On This Day 24/08/1975 Queen

On this day, 24 August 1975 Supergroup Queen started recording 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at Rockfield studio' in Monmouth, South Wales. The song was recorded over three weeks.

Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, the song is a six-minute suite, notable for its lack of a refraining chorus and consisting of several sections: an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, a hard rock part and a reflective coda. It is one of the few progressive rock songs of the 1970s to achieve widespread commercial success and appeal to a mainstream audience.

Mercury referred to "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a "mock opera" that resulted from the combination of three songs he had written.

Mercury had mentally prepared the song beforehand and directed the band throughout the sessions. May, Mercury, and Taylor sang their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs.

According to Guitarist Brian May, much of Queen's material was written in the studio, but this song "was all in Freddie's mind" before they started.

On this day 20/08/1971 From Cowshed to Turntable

Sound Engineer Ralph Dean of Machen at the eight-track recording console at Rockfield Studio in Monmouthshire - August 1971

On this day, 20 August 1971, the South Wales Echo printed a report on the progress being made at Rockfield Studios, the legendary Welsh recording studios near Monmouth.

“The sound engineer is milking the cows,” said the voice on the other end of the telephone. The voice was speaking from a farm at Rockfield, Monmouthshire, where Kingsley Ward has put £20,000 worth of recording equipment into a disused granary.

The studio was first built in 1965 but the present one, with its eight-track recording equipment was finished last year and the first single recorded there, Dave Edmunds’ I Hear You Knocking, a massive hit, created a lot of publicity for the studio.

They are now booked up a month ahead. “We charge half the London studio prices £10.50 an hour – yet groups come down here and say the sound is better,” said Kingsley.

“It’s not because we are cheap that they like us – after all they may have a budget of £4,000 to make an album, but we are in the country. If they can’t get it together, they can go for a walk or horse-riding.

“London studios spend a lot on decor and work strictly by the clock. Our studio is a bit scruffy and there’s no clock in it. For a group who are in the studio for the first time, it’s like home from home.”