{"id":661762,"date":"2025-12-30T05:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T05:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/661762\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T05:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T05:03:10","slug":"strawberry-studios-forever-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/661762\/","title":{"rendered":"Strawberry Studios Forever – Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Strawberry
Strawberry Studios Forever by Peter Tattersall and Peter Wadsworth<\/strong><\/p>\n

Empire Publications<\/strong><\/p>\n

Out Now<\/strong><\/p>\n

Buy Here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry Studios Forever is an in-depth history of the famous Stockport Recording Studios by Peter Tattersall and Peter Wadsworth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How did a major recording studio, which attracted some of the biggest names in music, end up being based in a humble town seven miles outside Manchester?<\/p>\n

Strawberry Studios, 10cc & the Birth of Manchester Music (to give it its full title) is a 224-page paperback which tells exactly the tale, how the dream of one man, Peter Tattersall, made it happen, creating a studio \u2013 the name of which is still celebrated around the world.<\/p>\n

It feels strange that it\u2019s taken so long for a history of Strawberry to be written, more than 30 years since its doors closed, given its importance. However, there has been a volume focusing on the equipment used published previously, and Paul Hanley\u2019s Leave The Capitol , which shines a spotlight on a number of seminal recordings made at the Waterloo Road studio.<\/p>\n

My own \u2018introduction\u2019 to Strawberry, like many, would have been in the early 1980s, although initially I knew it as where Manchester United recorded their \u2018Cup Final\u2019 songs rather than bands such as Joy Division, New Order and The Smiths who\u2019d drop the name into interviews. Despite the fact that the studio was less than 5 miles, a mere bus ride away from my home at the time, it seemed like a mysterious and mythical place, and never did it occur to me to venture into Stockport to check it out or hope to chance upon musicians recording.<\/p>\n

The studio was in existence before it became Strawberry, though, being developed from Inter-City Studios, then the North\u2019s only recording studio. The name, as you may suspect, is Beatles-influenced, not necessarily as a \u2018reaction\u2019 to Apple, but Strawberry being taken from visionaries Peter Tattersall and 10CC\u2019s Eric Stewart\u2019s favourite singles. The other members of the aforementioned band, Gouldman, Creme and Godley, all also contributed forewords to the book. As all point out, the idea of having a high-end recording studio outside of London was audacious, but as history shows, it was a stroke of genius which arguably helped change the face of music, in part by their willingness to reinvest royalties from their successes.<\/p>\n

The crucial role in the development of Manchester music cannot be overstated and has long been acknowledged by the likes of the late Tony Wilson and the Factory artists recorded there with Sound Engineer Chris Nagle and Producer Martin Hannett.<\/p>\n

As well as plenty of familiar, and many unfamiliar names and anecdotes, Strawberry Studios Forever is well illustrated throughout with many behind-the-scenes, previously unseen photos, trade adverts, tape boxes and ephemera. It\u2019s a fascinating read, which, like Chris Connelly\u2019s excellent recent volume on Cargo Studio<\/a>\u2019s charts, examines the development of the recording studio and technology over the decades.<\/p>\n

A fascinating read and an essential addition to any music obsessive\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n

The official book launch takes place on 11th January at the studios itself. Details here<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more information on Strawberry Studio\u2019s visit the Facebook group here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

~<\/strong><\/p>\n

All words by Iain Key. See his author profile <\/b>here <\/b><\/a>or find him via his <\/b>LinkTree<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

A Plea From Louder Than War<\/b><\/p>\n

Louder Than War is run by a small but dedicated independent team, and we rely on the small amount of money we generate to keep the site running smoothly. Any money we do get is not lining the pockets of oligarchs or mad-cap billionaires dictating what our journalists are allowed to think and write, or hungry shareholders. We know times are tough, and we want to continue bringing you news on the most interesting releases, the latest gigs and anything else that tickles our fancy. We are not driven by profit, just pure enthusiasm for a scene that each and every one of us is passionate about. <\/p>\n

To us, music and culture are eveything, without them, our very souls shrivel and die. We do not charge artists for the exposure we give them and to many, what we do is absolutely vital. Subscribing to one of our paid tiers takes just a minute, and each sign-up makes a huge impact, helping to keep the flame of independent music burning! Please click the button below to help. <\/b><\/p>\n

John Robb \u2013 Editor in Chief <\/p>\n

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO LTW<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Strawberry Studios Forever by Peter Tattersall and Peter Wadsworth Empire Publications Out Now Buy Here Strawberry Studios Forever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-661762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115806771963479170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}