By Arwa HaiderFeatures correspondent
AlamyAn independent record label is releasing previously unheard tracks by David Bowie and Marc Bolan – all produced by Joe Meek, writes Arwa Haider.
"Lost tapes" are the ultimate mystery prize in the music world. There's a near-mystical power to the prospect of uncovering unheard tracks or early demos by musical heroes, and even a fascination in the format itself. Before digital recording became standard in the 1990s, artists would rely on relatively bulky (and expensive) analogue tape; the irreplaceable "master tape" would be the definitive version, from which all copies were derived.
More like this:
- The mystery of a 'lost' rock genius
- Pop stars' most extreme makeovers
- America's first black superstars
Lost tapes might emerge in various guises across countless genres: as unofficial rough-cut bootlegs or carefully curated collections from hours of forgotten recordings. They might have been literally salvaged from the trash – as with the Louis Armstrong & His All Stars master reels almost scrapped in a Columbia Records clear-out (but rescued by reissues producer Michael Brooks in 1980), or a clutch of (still unreleased) tapes by Factory label acts including Joy Division, saved from a skip outside Stockport's seminal (now defunct) Strawberry Studios.
Still, few lost tape hauls evince the vastness and intrigue of late English producer Joe Meek's Tea Chest Tapes: 67 crates containing nearly 2000 reels of previously unheard tracks by 1960s acts including David Bowie's first band The Konrads, Tom Jones, Ray Davies, Billy Fury, Gene Vincent, Georgie Fame, youthful singer-songwriter Mark Feld (later to become glam rock idol Marc Bolan), Rod Stewart, Jimmy Page, John Leyton, The Tornados (whose 1962 global smash hit Telstar, written and produced by Meek, summoned the space age), and an early incarnation of British rockers Status Quo, to name a few. Following Meek's 1967 suicide, the Tea Chest Tapes were bought and carefully stored by young musician/businessman Cliff Cooper (whose band The Millionaires had been produced by Meek); a few months ago, the tapes were acquired by much-loved independent label Cherry Red Records.
AlamyThe 1962 instrumental Telstar, written and produced by Meek, was a global hit (Credit: Alamy)"This cult netherworld of mythical Tea Chest Tapes had been talked about in hushed tones for decades," says Cherry Red's Catalogue Director and former Record Collector magazine journalist John Reed. "Cliff kept these things for half a century, and now our job is to go through them methodically, and work out how we bring them blinking into the light."
Meek himself was an undeniably controversial and volatile figure, occasionally likened to US producer and murderer Phil Spector (who Meek reportedly regarded as a foe). His life was complex, unnerving and ultimately brutal; his serious mental health issues were worsened by debt and the threat of persecution for being gay (homosexual acts were then still illegal in the UK). He killed himself at his flat/studio on London's Holloway Road in February 1967, after fatally shooting his landlady, Violet Shenton.
It was a tragic ending – yet there's no denying Meek's wildly innovative experiments in music. His productions are unmistakably distinctive: intensely bright, haunting, somehow otherworldly pop, they're also influential across generations, making the Tea Chest Tapes a significant find.
Bristol-based musician-producer and lifelong Meek music devotee Alan Wilson is overseeing the mastering and digitisation of the tapes at his Western Star studio: "From a technical point of view, if you were to put Joe Meek's studio alongside his big label contemporaries like EMI or PYE, they all had palatial buildings and multi-track facilities. Joe didn't have that, so he kind of invented his own way of doing things, using two different tape recorders, bouncing sounds off one on to the other, and cobbling things together. He was the shoestring budget end of the music industry, yet he would [create] million-selling records from his living room."
AlamyAs well as a producer, Meek was a pioneer of sound recording technology (Credit: Alamy)When I catch up with Cooper, he's soft-spoken and amiable, as well as a hugely astute businessman (whose enterprises include founding iconic amp company Orange in 1968). He vividly recalls Meek's studio ingenuity: "He used to bang Coca-Cola bottles together, or stamp on the ground to create recording effects. On The Millionaires' single Wishing Well, he got our guitarist to play behind the bridge of the instrument, which is how we got a 'harp' sound. He had a Leslie rotary speaker (with a tweeter which would spin around at the top) in his bedroom, with leads coming down to his studio." According to Barry Cleveland’s book Joe Meek’s Bold Techniques, Meek was the first UK producer to deploy overdubbing, compression, spring reverb, flange, and tape loops to studio recordings.
