[deep breath] Rockfield films, Ozzy, AB, camera, marker.

[rock music] [woman talking in background] Oh, f**k off.

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ We do this.

Yeah, I can't remember a f*****g thing, to be fair.

[man] Recording.

A one, two, three, four... [music starts] ♪ If you're lost and You can't see a thing ♪ [narrator] A pop group, on their way to a recording session.

Heading not for the stifling pressures of a London or a New York studio, but to the peace of the Welsh hills near Monmouth.

Kingsley and Charles Ward are farmers who've gone into the pop business.

Converting the out buildings of their farm into one of Europe's best equipped recording centres.

[record scratch] Before we start.

Are you gonna ask, like, "How did I personally get into the music business?"

"What influenced me."

Or are you gonna start when Charles and I got the band together?

It's two different starting points.

It's me when I went to school, got into rock and roll.

And it's three years later, I left school, I'm 17.

And that's when Charles and I start to go around together and get a band going.

You study the way, see?

[interviewer] So where does it start?

Well it starts... it starts when we got to play Chopin.

On this piano.

On this very piano.

[Kingsley] We come from a family of farmers, you see.

So we're used to cows and things.

We bought this farm in 1958.

My parents bought it.

And it was a stead farm for shy horses.

And we converted it into, sort of, massive piggeries and things.

And we had a milking herd as well.

So we were basically farmers.

There's no money in farming, there never was.

We never made money out of it.

[Kingsley] And my parents obviously thought we'd end up taking it over.

But in reality... we weren't having any of that.

[laughs] I just could not believe when I heard... Elvis Presley Heartbreak Hotel and all that stuff coming out.

I was, only ever had grammar school at the time.

And we were sort of into music.

And that's what changed me, really.

[Charles] But when the rock...

When Rock Around the Clock came to Monmouth... ♪ One, two, three o'clock, Four o'clock rock ♪ That's how everything in my life changed.

In 1956, I bought myself an acoustic guitar.

I learned a few chords, three finger chords.

And this sort of thing.

And gradually came into playing the guitar that way.

Rock and roll, man.

Cool.

Eh?

[Kingsley] Charles and I are obviously brothers, you know.

And we started a group.

We bought this little tape machine.

And Charles strummed his little songs out.

Which were good.

Good little songs.

And that was our first little venture in recording something.

In my mum's front room.

We were already very ambitious.

Course, we didn't know what to do now.

So we're looking at the record label, it said, E.M.I Records, Hayes, Middlesex.

So off we trooped, with our little tape machine.

When we arrived there, it was the wrong place all together.

It was the E.M.I's pressing factory.

But the gentleman who manned the barrier to the factory...

He said, "I'm here to get rid of people like you."

He said to us, "You should've gone to Manchester Square.

Where the main music company is."

And he very kindly rang up the doorman over there for us.

And said we're coming over.

So we go to Manchester Square.

Out we get with our tape machine.

There's the doorman.

There's the secretary.

And eventually we went in and we saw George Martin.

We said, "You've got to hear it on this tape recorder."

[Charles] We're on hands and knees under this table.

I don't know what sort of plug we had in there, but we couldn't get the bloody plug in the... in the thing there.

[Kingsley] I think he was fascinated with us.

Because this is the first time ever somebody had walked into his office carrying a tape machine.

It's like booking the greatest restaurant in the world, and taking their own sandwiches.

[interviewer] But he didn't sign you?

[Charles] Well, no.

He didn't.

And I left my cup of coffee there too.

I never touched it.

[Charles] But that's where it clicked to us.

That if we got some equipment, with all the space we had, we could do something with it all.

[light music] Upstairs is the attic.

Where we built our first recording studio.

So, it's a right mess up here.

[Kingsley] In those days, you must remember, that there were no commercial studios outside the major ones.

Which is RCA, EMI, Decker.

Philips, they had their studios.

But there is nowhere to record... anywhere.

So, the best thing to do is do it yourself.

Oh, my God.

Now, typical farmers.

When we first built this studio, we knew nothing about acoustic material.

So we actually got a load of what was feed bags for pigs.

BOCM label.

And we used those, stuffed in the wall.

To get a separation from the control room to the drum room.

[click] [Kingsley] We bought a little mixer.

We bought a little Ferrograph tape machine.

Had some microphones.

And that's where we learned how to record pop.

With our own group, the Charles Kingsley Combo, and many other local little Welsh bands.

[songs blending together] Musical bands would be recording and we would charge them five or ten pound to make a tape.

Near the building, we had 500 pigs, can you believe it?

[Kingsley] Up in the attic is miles away from the farm, so you couldn't hear anything of the animals.

So that was fine.

[cheery music] [Kingsley] May I introduce you to Ann?

A picture of loveliness if ever I've seen it.

I first met her when she was 17.

She was older than me.

And I couldn't believe my good luck, because I never had a girlfriend in my life before.

[Kingsley] And Ann turned up and I was so happy.

-Her father wasn't, but I was.

-[Ann laughs] It's just that you came from the one side of town, and I was from the other side of town.

She's from the posh side of town.

And I was from the other side of the tracks.

That's what you're trying to say.

Well, you were a farmer, weren't you?

Ann was a bank clerk, right?

Which is very handy to us.

Because she did the accounts.

[laughs] And she could type and do all that.

[light, cheery music] [Lisa] The main farm house, where my parents now live, that was my grandparents' house.

And in the farmhouse, there's a flat.

So we lived in the flat.

Our... our sitting room doubled up as the office.

But also, it doubled up as the place where the bands would come and have tea and coffee.

Lisa and Amanda, they knew how to operate the telephones.

[Lisa] The band member would phone us in the office.

Whoever was there, myself, my sister or whatever, would answer the phone.

And they'd be quite often quite shocked.

"You know, can you..." "Yes, tell us the number, we know what to do."

[interviewer] How old were you doing this?

I was probably only five or six.

All of my childhood memories is sort of linked up with being here and bands.

And some of them lived with us.

[upbeat music] Spring were a band from Leicester originally.

They were living... in nan's front bedroom, but... living with us and eating with us.

So I'd have these five lads... and Lisa and Amanda.

And the only quiet time I had was at a quarter to two.

When Trumpton came on, the boys would be sat there and the girls on the floor.

All watching Trumpton.

[TV person] Here is the clock, the Trumpton clock.

Telling the time steadily, sensibly.

They stayed with us for... quite a few years, I can't remember how long now.

And that is when Rockfield became the world's first residential recording studios.

[light music] [Ozzy] Aston was working class, terrier houses.

It was just... hand to mouth, you know.

I went the school with Tony.

Tony Iommi.

Although we weren't mates in school, I knew of him.

And he'd bring his guitar to school.

My mum got me a job.

Factories and different jobs.

I wouldn't last more than a week on some.

And I would go, "Mom, I got a job."

"Oh, great."

"Mom, I quit my job."

"What?

Why?

Again?"

I could never hold one down.

I thought, is this it for my life?

I was it.

I was like a racehorse wanting to run.

But I had nowhere to run, you know.

I said to my dad, "Dad, can you sign for a paybone?"

A paybone was a money lending.

250 pounds.

I got me a microphone, a microphone stand, and a 50 watt Vox PA. Had he not signed for me, I would not be sitting here right now.

[Tony] Quite a long story.

But we... we all managed to get together.

And form a band.

Which was horrible.

-[laughs] -[interviewer] What do you mean?

At the time.

[chuckles] Because we got this band together, and we'd never played together.

I didn't even know Ozzy could sing, to be honest.

♪ One for the money, Two for the show ♪ ♪ Three to get ready, now go, Cat go ♪ ♪ But don't you, step on My blue suede shoes ♪ ♪ Do anything, but don't You step on my shoes ♪ [Ozzy] We used to rehearse... in a community centre in Birmingham.

We could... we could only get in at nine in the morning.

We had people going, "Keep the noise down!"

"You're gonna wake the dead!"

[sheep bleating] Oh, blimey.

Oh, my God.

Right.

We're now in the coach house studio.

Built in 1968-69 by Charles and myself.

It was stables before.

It's changed very little.

[Kingsley] Charles and I bought an eight track machine.

Which means our new studio was equal to any studio in the world.

[mellow music] ♪ Baby I love you ♪ [presenter] That sound already way up in the charts.

Started its upward journey here.

In a derelict farm in Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales.

