The Independent looking back at Rochdale in 1996 said.....
"The sublimely wild landscape of the moors that surround Rochdale constructed a mental geography where hippies had bite and punks had soul."
Rochdale by Mark Burgess of The Chameleons
Had it not been for our time in Rochdale The Chameleons, in all likelihood would never have come together. It was while we were enrolled at the college there, that we became re-aquainted after meeting up at a Rochdale College hall gig by The Fall put on by Chris Hewitt, and in the wake of that, the idea of forming a band together seriously began to crystalise.
Cargo Studios just off Drake Street played a mammoth part too. I think we all had at least two records that had been recorded there. Reg and Dave from the band recorded their first single their with their band 'Years', and I'd been in to record a demo with my first Punk band 'The Cliches' around 1978. Later when we got together to form The Chameleons, John Brierley who owned Cargo, was really supportive and gave us cheap sessions and re-mix time so we could record a demo for John Peel,
OMD and Rochdale by Andy McCluskey
The OMD connection with Rochdale firstly comes via Deeply Vale Festival. I performed there with my early band Pegasus in 1977. It was the first time I had ever performed at a festival, indeed really the first gig for me beyond a youth club in a church hall. So that was an experience that would certainly have helped me get my head around what was to eventually come.
I also remember that we were so unprepared that we had no money and no food. Fortunately, there seemed to be some kind of charity soup kitchen going on and we begged a few bowls of what appeared to be cabbage (and nothing else in it) soup. There was a real "all help together" hippy vibe which was wonderful.
My second Rochdale connection -Cargo in Kenion St , Rochdale was the first real studio that OMD ever recorded in.- John Brierley was great and so patient with us. Much less intimidating than Martin Hannett. Always remember the foot pumped harmonium..
Peter Hook of Joy Division New Order on Rochdale - June 2009
"The thing that impressed me most about Rochdale when I first went in October 1978 with Joy Division, was it felt like it had a large musical community, with some great people Based around Cargo Studios, Tractor Music shop and the San Remo cafe! you really felt part of it just by visiting all the above . After I bought Cargo with Chris Hewitt in 1984 and it became Suite 16 I became part of that community too. When you look back over the bands that recorded there and the records that were produced and then went on to influence greatly not only the music business in England but also in the rest of the world too , some great names , Stone Roses, Dave Gedge/Wedding Present, The Fall, Julian Cope/Teardrop Explodes, Inspiral Carpets, The Chameleons, Mock Turtles The Membranes, Dead or Alive, OMD, Rochdale created a big ripple in a big pond."
Memories of Suite 16 Kenion St Rochdale by Radio presenter Clint Boon June 2009
I’ve no idea why this is, but my times in Suite 16 are amongst the clearest memories I have of my experiences with the Inspirals. It was there that we recorded our first ever single, the ‘Planecrash’ ep in April 88 with Dave Fielding (Chameleons) producing and CJ on the desk. It was also the place where we held our last ever recording session, with John Pennington producing, in early 1995. During those 7 or 8 years, we recorded several sessions their, some released, some not.
Before our first session, we’d visited the studio one evening when Laugh were recording (later to become Intastella) and were amazed to see one of our fave local guitar bands playing with drum machines and sequencers… unheard of at that time.
Every second we spent in there, we were totally aware of the building’s history and importance. We constantly discussed the records that had been made there, the artists who’d stood in the live room. An incredible feeling. And a total privilege to be in that space.
New Order’s Emulator sat propped up in the corner. Probably one of the single most important instruments in British music history … along with the Roland drum pads Hooky had used on Top Of The Pops.
Yeah, we were proper fuckin trainspotters. But we loved it. And I believe we added our own little bit to the pageant of beautiful music that was made there.
It’s so exciting that the building is finally being recognised for it’s historical and cultural importance .
Rochdale by Andy Sharrocks- now production manager for Flying Music, London couldn’t come on the day as he was launching production on Thriller at a theatre in Cologne:
Deeply Vale seeds were planted in a hippie commune I myself and others lived after a summer of travelling the countries free festivals. This seed grew at Tractor Music which at the time was on Oldham Road Rochdale as was the commune. One day we had Syd Rawle king of the hippies in the kitchen next day we would have Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds with a young Vinnie Reilly, such were the times.
