Snorkie Release on D*Fusion Records

I was signed to ‘Amato Disco’ and had to travel down to London for recording sessions.

Meanwhile, my partner was becoming frustrated with living in rural Herefordhsire, so, I suggested she take ‘time out’ and join a friend who was about to explore Canada after finishing Universisty.

Contact was extremely difficult due to the vast distance between us, there were no mobile phones and no permanent address. After a couple of weeks I decided to join her, not wanting to miss out on the fun.

I managed to quickly scrape together the cash, and within a week, the tickets were bought, passport renewed and backpack & sleeping bags borrowed from my brother. The record album was put on hold, and some of my music equipment had to be sold to fund the trip.

Hawkwind

The Lakes from above

On the flight across, members of legendary space-rock band ‘Hawkwind’ were on the flight, and their groupies were getting drunk. We chatted and I handed them a demo tape of a friend’s band.

We touched down in Toronto and the coach soon departed for the city centre, I was greeted with cross town traffic, bumper to bumper.

The wide busy lanes reached out to the impressive hazy skyscraper horizon. I alighted at the busy downtown district and, racing through busy streets of suited office workers, with my heavy back pack on, beads of sweat dripped from my forehead. Would I make the last train to Montreal to meet my partner? She was keen to move on and I had no ‘plan B’.

The Wrong Backpack!

I missed the last train.. and the last bus, not only that, I had picked up the wrong back pack in the airport.

Hawkwind Spacerock

I resigned myself to catching the midnight coach and left a message with my partner’s youth hostel to inform her of the delay.

At the ticket office, I reached into the backpack to retrieve my wallet, but in its place there was a beige bikini top? It was an identical bag but with a Maple Leaf sewn on to the front – the thing had been on my back since the Airport.. I had collected someone elses flippin backpack!

Luckily, I had several hours before my new departure, enough time to hoof it back to the terminal and swap it for the right one. As I approached lost property, I was unnerved to see Hawkwind waiting there, thankfully, not for the bag I had picked up. The band’s guitars had gone missing.

I finally caught my midnight bus, and I awoke to a huge and intense sunrise as we cruised into the Montreal suburbs. I flicked through the radio stations on my Walkman for company, and as daylight broke, the neon signs blurred through the misty windows of the coach.

Montreal

Montreal Sunrise

To my great relief, my partner arrived at the bus station with a large grin on her face, we hugged, and then began the short walk back to the youth hostel.

The hostel was a basement of a hotel, and as I descended into the darkness of the male dorm, a smell of sweaty feet and farts overwhelmed me, bodies lay beneath a stillness of bed sheets in the crisp Canadian heat. My first job was to open a tiny window hidden behind security bars; the morning sunlight, and warm summer air, christened the stale fausty room!

Heatwave

There was a heatwave in Canada that year, and I discovered that you could run a cold tap as long as you liked in Montreal and it would still run warm, but I soon acclimatised to the heat, the city was alive, waiting to be explored!

Jello Jazz Bar

We toured bars and clubs at night, from dingy rock venues to dodgy hip hop joints, where the local rude-boys carried walking sticks and danced around them- we visited some great bars, playing cutting edge house music and drum & bass! Montreal is a diverse musical city. Rockerfella Skank by ‘Fatboy Slim’ had just been released and it could be heard everywhere.

We toured the city by day, sampling crepes and sipping coffee at the foot of skyscrapers, we walked parks and viewed the city from up high. But time was passing, and we decided to head back to Toronto.

Coach House @ Rockfield

Upon leaving high school, my dream was to work in a recording studio, so I decided to approach local studio owner ‘Kingsley Ward’ for a work placement. It was extremely difficult to get work in this field, but after a patient autumn, I eventually received a call, asking me if I could start for a trial.

The day of my interview, the singer from Neds Atomic Dustbin walked across the courtyard, eating a banana, I knew this was the place to be! I was also shown the piano that Freddie Mercury composed Bohemian Rhapsody on while ‘bumming’ around the studios during the 1970s.

The place was rambling, and the outside farmyard views could not prepare you for the ’state of the art’ studios inside. To a 16 year old lad, It was like being inside a space control centre.

The Charlatans

The Charlatans

I started off as a trainee tape operator, with one of my favourite indie bands of the time ‘The Charlatans’. I can remember sitting in awe of the band, being asked to make tea & coffee for band members and the producer.. I was a bit panic stricken as I couldn’t remember all the different requests; some with sugar, some without, white, black, strong, weak, and so on. I delivered the tray shaking slightly, sitting there watching them drink my brew.