A 140 miles away from the gloss of London showbiz.

The barn, used to house half a dozen horses and their hay, is now crammed with 50,000 pounds worth of electronic hardware.

It's the sort of armour you need these days, in the battle to reach the top.

And from that moment, we never went that way.

We went that way.

[phone ringing] [Kingsley] We had a phone call and it was Black Sabbath.

Who we'd never heard of.

Because in those days, we didn't, you know.

And they were one of the first bands to use our new studio.

[Ozzy] Just to go from Birmingham to Monmouth was an adventure.

You don't understand.

We'd never been in a studio.

We'd never been on a farm.

We'd never been, so everything was new.

You know, come and see, like, a cow in a field, you know.

We... we were from the streets of Aston.

The only thing we ever saw was a police horse.

It was brilliant.

[Kingsley] I remember Ozzy outside.

He had a bow and arrow, he would come, he has the thing with a target.

And I remember the band, a good band by the way.

But we were all starting off, weren't we, like, you know.

But they were an introduction to what was a really heavy rock sound.

Which is what Rockfield's famous for, you know.

[rock music] ♪ Finished with my woman ♪ ♪ Cause she couldn't help me With my mind ♪ ♪ People think I'm insane ♪ ♪ Because I am frowning All the time ♪ [Ozzy] We were loud.

We were very loud for that song.

[Tony] This has still got basically the same sort of thing that they've always had.

-[interviewer] Which is what?

-Basic.

♪ Seems to satisfy ♪ ♪ Think I'll lose my mind ♪ ♪ If I don't find something To pacify ♪ That... that's what allows the freedom.

'Cause now we were playing as loud as that.

♪ Occupy my brain ♪ [Ozzy] Blow the rooftop around.

I'd get up the drive and... [mimics drums] You know, the truth, I thought the roof was gonna come off.

We didn't realise what we were doing.

We didn't go, "I know, let's invent heavy metal."

It just happened.

♪ See the things that make True happiness ♪ When Black Sabbath with all the amplifiers turned up, of course, they were deafening, really.

And... it was... it was different to what we were used to.

Because back in the 60s, it wasn't that sort of heavy rock sound anyway.

[clattering] Kingsley was like one of the lads.

He was a nuisance.

He'd come in and start talking.

We'd go, "Kingsley, we're rehearsing."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay."

"You're rehearsing, then?

All right, I'll be quiet."

[rock music] [interviewer] What did you personally make of heavy metal?

Well, I was brought up, you know, with pop music really.

[light music] Hi!

Over there are my Jersey cows.

See, he's even talking to me over there.

He wants feeding.

What used to happen was... they had the studio working here.

And Charles and Kingsley both had to milk and herd.

Hello, girls... and boys.

I've come to say hello and I've come to feed you.

So they'd go up to milk the cows in the morning.

And the band would turn up for a recording and we'd have to get a message up there and say, "Come on, quick.

The band's here."

So they'd come down the one side of the house, go in and change and come out looking like respected businessmen.

Still smell of a cow, though, did we?

[laughs] Yes...

I just thought I'd look after you.

You like that hay?

Hello, Amber.

[Kingsley] I think a lot of pop groups are used to staying in flats and things like that in London.

And very claustrophobic, I should think.

Whereas down here, it's very spectacular, you know.

[Ozzy] We... we would all live together.

[mumbles] We... could make as much noise as we want.

Messing around the river, we used to build rafts.

Hobby shooting my shotguns around.

[interviewer] Do you remember waking everyone up?

Oh, yeah.

I was repeating... [mimics shotgun shots] What the f**k?

Then Ozzy get up in the morning, light the fire.

So we'd have a big fire roaring away.

Which... you know, was known for setting chimneys on fire.

People can't build fireplaces like that anymore.

A smelting factory.

[chuckles] [Ozzy] The heat with the redness.

[clap] [Dave] Rockfield studios.

It was an interesting place to be.

I mean, you know, it was a bit run down, really.

Because a lot of the buildings were just full up with hay and bails of hay and straw.

And of course, they used the stables as well.

[rock music] The essence of space rock music is having all these wonderful, sort of weird electronics with relentless rhythm that used to pump away.

♪ I, I just took a ride ♪ When Hawkwind originally turned up, of course, they were this rebellious sort of band.

Very famous, they were, like, you know.

And I thought, "God, what are they gonna be like?"

Like, you know, bad boys or something.

I wasn't too sure, really.

And I was in the studio awaiting their arrival.

And Lemmy was the first in.

And he said, "Hello, I'm Lemmy."

I said, "I'm Kingsley."

He said, "Hello Kingsley, I'm Lemmy."

Because Lemmy was heavily into, sort of... pills and things.

He was on those.

It was all pills and whatever, like, you know.

And he said to me, "Where can I hide my stash?"

I thought, "Oh, blimey."

But anyway, he put them in the corner.

About 20 minutes later, Dave Brock turns up.

And he says, "Hello, who are you?"

I said, "I'm Kingsley."

"I'm Dave."

I said, "Hello Dave."

He said, "Anybody here?"

I said, "Lemmy."

He said, "Oh, is he?

Where did he hide his stash?"

I was like, "Blimey."

I thought, here we go.

[Charles] Hawkwind, yeah.

Dave Brock.

Yeah.

They loved it.

We only had... when they came here for accommodation, we only had the barn at the end of the drive.

And it was one single room only.

And we shoved about six beds in there.

And the lot of them slept in one big room.

And it was one toilet between the lot of them.

But it... after 1967, the summer of love, it was what they wanted.

[interviewer] Everyone knows of Lemmy.

What was he like at Rockfield?

[Dave] Did the summers what we all did there.

We used to smoke marijuana and smoke a bit of hash.

And play music.

Sometimes record under the influence of organic mescaline and... we used to try LSD down there sometimes.

And record tracks on LSD and so on.

You know, we were renowned for doing that.

[spacey music] ♪ Space is dark And it's so endless ♪ ♪ When you're lost ♪ [Dave] I'll just show you the E-chord.

Which is the famous E-chord.

Let's see if this guitar is in tune.

[strums] It's... [strums] So it's an E. [strums] So... so...

Anything, if you go, you know, like it's barring thing, so... [strumming a melody] Barring.

And that's the essence.

So if you play... [strums] Like up, it would be... [plays a new melody] [bass drums setting in] I mean, if you listen to a upper locker... basically, just a rhythmic, sort of drum beat.

And that's just going, clunking away on the guitars behind it.

With weird sounds going on.

In one key!

I might add.

We were good at playing in one key.

You can play half an hour in the key of E and not be boring.

[music beat] I mean, sometimes, for God's sake...

I was in the quadrangle once.

We'd done some recording.

I thought it was two different bands playing at the same time.

I thought, "What is going on?"

[interviewer] So, how much time did you spend in all?

[Dave] Years.

[laughs] Not playing music, but just doing other things.

[Ozzy] We were all drinking.

Doing some drug or other.

We started up in a rock band, dabbling in drugs.

Then we ended up being a drug band dabbling in rock.

I mean, drugs f**k everything up, you know.

[quirky music] [Kingsley] We never had trouble with the local police.

It was only... the fact was there's famous people here.

And in those days, you know, there was the damn sex and drugs and rock and roll.

And I think the local, sort of, drug squads, used to view Rockfield as being a place where they should... direct some of their attention to.

We just noticed that there would be cars parked at the bottom of the drive.

And we realised it was people just watching this place.

You know, taking numbers and things.

We always knew that tree... it was a parking place, for anybody to park.

You can see what goes on at the studios, can't you?

Drugs and this sort of thing.

[Charles] Unfortunately, my brother went in one night.

To clear it and that sort of thing.

And the police, who busted Monmouth's grammar school, they knew all about us, all right.

And they came and they caught him red handed... with the stuff he was gonna dispose of.

And they put him in prison.

By which, I mean, for the night, in Monmouth.

Jailhouse rock.

[Kingsley] We personally never got involved in it.

But we can't help what the clients do, can you?

Like, you know, we were just onlookers really.

Very exciting, very interesting, but that's what it was.

If you hear a lot of stories about the past and you think a lot of the stories about some of the bands that've been here, the one thing that has probably been central to most of it is my dad.

He's been in the middle of it all.

[Lisa] He's just a big kid, you know.

I can't say, "No, he's not getting into trouble."

