ROCK LEGENDS AT ROCKFIELD -- latest extract -- from chpt 10 - the 90's

Rock Legends at Rockfield -- latest extract Chapt 10
ROCK LEGENDS AT ROCKFIELD Out on Sept 15th.

Hi here's the latest extract from my book ROCK LEGENDS AT ROCKFIELD.
Its from chapter 10 -- the 90's featuring Oasis and The Stone Roses etc.

Oasis were riding the crest of a wave. Now settled at Rockfield, the band were enjoying making the follow-up record, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? Photographer and close friend Michael Spencer Jones recalls the camaraderie and high spirits, both in the studio and socially.
‘I remember one night, at 11 o clock, we were at a loose end, when we heard some music coming from one of the cottages at the Studios. So we went down there to check it out, and went in, thinking it must be a party. And inside there’s a guy playing a fiddle in the corner in the midst of this Country and Western, thigh slapping kind of atmosphere. I thought to myself “Oh yeah! That’s pretty good fiddle playing.” It turns out that the guy sitting in the corner playing fiddle was Nigel Kennedy, the popular classical musician. So there was a bit of bonding with Nigel, who is a top geezer. A couple of days later, we arranged a football match. The Nigel Kennedy All-Stars versus Oasis. So we went down to the local football pitch in Monmouth to play against them and our jaws dropped when Nigel Kennedy’s team turned up in a pink strip. We were all playing in jeans and t-shirts - just a scruffy rock ‘n’ roll band and their mates! But Nigel’s lot were wearing this specially made pink kit to play in. It didn’t do them any good as we won. Bassist Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan and Liam were very good at football, so we ended up hammering them something like 6-1. There was plenty of bonding going on that day. And it was fun for us in the studio too. One day, after Paul McGuigan had had a haircut at the studio, I remember the producer, Owen Morris, doing impersonations of the Gallacher brothers by gathering up huge amounts of the cut hair and sticking it above his eyes to form these monstrous eyebrows! We were in hysterics at that.
**********************************************************************************Producer John Leckie admits he was baffled when the Stone Roses failed to show up on time at Rockfield for record their new single.
‘We were meant to start on Monday. So I got down on Sunday evening – the night before - to get everything ready. I had an engineer, a programmer, all the roadies and the equipment. They all came down with me on Sunday evening. So after work that night, we all had dinner expecting the band to turn up the next morning. But Monday went by and nothing happened. We couldn’t get in contact with anyone. There were very few mobile phones back then and we just got answering machines everywhere we called. Then on Tuesday after dinner - 48 hours later – just as we were all agreeing that we might as well go home, the door burst open and the Stone Roses fell in. All 4 of them were covered from head-to-toe in blue and white paint. They trod paint footprints all over the carpet and they just sat down on the settee and the floor. Then they told us what they done. They had just plastered their old record company in paint. It was all over the release of Sally Cinnamon, which was recorded by an earlier incarnation of the band long before they had success with the first album. Now the Roses were “The next big thing” this company re-released Sally Cinnamon and claimed it was the Roses new record. That angered them! The band took them to court, but they lost. The record company owner had a contract and so it was perfectly legal for him to re-release the song. So the band were full of frustration and took their revenge. They had obviously been plotting this for a long time and did it on their way down to Rockfield. They’d bought tins of paint and basically threw it all over his offices in Wolverhampton, and cars in the car park. They caused thousands of pounds of damage. I knew the police would be on their way soon, but I wasn’t going to let the session be wrecked, as we’d been there for 2 days and had all the equipment set up. So I said “Come on. Let’s hear what you’ve got. Let’s hear this new song.” I hadn’t actually heard the demo yet or anything. And so they went out to the studios, still with paint on their clothes and in their hair, and played me the 2 songs they had. I put them down on tape and then after the session, we stayed up, messed around and went to bed around 3 o’clock in the morning. Then at 8am the police arrived at Rockfield, arrested the band and took them away back to the Midlands.’
The Stone Roses appeared in court and were found guilty of criminal damage, having thrown paint over the offices of Revolver records and vandalised 2 cars. They were fined 3 thousand pounds plus costs.
But the single One Love and its B side Something’s Burning made number 4 in the UK charts.

ROCK LEGENDS AT ROCKFIELD is out on Sept 15th.
It's now availabe for pre-order on Amazon and from all good book stores.

JEFF COLLINS