The Strange Brew - artist stories behind the greatest music ever recorded

In a market town seven miles south-east of Manchester, a recording studio opened above a shop in 1968 that became one of the most significant facilities in British music history. Strawberry Recording Studios in Stockport was where 10cc built their sound, where Paul McCartney brought Wings to record his brother Mike’s album, where Neil Sedaka revived his career, and where Joy ...

Few works of musical theatre receive the recognition they deserve, and The Kibbo Kift is a prime example. Written by Judge Smith, co-founder of Van der Graaf Generator, and composer Maxwell Hutchinson, this ambitious rock musical told the stranger-than-fiction story of a breakaway anti-war scouting movement in 1920 that transformed, over two turbulent decades, from i...

Duncan Mackay spent the 1970s at the keyboard of British popular and progressive music, often invisibly, yet seldom far from its most defining moments. MacKay first built a reputation in South Africa which brought him back to England where he joined Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, just as ‘Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)’ reached number one, and it was at Abbey Road during...

Rat Scabies needs little introduction as the thunderous drummer of The Damned. His collaborator in One Thousand Motels, Chris Constantinou, has had a career that has taken him from the studio with Chas Chandler, to the Live Aid stage at Wembley with Adam Ant, and into the recording booth with Sinéad O’Connor. Rat and Chris describe how they first met through The Mutants, a co...