After the commune fell down I formed Accident On The East Lancs and. recorded two singles We Want It Legalised and Back End of Nowhere at Cargo. Chris Hewitt introduced me to Dave Addison the bass player and Pete Kenyon the drummer, John Brierley (who I had known since I was a kid after my dad helped supply equipment for his first studio for Tractor) managed us for while and we recorded an album Shotguns and Hotshots as a cassette only album. - I often went to Tractor after being up all night and having nowhere else to go, it was cool to hang out there. Deeply Vale would not have got off the ground without the centre base of Tractor Music, it was the only place with a phone for a start
Former Rochdale musician and author and Guardian writer Nick Blincoe
I was fourteen when I bought Dragnet by the Fall. In those days, my money for records came from two sources, a paper round and saving my lunch money. I felt that I could not afford to make mistakes. If I was going to wake at six every morning and then skip lunch it was important that I liked every LP I bought. Thirty years on, I still know every word to every song on Dragnet, though I have no more idea what ‘Muzorewi’s Daughter’ is about than I did then. At fourteen, I had to listen to the record over and over before I began to admire it.
As it span around on my mother’s Dansette, I read the back of the sleeve for clues. The biggest surprise was that it had been recorded in Rochdale. I knew the Fall were from Manchester, but Manchester did not feel local to me – it was the big city. If the Fall chose to record in Rochdale, they surely knew what they were doing. After that, I would detour by the studios every time I went to the baths or my Grandmother’s house and, if the door was open, I would slip through and climb the stairs to see what was happening. I was too shy to do anything else.
At twenty-two, I formed a Hip Hop duo with my friend Mark Whittam and found myself recording in the same studio. The place had been decorated. It had a fridge, a sofa and a video library (a copy of Deep Throat) but nothing else seemed to have changed. I am not sure the large, flat distinctive soundscape of the studio was suited to Hip Hop. Or maybe the problem is that I had no talent for Hip Hop. But whatever the shortcomings, our record had a trace of the DNA of classic records by Joy Division and the Fall and that meant the world to me. It still does.
Rochdale and Middleton by Martin Coogan ( Vibrant Thigh ,Judge Happiness,Mock Turtles)
There was definitely something in the air at that time, a feeling that anything was possible. The post-punk 'can-do' ethos was all around in Rochdale, Heywood and my home town Middleton. From Deeply Vale to the Chameleons getting a John Peel session, it was our time.
I remember going into Cargo for the first time when I was in Vibrant Thigh. I was 18. All our heroes had recorded there and we were very nervous and excited. We knew nothing about the recording process.
By the end of the session, John Brierley had handed over the mixing to us. We each had a finger on a fader for our instrument. The faders were slowly creeping up and up. I looked up to see John smoking a fag staring at the floor and shaking his head.
Rochdale Kenion St by Peter Hook of Joy Division New Order
14 October 2008, Peter Hook talks about the Tractor Music, Deeply Vale HQ, Cargo Studios, Suite Sixteen Studios building on Kenion Street Rochdale: "It's amazing what effect that building had on my life! From the moment we walked in as Joy Division, already well aware of Cargo's reputation, to make some of the best sounding music we ever made! The fact that our song Atmosphere was recording solely in Kenion Street, and still sounds as good today as it did then, seeing the building used in the movie 24 Hour Party People, even owning it myself as Suite 16, and watching The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, The Chameleons, The Charlatans, oh my god the list is endless, walk through those doors, the effect it had on Rochdale and the North West music scene is immeasurable, much the same that Ian Curtis had on Macclesfield. I would like to see the building on Kenion St rise like a phoenix from the ashes, to inspire people all over the world, the way it did before!"
John Peel John Peel said of his time in Rochdale in 1959/60
"I have fond memories of standing by the open doors of the hoist on the upper floors of Townhead Mill looking out across Rochdale towards Heywood and Manchester" . From this great vantage point had he been transported forward in time a few years he would have been able to survey many other music related premises around the town which he would help kickstart and would be instrumental in producing music that would be played on his radio shows.
