Mill Hill Music Complex has been running since 1979, in various
guises. We started in one room in a derelict caretakers cottage,
progressed to what is now studio 2, opened the recording studio (studio
1) in 1990, studios 3-10 between 1994 and 2001. We then had a little
break until April 2012, when we opened our new studio complex, in the
big blue building, with studios 14-19 in. You may wonder what happened
to studios 11-13? Well studios 11 & 12 were temporary studios in the
caretakers cottage between 2004- 2008 when it was demolished and studio
13 is the hire store! This originally was going to be another drum
room, but we needed an easy to access PA store, so we used it for that
instead!
Many of our regular customers, seeing our fantastic facilities and
reception area, comment that it must be a great business to be in. We
thoroughly agree, but if anyone thinks it is an easy job, then think
again! The upside is meeting all the fantastic artists who frequent our
premises. Many of these have become firm friends over the years. Often
we get a free Xmas party because bands like The Damned invite us to
their Xmas shows, when they’ve been rehearsing. That is always a
privilege. It is also great to see talented young musicians start by
hiring out a rehearsal room and then go on to international stardom.
Perhaps Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash are two artist who spring to mind.
That is the good side of the deal. There is however another side. In
London it is getting ever more expensive to run a studio. Our new
building cost over £1 million to put up. The regulations are often
prohibitively expensive for studios. The rules around noise are
ridiculous. We had to prove that our nearest neighbours, over 500m away,
wouldn’t be able to hear bands rehearsing. This was a highly expensive
exercise. Given that we are next to the M1 with an ambient background
noise of 75db and we had fully soundproof rooms, it was ridiculous. We
still had to scientifically prove it. This was complicated by the fact
that the background noise from the M1 was too high to satisfy the
criteria.
This was just one example. Another one was the long debates with the
council as to what activities were allowable. In the end, they accepted
our arguments, but this took two years of discussion and cost. Then the
building regulations queries about what we were doing. We needed
flashing fire alarms, as they were worried metal bands wouldn’t hear the
alarms. These were just a few of the hurdles we faced, it seemed to go
on forever. Eventually we managed to sort out the finance, the planning
and get the building built. We had targetted September 2011. This is
always the busiest time. We knew that 2012 would be a difficult year,
with football tournaments, Royal weddings and annivesaries and the
Olympics. Anything which stops a band member from playing, affects
studio turnover. Bank Holidays are times people go away. Due to delays
in building, we eventually got the keys in May 2012, the worst possible
time. Higher rents and rates, just as the summer slump hit.
There were other issues. We had wanted to launch our new website and
online booking system, but this proved more problematical than we’d
anticipated. In short, we didn’t get the new operation running smoothly
until March 2013. We also lost a couple of stalwart members of staff in
this period, who had been with us a long time. Tony, our shop manager
moved to south London and Mario, who kept the studios running moved to
Italy. When you have a small dedicated staff, it is hard to replace good
crew. So we had a complete reorganisation of how we’d been running
things. Finding good staff to run a studio is difficult. Manning the
desk is either frantic or mindnumbingly boring. We have 17 studios now,
so studio changeover is manic, then when are all the bands settle in,
nothing at all happens. You just wait for the phone to ring. We need a
minimum of two staff at busy times. One to manage the rooms and one to
man the phone. During the day, we also have a cleaner and a studio tech,
as well as a shop/studio manager who manages the finances, chases up
debts, orders the equipment and handles mail enquiries etc.
Then
there are the problems and emergencies. All manner of crazy things
happen. Perhaps the worst is when bands come in and are drunk. 99% of
customers are great, but 1% can be difficult and if they are drunk, it
can be a problem. We have a zero tolerance policy towards abuse of
staff. If someone has a genuine complaint, then we bend over backwards
to help. If they are simply drunk and obnoxious, then that is a
different manner. We also have the odd emergency. Recently we had
someone taken seriously ill and we had to call an ambulance.
Then there are the comical events. We had one band call to say that
they had to cancel a rehearsal. As we have a 72 hour cancellation
policy, bands sometimes try and play on our better nature. This band
rang and said they couldn’t rehearse as the drummers Grandma had died
(it is strange how often drummers have family mishaps). We were suitably
saddened. Shortly after, the drummer turned up. Sadly the rest of the
band had neglected to tell him that the rehearsal had been cancelled, or
that his Grandma had passed away. Even more sadly, he had to stump up
the cancellation fee for his band mates. For most studios the
cancellation policy is the most contentious issue. For many years MHMC
didn’t have a policy. It got to the point that bands would book sessions
when they “might turn up”. It got to the point where we had to address
the issue or close, as we were finding we weren’t covering the bills.
