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Re: Randy Lesson Plans & More (Rare) (Updated 18/11/2006)

Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 1:33 pm
by mojopin70
Hi Shaun yeah its a little confusing right here goes ill try to explain it. Rockfield studios was owned by two brothers later one of the brothers left this studio and bought the house in Randys postcard and it became a rehearsal place for bands who would later go back down the road to Rockfield studios and record . Rockfield is less than 1 mile from the " house". The house later became a recording studio too but confusingly was known as "part of rockfield studios" .In fact when Bob first told me this it confused the fuck out of me because i had only ever known Rockfield studios and heard of Monnow Valley Studios as it was later called .Back when Bob and Randy were there it was just called " the house" or part of Rockfield.

Just for the record Bob and Randy didnt go back down the road to Rockfield studios to record they in fact went to Clearwell Castle to do pre production which is about 15/20 mins away before eventually recording at Ridge Farm which is about 2 hours away down in Surrey.

The bands that went to the " house/Monnow valley" in the 70s didnt record there, they basically wrote and did pre production Queen did quite a lot of writing there Freddie Mercury used to go jogging up down the farm track and became good friends with the local farmer lol

Heres a list of some of the others over the years : Over the last 30 years, our clients have included:

Oasis, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Coral, Pulp, Stereophonics, The Charlatans, The Datsuns, EMF, Super Furry Animals, Breed 77, Biffy Clyro, Oceansize, Rush, The Answer, Spiritulaized, Manic Street Preachers, Iggy Pop, Billy Bragg, The Crimea, Portishead, The Automatic, Tindersticks, Cooper Temple Clause, Queen, Judas Priest, Cradle of Filth, Catatonia, Robert Plant, GLC, The Levellers, The Damned, Fell City Girl, Tony Iommi, Glen Hughes, The Darkness,
Snowfight In The City Centre, Future Of The Left, People in Planes, Blood Red Shoes, The View, The Maybes?, Brigade, The Pigeon Detectives, Dan Dunne & The Reels, Herborg, Nathalie Nordnes, Jakobinarina, The Hot Puppies, Elliott Minor, Los Campesinos, The Enemy, Broken Records, Slaves To Gravity, Sky Larkin, Bullet For My Valentine, The Last Republic, Hip Parade, Attack Attack!, Golden Silvers, The Smoke Fairies, Tommy Tokyo & Starving For My Gravy, Funeral For A Friend, Heaven & Hell, Led Bib, Favez, Expatriate, Joss Stone, Yes Sir Boss, Deadbeat Darling, Pulled Apart By Horses, Cold Specks, 2:54, The Crave, Jorn Lande, Fredrika Stahl, Sylosis, Delphic, Morning Parade, Frightened Rabbit, Bleed From Within, Lostprophets...

As you can see Ozzy Osbourne isnt included but thats because the owners of the studio didnt even know Ozzy/Randy/Bob/Lee had been there back in 79 and 81 until you showed me the postcard and i had spoken to Bob and finally Frank.

Bob goes into this part of the Blizzard history quite a bit in his book im told and there are photos etc.Its run by a friend and his sister now which is a complete coincidence ive seen Randys room and had a good look around the house and even did a bit of recording there this year with a band.

Heres a picture i took a few weeks ago when i was up there.....

Re: Randy Lesson Plans & More (Rare) (Updated 18/11/2006)

Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 4:10 pm
by GUITARIDOL5682
Cheers Nic an impressive list of stars, some old and some new. I remember Motorhead's Phil Campbell mentioned they did some rehearsals at Rockfield and they met up with Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers when they were doing rehearsals and recording with 'the Firm' back in the mid 80's. Do you know if the place ever had a guest book for the stars to sign. That could hold alot of past history, if one does exsist. It may have went with the previous owners, it would be worth tracking down.

Re: Randy Lesson Plans & More (Rare) (Updated 18/11/2006)

Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 6:01 pm
by mojopin70
Hi Shaun yes ive seen the guest book for Rockfield but it was a " newer one" it had bands like The Stone Roses in it and Oasis etc...

The house/ Monnow Valley never had a guest book as far as we could work out though....actually Bob would be able to answer that one :)

Re: Randy Lesson Plans & More (Rare) (Updated 18/11/2006)

Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 6:19 pm
by GUITARIDOL5682
I know they signed the guest book at Ridge farm as its in the RR Klein / Rosen book well a photo of the page. It has cartoon pics of Randy, Lee,Ozzy & Bob a cool item to see.so i'm prity sure Rockcliffe would of had a guest book back in the early 70's - 80's too many known faces going in and out etc. Plus they always praise the facilities and the hospitality etc. So it's a good advert for passing trade and potential clients. Saying that someone may have it stashed away. I seen one from the Glasgow apollo that was full of great acts, someone had split it up and sold it on ebay.

Re: Randy Lesson Plans & More (Rare) (Updated 18/11/2006)

Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 4:12 pm
by GUITARIDOL5682
After you posted up the list of bands who've recorded / rehearsed at Rockfield. It rang a few bells and i can remember reading the book Rush - 'Success under pressure' by Steve Gett. I found the chapter and it mentions that they recorded and wrote both 'A Farewell to Kings' and 'Hemispheres' at the studio. Another two classic iconic albums for the band very much like Ozzy's debut albums with Blizzard. Rockfield has been responsible for some great bands and some very cool albums.

Re: Randy Lesson Plans & More (Rare) (Updated 18/11/2006)

Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 9:34 pm
by mojopin70
Hi Shaun mate Monnow never had a guest book because it was only a rehearsal place back then, you are right though Rockfield does though ive actually seen that but it was around 1993 so it didnt include the 70s artists like Dave Edmunds but had Robert Plant in it and The Stone Roses for example who had been there in the 80s/90s there were probably a couple of guest books but as i said The Blizzard Band werent at Rockfield they were at Monnow Valley when they were writing....

Re: Randy Lesson Plans & More (Rare) (Updated 18/11/2006)

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 2:16 am
by TheMrAxeman
Does anyone still have the rest of the images for this? I can't seem to find them elsewhere.
(The lesson plan images)