Tom Jones International

Two lots that are part of the life history of Tom Jones will be auctioned in London — and live on eBay — on Thursday, September 4 starting at 5 p.m., GMT. (9 a.m. PDT, noon EDT).

Tom’s very own antique billiard table is up first and, then, the entire collection of Joe Meek master tapes, including the first recordings Tom ever did in London. Thus, you should have Little Lonely One and Chills and Fever among them. New to London and the ways of the world at the time, Tom ran from Meek who, as time went on, became more and more erratic. He committed suicide at age 40 in 1969 after murdering his landlady. Meek’s big hit, for himself, was a 1962 instrumental called Telstar (named after — boys and girls — an AT&T satellite as, at the time, a real, honest-to-goodness orbiting satellite was an amazement to behold. Seriously, the Meek tapes contain some amazing firsts and, if you have half-a-million dollars or so lying around, you should bid.

Lot 79/Tom Jones Billiard Table

Tom Jones Billiard Table A superb quality English Billiard Table of Full Size made c1880 by the firm of ‘Burroughes & Watts, London in the ‘Sheraton Revival’ style of the time. Of finest quality mahogany throughout and complete with the original matching scoreboard/cupboard. Totally original construction with the original slate bed, but now fully restored to a fabulous standard to show this wonderful matching suite off to its best advantage, and supplied with a full complement of accessories of equal quality. This table was owned by the singer Tom Jones from 1967 to 1974 when he lived in the St. Georges Hill Estate, Weybridge, Surrey, England and comes complete with an original “She’s A Lady” record sleeve from 1971 showing Tom posing alongside the table with the scoreboard/cupboard in the background.




Estimate: GBP50,000-75,000 USD100,000-150,000

You can see it and bid live on eBay Live Auctions.





Lot 94/Joe Meek Archive

The entire collection of Joe Meek’s personal master tape recordings, comprising of approximately 1850 tapes containing some of the the earliest, and in some cases, first recordings of major stars.

Each reel of tape contains a number of tracks and so total track recordings are approximately 5000. Joe Meek became one of the true pioneers of British recording history in the fifties and sixties by challenging the established recording industry with his experimental and eccentric techniques, some of which are now standard within the profession.

Born in 1929, he was fascinated by electronics and after serving in the Royal air force as a radar technician Meek set up a recording career as an engineer for Lansdowne Recording studios, recording the likes of Anne Shelton amongst others including many of the UK’s top Jazz musicians, using his own distinctive techniques. Meek subsequently created his own studio in his flat above a leather shop in Holloway Road London. It was at this flat that nearly all the collection of tapes were made, much of it on equipment that Meek himself had invented.

He achieved much sought after acclaim in 1962 with an Ivor Novello award for his self composed hit ‘Telstar’ named as the best selling A-side of 1962. It also became the first UK single to go to number 1 in the US charts. Joe Meek set about building a stable of young performers and would sign the acts himself and then lease the recordings to the major record companies, an unorthodox method at the time but this was fuelled by Meek’s paranoia that the record industry was both spying on him and stealing ideas from him. He soon ran into money problems and with a contested copyright action against ‘Telstar’ all royalties were put on hold. With the Tornados now disbanded an increasingly unstable Meek tried to put together a new band and drafted in Mitch Mitchell (later of Jimi Hendrix experience) to play the drums, Mitch’s wild playing did not go down well with Meek and after repeated warnings Meek eventually picked up a shotgun, put it to Mitchell’s head and said “ If you don’t do it properly I’ll blow your f****g head off’.

Meek’s erratic behaviour and constant money worries sadly culminated in a fatal row over non payment of rent with his landlady, resulting in both their deaths on February 3rd 1967.

The recordings included in the sale contain such British stars as 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’. The entire collection is a unique piece of British Recording History.




Estimate: GBP250,000-300,000 USD500,000-600,000




You can see it and bid live on eBay Live Auctions. (To access this auction, you must first register.)