Rockfield Studios

The entrance to the studios

Constructed in 1968, The Coach House includes a large 150-square-metre live area with stone walls, a wooden ceiling, and a Yamaha grand piano. Additionally, it has a stone drum room, an acoustically variable second drum room, and two isolation booths. Recording equipment is based around a customised Neve 8128 recording console with vintage outboard processing, including Neve 1060 microphone amps, Rockfield's original Rosser Electronics microphone amps, API 550 equalisers and UREI 1176 compressors.[2][3]

Artists who have recorded in The Coach House include Oasis,[4] Bullet for My Valentine, Sepultura, Jayce Lewis, Simple Minds and Opeth.

Constructed in 1973, The Quadrangle has a total of 170 square metres of recording space spread between the main area with Bösendorfer grand piano, two large variable acoustic drum rooms and three isolation booths. Recording equipment in the central control room is based around an MCI 500 Series in-line mixing console with outboard processing, including Neve 1061 microphone amps, Rockfield's original Rosser Electronics microphone amps, API 550 equalisers, and UREI 1176 compressors.[2][3]

Best known for the recording of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", The Quadrangle has hosted such notable artists as Manic Street Preachers, Robert Plant, Shop Front Heroes, and Coldplay.

The Ward family bought Amberley Court Farm in Rockfield in the early 1950s. Originally a Shire horse breeding centre, they ran it as a livestock farm, with 500 pigs and a herd of milking cows.[5]

Brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward were educated at Abergavenny Grammar School. While there Charles got into the early rock and roll music of Elvis Presley and began playing an acoustic guitar that he purchased for £5. In 1960 the brothers formed a band named the Charles Kingsley Combo and Kingsley wrote a couple of songs, which the brothers recorded using a tape deck borrowed from a local businessman.[6] Deciding to pursue a record deal, the brothers drove to EMI's pressing plant in Middlesex, London, but were redirected to the label's offices in Manchester Square where, on that same day without an appointment they met producer George Martin. Martin decided not to sign the brothers, but noted that the reason he was compelled to take the meeting was because they were the first artists he had seen bring a portable reel-to-reel tape deck.[3][5]

The Ward brothers returned to London the following year and met with Joe Meek at his studio. Meek signed them, and the brothers recorded songs as The Charles Kingsley Creation and as The Thunderbolts while observing Meek's studio techniques. Back home, the brothers set up a recording studio in an attic space with a Rosser Electronics mixing console and a Ferrograph tape machine. In 1961 the brothers began recording local bands in their studio, which they named Future Sounds Ltd, charging £5 per acetate.[7]

In 1963 the Ward brothers converted an existing farmhouse into a recording studio by investing in an 8-track tape deck and lining it with pig feed bags to create sound deadening.[3][8] In 1965, they became the world's first residential studio, set up so that bands could come and stay in the peaceful rural surroundings to record.[1]

The first big hit recorded in the studios was Dave Edmunds' "I Hear You Knocking" in 1970.[1] In the early 1970s, the studios were used to record seven albums by Budgie, several by Hawkwind, one by Hobo, Peter Hammill's second solo album Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night in 1973, Ace's hit single "How Long" in 1974, and Queen's album Sheer Heart Attack. Queen first worked on developing their album A Night at the Opera and the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" for a month at Ridge Farm Studio during the summer of 1975,[9] then moved to Rockfield in August 1975 to begin recording the album, which became the band's first Platinum-selling album in the US.[10] Motörhead made their first recordings at the studios in 1975 and were, briefly, signed to the Rockfield record label.[8] Cyril Jordan of the Flamin' Groovies (who recorded at Rockfield several times between 1972 and 1978) said in 2014, "We thought Rockfield was the new Sun recording studios."[11]

As the trend moved from rock music of the 1970s and 1980s to the electronic music of the 1990s, which had a far greater use of technology and could almost be produced from a bedroom, the need for space and complex analogue recording systems reduced. Rockfield also faced more competition, with many of the main recording labels creating their own residential recording studios, such as Virgin's "The Manor".[5] With the Rockfield company facing dire financial consequences, the Ward brothers decided to split the farm, with Kingsley retaining the Rockfield half, whilst Charles refurbished a semi-derelict manor house on the opposite side of the valley to create Monnow Valley Studio.[5]

Facing financial difficulties, and with his wife Anne working full-time as a book keeper, Kingsley was approached by friend and record producer John Leckie to record the first album of Manchester band The Stone Roses.[5] Resident for 14 months to record both their first and second albums, the band saved the studio financially. The band's residency created interest from other bands, resulting in recording sessions for other bands including Oasis.[5]

During a 12-month period in 1996–97, Rockfield sessions resulted in five UK number one albums, by Oasis, Ash, Black Grape, The Charlatans and the Boo Radleys.[1]

In July 2020 the documentary Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm, directed by Hannah Berryman, was broadcast by BBC Four.[12]

Charles Ward died on 27 July 2022.[13]