Rocking at the chateau
The music impresario Miles Copeland tells how his fairy-tale castle in the Dordogne has earned its keep
Sunday Times 2.9.07 by Karen Robinson
For the original article click this link:
http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/overseas/article2354284.ece
When a chap acquires a castle, complete with moat, ramparts, battlements, towers, mullions, gargoyles and the biggest pigeon loft in the Dordogne, is it any surprise if he comes across as a tad seigneurial, albeit with a rock'n'roll twist?
"At our workshops, we used to say that if you write a song that goes to No 1, we'll knight you," explains Miles Copeland III, the American music impresario who owns Château Marouatte. So, hanging from the beamed ceiling in the ballroom are silk pennants honouring "Lady" Carole King, "Sir" Mark Hudson (record producer and vocal coach on The X Factor) and "Sir" Greg Wells, a Canadian songwriter, who co-wrote the Céline Dion hit The Reason during their stay there.
Copeland, 63, is a music-industry veteran, whose most famous protégés were the Police - featuring his younger brother, Stewart, on drums. In the 1990s, he turned the fairy-tale castle, seven miles from Brantôme, in southwest France, into a hit factory. Here, promising unknowns and industry "names" could strike creative sparks off each other. Cher, Jon Bon Jovi and Keith Urban have stayed here, as has Ted Nugent, whose hunting bow and arrows hang on a wall.
Most of Château Marouatte dates from the 14th century, although the oldest wing was built in 1290. Copeland discovered it in 1991, while visiting his Argentinian wife, Adriana, 46, who was on a sculpture course in Nantes. To "kill time", he dropped in on a few estate agents, and idle curiosity turned into an obsessive quest for a castle. Although not short of funds - he went on to sell IRS, his successful record label, to EMI - Copeland decided that the Loire valley was too expensive, and instead turned to the Dordogne, a couple of hundred miles further south. Seduced by Château Marouatte, with its 240 acres of woodland and gardens, numerous outbuildings - and modern plumbing - he paid about £1m for it.
The two main wings of the chateau had been refurbished in the 1970s by the property tycoon Maxwell Joseph, to a standard fit for the Queen Mother and Edward Heath, who stayed there (though not at the same time). "What was attractive was that we could buy basic furniture and live here. So I bought the place, then panicked," says Copeland, who lives in Los Angeles with Adriana and their three sons, Miles IV, 16, Aeson, 12, and Axton, 9, but visits regularly. "I had to validate it. I hit on the idea of songwriting retreats, and quickly organised the first one, for about 10 musicians, mainly Brits, including Chris Difford of Squeeze."
The idea grew. "We converted the outbuildings and added rooms to expand to 25 songwriters. We did deals with companies who gave us equipment, and we installed a recording studio." The synergy between country musicians, heavy rockers, household names and aspiring talent has produced hits such as Aaron Tippin's country No 1, That's as Close as I'll Get to Loving You.
Urban, now a multimillionaire and married to Nicole Kidman, was virtually unknown when he wrote But for the Grace of God, with Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go's, at the chateau. Cher would hold court on a four-poster bed in the garden tower, urging fellow musicians to reveal their first sexual experiences.
What about Sting? "Sting has this tea he drinks, from Brazil - it's supposed to be very spiritual. He said, ‘You drink the tea, I'll come.' " Copeland could not bring himself to swallow the Amazonian cuppa, but the singer, whom he also managed as a solo artist, did come and stay the night once - an occasion that is, apparently, still talked about in the village.
Despite the work that had already been done, the renovation and furnishing of the two wings (with eight bedrooms), two towers, which have two bedrooms each, and outbuildings is never-ending. I don't know what Copeland did for retail therapy before buying the castle, but the architectural-salvage industry has been a beneficiary of his credit card ever since.
As we wander through the salle d'honneur on the first floor of one of the keeps - the central stronghold beyond the now-drained moat - he explains his approach to castle decoration: "I go gothic. I like the look, but I'm not precious whether it's from 1300 or 1400. I like Pugin revival pieces - old, but not as old as the castle. I think we have about a million dollars' worth of furniture and fixtures here. But we're fairly frugal. I'll design a room and put up wall-paper myself."
A huge stone fireplace sits at one end of the room; at the other is a 12ft-high wooden sideboard, in a rich shade of gravy, carved with figures of knights and musicians. It came from an auction house in Los Angeles, where the market for gothic gewgaws became seriously overheated for a while after Cher returned from Marouatte fired with enthusiasm.
A carved reredos hangs among suits of armour and holy statues. Ecclesiastical salvage is a vital component throughout, much of it acquired from an antiques shop on Portobello Road, west London. "The late Eddie Phillips knocked down more than 200 churches," Copeland says, "and I've got bits of all of them."
As we wander from room to room and tower to tower, up and down stone staircases, the effect of the exuberant styling - tapestries, tiles, decorative paint effects, coats of arms - is impressive. But the chateau does feel lived in, even though the family use it only as a holiday home these days. There's a big television and a full-size billiards table in the games room, which has a touch of Hogwarts about it.
Outside, we check out the swimming pool, hidden in a lush garden, and use one of Copeland's golf buggies to travel the long, forested track to the tennis court. The stables have been converted into gothed-up cottages. Here we find Copeland's British mother, Lorraine, an archeologist and widow of his father, Miles Copeland II, who was a CIA operative in the Middle East.
"Do you know why my son built the tennis court so far from the chateau?" she asks. "So he could make medieval films here with no modern features in shot." No films have yet been made, but if they ever are, they should include a scene inside the pigeonnier, a huge circular stone structure with a conical roof. Inside, light filters through gaps in the eaves, created so the birds could enter and roost in the 3,000 niches set into the walls. "Only seigneurs [noblemen] were allowed to have them," Copeland says. "The droppings fertilised the vineyard."
The family fits in visits around the weddings and vacation rentals that bring in income. It is available from £3,250 a week for the chateau itself, which reflects the fact that it's not all state-of-the-art bathrooms and designer infinity pools.
The lettings business came about when the combination of 9/11 and digital-led convulsions in the music industry put paid to the songwriting workshops. Copeland plans to resume them next year. He'll still invite the British and American A list, but will also involve many of the Arabic musicians, such as Hakim and Tania Saleh, both from Lebanon, with whom he has been working for the past few years. Then there are his Bellydance Superstars - the Riverdance of Middle Eastern after-dinner entertainment - who will be coming for a week with their drummer to a workshop. Another barn will be converted into their studio.
Copeland is looking forward to the sound of music rocking the thick stone walls again, after his research into the history of the region revealed a centuries-old musical heritage. "Four of the top 10 songwriters of the Middle Ages came from near here," he says. "This castle was almost central to the land of the troubadours."
Perhaps it will be where the superstars of tomorrow find their voice.
For more information about Château Marouatte, call 0151 342 8482 or visit http://www.chateaumarouatte.co.uk/
Site Index links: