ROCKFIELD: THE STUDIO ON THE FARM | WE’VE BEEN WATCHING
The decision to turn a farmhouse in the Welsh countryside into the world’s first residential recording studio, kitted out with high-end equipment but using pigfeed bags for sound insulation, was always going to be either an inspired, visionary move or an act of harebrained and financially ruinous folly. Thankfully for rock‘n’roll-obsessed dairy farmers Charles and Kingsley Ward, Rockfield turned out to be the former – as Hannah Berryman’s recent BBC documentary underlines.
It certainly helped that Black Sabbath, Hawkwind and Led Zeppelin were among their earliest guests, and that Queen recorded Bohemian Rhapsody there in 1975. For Ozzy Osbourne, the experience was a revelation, not least because he’d never seen a cow in a field before. The studio’s unlikely setting soon became its unique selling point for labels eager to distance their artists from the distractions of the city.
However, the results haven’t always been successful – the turgid, self-indulgent stodginess of the Stone Roses’ Second Coming, for instance, can be attributed at least in part to the fact that the band spent almost an entire year working on it at Rockfield. What’s more, some visitors have still been able to sniff out mischief in the sticks: Liam Gallagher in nearby Monmouth’s many hostelries, a supposedly on-the-wagon Iggy Pop [pictured] in the company of his definitely off-the-wagon fellow residents Simple Minds.
Indeed, the intensity of living and working on site (Liam: “It’s like the Big Brother house, innit, just with tunes”) can foster a cabin fever that manifests itself in the form of men-behaving-badly antics. It’s also an environment that panders to overgrown toddlers, with meals provided and cleaners on hand to tidy up the mess and neatly rearrange the drugs. Little wonder that it’s been many a rock star’s dream.
Berryman elicits some memorable anecdotes from her interviewees: Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr recalls David Bowie gatecrashing the studio dressed all in red and wielding a block of cheese; Liam describes commandeering a combine harvester to visit Ian Brown and later, during the sessions for (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, recording in haste so as to be able to take maximum advantage of two-for-one drinks offers down the pub. And there is general agreement that Rockfield has a special kind of magic that makes it “some sort of musical Hogwarts” (to use Chris Martin’s phrase).
Responsibility for Coldplay’s Yellow (“Look at the stars / Look how they shine for you”) might lie with Rockfield – or at least the clear night sky above – but the studio also has countless classic records to its name. Guaranteed to delight your average Mojo reader, the film serves as a fitting tribute to the idealism and spirit of a pair of enthusiastic amateurs who made it up as they went along.
words BEN WOOLHEAD photo HARMONY KORINE
