IT was the studio where Queen recorded Bohemian Rhapsody and The Stone Roses spent almost a year there working on their second album.

But now Priestley College pupils are following in the footsteps of the music greats at Rockfield.

Around 15 students visit the Monmouth studios in south Wales every year and they have recently returned after recording two original tracks.

Ryan Garner wrote the song Aftermath for his band Brinc and Max Cook penned Disclose Your Mind.

Queen recorded Night At The Opera at Rockfield but the studio has also welcomed the likes of Oasis and Pixies over the years.

Paulo Nutini was the last artist to leave the studio before the students arrived.

Teacher Mike Grainger said: “You would think recording music in the same studio as Queen would have a massive impact on them.

“But they’re more interested in bands that have recorded there recently like Royal Blood and The Maccabees.

“Rockfield is famous for the Britpop sound and before that it was rock with bands like Black Sabbath.

“So the students know the names and the gravitas behind it but it’s also about the equipment as well.

“Rockfield is a very vintage studio so it uses a lot of old fashioned methods so the spaces you record in can add a lot to the sound.

“The room we recorded in this time was called the Quadrangle Studio and that’s the one that’s favoured by the Manic Street Preachers.”

Warrington also plays a part in Rockfield’s past because The Stone Roses, including Lymm’s Ian Brown, were in the studio at the same time as Padgate and Orford six-piece The Steamboat Band.

Starsailor, whose line up includes former St Oswald’s Primary School pupils Ben Byrne and James ‘Stel’ Stelfox, recorded their debut album there too.

Mike, from Stockton Heath, added: “In the 90s I was working at a music shop called Terry’s which is now called Tuff Gong studios.

“Starsailor and The Steamboat Band used to rehearse there.

“When I was working there I got to know most of the bands and I knew The Steamboat Band were doing their album at Rockfield.

“I was only about 15 at the time but it became my ambition to do a recording there of my own.

“That never happened but I fulfilled it in a way by taking students there.”

Music performance, music technology, production art students are invited along each year for five days of recording sessions at the UK’s oldest residential studios.

Music engineer Paul Cobbold also hosts master classes.

Mike, who has been a teacher at Priestley College for 11 years, said: “He came in as professional producer and treated the students like you would any other band. That is the kind of opportunity they wouldn’t get anywhere else.

“Half students ran the studio while others performed and then they swapped over mid way through the week.

“It was really good for them to take a song they’d written in college and see it go up another level in a professional studio.

“These days studios are closing down because a lot of people are recording in much smaller facilities.

“You don’t need big rooms and tape machines anymore. People can record on computers.

“But Rockfield has survived because of its history I think. It’s unique. Its atmosphere and the environment there doesn’t really compare to anywhere else.

“For the students, the first time they walk in the studio it’s jaw-dropping for them because they’re so used to doing everything on computers.

“The way the rooms are designed and the shape of them for the acoustics means the studio envelops you.”

DAVID MORGAN