Give him a long enough rope and he'll strangle himself.

Say no more.

[laughs] Good old George, you got a walk on part now.

We're not ready yet.

This is where we built the quadrangle studio in 1973.

It's all echo chambers down there.

We have three natural echo chambers.

Which are fantastic.

Hello?

You can hear the echo.

It goes on for about three and a half seconds.

[interviewer] What used to be in here?

This used to be the pig shed.

We had nearly 500 pigs down here at one time.

[upbeat music] ♪ How long has this been Going on?

♪ ♪ How long ♪ [Charles] Ace's "How Long (Has This Been Going On)" was recorded here.

And that went to number one.

The guitar booths, for the separation.

We have a drum room there.

And Charles built moving walls in there in 19... mid-70s.

You know, he built some walls that actually move, which is a good idea.

And so, we always progress.

You know, bit by bit.

Well, in 1975, when Queen were here... [horse huffing and neighing] Oh, blimey, I can't... [interviewer] Can we say hello to Amanda first?

Amanda!

Get that camera off me!

In 1975, when Queen were here, I very well remember Brian May and Roger Taylor.

It was frisbee, was the sort of in game, throwing frisbees.

I remember mentioning to Brian, I said, "You're not doing very much."

And he said, "Well, Freddie is in there playing the piano, doing something."

So I walked in there, which is now an office.

Those days, it was a food stall for horses, saddles and all.

And Freddie was sat in the far corner, I stood next to him.

And I didn't realise... he was probably doing the finishing touches to "Bohemian Rhapsody".

[happy music] Which was called "Freddie's Thing" by the way.

-[interviewer] Amazing.

-Yeah.

And that's when the farmer side took a step back and then the music business took over.

[rock music] [Kingsley] This is a lined room.

Big drum room here.

This originally was built as a games room.

Then Brian put his amplifiers in here.

And Rush put all their equipment in here.

Because they loved the sound of the room, you see.

We have curtains, which you can open, and you can change the sound of the room.

A lot of other studios spent millions on this.

And they've all gone.

We spent sod all and we've survived the lot of them.

[Robert] From the age of 19 to the age of 32, I was on board a mysterious vessel.

And it finally ran out of steam, air, reality and everything... in 1980.

When we lost John, Led Zeppelin was no more.

So, there was no doing anything else but moving on, you know.

There was thousands and thousands of rock singers with no shirt on.

So, I was already a cliche.

[sheep bleating] [Robert] I didn't know what on earth I was gonna do.

But I knew, if I was gonna find out what it was gonna be, must be in a place like this.

It's just space.

There you are.

It's pastoral.

But it's pretty... it's got... it's full of history.

Once we got rid of the pigs, then we moved on to the music business.

So it's more or less the same, you know.

Except that the use has changed.

So, you've got musicians instead of pigs.

[laughs] It's got drama and success and failure.

But it's all in this great, sort of, arboreal... this green... pleasant land, you know.

Rather than going into a city and grinding it out.

[cows mooing] [Jim] We were in the first year of our recording career.

We had made one album.

We recorded some of that album in Abbey Road.

Now, when you think about it, to be 19 and it be in Abbey Road, you know.

Who wouldn't love that?

I just shrunk.

You know, I thought... Abbey Road... what are we doing in Abbey Road?

I mean, we'd hardly been out of Glasgow.

We'd hardly been in a recording studio.

So it being Abbey Road... it was just a step way too far for me.

And everyone who worked in there was called Headen.

[chuckles] You know, it was very proper and very English and very middle class.

And... it just wasn't rock and roll.

So, I couldn't wait to get out of there.

All we wanted to do was play.

And the producer, John Leckie, had looked for residential places.

And he said, "There's this place called Rockfield.

You'll love this place."

And we said, "Where is it?"

And he said, "Wales."

[chuckles] [Charlie] I do remember, actually, I think when we drove in there, I think we passed by Kingsley.

And he looked mental.

And I remember thinking, "All right, we're in the country."

[laughs] My first impression with Rockfield was... Crickey, this is a bit rough.

I suppose because there seemed to be more attention going on with the farm and the animals and the general, kind of, manure kind of stuff.

But the equipment was great and you had a lot of space.

You know, you had an instant feeling of... "Hey, we can do anything here."

Because of the size of the rooms and stuff.

Well, in the early 80s, Simple Minds turned up.

So did Adam and the Ants, you see.

And they were trendsetters.

♪ Well I'm standing here, Looking at you ♪ ♪ What do I see?

♪ ♪ I'm looking straight through ♪ [John] Music was changing.

Because it comes through the punk thing and we're into what was called the new wave.

♪ Learn to accept my reward ♪ [John] Of course, new wave could be anything.

It still had to have the energy and creativity, but you didn't have the boundaries that you had before.

So, when we did Real to Real Cacophony at Rockfield, we could drum up any fantasy in their minds.

And create a song out of it.

Which is the kind of attitude the band had, you know.

[Jim] So, we... we were renting out the coach house.

And, you know, that was a big deal, but we were always curious who was in the main studio.

And there was a microphone set up in the middle of the courtyard.

And we thought... "What are they doing?"

Anyway... we could not believe that none other than Iggy Pop... was booked.

I mean, we just couldn't believe it.

Can you hear me up there now?

The deal is, this is our rehearsal and this is my band and these are the afternoon bar flies.

A one, a two, a one, two, three, four!

But actually, probably it was that Iggy was... on the wagon or off the wagon...

I always get them... -He was on the wagon.

-[laughs] In as much that I think he was down there trying to be a good boy and not to be drinking.

And not to be doing anything naughty.

And just be seriously getting on with the work.

So they sent him down there.

[Jim] There he was in the... the big studio and... within a couple of nights, he was creeping around in our little studio, because... we weren't on the wagon.

Not only was that mind-blowing, but Bowie turned up.

And he looked as... you would imagine David Bowie looking.

I'll always remember because David Bowie was all in red.

He had red trousers and a red shirt on and everything.

But he just showed up to Rockfield with this huge bit of cheese in his hand.

-And a can of Heineken.

-[Charlie laughing] We went over, you know, we went over there.

And the band, Simple Minds, sang some backing vocals.

We all went in the studio and clapped.

And a good time was had by all.

The lyric before we come in is, Iggy goes, ♪ You're too simple minded ♪ ♪ Let's play it safe ♪ What was the chorus telling us?

♪ What do we have in common, Play it safe ♪ ♪ What do we have in common, Play it safe ♪ ♪ I'll tell you something safe ♪ [slow music] [Jim] Leckie, in his sweet way, would always remind you a record company was coming up next week.

Oh, God.

Oh, God.

I haven't written any lyrics yet.

I've been here a month.

The band hadn't really found their footing.

It was still quite experimental.

We were already in a lot of debts.

Because the first album had tanked.

[John] They hadn't really had a hit.

If you don't come up with hits, if you don't recoup your money, you'd get dropped.

The record doesn't get released and... everything stops.

And the payments stop and you're not gonna make another record after that.

[Jim] I remember walking up to the microphone with a song called "Changeling".

And...

I think probably for the first time in my life feeling... a kind of... a sober pressure.

John was like, "Track sounds great."

"How does it sound in the headphones?"

"Sounds great.

You ready to go?"

"Yeah."

And they hadn't heard a word.

[guitar melody] Pretty good.

[change in melody] That's a cool riff.

It's neat.

[Jim] I had moved it along, like, this is great, this is great, this is great.

But what kind of lyric?

And at the time, these new clubs were starting in London.

These... were called new romantics.

But they were on the verge over there.

And there were shown pictures in the magazines and papers about all these stylish changeling people.

And I thought, "I'm gonna write about them."

Sitting here in the Welsh countryside.

[rock music] [John] In the coachhouse, there's this corridor and at the end of the room is a door to a toilet.

And if you put a microphone in this corridor, and open the door to the studio, it picked up this great resonance from the drums.

So the microphone in the corridor.

Secret weapon of Rockfield.

It was fantastic.

"Changeling" is probably the best track on the record for me.

♪ Changeling, Well changeling for you ♪ It came out.

[chuckles] Record company hated it.

[Jim] Didn't think there was anything radio-wise on it, and they were right.

But the journalists liked it.

And started to say, you know, Simple Minds are worthwhile taking serious.

[Robert] The residential idea was you didn't have to break the train of thought or creativity.