John Robb…. Memories of Kenion St Rochdale June 2009
"One night I was working on a session late at Suite 16 Kenion St Rochdale producing some long forgotten bunch of noiseniks when there was a bang at the door it was Noel Gallagher who was already a face on the scene bringing the Inspiral Carpets backline in for a session . He was accompanied by someone I had never seen before a skinny kid who he introduced as his brother Liam - wonder whatever happened to him...!"
Mark Hodkinson- owner of Pomona , author, and former member of Untermensch and Monkey Run ]
I never made it to Deeply Vale, not properly. Growing up in Rochdale in the 1970s, you soon became familiar with the words ‘Deeply Vale’ (and they do suggest something beautiful and cool, don’t they?) but, at the age of 13, I wasn’t quite sure what it was all about, what anything was all about. I knew at least that it was something vaguely out-there because Elaine Taylor talked about Deeply Vale a lot and she was as out-there as it got. She had crimped hair and long skirts that dusted the school floor and she told everyone she was going to be an actress.
Rochdale – by music writer and former Rochdale resident Nigel Lord of Rochdale band Frogbox and gig promoter with KL Promotions
Rochdale in the 60s and 70s? It really was the best of times – and the worst of times. Some great bands, some great people, some great ideas.But everything you tried to do met with opposition from the council, the local press and cantankerous caretakers who seemed to be in charge of every venue suitable for live events! Even so, there was a real DIY spirit about Rochdale in those days. No-one sat around waiting for other people to organise things; if you wanted live music and other events, you got together with a few like-minded people and made them happen. That’s how Deeply Vale came about. That’s how the first punk bands appeared in Rochdale. That’s how Cargo started. Why Rochdale? Geography had a lot to do with it: the town is close enough to Manchester to be influenced by what that was going on there, but far enough away to have its own identity. The layout of Rochdale in those days also played a major part in its cultural development. Before the planners got busy decimating the town centre, it provided a natural meeting place for young people, with buses bringing everyone into the centre so they could meet up and go off to places like The Chambers, The Masque and Rochdale College. The College hall was one of the few places suitable for live music, though no one wanted it used as a venue.
I remember we had to offer all kinds of assurances to the College authorities, employ our own cleaners and bribe the caretakers - and we still had difficulty booking the place! Though it was equipped as a fully-functioning theatre, no one thought to install black-out curtains, so summer events were always difficult to organise. But the College hall provided the backdrop to the social lives of an entire generation of young people in the late seventies and early eighties. And I know many of them still look back on those days with fondness. I think the town really started to forge its own identity with the advent of the first Rochdale Festivals in the early 1970s which were very successful. ( Chris Hewitt adds-These were early jobs in the fledgling Mike Huck/Mick Spratt sound hire business Wigwam's calendar and also Chris Hewitt worked with Brian Chatburn from ROCLAS choosing some of the bands.) The square behind the town hall was a great place for this kind of event and the organisers seemed to hit the right balance between arts and pure entertainment. The Festival really set the tone for the next decade in Rochdale, which was a pretty good place to be if you were involved in bands and live music. Later in the mid 1970's Chris (Hewitt) and Tractor Music,in conjunction with Wigwam and Mitrex provided the equipment and technical know-how through which most large live outdoor Manchester rock music events were realised.
The Deeply Vale festivals are often seen as some wonderfully collaborative effort – a kind of northern Glastonbury organised by local hippies. In truth, they were spearheaded by Chris and a handful of others who were the only ones with the vision and ability to organise such major events. In fact, Deeply Vale actually had more in common with Woodstock. None of the powers-that-be wanted it; the weather was usually awful and everyone who was there has different memories of it. By the late 1970s, it must have been clear to people in Manchester that there were some pretty interesting things going on in places like Rochdale, Heywood and Middleton.
