Cheap Rehearsal Rooms Available, on a long term basis!!  

Bally Studios now has three Rehearsal Rooms available on a Long Term (6- 12 months) rental basis.  These rooms will be available on a partial lock out basis.  

How it works?

Basically, at the moment the rehearsal rooms are all hired at an hourly rate, from 11am to 11pm, seven days a week.  But now, due to new work commitments for the owners/managers of the studio, we have decided to offer our Studios 1,2 , 3 and 5 on a long term hire rate, where the rooms would be available to a band from Monday to Friday, from 6am to 6pm, which are currently our off peak times.  So you get the benefits of a full time lock out, the convenience of having a rehearsal room for up to 60 hours a week, more than enough time to rehearse at a relaxed pace, record webcasts/podcasts, record an album (or two!!), do valuable pre-production or just get super tight as a band, at a much lower cost than usual.  It’s a great option for bands that can rehearse during the daytime, leaving them free to gig in the evening, and for bands that work in the evening, weekends or at nights.   

Each band will be given their own key to the studio, so that they can come and go as they please, and they will also be given a key to their own storage cupboard, so at the beginning of the day, they can come in, get out their equipment, set it up and have their rehearsal.  At the end of their day, they pack it away, lock the cupboard and head off home!  While it is not as convenient as leaving all of your equipment set up, it is considerably cheaper than most lock out rates (the cheapest that we could find in London was £120 per day, for one days rental, our rooms are on offer for £16 - £23 per day(12 hour rental) for long term lets), and also, as you only pay for Mon-Fri, it also means that you can enjoy the weekend, and have a life outside of the band!

We will require one months fully-refundable deposit in advance in order to secure the room for you.  This will be returned in full at the end of your tenure. Each months rent will be required at the start of the month.  

So you're interested in booking a room long term? Please remember, to start with, these rooms are mainly for rent from 6am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. If you wanted to do more hours, we can come to that later, but for now lets deal with the 6am – 6pm, Monday to Friday. That's still a possible 60 hours a week rehearsal time, if you're dedicated enough, or 260 possible rehearsal hours per month.

These rates are all inclusive. There are no extra charges, whatsoever! No extra tax, you get free parking, all bills are included. If you need to use any of our equipment, then feel free to do so; drum kits, guitar amps, bass amps, microphones, everything like that. Some of the rooms even have organs in them, so you're free to use them too. Even any teas and coffees that you want are included in the cost. 

Recently, as of August 2011, we have had a few bands enquiring about a long term let.  At least 3 bands have said that they are looking for a discount for the long term rental "as they would only be using it 1-2 times a week".   Please note, that when taking on a long term booking, we have to take into consideration that we will have to turn down the current bookings that we are getting, in order to reserve the room for you.  Therefore, it doesn't make economic sense for a band to rent a room 24/7, and only use it once or twice a week.  Our cheapest rehearsals are £32 for 4 hours,  maybe that option would be more appropriate.   Many of the bands have said that they would rather not have to set up their stuff at the start of every rehearsal.  That would be great in an ideal world,  but in London especially,  with high rents for units, by packing up your equipment and compressing in into a 10sq foot storage unit, as opposed to keeping it set up in a 400 sq foot studio, you will save substantially.   Please try to bear this in mind when deciding whether a long term rental is the best option for your band.  Time spend setting up equipment means much cheaper rates, as we can get extra bands in when you are not, and can reduce your rates.

Depending on what length of contract you want, and what studio you want, these are the prices of the rooms.

Monthly Monday - Friday, 6am - 6pm.  Studio Rental

So brilliant, that's the ・"musician-day-job" hours sorted. But if that's still not enough possible rehearsal times, and you're looking to book the room out for longer, then these are the rates of how much it will cost you to book the same studio for each weekday evening also. All prices are per day, to extend the time from 6pm to midnight, or, if you're also in the following day, link the two sessions (extend the sessions to 6am the next morning). That way you can either keep on rehearsing into the night, or you can leave everything set-up. Either way, the room is your to do with as you please. But here are the rates for booking each extra evening, whether you do one evening extra a week, or 5 extra evenings, it a simple, per evening rate, but the rate is slightly different depending on what long term contract you have taken up; the longer the contract, the cheaper each extra evening will cost.

Cost per extra weekday evening you add to your package.