You could stick around.

Really quite a neat way... of people being almost... prisoners.

[cows mooing] I had no idea of writing techniques with anybody else.

But I didn't have to consider, really, anybody else's opinions anymore.

I was free to fail.

[tape whirring] I tried to embrace more or less everything I could, from contemporary sound.

Bit by bit by bit.

And I suppose this was the first time I used any kind of mechanised rhythms at all.

[music beat] The famous TRR808 hand clap.

And bass drum.

Dread... terrible, really.

We wrote "Big Log".

The whole thing about the structure of the song and the way it's played, it's turned a corner.

♪ My love is in league With the freeway ♪ ♪ Its passion will rise As the cities fly by ♪ ♪ And the tail lights dissolve In the coming of night ♪ ♪ And the questions And thousands take flight ♪ Well, the "Big Log" was another jazz cigarette, of course, an African woodbine.

That was being shared, mostly by the rhythm section.

Which was one drumbox in the baseplan.

[Robert] It's a road song, isn't it?

Then, I could do anything.

Anywhere.

[Jim] There was this kind of feeling of... a new kind of pop music.

And... we were gravitating towards that.

But I think we still... there was still gonna have to... what's the song that's gonna do it?

I remember being in the rehearsal room.

It was the old mill.

And I remember the first time Charlie played the riff to "Promised You A Miracle" and I thought, "This is gonna... this is... this'll do it."

And I must say, I'm extremely pleased to introduce this next act.

It's a band I champion a lot on my radioshow.

And here they are making their Top of the Pops debut.

-Simple Minds.

-[cheering] ♪ Belief is a beauty thing ♪ ♪ Promises, promises ♪ ♪ As golden days Break wondering ♪ ♪ Chance, As love takes a train ♪ [Jim] It makes you feel good.

The riff makes you feel good.

It's full of optimism.

When I hear it, that's the emotion I get from it.

It was kind of... it was like funky pop song.

[Jim] Well, it was... it was top ten, wasn't it?

That album, New Gold Dream, people still talk about it.

It's a landmark album for us.

And... and you know... commercial success and critical, took us in all the big arenas.

One of the key changes that happened to us then was we would change record labels.

And lo and behold, Virgin had their own residential studio called The Manor.

A place for pop stars.

And I think we thought we're pop stars now.

And this is the new shiny world.

The technology, everything was moving on.

And I don't know the story of Rockfield then, but I think it would have been hard for them to keep up, you know, with Richard Branson's money.

[Kingsley] 'Cause Rockfield was a pioneer... and everybody copied us, there was loads of studios out there now.

All residential.

And of course, there's only a certain amount of work to go around.

And then of course, the dreaded dance music turned up.

Which wasn't quite what we did.

[John] Well, Rockfield's always been known for rock music.

For bands playing together, loud electric guitars and drums and stuff.

And I guess, as the 80s went on, there was a lot more electronics being used.

There's the sampler, you know, the Akai sampler got invented.

And the little cubase computer.

And so you could program things and trigger things and create new music, really.

So, you didn't need a drum.

Or a big room for a big drum sound.

Because you could use a sample of a drummer and loop that and play along to that.

So it was... as the technology took over, you know, I guess people didn't book Rockfield quite so often.

[soft music] [Lisa] Well, it did get tough.

I mean, it's always been feast and famine.

That is the reality.

You know, in the 70s, it was back to back, and there's loads of work coming in and you know, it was fine.

My parents had nice cars.

And we were off at private school.

And all of that sort of stuff.

And then, you know, things changed.

There didn't seem to be as much work coming through.

And then, you know, my mum was out and she would... she always did books for people.

She always... you know, she did accountancy, well, bookkeeping for people.

And at one point, she had seven different jobs.

Doing bookkeeping.

And that was to help keep the place going.

And keep the money coming into the house.

[slow pensive music] [interviewer] What happened to you and Kingsley's doing Rockfield together?

[Charles] In the end, I milked the cows up until 1975.

We were frightened to go back to where we were.

And I...

I've left a bit behind.

That there is Rockfield studios.

In 1987, we were a big company by now, we decided Charles took one half of the company and made Monnow Valley.

-[ripping] -[scribbling] And I took the...

I kept the remaining bit of Rockfield.

And carried on as Rockfield.

So it was no problem.

No case of falling out.

It was a case of two different ideas.

And he did what he wanted to do and I did what I wanted to do.

And there was no problem in it.

[slow music] [Nick] I'm from Monmouth.

So I grew up just down the road from the studio.

Rockfield is like this mysterious place that you kind of new about, but you couldn't go out there.

But you'd see the kind of bands around the town.

And then my dad used to have the local taxi firm.

He used to tell me about this place and about Kingsley.

So I kind of knew little bits.

But yeah, you just kind of didn't know too much about it.

It was just this great place that everyone was kind of proud of in Monmouth.

Once you got old enough to go into the pubs, people would say, "So and so was in last week."

And you kind of get sucked in to waiting to see who's gonna come into The Nags Head, you know.

I mean, I was into music.

Playing in bands and I was recording my rehearsals.

I always had the four tracks out.

I was more interested in recording the rehearsals than actual rehearsing.

I never thought about working here.

I knew it was here.

But I was planning on going away to University.

And I was studying something else.

And then the opportunity came up through a friend of mine.

[Nick] Pretty strange job interview, as you can imagine with Kingsley.

He had a moan about the music business.

[laughs] He said... he actually told me to go to college and then University and think about doing something else.

But if you still wanna do it when you get home, give me a call and there's a job for you.

It took me time... ten minutes in the car with my dad to get home and I decided I wanted to come and do it.

You know, I didn't know where it was gonna lead.

[Kingsley] 1989, 1990 was a massive recession.

And the music business suddenly caved in completely.

[phone ringing] But life changed for us because one door closes and one door opens.

I had a phone call from a guy called John Leckie, good friend of mine, he had a band to produce, called Stone Roses.

And I think they booked in... officially for a couple of weeks.

But they stayed.

[laughs] And they left, I think it was 13 months in the end.

That they were here.

And that saved us.

The Stone Roses saved Rockfield.

I can easily say that.

[rock music] [interviewer] Are you fed up that it's taken so long for people outside of Manchester and the northwest to catch up with you?

-No.

-No.

♪ I hear you knocking down My door ♪ They signed a deal where they had to make a record at the record company studio.

The band had to come down to London and stay in a cheap hotel.

We worked mostly nighttimes.

And I kept telling them about Rockfield and saying this was a great place and where we need to go.

And through the record company and personnel at the record company changing, we got to go to Rockfield.

We did "Waterfall", a song called "Waterfall".

Which we attempted in London and not really got the best take.

And most of all, we... we did "I Am The Resurrection".

We worked it out so that the band could play it live.

So the whole of "Resurrection" is one complete take, really.

From start to finish.

[interviewer] You all say that you expect to be the best one in the world.

No, we know that we are.

We don't expect anyone else to think anything in particular about us.

They can think and do what they want.

[interviewer] Well, if you're the best one in the world, why aren't you number one?

Because the record isn't out yet.

[John] When the album came out, they became... they became really... really special people, you know.

Everyone loved them.

Well, you have to do better the next time, or you have to do as good as, you know.

All sorts of things can happen.

[John] The single after that was called "One Love".

We booked into Rockfield to do that.

We planned to be there at nine o'clock on Sunday evening for dinner and start Monday morning fresh, you know.

So I got there with an assistant.

Then the roadies came down with a van load of equipment and we set that up.

Band never showed up.

Monday came and went.

And I'm making phone calls.

"Oh, well, just wait there.

Stay there."

So, it got right round until the Tuesday evening.

And we were just planning on going home and should we pack up and that's it.

No one seems to be coming.

And the door opened and... Mani fell in the room... and Reni just flopped on the... on the settee.

And then I realised they were all covered in paint.

They'd recored a single called "Sally Cinnamon" and their old record company had released it as their next single without their permission.

They called into B and Q, the paint shop, and went to his office and just threw paint everywhere.

And jumped in the van and drove to Rockfield.

Sat there waiting to see what the repercussions were.

And I said, "Look, we're all set up.

Let's get out there and record."

And they actually sat there and recorded with the paint still in their hair.

The police turned up at eight o'clock the next morning, arrested them and got them all out of bed.

