Mike Kemp has had a long career and been involved with bands like The Stranglers (Dreamtime) and Iron Maiden (Soundhouse Tapes) but its his studio and production role for Raw Records that’s the reason and focus for this short feature.Spaceward Studios was started in 1974 by 2 ex Cambridge Students, Gary Lucas and Mike Kemp, who graduated from supplying PA systems to a 16 Track Recording Studio. In 1977 their biggest customer was Lee Wood & Raw Records.
How did you first get involved with Raw and what was the deal with Lee Wood? Mike Kemp: We’d set up Spaceward Studios in 19 Victoria Street (on the corner of Clarendon Street) in 1975 and by 1976 I’d finished building the 16-track that made a lot of what we did possible. At that time 16-track recording was expensive – you usually had to go to London and spend maybe 30 pounds an hour. Because we’d built the equipment ourselves and we were living on “student” levels of income we could afford to do a day’s recording for around 100 pounds – and by “day” we meant 10am till 2am, a long day!
We were getting quite well known around Cambridge, and when Lee wanted to start his Raw label we were the obvious choice. As far as I recall he just dropped in, told us what he wanted to do, and he started putting bands into the studio for their day of opportunity. I think he just paid the going rate, we didn’t need to offer a special deal as it was already a good one.
Was Raw your biggest customer? Mike Kemp: Could well have been. We had a few regulars but mostly we were booked by bands who did their single, then when they wanted to do the next one they’d book in again. Some small labels got to be quite regular; as far as I recall Bob Last’s Fast label used us a few times. I did the Stiff Little Fingers album “Inflammable Material” for them I think, or it might have been Rough Trade who used us for a few things too (including an appearance on the South Bank show when I was recording “The Raincoats”). But looking back at the number of recordings done for Lee, he could have been the single biggest customer.
How did you view punk rock at the time and the Cambridge scene? Mike Kemp: I think most of the cliches were true about punk rock in general. It was an exciting change in music. I think I’d just bought “Hotel California” and remember thinking “there’s got to be something better than this!”
It was hard getting out to listen to live music around Cambridge as we were working flat out at the studio, sharing those long days between the two of us mostly. Though I did try to see people I knew well, including The Soft Boys the day before recording their “Wading Through a Ventilator” single for Raw. (It was originally titled “Vyrna Kohl is a headbanger” about Robyn Hitchcock’s neighbour, but threats of being sued after a national Sunday newspaper started to stir things up caused the title and lyric change by the time the vocal overdubs were done.
Lee must have paid for a quite a few Sunday afternoons to let bands record. Was that usual? Philanthropic? Mike Kemp: I don’t recall Sunday afternoons especially. As I said, most sessions were a full day and we worked 7 days a week. Philanthropic? I am not sure that’s the right word. He was keen on the music (of course). From what I read he did not make much money but I imagine he would have hoped for some big returns. You have to take those risks to get anywhere don’t you? And you never knew what the band would come out of the studio with.
You recorded the Users first single which is legendary? Do you remember anything about it? Mike Kemp: Yes, the band were great. I used to run into the members around Cambridge and they kept in touch, even doing some more recordings of their own later. (I heard from Chris Free a couple of years ago when he was looking for some old tapes, but I did not have any copies unfortunately). The recording was exciting but by the end of the day my ears were too tired for a good mix. Lee decided to get the mix done down in London, so he booked Advision, a well known studio at the time. I went down with him and I think Andrew Bor (drummer from the band) to help out in the final mix – and you’ve heard the result.
Do you remember anything about other bands like The Killjoys, Unwanted, Acme Sewage Co. Any tales to tell, amusing anecdotes? I’m sorry to say that with the studio being fully booked most of the time from ’77 through till the end of the decade it was a bit of blur so I don’t remember any particular stories. I am pretty sure I did The Killjoys recording, and I have a memory of chatting to Kevin Rowland during a break in the kitchen, but that’s about it.
How naïve were the bands about playing, songs, tuning, being in the studio etc? Mike Kemp: You know, they were all great. The studio was not a big scary glitzy place, we were in a couple of converted basements, the tiny control room in the basement of 19 Victoria Street and the barely larger studio in the adjacent basement of 34 Clarendon Street. The two houses were knocked into one so you didn’t have to go outside or anything, but it was more like a student place than a showbiz thing. I think that helped people relax and just get on with it. We didn’t use separation so the band could play closely together like a rehearsal, the only unusual thing was leaving out the vocals to record the backing tracks, but it didn’t seem to be too much of a problem. A few takes was usually enough for a good backing track. I got pretty good at tuning, so could help out if there was a problem, but I don’t recall any particular problems.
The control room used to get really hot as the band sat in during the overdubs. Robyn Hitchcock described it as “Like a space capsule with beer”. The Clarendon Arms was opposite, and they were happy for people to bring their pints back to the studio. No-one got worse for wear though.
The more experienced musicians used to be a bit sceptical about the studio till they heard the results. I recall that Lee booked in “The Downliner Sect” but they didn’t turn up until about 8 o’clock in the evening, which pissed me off a lot. But once they were in they recorded pretty quickly (“Show Biz”) so although we could probably have done a better job if they’d been as keen as the younger bands, it was ok.
Do you remember a band called the Sick Things at all? Mike Kemp: Sorry, I don’t recall. Maybe that was band that Gary Lucas recorded, as he and I founded Spaceward and shared all the sessions.
What singles from that time are you most proud of and why? Mike Kemp: If I pick out a few that stick in my mind it does not mean anything negative about the rest. I’ve actually always had a love/hate relationship with vinyl as I always preferred the sound of the original tapes, so I gave up the struggle of playing vinyl after CD came along and haven’t been able to play any of my single collection for a long time. So strictly off the top of my head I think of:
The Mekons “Where Were You” always haunted me – it had a great melancholy feel and I greatly enjoyed the sessions and the the band.
The Users “Sick of You” of course because it was great!
The Soft Boys “Wading Through a Ventilator”. I am still mates with Robyn and met up with him and Morris at a wedding in Cambridge a few weeks ago. Of course I also did the Soft Boys “Can of Bees” album after that which I still enjoy on CD.
Last Resort “Are You Having Fun” was a punchy sounding record.
Lee seemed to have produced as well. How did you divvie up production duties? Mike Kemp: Production was pretty loose thing. Usually the band would turn up and I’d do my best to interpret their ideas to get them onto tape. Sometimes Lee would come in and add helpful input. In general you just got used to throwing in as many ideas as come up to make a better record. So mostly I was de facto producer of the sessions, though I don’t know how the credits appeared.
There were a few great EPs from a band named Fish Turned Human which I fondly remember, for example “Suburbia” and “Turkeys in China”. How important do you think Spaceward was to punk as you recorded so many classic songs and bands there?
Mike Kemp: It’s a flattering thought and perhaps Spaceward Studios was a small link in the chain of history. We just happened to be a “do it yourself” studio in time for the “do it yourself” punk era, so we were ideally matched. Obviously I like to think that my talents (such as they were) and those of Gary who did the other half of the sessions at the time contributed in a small way, but I would not like to claim any significant influence on the whole genre. In fact we sort of went out of our way not to get caught up in the mainstream, as our experiences with the “record business” was not great. There ware a few great guys but once you got to the money men it got unpleasant pretty quickly. That contrasted with the musicians and bands who were great. So we never really penetrated the “biz” which it would have been necessary to do to get into the centre of the music business. Being outside London too was a problem, as once acts got signed up they usually got put into London studios and we often never saw them again after we launched them on their way with their first singles or demos.
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