The story of the first 20 years of Strawberry Recording Studios with founder Peter Tattersall and Peter Wadsworth.

In conversation (and with musical examples), Peter Wadsworth and Peter Tattersall will discuss Strawberry's early years and how the Studio progressed from two-track tape facilities in a room above Nield and Hardy's music store in the centre of Stockport to 24-track sophistication in what became known as "the Abbey Road of the North". Why did Tattersall take the risk of setting up Strawberry in Stockport, in direct competition to the all-powerful London studios? What was his experience working with the likes of 10cc, McCartney and Sedaka? How was music changing as the 1970s progressed and what did this mean for studios like Strawberry and those running them? And how has Strawberry's story challenged the conventional historical narrative of Manchester music?

About the book:

Strawberry Studios Forever, published by Manchester's Empire Publications in 2025, is the story of the first 20 years of Strawberry Recording Studios, set up by Peter Tattersall in 1967 and which played host to some of the biggest names in music.

Based on Tattersall's own memories and supplemented by the research and archive of Strawberry historian Peter Wadsworth, the book chronicles some of the key moments in Strawberry's history and shows how the Studio was developed, with the help of Manchester band 10cc, to become the place where Neil Sedaka, Paul McCartney, Joy Division, The Smiths, Sad Cafe, New Order, Factory Records, Granada Television and many others (local, national and international) all came to record.

The book challenges the conventional historical narrative that suggests there was no 'Manchester music' between the mid 1960s and the arrival of punk in the mid-1970s and shows how Strawberry, and those running it, bore all the hallmarks and attitude of those who would proudly and defiantly declare their Manchester-roots from 1976 onwards.

Copies of Strawberry Studios Forever will be available to purchase at the Festival and there'll be a dedicated book signing with Peter Tattersall and Peter Wadsworth after the event.

About the Contributors:

Having worked in the music industry in the 1960s (with such people as Brian Epstein), Peter Tattersall devised, founded and ran Strawberry Recording Studios from 1967 to 1986, whilst producing many of the artists who came to Stockport to record. As well as working with some of the musical greats who used Strawberry, he was also the man behind songs such as St Winifred's School Choir's There's No One Quite Like Grandma and Manchester United's Glory Glory Man United, the former of which was a UK Christmas Number One in 1980. Following his time at Strawberry, Peter held a variety of roles at Granada Studios Tours, Camelot theme park and Gulliver's World theme park before retiring for good.

Having been born and raised in Stockport, Peter Wadsworth converted his interest in Strawberry's history into a seven-year part-time PhD at the University of Manchester and then promoted the Studio's history via social media and through talks before, in 2017, working with Stockport Museum to put on the record-breaking Strawberry Studios: I Am In Love exhibition that ran for twenty months. Since then, Peter has combined his work at Manchester University with collaborating with Peter Tattersall, firstly to write the Strawberry Studios Forever book and secondly to preserve and promote the Strawberry Studios Archive so that is freely-available digitally for future generations to consult.

Description supplied by the event organiser.