[newscaster] Gary Mounfield, John Squire, Alan Wren and Ian Brown arrived at Wolverhampton Crown Court to a noisy greeting from about 30 fans.

[rock music] [John] The second album with the Stone Roses was done for an American record company.

Geffen were quite prepared to throw lots of money, millions of pounds, at the band.

To do whatever they wanted.

They told me did I want to do the next session.

And it was the Stone Roses.

As you can imagine, 16, very excited.

Yeah, what an opportunity.

Lot of pressure on it, but they just seemed relaxed.

From day one, it was great fun.

Absolutely great fun.

[Ann] We had Stone Roses here and two of the cows had calved.

"Oh, gosh, we must go out and see the calves."

So we had to take them across the meadow to see the calves.

[Nick] Mani, he embraced the life around here.

He was out fishing, he became great friends with a lot of the local lads.

Mani became such a part of Monmouth, should we say.

He met his girlfriend here.

They have a son together.

And they met in Monmouth, when he was in Monmouth.

[John] They stayed there for 14 months.

The album was called Second Coming.

It was a long time coming.

[Lisa] There was one occasion that the executives from the label from America were coming over.

And they flew over on Concord, it was a big, big deal.

And they all came down in their, you know, their limos.

And they arrived here... and the band had gone.

[Nick] Yeah, they went home.

They'd flown in and... yeah, they went home.

And they had taken the tapes with them as well.

So we couldn't play them anything.

[chuckles] [sheep bleating] -[tractor whirring] -[slow beat playing] [Liam] The first time that we went over there was when we went to f*****g have a little snoop on the Stone Roses, wasn't it?

You drove the combine harvester over there.

In the middle of the night.

Just, we were going, "What the f**k are they up to?"

'Cause they hadn't been doing anything for three years.

And we sort of got of this... and I'm on about a proper combine harvester.

-A big one, yeah.

-Ones that you gotta get ladders up to.

And it's like miles... Higher than that f*****g roof.

And he f*****g starts it in one go and off we f*****g go.

-Irish.

Irish blood.

-Crawling down the road.

With the big f*****g lights on.

It looked like f*****g...

It looked bonkers.

-War of the worlds, innit?

-And then we...

I think we drove it into the thing, turned the lights off and f*****g rolled over, like some professionals and f*****g... [mimics spy theme tune] Over the hedge and then we f*****g popped up.

And we could hear some f*****g bass line and drums going on and then we kind of veered.

And then, I think...

I think we got caught, didn't we?

-They brought us in, didn't... -About that...

I don't think we brought the combine harvester.

We didn't bring the combine... Yeah, we left it there.

[interviewer] Really?

-Yeah, and then... -Yeah, I think they saw it.

I think we got f*****g caught by someone.

-We went in, didn't we?

-Yeah.

We had a little chat with Ian Brown.

And a few people.

And they were playing some songs and stuff.

We might have had a spliff in that.

And then I think we f*****g... f**ked off.

And then I think they did it the next night.

-They come over.

-Mani turned up on the tractor.

-On the tractor.

-Yeah.

While we were in bed, I think.

So he's saying he robbed all of Guigsy's weed or our weed.

[Liam] We had had one album, everything was going well, I think.

And I think, maybe the money started... Maybe it might have started trickling, I mean... maybe it wasn't.

No, it was.

The money had started coming in.

The sales had gone well.

I mean, Definitely Maybe was up there, wasn't it?

Yeah, so it was the second album, Morning Glory.

I think we were completely still off our heads.

It... it felt mega.

It was like... you know, that's what you, sort of, read about.

You go, "f*****g hell, this is what it's f*****g all about."

This is rock and roll, man.

-[Liam] You live there and... -[Bonehead] Yeah, you live... You didn't leave... you didn't leave the studio until you had your album finished.

It's like the Big Brother house, innit?

But with tunes.

[Tim] Our first album went to number one, it was like, I guess, the height of the Manchester... boom thing.

Our manager at the time thought it was a good idea to send us away to, kind of, write and record an album.

And to spend six weeks in... in one space.

But...

It was... it was a great idea, but it was also... pretty nuts as well.

[Mark] No distractions.

Well, apart from going out to... to the town.

-Monmouth towns head.

-Yeah.

Which was rocking, you know.

There was two pubs there.

Three, actually.

Was there three?

Yeah, yeah.

[Tim] We were in the middle of the Welsh countryside.

With just... other people who were kind of quite like minded people.

[Mark] You could get up to whatever you wanted.

So you did.

Could've gone to all these studios that have swimming pools and huge games rooms and restaurants and stuff.

But we'd rather just come and play with the cows... and stuff.

[Martin] For, you know, young people in their mid-20s, it was ideal because... we were just into getting drunk and taking drugs.

And making music.

There was no one there telling you what you... couldn't do.

As long as the work was getting done, you know, the record company would come down and check every now and again.

[drum cymbals clanging] [drum setting in] Head of Columbia turned up, from America.

And the only person in the studio was me.

And I was lying down with my head in the Leslie speaker.

Tripping on acid.

Kind of just going round and round.

But at the same time, we were getting our dinners cooked for us.

We had our mothers there in the kitchen.

And the ladies who would come in and clean up for us.

We'd come in in the morning, and all our drugs would be lined up really neatly along the side for us.

It was perfect.

Just perfect, yeah.

[Lisa] The 90s was an amazing time.

You know, we were booked nine months in advance, both studios, back to back.

We would have a session leaving on a Monday morning.

And they'd be loading out the one door and the next session would be loading in the other door.

And it was constant.

But it was an amazing time for guitar based bands in British music, you know.

It absolutely was.

[interviewer] Why men?

In guitar bands?

I don't know.

I don't really know why that would be.

I suppose at the time...

I mean, obviously, there were big female singers and stuff, weren't there?

Big female rock artists.

But we tended to get the men that I can remem... that I can think of.

[drum solo] [man] f*****g hell!

[laughing] [Nick] With Oasis, it was quick.

It was fast.

Because obviously, coming off the back of... the Stone Roses album that took 14 months.

And then other albums, they were fast.

We was kind of working on... a song a day.

[Bonehead] Noel would get in and he'd put a guide acoustic down, always.

White would nail the drums, innit?

But like bass in with the bass beats.

Me and him with the guitar in.

He'd come in and sing.

It was really quick in all.

I remember I had a really quick session.

Song after song, you know it's just... That's 'cause there was, like, loads of pubs in town.

Like, we heard they were good, you know what I mean?

It was like, get in there and f*****g smash it out.

-And then f*****g pub.

-Pub.

We just loved being in the pub.

[interviewer] What were the... What was Monmouth like?

Full of pubs.

[Nick] I do bits of engineering.

Keep the tape machines running, set up all the microphones.

You know, record the band.

A lot of driving to the pub.

All hours.

[Liam] You'd wait... Obviously, you'd wait until you get your stuff done.

But as soon as you get your stuff done, if that was done at one in the afternoon, then you'd be in the pub by ten past one.

You know what I mean?

[interviewer] Did you ever work, carry on doing stuff when you got back from the pub at night?

You'd have a go.

You'd have a go.

But it'd be f*****g, you'd sound like the poles.

[Nick] Yeah, I mean, I would just go to the pub and then, till we came back.

And then I would drive everyone back, you know.

Obviously, somebody had to remain sober because we were on take back in them days.

[Nick] There was a little bit of... debate on who was gonna sing "Wonderwall".

Noel was gonna sing "Wonderwall", then Liam was gonna sing "Wonderwall".

Then Noel said, "Okay, I'll sing 'Don't Look Back In Anger'."

And then Liam was... wanted to sing "Don't Look Back in Anger".

So there was the debate on who was gonna sing what.

[Liam] Everyone wanted to make the songs the best they could.

You know.

And Noel wanted to do it too.

And if that breeded a bit of f*****g competition, than so be it, you know what I mean.

But it was...

I didn't want to go in there and be better than Bonehead and all, be better than Guigsey.

But I just wanted to go and be better than me.

You know what I mean?

I just wanted to do my thing.

And if...

I just wanted to...

When I heard them putting the songs on, I go, "Right, this f*****g tune needs a banging vocal."

So, hopefully I can deliver it, you know what I mean?

[clicking] [vinyl scratching] ["Wonderwall" playing] [interviewer] What did you think of "Wonderwall" at first?

I didn't like it at first.

I thought it was a bit funky enough, or...

