Oasis and the Verve have recorded at Sawmills in Cornwall, now you can too ? or just relax and enjoy the view. Dixe Wills manages to do both and you can listen to the song he recorded here
So there we were, the four of us, yelping wildly as we raced each other across the squelching knee-deep black mud of a Cornish creek at four in the afternoon, fuelled only by a single shot of anise and the devil-may-care spirit without which no self-respecting rock star leaves his mansion. Oh, and did I mention we were naked?
We had Ruth from the renowned Sawmills recording studio to thank for suggesting our first foray into the world of the rock band. She was scrupulously (maddeningly) tight-lipped about the murkier doings of the musicians who have recorded there over the years (Oasis, Supergrass, the Verve, Catatonia, list goes on). However, without naming any names, she did let slip a few of the stranger things they'd got up to, which happily included the starkers mud run.
Having been in bands since I was a teenager, I had always dreamed of recording at a proper residential studio and, given the distressing imbalance between my ambition and my talent, one I thought would never be realised. Until this year, that is, when Sawmills opened up its accommodation to guests who might not be able to put three chords together but fancied an affordable taste of the life of those who can.
And let's face it, the chance to warble uncertainly into the very microphone down which Robert Plant belted out a few numbers is simply too good to pass up, so I made sure our long weekend involved at least one session in the sacred space that is the Sawmills studio. Finding myself temporarily bandless, I corralled my friends Kieron (guitar, charango, viola), Sarah (backing vocals) and Rachel (tambourine).
We knew there was something extra special about the place from the moment Ruth informed us that there were only two ways to get there ? on foot through the woods or by boat along a river. She duly picked us up at Par station, drove us to the tiny village of Golant and ferried us ? and all our food and drink for the next few days ? along the Fowey in her little motorboat. Turning off the wide waterway into Bodmin Pill ? Sawmills' own private little creek ? we could see immediately why the muse appears to so many musicians here (including Muse themselves). A thick bowl of trees wrapped itself around a venerable converted sawmill lost in a secluded silent world over which a single egret stood guard.
Having settled ourselves into our minimalist bedrooms ? rockers clearly don't do wardrobes ? we tucked into our first cocktails of the day (it was almost five o'clock, after all) and wondered whether we shouldn't attempt to work out a few chords for the song I'd penned. But what's the fun in that when there's pool to be played, woods to explore, and a feast to be created in the immoderately well equipped kitchen?
So working on the song would have to wait for the following morning. But what's the fun in that when there's a rowing boat and a Canadian canoe at the quayside and a river waiting to be conquered? And so ? having woken up to a peace broken only by the sound of roe deer grazing beneath our windows ? we found ourselves paddling and rowing a couple of miles up the Fowey, through woodland, to picnic at St Winnow church. Having admired the fine parade of Celtic crosses and gravely read the stones of a phalanx of erstwhile Du Mauriers, we returned to our boats, keen not to be late for the studio and our date with pop destiny.
I suspect we are not the first residents of Sawmills to be caught out by the pace of the ebbing tide on the Fowey. And the shallower the river became, the deeper our consternation grew, until our respective vessels finally ground to a halt on the sandy bed. It was fortunate then that Kieron chose that moment to announce that he had his wetsuit on underneath his clothes ? it's a guitarist thing, probably ? and, without another word, he leapt heroically into the river to haul us three-quarters of the way back home again. On such feats are legends founded.
Later that weekend we would have another tide-related boating adventure in the otherwise peaceful little riverside town of Fowey, this time coming perilously close to dashing our brave little craft to smithereens. We later learnt that the Farm had gone one better when they were down here, setting fire to theirs.
Paying homage to the spot by the quayside where the Stone Roses would lie at night looking up at the stars, we sauntered into the studio with, on my part at least, a somewhat studied cool. We were greeted by the infinitely patient and ever cheery John Cornfield. This is a man who has worked with everyone from Athlete to XTC (hey, even Wet Wet Wet), who has more gold discs to his name than is perhaps seemly, and who now had the dubious pleasure of producing Nomski, our ad hoc neo-ambient proto-prog-folk combo. Slipping on some headphones, I sang something that was almost a tune while Kieron strummed some chords that occasionally matched it. However, as the afternoon wore on, the killer viola track was laid down, and Sarah's sexy French-accented backing vocals were nailed.
At the vast mixing desk, John was crushingly polite about the song, Waitress of Hope, our bittersweet tale of a woman scorned. We sat open-mouthed as he manipulated our twanging and wailing. A veritable prestidigitator of sound, he proceeded to weave musical gold from our proffered straw. When the track was in the can, we broke open some fizz and excitedly took photos of ourselves, just like real rock stars would.
That evening we participated in what we knew was a Sawmills tradition ? the 10-minute walk upstream to the Fisherman's Arms in Golant. Breezing in, we found the patrons barely gave us a second glance. We weren't offended. They are, after all, well used to having rock legends in their midst.
? A week at the main house (sleeps up to 16) at the Old Sawmills (01726 833338 or 07974 931307, cornwall-online.co.uk/theoldsawmills-fowey) costs from �1,400; the lodge (sleeps five) costs from �320. Studio hire is �40 an hour. Rowing boat hire costs from �40 for a weekend from Peter Williams (01726 870987, peterwilliams-boatbuilder.co.uk). Motor boat hire from �165 a week from Fowey River Boat Hire (01726 832874, fowey-river-boat-hire.co.uk). Return train tickets from London Paddington to Par cost from �29 (08457 000125, firstgreatwestern.co.uk)
Watch Dixe Wills' Sawmills recording at youtube.com/watch?v=Lu2sMjS84QU
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