It was like a dream working those early days, moving the lead weight tape reels around, narrowly escaping getting crushed by the portable sound proof walls, setting up microphones, watching and listening to the endless rehearsals and band banter.

In Between 10th & 11th

In Between 10th & 11th

The album we worked on was ‘In Between 10th & 11th’, and although the studio takes were raw and rocky, the finished product was mixed down very synthy.

I remember one time, being totally bollocked by FLUD, for playing my own dance music demo over the studio speakers, just as the band were rolling in for a days recording, it was my first effort at ‘Rave music’ created on a Commodore Amiga, that track ended up getting played on Radio.

Rob’s Departure

Charlatans

The band returned to Rockfield in later years, and Woodside Studios down the road, to record subsequent albums. I took a copy of my first white label record down for Tim some years later; when he was getting into DJing.

The band were sitting on a table in front of a signed picture on the wall, which showed them posing with Rob. The atmosphere was a bit sombre as we sat there sipping our beers, Rob was much missed, but I am sure he was around ‘in spirit’.

I still see the band on the odd oaccasion, and it’s nice to see they’re still the same old ‘down-to-earth’ group of guys that I remember from my days at Rockfield.

Black Sabbath Practical Joke

Black Sabbath

By the time Black Sabbath came to work at Rockfield I had reached seventeen, the L.A. riots had kicked off and Freddie Mercury had died.. Both events were watched in the studios by bands recording there at the time.

I don’t think I really understood the importance of Black Sabbath back then, and being into rave and techno music, heavy metal was not something that really inspired me. Their eerie sounds would drift out of the studios, as I waited in the winter darkness for my brother to collect me in his battered old Ford Escort.

Tony Iommi & Ozzy Osbourne 1977

I wasn’t supposed to be working with the band, however, on this occasion, I was lounging on the sofa while the band were telling dodgy stories of their hedonistic days. I had gained a reputation as a ‘space-cadet’ by the band, as I didn’t really say much and often drifted into my own little world.

Tony Iommi asked me if I could go and check the large, powerful speakers in the sound proofed studio in front of the mixing console. I trotted down and my voice came over the main studio speakers, “what do you want me to do?”  Tony’s voice came back over the monitor speakers, “there’s a buzz coming out of that speaker, can you check it please?”

Paris Angels – Not From Paris And Not Angelic

Perfume - Paris Angels

Some of the bands I worked with at Rockfield were: The Charlatans, Black Sabbath, The Damned, Crush, Naked Truth, Clannad, Kinky Machine, Paris Angels, Pop Will Eat Itself, Saw Doctors, X.T.C., Rumblefish and various other soloists.

The Paris Angels were another favourite band of the time, these guys were from the “MadchEster” indie scene and we got on really well, there were a lot of them, and certain band members were often up to mischief, the drummer was usually after Marlboro Reds!

They were often back and forth to Manchester. The sad thing is, that E.P. they were working on never made it to release, they were really very talented but a little unorganised, much to the frustration of the Sound Engineer at the time. I seem to remember him puffing on a lot of roll ups.

Their track ‘Perfume’ is possibly one of my all time top songs from that era.

Captain Sensible & The Damned

The Damned

I knew about one Damned song but not much else, so when I was told I would be working with them I couldn’t really relate.

I walked into the living quarter early one morning to discover pellet holes in the walls. The clock on the wall had pellet holes in the plastic cover too. I took the clock off the wall and the pellets rolled around inside like a cheap travel game, I think Mr Sensible had gone crazy with a ball bearing gun the night before. This kind of behaviour was normal for some bands. He must have been quite bored, or maybe angry (I remember PWEI smashing up a guitar for fun).

Music Calling

Bad Manners

Towards the end of my time at Rockfield, I found myself drifting into my own music more and more, I ended up day dreaming about being in the band rather than behind the mixing desk.

Bands came and went and I was starting to dream of pastures new.

Rockfield was an experience that I will always remember, and I feel lucky and grateful to have lived that dream.

Oasis Vs Stone Roses

Ian Brown

After I left, Oasis and The Stone Roses recorded some of their best material at the studios, and I still keep an eye out for albums being recorded there now.

We often saw Ian Brown and The Gallagher’s around Monmouth.