I thought it sounded like a reggae song to me.

Proper, it sounded like a reggae song to me.

-What's going on?

-Yeah, it's weird.

♪ Today is gonna be the day ♪ ♪ That they're gonna throw it Back to you ♪ ♪ By now you should've somehow Realised what you gotta do ♪ ♪ I don't believe that anybody Feels the way I do ♪ ♪ About you now ♪ [interviewer] How long did it take you to record the vocal?

Not long, because the f*****g pub was happy hour down there.

[laughs] f*****g night with a two for one.

-Yeah I think it was like... -Two for one man.

Early doors, man.

So I just put that down in about 30 seconds.

♪ I don't believe that anybody Feels the way I do ♪ ♪ About you now ♪ ♪ And all the roads we have To walk are winding ♪ I remember doing "Wonderwall".

I had to set them up on the wall outside the coachhouse studio.

So I set the mics up up there and he's doing the guide guitars for "Wonderwall", with him on top of the wall.

-Tapping into town.

-Oh, yeah.

Probably had a couple of lagers, but I bought a remote control car out.

You know, with big fat wheels on it.

Next thing, I'm looking out the lounge, I see Noel sat up on the wall with load of microphones on him.

Outside with an acoustic guitar.

And I thought, "What the f**k. What's he doing?"

And he's trying... he's trying to catch the atmosphere, you know, the birds singing and all that stuff.

So I was like, "I'm getting him."

-So I got this car up in this.

-f*****g hell.

So I was like, all right, got it in first gear.

This car is like... [mimics car whirring] And you can see Noel's head, like, in his headphones, "What the f**k is that noise?"

-[laughs] -"I better check."

♪ Because maybe ♪ ♪ You're gonna be the one That saves me ♪ [Liam] We definitely had a few little nights when we're all very pleased with our work.

And then we go listening it back five million times.

And f*****g pat each other on the back.

And we definitely did a lot of that.

♪ Wonderwall ♪ [Ann] This one night.

We were sleeping in the front of the house.

And they were working in the coachhouse studio.

And we'd gone to bed, normally I suppose, I don't know, eleven, twelve o'clock, something like that.

And we couldn't get to sleep.

Because we could hear the music so loud.

Kingsley kept saying, "Oh, I hope the villagers can't hear it."

We stuck it out to four o'clock.

And Kingsley said, "It's no good.

We're gonna have to tell them to stop it."

So I came down the stairs.

Came out through the back.

And as I got to the studios, the outside door was open and the inner door was wide open.

And I was standing there like... [laughs] And I could see them going, "It's Ann, it's Ann."

And of course, he switched all the lights on then.

"Oh, Ann, Ann.

Sorry, is there a problem?"

Well, yes, there is, actually.

I said, "Kingsley and I haven't been able to get to sleep because of the music."

And I said, "I don't know what the villagers are like, but could I ask you to close the outside doors?

Or these both doors, while you carry on?"

"Oh, right.

Okay.

Right.

Thanks, Ann, thank you."

And he apologised around the next day.

♪ Wake up It's a beautiful morning ♪ ♪ Wake up It's a beautiful morning ♪ ♪ Wake up It's a beautiful morning ♪ Can you turn this off?

I'll write it down.

[Martin] As soon as I started playing it, as soon as I played those three chords, I knew it was gonna be something different.

[plays chords] I really like minor chords.

I really like soul music.

Because it's like uplifting but sad at the same time.

I wanted to get a brass section in.

And I had sent them the demo and a couple of notes.

And they turned up, I think it was Tom Jones' brass section.

And it was so cheerful what they were playing.

I was aghast.

[upbeat music] [Martin] I mean just... [laughs] ...flatten a few notes there and... And they did and it was still too chirrupy for me.

♪ Summer's gone Summer's gone ♪ Summer's gone.

Days spent with the grass in the sun.

I was trying to get a drug reference in.

But since those first three chords... we just went for it.

♪ Wake up It's a beautiful morning ♪ ♪ The sun shining For your eyes ♪ [Martin] I think everybody was pinning their hopes on one track.

Which got played everywhere.

I mean, it still gets played everywhere.

I don't know who plays it.

Someone's playing it all the time.

[chuckles] [fireworks exploding] [Kingsley] Rockfield now was rocketing.

And in 1997, out of the top ten albums, Rockfield had seven.

In the top ten.

I can't remember what they were.

But we know that seven of the top were done at Rockfield.

-[cymbals] -Okay?

[James] We grew up in South Wales.

Rockfield.

It's a legendary place.

It was the first ever residential recording stu... studio in the world, apparently.

Kingsley says.

-Kingsley.

-[laughter] [Nicky] It was definitely James who drove us there.

To go there in '97.

And we came up with "If You Tolerate This".

We thought it was B-side.

We went to Rockfield and the magic dust turned it into... our biggest number one.

It's one, two, three, four, five... there's only six chords in the song.

You know, it's a really simple song.

And like, you know, of course, you've got the, like, you know... ♪ The future teaches you To be alone ♪ ♪ The present to be afraid And cold ♪ ♪ So if I can shoot rabbits ♪ ♪ Then I can shoot fascists ♪ [James] It was the last time we'd ever really committed anything just to take, without any pro-tools or... the digital mirage of stuff that you have around you to kind of help make you... make records now.

And it was quite effortless.

But that was the thing about Rockfield.

If something was sounding good, you just didn't mess with it.

♪ And if you tolerate this ♪ ♪ Then your children Will be next ♪ ♪ And if you tolerate this ♪ ♪ Then your children Will be next ♪ ♪ Will be next, will be next Will be next ♪ [spacey music] Rob Collins, our keyboard player.

He didn't really speak very much, but he really drove the band.

Turn up on a Monday and Rob was playing this riff.

Turn up on Tuesday, he was still playing this riff.

[mimics riff] And by the end of the week, he was still playing it.

"You've thought about putting any other chords in there, Rob?"

Got to the following week and a couple of chords thrown in.

♪ One to another Sister and a brother ♪ ♪ And a changing The way that you feel ♪ ♪ Pleased to meet you Hope I never see you ♪ ♪ I'll be at ease watchin' You sleep watchin' you smile ♪ The whole thing just kind of grew and... we just played around with the sounds in the studio.

Did a lot of overdubs.

♪ Love I adore you ♪ ♪ Always lookin' for you ♪ [Tim] We just knew that we had this, like, magic.

Modern, northern souls.

It's like, you know, a very enthusiastic time.

And all us, like, dancing on the mixing desk.

You know, crazy times.

[light music] [Tim] We were taking a lot of drugs at the time.

I can't speak on behalf of everybody in the band, but I was... yeah.

[interviewer] Who were the most hedonistic of the band?

[Tim] Me and Rob.

Rob Collins.

Our keyboard player.

We experimented with different ways of... of getting deeper into our music.

Well, that was the idea, anyway.

And experimenting... with each other as well.

You know, as people, we were like human experiments.

You know, Rob would go clubbing quite a lot in Bristol.

And then come back in the early hours.

And then still, like, do little bits.

We'd have a... a song, and we'd wake up the next day and it was just like... it'd become like a... an acid house track.

[laughs] And then it'd be like, what the f**k is this, you know.

And then bring it back to something else.

[interviewer] What had happened at night?

Just, like... ecstasy.

[Tim] But then, there's pulling and manipulating and working things out and he's stretching things.

Which I think is an amazing thing.

So it was a struggle, but... it was pretty good.

Listening to Tellin' Stories now, you know, it's just the most vibrant sounding thing.

We did all of it in Rockfield.

That album.

Although, to be honest, we would swap and go to Monnow Valley and then come back to Rockfield to do vocals and things like that.

So, you know, Tellin' Stories was the last one that we did there.

But, you know, as you know... it kind of all... it kind of ended there as well.

[Martin] The first time's so easy.

It was really easy.

We were getting on really well.

Whereas the last album, King Size, we weren't getting on very well.

It's weird because Rockfield enhances your experience.

So, if you're having a great time, it's the best place in the world.

And if you're not, then... you're just getting on each other's nerves.

Because you are in that... pushed together in that place.

There's nowhere else to go, really.

The magic goes out of the walls.

[Lisa] Being in a residential studio, it's 24/7.

At the end of the day, it's a very intense relationship within bands.

And you're talking with... about creative people, aren't you?

