Happy Birthday you old scoundrel!

JK, do you know any stories about the cooperation between Stigwood and Joe Meek? According to Napier-Bell, Stigwood used to sell the productions of Meek to EMI.

Yes indeed and, if I remember correctly, Stigma went bankrupt twice before finding the Bee Gees.

It was Simon N-B I was e-mailing when I spotted Stigma's birthday.

I believe it was Stigwood who first approached Joe Meek in 1960 with two of his clients, Iain Gregory and John Leyton. Both were actors who Stigwood believed were good looking enough to warrant them making records for extra promotion. In the case of Gregory, he couldn't sing but Meek did 3 singles with him, one of which amazingly became a hit.

John Leyton had to wait a while longer before Geoff Goddard came along with "Johnny Remember Me" which Stigwood then had Leyton perform in the "Harpers West One" TV show.

Stigwood certainly had the right idea about TV and disc promotion and deserves much credit for it. Unfortunately he and Meek fell out when it was believed the Leyton singles were getting over the top so Stigwood took over the productions and also poached Mike Berry from Meeks' books, an act that Meek never forgave Stigwood for. But nevertheless, that was how the RSO empire started.

So EMI used independent / outside producers before Decca?

DJones wrote:
So EMI used independent / outside producers before Decca?

Not necessarily. Before he went independent with Triumph Records followed by RGM Sound, Meek worked for Lansdowne Studios who would record acts that they would lease out to EMI, Decca or Pye. For instance I have a 1958 EP by Otillie Patterson which Meek engineered that boasts the credit that it was a Lansdowne recording and that was leased to EMI. At that time independent productions and leasing deals were the rare exceptions since the major labels preferred having records made and cut in their own studios. Andrew Oldham knew of this and made certain The Rolling Stones never recorded at Decca Studios because had they done so, Decca would had owned the tapes. Thats why the early Stones material was of variable quality recording wise.

By 1960, Meek could choose from EMI, Decca, Pye, Philips and Top Rank. Top Rank was at that point independent but was bought out in 1961 by EMI. Top Rank and Pye were Meeks main customers in his first year on his own. Decca and EMI began accepting his masters, but it appears he never licensed to Philips. In 1964, Meek had a bust up with Decca so took great glee in switching The Tornados and Heinz to EMI so after that Decca only got The Cryin' Shames in 1966.

By 1966, Pye and EMI were Meeks main takers and CBS took a handful as well having formed a British branch in 1965.

So Joe Meek was not the first to lease independent productions but he effectively helped pioneer it since after 1960 he was working pretty much on his own. Coming back to Robert Stigwood, Meek would make the records and Stigwood would promote the product. There was conflict on that front. It was partly why The Tornados never really followed up "Telstar" with big hits because they were tied up with Larry Parnes. The Tornados had offers to go to America but Parnes wanted them to take Billy Fury and the Americans weren't interested in Firy so it was a stalemate situation. That caused a major falling out between Meek and Parnes!

nm