Pop Will Eat Itself co-founder opens new analogue recording studio in the Black Country

Richard March, a founding member of The Poppies, runs RPM Audio, one of the UK’s best-kept secrets for music fans and audiophiles, in Bearwood.

RPM has become a respected vintage, retro and classic audio home listening equipment dealer and now Richard is adding to the venture by opening a fully-equipped analogue recording studio in the prominent three-storey Edwardian landmark building 487 Bearwood Road this Saturday (May 16).

The opening date marks 40 years since PWEI launched their career with the self-financed single The Poppies Say GRRrrr! on their own label and performed their first gig at legendary Dudley club JBs.

The band, which found chart success in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s along with fellow Stourbridge acts The Wonder Stuff and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, had multiple UK Top 40 singles and a Top 10 hit - Get the Girl! Kill the Baddies!

Richard was particularly associated with PWEI’s technological and sampling direction, helping push their shift toward electronic and industrial-influenced sound.

He told the Express & Star: “We released six albums over a 10-year period and toured all over the world, in Japan and Australia, America, all over Europe.

“Then I had another relatively successful group called Bentley Rhythm Ace which started in 1997, and we had over a five-year period a couple of big chart records. At the same time I had a career as a DJ and working on production remixes working with acts like the Beastie Boys and the Prodigy.

“I've had a fantastic opportunity to create music and been lucky enough to have a global audience for that.

“I set up my own business, initially as a retailer of vintage hi-fi and audio equipment, and after a couple of years the business expanded to such a point that we outgrew our original premises. It almost became dangerous - the amount of equipment we’d accumulated, piled up everywhere, and the opportunity arose for me to take on the lease of our current building,”

The new recording facility RPM Studios will be the final addition to the venture which features an extensive hi-fi, speaker and amplifier retail offering and an audio equipment repair service, pre-loved vinyl outlet RPM Records, intimate cafe venue Blue Room, The Staircase Gallery exhibition space, and micro-bakery Loaf Actually.

A collaboration with respected audio engineer and former recording studio owner Alastair Jamieson, RPM Studios will give artists the chance to work with full analogue multitrack recording alongside DAW-based options and a soundproof recording booth. The studio also provides an ideal location for podcast, audiobook, ADR and sound design recording as well as transfer, archive, and multi media post production.

“The idea of the studio is it's completely analogue,” said Richard, a former music lecturer at Halesowen College.

“The advantages of being able to take tracks that have been recorded onto a computer and doing final mixes with just one sort of big analogue mixing console - it just adds another dimension to the level of production.

“It's an opportunity for people to take a different approach to music production. And it kind of ties in with my interest in vintage classic audio gear, and with my background in education.

“I think it's really important to be able to provide an opportunity for young people who are starting out in their music careers to have access to the kind of technology that they might not otherwise be able to come across.”

To celebrate the opening of RPM Studios and Richard's 40-year anniversary of working in the music industry, a programme of events will take place hourly on Saturday, from midday at the Bearwood venue, including an official opening event, live music performances and DJ sets.

A selection of Richard’s personal PWEI archive including an original hand-coloured promo poster will also be on show during the studio launch.

Richard said: “We are really proud and excited to open the final stage of the project.”