You know, and with that creativity comes... comes high emotion, shall we say.

And it all gets magnified in a place like this.

[Kingsley] And the trouble being in residential studios for a long period of time, they start off all great friends and eventually... it starts to get a bit edgy.

Bands are either the type that knew this or they fall apart.

A bit like families, isn't it?

[Liam] 'Cause I...

I don't play any instruments, you know what I mean.

And a lot of like, all the rest of the band played instruments.

I sort of do my singing and I'd be sort of bored.

You know what I mean?

So then I would sort of be going twiddling my thumbs.

And I think, "I f*****g want a boozer."

So I'd be in the pub most of the time with whoever.

So then I'd bring a few people back.

And I think that's when...

I think that's when it all went a bit tits up with me and Noel because I think he...

I don't know where he'd gone.

But like, loads of people come back and started looking at his guitars and s**t. And you're not allowed to look at his guitars.

It all went a bit... Yeah, it looked like it.

And that was it, I think.

We had a little bit of a... -We smashed the... -It was a proper fight.

-It was a proper brawl.

-Yeah, I think... -With bats and air rifles.

-Dustbins.

Noel and I used to kick it, but... To hit me or just wave it at my head.

I don't remember much, but... -We had air rifles.

-Yeah, we had rifles.

And we locked them up.

They got locked up because they might have got used.

It was all... it was just a lot of running around and f*****g throwing s**t at people.

I just remember him getting in the car, driving off.

And I was stood there, like a f*****g wild bastard, going, "Come here, you f*****g s**tbag!"

[interviewer] Didn't you throw a dustbin at the car or something?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Yeah, I might've, yeah.

That thing was flying up the drive, yeah.

It was... yeah... yeah... little things.

But them little things would just happen, know what I mean?

It's the crack, innit?

[interviewer] Was that one of the biggest fights you've ever had with Noel?

Probably, yeah.

It was one of them.

-We crack on.

-[Bonehead] The thing is... As fight went, it was a good one.

It was carnage.

[laughs] You know, some things got broken.

I mean... here, I didn't really know what to make of all that.

Because it was the first time I'd kind of seen something... like that.

I wasn't used to it.

But everybody here seemed to take it in their stride.

You know, I think they'd seen... they'd seen it all before, so nothing was gonna shock them.

They just cleaned it up the next day.

And it was like nothing had happened.

Yeah, I think Noel went home.

[Liam] He's always been a bit like that, you know what I mean?

"What are you doing bringing people back when we're working?"

And I get it, you know what I mean, but... My argument would be, what are you doing f*****g taking 900 f*****g takes to do f*****g one guitar riff?

When you should be in the f*****g pub with me!

Do you know what I mean?

-It's eating me!

-[chuckles] [interviewer] Were you close at that stage?

Yeah, super close.

-We were all close.

-Yeah.

Not as... we weren't as f*****g... We weren't like bros or anything.

We weren't f*****g like... Like f*****g Jedward, you know what I mean?

[chuckles] Jedward.

You know what I mean?

We weren't like... We'd just go, "All right?"

And he'd go, "All right."

And then we'd have a beer, you know what I mean.

Yeah, that was the story of the band's life, really.

Sort of, be good one minute and then be chaotic the next.

Until the poor lad headed off one night in Paris.

[chuckles] And then he took his bottle home.

[interviewer] And that was when you split?

That was when we split, yeah.

[interviewer] But is the same stuff that was between you that caused the argument, the same stuff that made it all so good?

Yeah.

We were banging with it 24/7.

We were also... which is our downfall, we were also in a f*****g... the other side of it as well.

The party side of it, you know what I mean.

All these bands that sit there and go, "Yeah, we're f*****g great."

Yeah, you're great.

You were s**t at getting off your box though, weren't you?

So yous lot can go, you know what I mean.

We were good at being in the studio.

And we were also good at being in the pub.

You know what I mean?

And I'm proud of that, as much as I am of the... the great vocals and the f*****g takes in the studio.

We were f*****g into it.

The whole thing.

♪ How many special people Change?

♪ ♪ How many lives Are livin' strange?

♪ ♪ Where were you While we were getting high?

♪ We were walking and talking in a certain manner.

And singing and whatever and playing in a certain manner.

It had to go off, you know what I mean.

The music went with what we were saying.

It had swag, you know what I mean.

♪ Someday, you will find me ♪ ♪ Caught beneath the landslide ♪ I felt we enjoyed the life, you know what I mean.

[interviewer] Can you hear that in the record?

-I think so, yeah.

-Yeah, yeah, definitely.

[Liam] It's a happy vibe on that album, I think.

♪ Caught beneath the landslide ♪ It's all... it's... You know what?

It's all a bit of a blur, really.

[Tim] We'd been to... one of the pubs in the town.

It was the furthest one... from Monnow Valley.

There'd been a bit of an argument.

Over... over one of the guys who was doing some... extra mixing on... on the record.

I don't know.

We'd had a bit of a barney with Rob about it.

So... let's... let's go, let's get out of here.

And, you know, it was fine.

You know, Rob...

Rob had a half a lager and he was... he was playing the bandit all night.

Which is... which is what he liked to do.

[Tim] So, me and Martin went back.

Rob was driving behind us.

From Monmouth town, it was quite windy roads.

Lots of hedges and lots of corners and stuff like that.

Lots of fields.

And he was speeding up and he was kinda just... you know, being crazy.

Like... something in a film.

And all of a sudden, he just disappeared.

We all thought that he'd... taken a detour.

To go and get some supplies or something.

You know, and... and didn't really think much about it at all.

Maybe about 45 minutes went by.

And then the police came around.

And said, "You should get yourself to Abergavenny hospital."

And that's when...

I thought, "Oh, what's he done?

What's he done now?"

And me and Martin went to the hospital and... and... heard it on the radio.

[Tim] It was just going through my head.

The lyrics, every lyric that was in it.

It was just, like, wanting another... just a brother changing the way that, you know, you just kind of felt like it was just...

I just knew that...

I knew what it... what I was gonna face when we got there.

[Lisa] We knew the Charlatans.

We knew them pretty well.

And I do remember, just one night, and I was...

I was here.

I happened to be staying here.

And... you can hear the main road.

And I just heard this car driving incredibly fast down the road.

And then you heard the sort of... the... [mimics rattling] ...of them going over cat's eyes.

And I thought, "God, he is going at some pace."

You know, he's driving fast.

And there's a really nasty, deceptive bend at the end of our meadow.

And then... you heard the crash.

-[interviewer] What happened?

-And he'd... just... the car had gone...

I guess had gone too fast around the corner.

And it'd gone out of control and turned the car over.

You know, and then when we found out that it was Rob... you know... it was just awful.

[slow, mournful music] [Tim] You know, Rob...

Rob was...

He was the first person who ever picked me up, you know, when I went to see the Charlatans.

He was the first person who put me up.

And I stayed at his house.

And we listened to people's records.

And talked about how we were gonna change the world.

We talked about all that, all the way through, you know, the times of making records.

And... with Tellin' Stories, you know, he's on a lot of the recordings.

We tried to keep as much of his stuff intact as we could.

And... yeah.

He's always gonna be a part of that record.

He's always gonna be a part of Rockfield.

He died there, you know.

He's always gonna be a part of the Rockfield story.

[Tim] And I think some of his ashes are scattered there as well.

But... you know.

He's not gone, he's just in a different dimension, yeah.

[man] One, two, one, two.

-[drum sticks tapping] -[man] One, two, three... [upbeat music] [Mark] He's playing tonight.

It's... we... from those times, we... we run, like, little samples and loops.

And Rob's been on tour with us since... since he died.

[rock music] Feels quite confident, you know, when we're playing.

Every night that we play, they're still playing.

♪ Pleased to meet you ♪ The isolation and the place allowed us to create our own world.

And... and we captured...

The rooms allowed us to capture that.

And... and...

I'm forever grateful about that.

I love it.

There's so many amazing memories there.

And it's such a positive place.

[light music] [cows mooing] [Chris] As I remember, it was 1999.

We had just been students and then after that, we were cleaners a bit.

We had never recorded out of London before.

We had never really recorded before, to be honest.

We'd done one session a few months before in London.

Which hadn't gone so well.

So we were going there, it was kind of a make or break session.

[Guy] I think we knew... absolutely nothing about Rockfield before we went there.

And I...