So it would have come as no surprise that a studio like Cargo should be opened there. It was half an hour from the city centre – but at least it didn’t involve driving south. Any doubts that anyone harboured about the long-term future of a professional recording studio in Rochdale were soon dispelled as its reputation began to grow and artists like Joy Division and OMD started working there. It certainly helped build a bridge between Rochdale and the Manchester scene which was beginning to take shape in the early eighties. Personal memories? Supporting the Boomtown Rats at Middleton Civic Hall. An awful sinking feeling after realising the first punk bands we booked to play in Rochdale outnumbered the audience by three to one. A pub in Accrington where the landlord was locked in the cellar to prevent him bringing the curtain down on a gig we played there. And finally… trying to persuade some of the less practically-minded organisers of Deeply Vale ’77 that using generators to power the stage represented a more realistic approach than someone climbing up a pylon armed with a pair of crocodile clips and a rudimentary knowledge of electricity…
Mark Hodkinson- owner of Pomona , author, and former member of Untermensch and Monkey Run ]
Mark Hodkinson’s new book "The Last Mad Surge of Youth" also features Rochdale One of the scenes in the book sees Carey visit 'Digger' Music (clearly an alter ego Tractor Music) where he asks the owner (probably Chris Hewitt!) whether he'd stock a fanzine produced by the band.
It reads:
Carey took copies of the fanzine to Digger for them to sell. He passed the wall teeming with notes advertising instruments for sale and appeals for musicians to join bands. He couldn’t understand why anyone would advertise for members, it devalued the art form. Groups, the ones that really mattered, were formed out of fellowship and shared values, not on how well they could play or whether they had a Marshall amp or Gibson guitar. It was a kind of love, best left to serendipity.
He counted the exclamation marks after phrases like, ‘Must be able to play fast!!!’ and ‘Let’s get it on!!!!’ Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple-influenced bassists and guitarists were much sought after, and everywhere was the warning: no time wasters. A good name for a band, he thought: The Time Wasters. He had a notebook containing ideas for names; it was going in there. His favourite was The Pin Ups but he also liked Bread Roll Christ, Poppers, and Fountain Ear. If he left Group Hex he could see himself in The Pin Ups. They’d be wilfully enigmatic, a bit like Devo or Pere Ubu, each member in a cagoule with the hood pulled up tight by the drawstring, posing for photos on rocks out at sea, scary in the sea spray.
Three longhaired lads were perched on speakers, rolling cigarettes and nodding their heads to a song playing on the shop’s hi-fi about a willow tree. Carey asked where the dogs were.
"What dogs?"
"The dogs that are always here."
"Dunno. Dead, maybe."
A tall bloke with wispy hair who seemed to be in charge took a handful of fanzines and placed them on the counter.
"Of course we’ll try and sell these for you."
Carey was suspicious.
"There’s nothing about heavy rock in them," he volunteered.
"Fair enough. You lot are the future now, aren’t you? Punk, new wave and all that. We’ve had our day."
He seemed sincere.
Carey looked back as he left the shop. The owner-bloke was motioning with his head towards the door. He might have been letting one of the longhairs know that a delivery had arrived or that the stand containing guitar strings needed restocking. Or, thought Carey, he might have been indicating that the kid just leaving wearing an Italian combat jacket and hand-painted Doc Martens (blue) was a dick. ale a lot and she was as out-there as it got.
She had crimped hair and long skirts that dusted the school floor and she told everyone she was going to be an actress
Rochdale -From The Independent 1996
Here’s a question for fans of rock trivia: Where is the only place that Oasis and Nirvana played together. Rochdale – two Rochdale bands at the 1978 Deeply Vale Festival before the famous ones were in existence. Rochdale is not only birthplace to the Co-op and home to two Nobel prizewinners , Don Estelle and was once home to Bill Oddie ( who recorded a single for John Peel’s Dandelion Records) it has a critical place in the geneaology of modern music. Gracie Fields and Lisa Stansfield aside it was also the site of the North west’s own Woodstock at a place called Deeply Vale an unfeasibly beautiful natural amphitheatre on the borders of Rochdale and Bury. In four years in the late seventies, the festival was transformed from a gathering of local youth into a Stonhenge with black pudding, with its eventual mix of punk,new wave and hippie it gave birth to the proto crustie. The origins of Deeply Vale reads like a social history written by Vic Reeves. Chris Hewitt owned a music building on Kenion St in Rochdale and also managed a rock band from Rochdale called Tractor signed to John Peel’s Dandelion label. Peel had signed the band as he had an affinity with Rochdale having worked there in a cotton mill at the beginning of the sixties. Chris Hewitt had the business accumen and the hardware that allowed the mid 1970’s festivals to take place. A group of hippies and art students in Rochdale decided they wanted their own Glastonbury.