In my opinion, Rockfield is one of the finest recording studios in the world.. Through it’s idyllic location, the warm friendly staff and a rich musical heritage. I hope that the studios remain popular and stay vibrant and ‘used’, they have already helped shape Britain’s audio identity, and the bands just keep rolling in through the doors.

Well it’s finally arrived!!! – After a few months of twiddling and reworking… ‘Woman (She Want My Money)’ is winging its way around the globe again on home grown label ‘Music For The People’.

‘Woman’ was first conceived back in 1997/98 when I was living in Symonds Yat West, England. I was signed to D*Fusion Records in London and had already released ‘Long Board Blues’. The MD liked the ‘Woman’ demo and I spent several days in an East End studio working on an acid jazz ‘live’ mix with an Italian house music producer named Marco.

The mixes were raw and funky, created on my little Amiga 600 computer. It wasn’t easy translating the track to a professional recording studio but the end results were pleasing. The studios were owned by ‘Paul Weller’ and we had ‘Shola Ama’ recording upstairs, a really nice vibe and cool studios.

Eastern Bloc Canada 1998

The mixes were finished and I sent an album’s worth of material to D*Fusion for them to digest, however, an epic journey to Canada was calling and I sold my entire studio in a week, to embark on a jouney, thousands of miles away.

Summer of 1998, I backpacked from East to West across Canada with my partner and I took with me a remix of ‘Woman’ on cassette by my friend Sam. The MD from D*Fusion hooked me up with the manager of Eastern Bloc Records in Toronto and, after an interesting meeting and (not) getting us on Industry guest list, he agreed to distribute the record should we ever get it pressed… when we finally returned to the UK, it took me a while to settle and the demo was once again put on hold.

A year or so later, I bought back the equipment I had sold to visit Canada, and tentatively fired up the studio in Herefordshire again. I revisited ‘Woman’ and sent off a few remixes to various places such as Catskills Records (who were interested), but it just wasn’t strong enough.

A Promo Makes It To Vinyl 2002

In 2002, Sam got back on the case and we spent a few intense weekends in the studio.
Sam’s mate ‘Dave Cotterill’ had played some nice guitar over another track and I suggested we try it over ‘Woman’. As soon as Sam laid it down we knew it was the final touch to a great mix. We released it ourselves in 2002 on Sam’s ‘Steppin’ Stone’ Records as a promo 45 vinyl release; just breaking even.

It had a review in Muzik Mag stating “Put it on an advert and it’ll reach number three in the charts” (click here to read).
It was played across the world with little or no promotion with two of the fans being ‘Tim “Love” Lee’ and ‘Ursula 1000′ both in New York.

Time fleets by, and end of last year, Sam and I decided to really push the music out there again. With plenty of new ideas and pending releases in the wings, what better track to kick things off with than a re-visited version of ‘Woman’.

A Full Release For ‘Woman’ 2009

And so, again, on Sam’s label, and funded by us… we have released ‘Woman’ (semi) officially and this little record continues to beat it’s own path around the world.
So far, ‘Woman’ has: reached number 2 in the Juno Records download ‘single chart’, featured as “Record Of The Week” at Manchester’s ‘Fat City Records, been playlisted on Nemone’s BBC Radio 6 weekly afternoon show (click here to listen), plugged on ‘Tim love Lee’s’ East Village radio show straight outta New York (click here to listen), playlisted ’prime time’ on Craig Charles’ Saturday night funk show on BBC Radio 6 (click here to listen) and was used as the opening track to a recent Don Letts radio broadcast also on BBC radio 6.

Woman Spinnin’ Into The Future…

The psychedelic-hip hop ‘B’ side to the original promo was used as backing to BBC Manchester United Ball Skills DVD ‘Play Like Champions’ which was distributed worldwide, and this time around, the ‘B’ side ‘Where Stars Are Born’ (click here to watch) is equally as heavy.

I handed a copy of the first mixes to ‘Afrika Bambaataa’ some years back and this week, friends ‘Roy Roast Beef’ and ‘Rick’, of Birmingham DJ night ‘Funk Box’, handed a copy to ‘Maceo’ from De La Soul… so this mash-up really has done the rounds over the years and I wonder where it will travel next? or where it’s already been? maybe another dimension!?!

‘Woman’ is now available on 45 vinyl (best quality) and also digital download via Juno Records (only)… (On Youtube), it is now also available on a Universal Records chillout compilation ‘Ram Cafe 4′, along side the likes of Belleruche, Mayer Hawthorne, Nitin Sawhney, Amy Winehouse and Jose Feliciano.