I mean, I remember so vividly when we turned up and we drove down, it was like a little landmade road.

And there was cows.

And I sort of wondered what on earth we were doing there.

So it was our first real dip into a proper recording studio.

And we'd heard that the Stone Roses had spent about two and a half years there, or something like that.

Or maybe more.

[Chris] By the time we got to Rockfield... it was like, this is your chan... you know, we'd been given kind of six months to get used to being signed and stuff.

And then our label were like, "You've gotta, kind of, make it happen now."

So it was very much, like, some sort of musical Hogwarts.

You know, we were sent away to figure it out.

We were recording a song called "Shiver".

And we went outside to have like a breather.

And it was just so beautiful outside.

All four of us were outside and Ken.

And he was like, "Look up there, lads."

"Look at the stars."

He literally said, "Look at the stars," which is the first line of that song.

And it was really mind-blowing.

We'd been in London for like, five years.

So we hadn't really seen... anything beyond smog for a while.

So that line was in my head.

And then I was thinking... about how Neil Young sings the word "stars", like... [in Canadian accent] ...stars... stars.

Like, he does a sort of bend in it.

So then I went back in to try and do this acoustic.

So...

So normal tuning... [strums] That isn't it.

[laughs] We had this song called "Shiver" which is like this.

[plays melody] Which is like an attempt at a Jeff Buckley song.

And we were recording that.

Anyway, I went back in to sit behind the control desk, mixing desk, waiting.

And something was wrong.

With the machine, so I was waiting.

And I saw... [strums] Then I like... then... then... then that chord...

I started doing that.

And then I started thinking about Neil Young.

And I was like... [in Canadian accent] ...stars... [laughs] I was just messing around.

This is really the very humble beginnings.

♪ For you ♪ Then I tried like a... That's a normal chord shape.

[strums chord] But it sounds different in this tuning.

I don't even know what that chord is.

I was just doing that.

[strums chords] Then I got the title from the Yellow Pages which was about... 45-degree angle over there.

They were all...

I was looking for a word with... [makes elongated sound] Yellow.

So then I went and I thought, "Oh, I like this."

So then I went through... everyone else was watching football, I think.

And I went and I said, "Guys, what do you think about this?"

And they were like, "Yeah, it's okay."

They weren't particularly interested.

And then I went into the bathroom in the... living room area.

And then the chorus came.

♪ Your skin Oh, yeah, your skin and bones ♪ And then I showed them that and they were like, "Yeah, we like that."

It gave us our lives.

For the last 16 years.

[Chris] One, two, three, go.

-[music increases] -[cheering] ♪ Look at the stars ♪ ♪ Look how they shine for you ♪ ♪ And everything you do ♪ ♪ Yeah, they were all yellow ♪ What's it about?

Oh, I don't know.

Just someone awesome.

[interviewer] Was it about someone specific?

No.

Most of our songs are about someone or something awesome.

Whether that's a person, or a girl, or a child, or an entity... or a figurative way of speaking about the earth.

We're always banging on about love and amazingness.

And I think we always will.

♪ What a thing to've done ♪ ♪ And it was all yellow ♪ [Guy] I think that session at Rockfield helped us... kind of solidify... who we were and what we were trying to do as a band.

The sound of our first album really came from Rockfield studios.

In that, sort of, back to basics mentality that was imposed upon us there.

Well, good songs will always be written all over the place.

But I think what is changing is that studios are going out of business all over the world.

[Will] Because of the ease of which you can now record on computers and what not.

And also, there's not that many people willing to put a band of four, kind of, just post teenagers, in a... you know, an expensive studio situation.

And let them stay there for a month and see what happens, you know.

Not that many record companies are taking risks like that.

[camera shutters clicking] [Ozzy] Rockfield will always be a part of my making.

We started Black Sabbath there.

I started my solo career there.

I can go and live in Beverly Hills, but for some reason, I end up back in Monmouth.

It all helps to create what we did.

It's... it's just... magic.

[Liam] I...

I loved being in residential studios.

I f*****g loved it.

You're a proper band, aren't you, when you're there.

Who knows, man.

Music's done different now.

I do a lot of my stuff, f*****g... through e-mails, man.

You know, they f*****g e-mail you the drums these days.

And go, "Oh, I'll e-mail you the f*****g, hi-hat."

In ten years' time, you've got... half a tune done.

-It's just... -It's a bit more old school.

Where's the vibe in that?

You know what I mean?

[Martin] Well, I'm still... struggling on.

Trying to make records and... write songs.

[interviewer] Where do you do it now?

Up in my loft, yeah.

[Martin] Well, I can do anything up there that we did in... in Rockfield.

[John] Nowadays, with equipment, you know, for recording, all we need is a laptop, really.

When you're recording on a computer, you know, your song can be performed perfectly.

It might take you a good few weeks tweaking it and fiddling around and stuff, but it does have the potential for perfection.

[John] But perfection is not always what you want.

You want something that has emotion and feeling.

You have to capture some magic.

And some mystery, you know.

Magic is mystery as well, you know.

There's often, you know, something, maybe the Stone Roses record, there's a lot of mystery about it.

Which is why people still listen to it.

[Mark] Since... since our time at Rockfield, we built our own place.

Kind of to try and give ourselves... that same sort of freedom.

It's not as good as Rockfield.

No way.

[Tim] But I like to make records.

And I'm really passionate about making records.

Charles and Kingsley were really passionate about making recording studios.

And making them the best studios in the world.

And... and they have achieved that.

[camera shutter clicking] [Charles] We were very, very lucky.

But... we turned the recording world upside down.

[bass playing] [distant singing] ♪ Charming little woman ♪ ♪ Who can set a man to ride, Charming little woman ♪ ♪ Who can hoax And coax you too ♪ ♪ Who can beat you Black and blue ♪ ♪ Who can love you better too Charming little woman ♪ [Eliza] I was so excited about, about being here, because of mainly Queen, to be honest.

[interviewer] Have you encountered Kingsley and Ann?

[Eliza] I have, I've met them.

We met Kingsley yesterday morning.

And he was out riding around on his tractor.

And he was very, sort of, grumpy about... people coming to sit on the wonderwall.

And then he rode past on his tractor and got a massive puncture.

[mimics air pop] Like that.

[laughs] And... yeah.

He's been fabulously grumpy, the whole time we've been here, actually, grumpy and also welcoming and full of stories.

[slow music] [sheep bleating] [Kingsley] We work seven days a week, as we always have done.

We're a leisure based company today.

We do a lot of holiday lets.

We do a lot of masterclasses.

And recording.

We're the milking stool.

We're the milking stool that's always on three legs.

If you stand on one leg, you fall over.

Two legs, no good.

Four legs, you will rock.

But three legs, you're steady.

'Cause you can't rock.

The holiday lets cannot believe their good luck when they come.

Because I give them the tour.

They're so amazed at where they are.

That they can't believe it.

[light music] No fighting.

No fighting.

Don't have a go at me.

[Lisa] My mum always says the animals are her sanity.

You know, because there is something wonderful about beginning and ending your day with animals.

Whether that be, you know, feeding the cows first thing in the morning, letting the chickens out first thing in the morning.

Walking the dogs, mucking out the stables.

And then at the end of the day, I get the horses settled for the night in the stables.

Beginning and ending the day with animals, for me anyway.

And I think it's the same for my parents, definitely.

And my sister.

I just think that, you know, nature is a leveller.

It's grounding, it centres you.

And I think... and I think that's really important somewhere here.

It's about being a part of something way bigger than you.

You're a part of something else, rather than just it.

Very important for rock stars.

[laughs] When you go and do something with your life, never give in, keep going.

The best is yet to come.

["How Long?"

by Ace playing] ♪ How long ♪ ♪ Has this been going on?

♪ ♪ How long ♪ ♪ Has this been going on?

♪ ♪ Well, if friends with Their fancy persuasions ♪ ♪ Don't admit that It's part of a scheme ♪ ♪ But I can't help But have my suspicions ♪ ♪ Cause I ain't quite as dumb As I seem ♪ ♪ And you say You was never intending ♪ ♪ To break up our scene This way ♪ ♪ But there ain't any use In pretending ♪ ♪ It could happen to us Any day ♪ ♪ How long ♪ ♪ Has this been going on?

♪ ♪ How long ♪ ♪ Has this been going on?

♪ [music continues]