Cooper had initially aimed to buy some of Meek's recording equipment from his posthumous estate. Instead, he was allowed to purchase the Tea Chest Tapes, with the solicitor's proviso that they were for studying Meek's production, and that ownership could become a "litigation nightmare" if the tapes were released due to contractual obligations.
There were so many famous recordings, and so many unreleased tracks by now known artists, that I felt it important to keep the tapes in a collection, and not to break it up – Cliff Cooper
"I soon realised that I was the custodian of this incredible collection, but that I could not do anything with them, other than to play and learn Joe's genius techniques," says Cooper. "The responsibility also fell on me to store them in dry and temperate conditions, so that the tapes would not deteriorate. There were so many famous recordings, and so many unreleased tracks by now known artists, that I felt it important to keep the tapes in a collection, and not to break it up."
For decades, the tapes were preserved wherever Cooper was based. In the mid-1980s, an attempted catalogue of contents was made by the former president of the Joe Meek Appreciation Society. In 2008, Cooper placed the tapes in a rock memorabilia auction, but then vacillated, fearing that they'd be bought by a company who would merely capitalise on the most famous tracks, and bury the rest. "I increased the reserve price," he admits. "There were lots of 'zeros' on the end. I was relieved when they didn't sell."
Handled with care
It does sound like the tapes have now found the ideal home. Cherry Red Records (which has also previously issued Meek's 1959 sci-fi concept album I Hear a New World) are now handling their restoration both with precision and as a labour of love. That's reflected in Wilson's ardent fandom and tech expertise, even as he explains that he initially approached the project with trepidation. "If someone had just put these tapes into a lock-up garage, they would have been a pile of dust by now," he says. "But when I played the first sample, I was absolutely overjoyed with the quality. When Cliff made the deal with Cherry Red, they sent 2500kg of tapes down on a lorry. We've now got them stored in a very secure, temperature-controlled location, and I'm working through them at a rate of about 100 tapes a month; I'm about 600 reels in." Wilson estimates that this process will take two years, adding: "I think my whole life has been an apprenticeship leading up to this job. I've known about the existence of these tapes for years, but never thought I'd touch them."
Do lost tapes have a heightened allure in a digital era where we take it for granted that seemingly infinite music is instantly accessible?
Do lost tapes have a heightened allure in a digital era where we take it for granted that seemingly infinite music is instantly accessible – and "hidden tracks" are obviously trickier to conceal? We can often develop insatiable appetites for sounds by our favourite acts, whether it's unearthed gems, alternative takes, or even studio chat that would be "bladed" off a conventional release. And even now, there are reminders that classic music can be both timeless and ephemeral; a 2008 fire in a Hollywood warehouse owned by Universal Music Group destroyed master tapes from the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Buddy Holly, Loretta Lynn, Quincy Jones, Janet Jackson, Eminem and many more, and was reported in The New York Times as "The Day the Music Burned".
Back at Western Star, Wilson's meticulous detail has spanned analysing handwritten notes to really distilling the essence of the Tea Chest Tapes themselves. "Joe Meek started out with mono recorders, and at some point ended up with stereo," he explains. "Picture a piece of tape, a quarter of an inch wide. When you record in mono, the track sits across the full width of that tape (in the trade, we call it 'full-width mono'). If you then take that full-width mono pre-recorded tape, and tape over it using a stereo machine, well, stereo records in two tracks, a left and a right, within that quarter of an inch – but it leaves a little gap down the middle, like a central reservation, so that the left and right don't merge."
Knowing that cash-strapped Meek would have re-used tapes, Wilson decided to isolate this "little gap" on the tape – and sure enough, discovered further music concealed within. "I could hear a different track – I was listening to what was beneath the Tea Chest Tapes," he says, happily. "It could well result in another thousand tracks that no one knew was on there."
It will be some time before we fully discover what the Tea Chest Tapes contain (updates can be heard via Cherry Red's online shows), but that, as Reed points out, is part of their tangible spell: "It's like a proper treasure hunt, where you have to search everywhere, and you really don't know what's there…" Lost tapes are a part of history; the promise of a new world; a glimpse of ghosts in the pop machine.
If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.
BBC in other languagesInnovation
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o67CZ5qopV%2BYwq3A1KucaJmiqbakuMRoaWlqYWWCc4SMrZ%2BeZZSewKS71Z6psmWfm3quxdOhoJyZnGK5sL%2FTZquaqJWo