So now that's Monday to Friday sorted so that leaves us with the weekend, time to get out and about, do some walking, fishing, do a water colour painting of a church. But you're still looking for more time? Maybe you'd like to add some weekend slots to your studio hire.

These rates are the costs of extra Saturday sessions at Bally Studios. Renting a studio on the Saturday for the full day means you can use it any time from 6am – Midnight. But maybe you can have too much of a good thing, and you want a Saturday session, but not the whole day? We can also split the day into 2 half day sessions. The morning session runs from 6am – 4pm, and the evening session runs from 4pm – 11pm. Half day sessions are half the cost of a full day session, so whatever the rate is in the box, if you just want a half day session, it's half the cost of a full day session

Rates for adding the Saturday to the package, per day

It's the same deal with Sundays also. These are the rates for adding Sundays to your rental package. On Sunday, the half day session hours are 6am – 4pm, and 4pm – 11pm, the same as with Saturday. So if you only want a half day, you can choose either the morning session or the evening session, and only pay half of the day rate, but these times are non-negotiable I'm afraid.

If this still isn't enough time for you, and you want to rent the room all day, every day, all week, then these are the rates for renting it 100%, per month, taking a whole booking.

So, to re-cap, firstly decide what size of room you want, then decide how long you are looking at renting the room. These are the rates for renting the room, Monday to Friday, 6am – 6pm. Then you decide whether you want to add the evenings to your basic package,, so check the extra weekday evening table, to find out how much adding each evening costs. It's a flat rate per evening. Then if you want to add a Saturday, Sunday or both, check the next 2 tables. Finally, if you want the room full time, 24/7, please check the last table, as this gives you the rates of hiring a room for the whole month, on a 24 hour basis

But why would you want to rent a rehearsal room for so long?

Regular Band Rehearsals?

It is a great opportunity for a band to save money in the long term, and to really put all of their efforts into making the band fulfill it’s potential.  When you consider that many rehearsal rooms in London charge £12-£25 per hour for a daytime rehearsal, by biting the bullet and planning your rehearsals in advance, you can take the pressure off of your rehearsals by cutting the hourly rate, and considering how much the cost of pro audio equipment has become, be in total control of your bands future, by rehearsing and recording at your own pace. 

Recording bands?

Also, if you’re looking to start your own recording studio, and are looking at recording bands, it is an great opportunity to be able to hire the rooms to record bands, make a huge saving on the rental for your recording studio, not have to shell out large amounts on money, soundproofing or room acoustics, and leave your evenings and weekends free for pursuing other activities, like going to gigs, gigging yourself, etc.  

Small Record Label?

If you're a band that is signed to a small record label, then this deal could be a great way for the record label to really help your band.   If you work for an independent record label, the long term hire of a studio could be an extremely economical way to finance a band, or maybe even 2-3 bands, with bands taking different days of the week or maybe splitting the day up between each other (One band could take 10am-2pm, the other 2pm to 6pm)

Band Sharing?

You may want to hire a studio and split the cost with another band, so you could each take  2 and a half days a week, which would mean that you could reap all of the benefits of long term rentals, and split the cost.  If you share equipment, you could save even more money!!

Features for all rooms:

- Fully Air Conditioned  

- Professionally soundproofed

-1kw + PA System, great volume and clarity

-Price Includes Storage of Equipment at the Rehearsal Rooms

- All Rehearsal Rooms are on the ground floor

Individual Rooms:

The Rehearsal rooms are based in a Business Centre that has many other recording studios based in it, which is great for networking, a PA hire and repair company, 2 cafes, and it has a great community feel about it, with many people knowing each other in the building.  We are a well-established Rehearsal room, having such bands as Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Lemar, Keane as well an numerous other bands rehearse and record at our studios.  We have a strong base of 50+ locally based bands that use the facilities on a regular basis, but due to the fact that the vast majority of these bands rehearse in the evening or at the weekend, and also due to other work commitments, we have now decided to rent the rooms out on a long term lockout basis.  

If you have any questions about the rooms, or would just like to drop by and check out the studios, please do not hesitate to contact us, and arrange a time that you can drop by and check the place out.    It's a very relaxed atmosphere at the studio, and a warm welcome awaits you at Bally!

Cheers -                                                      Jimmy Mulvihill and Francesca Agati