But because there was no money, this small group got on their bikes, hustled and became experts in stage construction, electrics and lighting and above all else they would go round each year to the local farmer, get him drunk and persuade him to sign a contract to rent out the land. What started as a local event with 300 people in 1976 had become in 1978 a festival with an audience of 20,000 from all over the world.
Aside from Steve Hillage others to play included Nik Turner from Hawkwind, The Fall,The Ruts, Durutti Column and Misty In Roots . It also offered an early platform for bands from Factory Records and Tony Wilson was a compere in 1978. Joy Division recorded tracks for the Factory sampler in the upstairs of the Kenion St building in 1978 and Atmosphere there in 1979. Londoner Grant Showbiz who was soundman for Here and Now at Deeply Vale met The Fall and Graham Massey’s Danny and The Dressmakers at the festival and convinced those young bands to go on the anarchic free tours with them to get wider recognition. Grant would become a producer for records by The Fall( many recorded in Kenion St Rochdale) The Smiths and Billy Bragg. Grant says "you had to give Rochdale maximum points for madness back then, Deeply Vale was created out of nothing by disaffected and discarded people with no influence- the organisation was brilliant. Deeply Vale was one of the first hippie festivals to build the bridge with punks- years ahead of Glastonbury at that point."
Shan Hira Owner – Suite 16 memories -Owner, Manager and Engineer at Suite 16 (1986-2001)
I first came across Cargo Studios in the 1981 as a fresh faced drummer in a local Factory band Stockholm Monsters, we went in there to do a demo with Peter Hook. I really liked the place straight away it had a nice vibe , I remember all the record sleeves of bands that had recorded there were all over the walls at the top of the stairs to inspire you to get yours on there! A couple of years later I bought into the studio with Hooky, we personally put a lot of time and effort and money into upgrading the facilities . We went from 16 track to 24 track a massive jump in those days! We refitted the new much bigger control room and also made a really nice recreation room downstairs, and turned it into a very well equipped facility which attracted a vast array of local, and national bands through the doors over the years, some fine records were made within those walls. My abiding memory of Suite 16 is it was always a happy place , the staff were talented ,caring and friendly and it was a very creative environment to be in . I think it helped a lot of local musicians on their way to successful careers and was proud to be a part of it.
Seven Stars and a Mad Monk by Steve Cowen- drummer The Mock Turtles
Thirty years is a long time. Memories fragment, left behind by the jet speed of modern life. But hey! Some survive because they matter. Events from a distant past that burst forth like a blast of warm spring sunshine when we become seekers of our history. I'm waxing a bit lyrical I know, but that's because Middleton, Rochdale and Heywood in the 70's, 80's and into the 90's possessed a cultural scene that on reflection was so special it hurts. Hanging out at The Seven Stars and White Lion in Heywood, seeing The Jam at Middleton Civic, the Mad Monk at Rochdale College on a Friday night, experiencing the alternative and seeing Steve Hillage at Deeply Vale in 78, supporting The Chameleons and seeing how it should be done, recording at Cargo and Suite 16, the privilege of being part of The Imaginary Records stable and creating music with The Mock Turtles on the road to Top of the Pops. Lifechanging! If establishing blue plaque status recognising the musical heritage of Middleton, Rochdale and Heywood helps to inspire kids today to create their own scene, then Chris Hewitt's tireless work in achieving this has been a worthy and noble success. To the future! these quotes Copyright Chris Hewitt 2009- copyright also credited to original authors where taken from their books---