
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Brilliant news, Thanks to all and Cliff too,

dave
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Well done on the purchase Mr. Cherry Red, now the wait for the releases....

davidheafield
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The best news I've read in this entire really shite year..
But please sell any resulting Box Sets and CDs as affordable
budget price releases.

garycrant
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Not often a treasure trove like this comes to light. I look forward to the next update.

lumpyfishgravy