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The Legend of Ridge Farm Studio For a quarter of a Century, Ridge Farm welcomed popular music giants such as Queen, Oasis, Muse and Ozzy Osbourne. The studio has now closed, but its unique history makes for an interesting wedding venue...
Towards the end of 1996, Oasis influenced British culture in a way that no other band had done for a generation. The Manchester band’s feud with Blur, the constant bickering between the Gallagher brothers, drug-fuelled bad behaviour and of course some of the greatest rock anthems of the time ensured they were both the heroes and villains of society. The media couldn’t get enough of them. Desperate to escape a tabloid industry in relentless pursuit, Oasis found a studio at a farm in the rural outskirts of Rusper. They retreated to the peace and tranquillity of Ridge Farm Studio to complete the recording of their third album ‘Be Here Now’. Today, a disc to recognise sales of 1,800,000 copies of what remains the UK’s fastest selling album of all time hangs in the corridor of Ridge Farm alongside other gold discs by the likes of Roxy Music, Pearl Jam, Bad Company, OMD and Wet Wet Wet. Yet just five years after the release of Be Here Now, and only two years after Muse recorded what is considered by many to be their best album, Origin of Symmetry, Ridge Farm Studio closed. It is now run as a venue for weddings and functions, where couples can play tennis on the same court used by Freddie Mercury and have breakfast at the table once occupied by The Smiths. You can even stay in ‘The Cottage’ and stand on the balcony where, as legend has it, Sharon Arden threw a Rolex watch belonging to her then-boyfriend Ozzy Osbourne into the pond below. It may still be there… Ridge Farm Studio was established in 1975 by Frank Andrews, who as a lighting technician had toured the UK and across Europe with a number of successful bands including Queen, Bad Company, Rolling
Stones, The Doobie Brothers and Abba. Frank recalls: “One day I came back off tour and my parents were living in a different place, which was here at Ridge Farm. “I started the studio with my brother, Billy, and initially, bands would use it to rehearse. But they would bring mobile recording units as we didn’t have our own studio equipment at that time. “The idea was unique as it was a retreat in the countryside. The cliché of recording a classic rock album in the countryside was very new at that time. Record companies and managers liked it here as they could keep an eye on the band and make sure they got all the work done. “If they didn’t turn up for work someone would go and drag them out of bed! “The first band we had here was Back Street Crawler, set up by Paul Kossoff (formerly of Free) and they were recording
with Ronnie Lane’s mobile unit. We had a bare barn back then, but it took off straight away and we were able to bring bands to Ridge Farm quite quickly. “Queen came here in our first year, as I had toured with them in Europe and Scandinavia. They were relatively unknown at that stage, and that was just at the point where it really took off for them. “They liked it here as they could all focus on what they were doing, and all live together. There was a family atmosphere, and the band would stroll around and play with the dog we had at the time. Queen played a lot of tennis too, and I remember Freddie in particular was very good. “Queen were rehearsing and they actually wrote Bohemian Rhapsody here. There was a nice article in The Telegraph where Roger Taylor talked about that. They were