Lentune Probus Ladies Club met today at South Lawn Hotel and after coffee, biscuits and a chat we settled down to listen to Jaqueline and Brian Sutton. They started with a nostalgic set of music from the 50s and then told us the fascinating and eventually sad tale of Joe Meek, a record producer of the 50s and 60s. 

We heard snatches of Teenager in Love, Hippy Hippy Shakes and Seven Little Girls Hugging and Kissing with Fred plus photos of Nobby Stiles, conkers, Babysham, and Elvis which put us in the right era!

Joe was born in 1929. He spent his time in the garden shed with a wind-up gramophone, He worked in Curries, did electrical repairs and was then called up to the RAF and became a radar technician. Returning to London he was a sound engineer working with Petula Clarke, Harry Seccombe, the Black and White Minstrels and Humphrey Littleton. Joe’s skill lay in tweaking equipment in unconventional ways to achieve the sound he wanted. Gravel in a biscuit tin became marching soldiers for Anne Shelton’s Lay Down Your Arms. 

Joe Meek moved into a flat at 304 Holloway Road, above Violet Shenton’s handbag and leather shop. Then came music from the Everley Brothers, Adam Faith, Tommy Steele and Lonnie Donegan. 

We moved on to Soho, coffee bars and The Outlaws who became the Tornadoes. Joe Meek by now was very successful and had good equipment to work with. Yet he still used glass marbles dropped into a toilet pan and a gate spring in a metal box in his sound effects. In the well-known song Telstar, the sound of a flushing toilet became the rocket launch 

Sadly, Joe was now addicted to amphetamines and other drugs and was finally outed as gay when it was still illegal. A happier time came when Joe fell in love with Heinz Burt. A scandal came in 1967 when Bernard Oliver, a rent boy, disappeared. His mutilated body was found in two suitcases and Joe was interviewed about his murder at the time. In 2017 a cold case review named Joe Meek as a suspect. 

On 3 February 1967 Violet Shenton, Joe’s landlady at 304 Holloway Road, was asked to come up to the flat. There was shouting and a loud bang, and Violet fell down the stairs shot by Joe. He then turned the gun on himself 

The Ladies Probus had enjoyed the talk and loved hearing the nostalgic music and seeing the photos. Following the talk, the ladies left the room humming their favourites and then enjoyed a good lunch and chat with other members.