Queen, Bowie and other residents of Rockfield Studios remembered by the cook’s daughter

Word In Your Ear

Rockfield is a converted farmhouse in the Welsh countryside where, for over 50 years, bands have lived while recording. In the ‘70s Tiffany Murray’s mum was the in-house cook, filling Motorhead to the brim with boeuf bourguignon and Black Sabbath with salmon en croute. Her touching memoir My Family And Other Rock Stars – hailed as “a rock and roll Cider With Rosie” – sees a succession of visiting bands though the wide eyes of a child and in a wholly new light - Freddie Mercury is the man who “smelt of sweet wood and oranges” and was nice to her dog, Julian Cope is “pretty and dressed in a white sheet”. It’s a movie waiting to happen. We loved this highly original and revealing book and our conversation with Tiff which involves …

… the ‘Saffy from Ab Fab’ relationship she had with her mum who began her professional life spying on the Duchess of Argyll from a wardrobe.

… floppy hats, Biba dresses and a purple beach buggy.

… the only woman who recorded at Rockfield in the ‘70s.

… the realisation that the men singing “Galileo” repeatedly in the stables were the same people later on Top Of The Pops.

… her mother’s Book Of Rules for visiting rock stars, “a matron in the body of Julie Christie in Darling”.

… ample proof that rock music allows a life of extended adolescence.

… shelved albums and unpaid bills.

… Tiff’s stepfather and in-house Rockfield producer Fritz Fryer.

… Nick Lowe through the eyes of a 10 year-old – “tall, kind and looked like a bird”.

... Graham Parker’s trout in almonds and how the cook was paid extra “just to get food into Lemmy”.

… and mentioned in despatches – Squeeze, the Tyla Gang, Showaddywaddy, Van Der Graaf Generator and Dr Feelgood.

Order ‘My Family And Other Rock Stars' here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Other-Rock-Stars-groundbreaking/dp/0349727538

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