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When you hear the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” you’re likely singing along in your car or at karaoke, but if you’re members of the band Queen, sometimes you’re just throwing a frisbee around — while the song is still being completed!
In this exclusive clip above from the delightful new documentary, Rockfield: The Studio on The Farm, which lands on VOD this Friday, May 14th and The Coda Collection on May 29th, the studio’s founder Kingsley Ward explains, with no help from a nearby horse, how he remembers Queen’s visit to the studio in 1975. He describes Brian May and Rodger Taylor throwing a frisbee around outside and saying to May, “You’re not doing very much,” to which May replied, “Well, Freddie [Mercury] is in there playing the piano and doing something.” We learn that the exact room used to contain food storage for horses, but on that day, Ward remembers, “I didn’t realize, he’s probably doing the finishing touches to “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
And if you like that fun fact, this documentary is packed with plenty more. Directed by Hannah Berryman, it features interviews with Chris Martin, Robert Plant, Ozzy Osbourne, and Liam Gallagher, who all reveal charming and chaotic tidbits about some of their most popular songs. Gallagher talks about the recording of “Wonderwall” and how it was a very quick process “because it was happy hour at the pub” down the road. Martin talks about Coldplay’s make or break visit to the studio, which would’ve been the end of the band’s relationship with their label had they not produced such tunes as “Yellow” — which we learn was inspired by yes, real stars, and also…a phone book.
Rockfield: The Studio on The Farm is lovely throughout as it tells the story of the Ward family and how they started their studio over 50 years ago on their Welsh farm, sharing anecdotes about the rock stars and record label bigwigs that have come through the doors of the very first residential studio. So yes, that means with artists cooped up in one place in the middle of nowhere, there was some debauchery to come along. It’s a music documentary so you already know there are some doozies shared about drugs and drinking, and those are of course balanced with shots of cute cows and farm animals, simply going about their lives.
The documentary is a must-see for music fans, but also anyone that enjoys a sweet story. The Ward brothers describe the unique property and their memories over the years, as well as the ups and downs of running a studio, working with musicians (and worse, labels), and still navigating family relationships along the way. It’s a really lovely and charming film with a lot of heart and great stories, as well as the reminder that rock stars will be rock stars, no matter how rural they may go.