When we brought the policy in, we lost several regulars, who didn’t turn
up and got quite abusive when told they couldn’t come back until they
paid. Eventually they all came back, when they realised that other
studios had the same policies. With the online booking system, everyone
gets the terms and conditions in the booking email. It makes it an
easier conversation as all bands know the rules.
Another difficult matter is breakages. Our policy is that we will charge
for repairs/cleaning if there is clear abuse. One of the most annoying
acts of vandalism is when bands let off powder fire extinguishers in the
rooms. These make the rooms unusable. We charge £150 if this happens.
Typically it is teenage bands. The sequence of events is always the
same. The band leaves without paying, we check the room and find it is
covered in powder. We ring the band who claim the extinguisher fell off
the wall. We tell them that is not physically possible and that if they
don’t pay, we’ll report them to the police for vandalism. They then get
their parents to ring up. We ask the parents to come down and inspect
the room. When they say powder sprayed all over the walls and that the
construction of the extinguisher makes the story impossible, they
sheepishly pay up. Generally the bands disappear for six months and when
they come back, they are perfectly behaved.
The final thing which can make the job difficult is “band politics”.
Sometimes bands decide to kick out a member, but don’t tell them. This
can lead to all manner of embarrassing situations. Perhaps, the most
difficult was when a customer came down to buy some strings and bumped
into his bandmates coming down for a “secret” rehearsal with a new
guitarist. As he was the guy who’d put the band together, he was
mightily put out and demanded that we ban the band. We of course cannot
get involved. Another more recent episode was almost comical. A band
booked a session by phone and as the person being kicked out was the
contact, they gave his name. They clearly didn’t realise that he would
get a confirmation email. He immediately rang up to say he hadn’t booked
and it was a mistake. We told him that another member had booked and
asked for his name to be used. Ten minutes later, he rang back and
furiously told us to under no circumstances take bookings from anyone
else in his name. The other band member then rang up and demanded to
know why we’d “grassed them up”. What can yo do?
When you think of studios, you think of great bands, interesting
people and great music. For many customers though, the key things are
equipment that works, clean toilets, an easy system for booking, easy
access and friendly, helpful faces. Making sure all of these things
happen is not an accident. London has some great music studios. We don’t
see good studios as opposition, as London has more musicians than
studio space. We see them as a source of inspiration. We regularly look
at their websites to see if they are doing things we should be doing. I
sometimes bump into other studio owners and they tell a similar story.
Generally good studios survive for years, bad ones last a couple of
years then fold. I overheard a couple of new customers talking. One said
“That’s the trouble with studios, they are great when they open, then
they go down hill and after a couple of years shut”. The other guy said
“yeah, they all do that”. Then the first one turned and asked me “how
long have you guys been here?”. I said “Since 1979″. The problem for
most start ups is they don’t have spare gear, so when things break, the
operation stops. We have spares for just about everything, so we don’t
have those sort of problems. Another problem for start ups is that it
takes years to get decent staff. We’ve been lucky but we have had
problems. Often you only realise when people leave.
Many people start studios thinking it will be a blast. They then find
that they work unsociable hours, for bad money and simply end up
hoovering rooms after other people have been enjoying themselves. It
takes years to get established and it can be very hard work. I’ve spent
many a Christmas day bricklaying, plastering and painting studios as
this is the only time we can afford to shut. But then it all becomes
worthwhile when you hear an Amy Winehouse or a Kate Nash come down and
become a superstar. Perhaps for me, as an ageing punk, the finest moment
was listening to The Damned rehearsing “New Rose” in Studio 7 on their
first visit, many moons ago. Their album “Damned Damned Damned” was one
of the first albums I bought and as New Rose was the first UK Punk
single, it is very special for me. Things like that, you cannot buy.
(This article was originally published on the Mill Hill Music Complex website
https://www.millhillmusiccomplex.co.uk/savelondonmusic-think-easy-run-music-studio/ )
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