Back in the days when Rock and Roll really did mean sex, drugs and throwing TV sets into swimming pools, a young man called Tim Summerhayes got a job at RAK Studios – then one of the coolest places in London to record.

After working his socks off, he progressed through the ranks becoming an engineer for the studios and RAK’s mobile truck, which was one of the first mobiles in the UK. He
learned all there is to know about live sound and was soon in great demand because he knew how to make a live band sound great on tape.

A spell as a freelance engineer soon followed. Then, by a long and winding road that included a stint as a broadcast sound engineer with Advision, he ended up on the staff at Fleetwood Mobiles running one of its two units, with Andy Rose running the other.

While Tim was traveling his winding road, Ian Dyckhoff was doing something very similar. In 1991, the two met at a Bros concert; Tim was there with his kids and had escaped backstage to blag a cup of coffee from the crew on board Manor Mobiles, one of whom was Ian. The two hit it off and before long Ian had joined the Fleetwood team.

In 1992, the original Fleetwood owners ran into financial difficulties but struggled on until 1996 when Tim and Ian put forward a deal to buy the company. By this stage there was only one truck involved – the other had been sold to Manor Mobiles. Tim and Ian refurbished their mobile with the help of friends and colleagues and soon built a strong reputation within the live sound industry thanks to their combined years of recording experience.

Three years later, it was all change again – this time a move to The Sanctuary Group, which acquired the company and increased its Sanctuary Mobiles fleet to two trucks. Some time later Sanctuary bought Manor, so the old Fleetwood truck came home to roost.
In November 2005, Ian and Tim and Ian Cooper orchestrated a management buyout and acquired Sanctuary Mobiles business along with its three trucks. The company reverted to the old name of Fleetwood Mobiles and is now thriving under its new management team. In January 2007 the team was augmented with the arrival of Ian Davidson as commercial director.