Rockfield Studios
Amberley Court, Rockfield Road, Monmouth
Rockfield Studios is one of only a few surviving independent recording studios from the sixties, and probably the only one that is still in its original location and under the same ownership. It was, and still is, a family-run business with a simple philosophy: a great location that has always provided the right environment to record live musicians.
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History
It was set up by brothers Charles Ward and Kingsley Ward in 1964 on their family farm in Wales. The brothers started out as musicians, playing the pubs and clubs of Wales in the early sixties. They soon found themselves with a recording deal and travelling to London, where they met Joe Meek and briefly worked in his studio flat, recording and engineering.
Their trips to London had demystified the recording process and they realised they could record themselves, as long as they had the necessary equipment. This led to the idea of setting up their own studio back home in Wales and a philosophy of “we’ll do it ourselves, our own way”. That independent approach would remain largely unchanged over the coming decades and lead not only to the studio’s survival..— when most of its London competitors had fallen by the wayside — but also to a fantastic catalogue of recordings spanning six decades that would be the envy of most studios.
It started as a small demo studio in the main farmhouse attic featuring a Rosser desk, a Ferrograph tape machine (followed by a Philips valve two-track) and a few bits of outboard. By 1965, accommodation was provided so the studio could give itself the official title of ‘residential’.
It was also named ‘Future Sounds Ltd, not Rockfield!
“I name this studio... Rockfield”
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The studios was only officially christened ‘Rockfield’ in 1967, when Dave Edmunds came in one day and pointed out the fact that the local village name was perhaps perfect as a studio name. It was such an obvious and fitting title that nobody could understand why it had not been thought of before. Dave Edmunds would provide a second essential landmark in the history of the studios a few years later.
