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| Bally Studios Timeline January 2005: - Jimmy applies to the Princes trust for funding to start a recording studio March 2005: - Application and business plan all completed and submitted to the Princes trust June 2005:
- Funding finally approved start Bally studios, with The Princes
Trust and
Barclays putting up 50% of the money each. July 2005: - On first day of the recording studio being opened, within the first two hours, we suddenly realise that the units are not soundproofed enough for recording live bands with the drum kit, so studio is put on hold until we can find a more suitable location. August 2005: - while guitar shoping in Palmers Green, Jimmy spots an advert for Sync City, a 2 room rehearsal studio complex in Tottenham Hale. Jimmy and Francesca go to view the studios with a view of renting one of the rooms in downtime, but currents owners announced they are looking to sell the business. October 2005: - at the seventh (7th!!!) attempt, Jimmy and Francesca finally gets 50% of the money needed to take over the business. 25% of the money needed is raised through credit cards and 25% is deferred so that we get six months to pay off the remaining quarter owed. Jimmy and Francesca takeover Sync City and rename it Bally Studios. On the first day, all extra hire fees for equipment are abolished and the kettle is bought for free teas and coffees. Jimmy also adds his personal guitar amps to the studios available stock, a Fender Princeton chorus guitar amp and a WEM dominator MKII November 2005:
- Main
office is split into 2 and one half is let out to a courior service
company. December 2005:
- Jimmy and
Francesca sell three guitars they own to cover the rent through the
quieter Christmas period. January 2006:
- due to
requests from bands to set up a small shop in the office, owing to the
20-25 mins it was taking for the bands to walk the petrol station and
back, we set up the Bally tuck shop. Only selling Coke and Diet Coke,
and 4 different chocolate bars. February 2006: - The Super
Nashwan Kids move out of studio three and it becomes the 3rd permanent
rehearsal studio. Brand-new PA system, Laney RB4 bass amp and Mapex M
Series drum kits bought for new rehearsal room. March 2006: - Work starts
to split the current office into a much smaller office and a new Studio
4. April 2006: - Ownership of the studios finally transferred to Jimmy and Francesca after the remaining money owed is paid off . Jimmy and Francesca move home to live at the bottom of the Mill Mead Road due to working so much at the studio. May 2006: - Studio 4 is completed. Brand-new PA, drum kit, Peavey bass amp and Fender front man guitar amp purchased June 2006: - Old Diamond drum kit is upgraded with new Premier Cabria drum kit July 2006: - PA system in
studio 2 is upgraded from 800 Watts to 2,400 Watts August 2006: - Air conditioning installed into studio 4 September 2006: - Guitar supplies shop is finally set up at Bally Studios, stock being provided by Holiday Music in Leytonstone October 2006: - Air conditioning installed into studio 2 November 2006: - 1970's GEM organ bought and put in studio 4 December 2006: - Air conditioning installed into studio 1 January 2007: - new armchair is bought for the office for bands and staff to sit down on. February 2007: - Air conditioning installed into studio 3 March 2007: - expand the range of herbal teas that we offer at the studio to 20 May 2007: - Epiphone triggerman combo and epiphone triggerman head and 4 x 12 Cabinet added to studio stock.if July 2007: - Different lighting scheme is installed in each of the studios, with different colours for each one. September 2007: - Industrial fan installed in studio 1 to cool the room along with the air-conditioner. October 2007: - Industrial fan installed in studio 3 to cool the room along with the air-conditioner. November 2007: - Vox AD50ST added to studio stock. December 2007: - Marshall MG100 DFX added to studio stock. January 2008: - Crate 120 Watts guitar amp added to studio stock. February 2008: - Industrial fan installed in studio 4 to cool the room along with the air-conditioner. March 2008: - Hayden 4 x 12 guitar Cabinet added to studio stock. May 2008: - The Fractured City Collective is formed, a group of six bands that rehearse at the studios that decide to combine resources, such as a van, PA system, bass amp, etc and start putting on their own gigs. July 2008: - Hughes and Kettner guitar amp added to studio stock. October 2008: - Fender Performer 1000 added to studio stock November 2008: - Purple Pearl Export drum kit added to studio stock. December 2008: - Fender Frontman 212R added to studio stock. January 2009: - Hartke 2 x 10 bass cabinet added to studio stock. February 2009: - Marshall MGX 100 guitar head and 4 x 12 Cabinet added to studio stock. March 2009: - Peavey TKO keyboard/ bass combo added to studio stock. April 2009: - As we are now having long periods in advance with all the studios are booked up, we decided to split studio 1 into a new smaller studio 1 and a brand-new studio 5. Work starts on spits in the room May 2009: - The smaller studio 1 is now opened, with bands having to walk through the work in progress studio 5. June 2009: - three months after putting in a request to have manhole in studio one looked after noticing damage on it, manhole gives way during torrential rain in and studio 1, 3 and 5 are flooded. These studios are closed for five weeks, as the initial work done on manhole proves to be inadequate and the studios are flooded again 15 days after initial flooding. Landlord finally completes the work, and after 11 days of drying the rooms out with industrial dehumidifiers, and have in the rooms treated for damp, studios 1 and 3 are opened again. 2 power amplifiers and three amplifiers are lost in the flooding, but new manhole cover means we never have to worry about it happening again. July 2009:
- Studio 5 is
finally opened. Brand-new red Pearl drum kits is bought, as well as
Peavey Transtube guitar amp, and Laney linebacker bass amp. August 2009:
- first
member of staff, Simon King, starts working at Bally Studios, having
previously rehearsed at the studios with his band. September 2009: - One message board is opens outside studio 5. It is soon followed by a second, third and fourth one within two weeks as so many bands are putting up adverts for gigs. October 2009: - acoustic treatment is applied to all five studios, in some rooms to bring out the natural acoustics and in others to dampen down errant frequencies. Takes one week to do and is unanimously met with approval from the bands. November 2009: - CCTV installed in the studio complex. Before this, just the corridors were covered by CCTV December 2009: - extra TV is added to the new internal corridor outside studio five so that bands do not have to keep running around the office to check the scores of football games. January 2010: - Laney world series 100SC guitar amp added to studio stock. Bought from rehearsal studio 7k in Seven Kings. February 2010: - Extra rewiring at the studio takes place so that each room has two different power supplies to spread the load evenly in all of the rooms. March 2010: - introduce a new digital recorder so that bands can record their sessions, for only £3 a session, including the CD being burnt. April 2010: - Mark Edwards starts working at Bally Studios, having previously rehearsed at the studio doing solo drum sessions May 2010: - Brand-new sofas brought for studio 2 June 2010: - Peavey Express 112 guitar amp added to studio stock. August 2010: - Industrial fan installed in studio 2 to cool the room along with the air-conditioner. September 2010: - Vox ADVT 120 Watt guitar head added to studio stock. October 2010: - Small chill out zone is created outside studio 3 so that bands have somewhere to sit down and relax. November 2010:
-
Industrial fan installed in studio to cool the room along with the
air-conditioner. December 2010: - Air conditioning installed into studio 5 January 2011: - Bally studios starts to make a minimum of 25p donation for each session that we have at the studio to charity, raising up to £600 a year for worthy causes February 2011: - We start giving away free Bally Studios badge and Bottle openers March 2011: - buy brand-new sofa for studio 2. April 2011: - introduce a 2nd new digital recorder so that bands can record their sessions, for only £3 a session, including the CD being burnt. May 2011: - after spotting a small hairline crack in the ceiling in studio 2, we decided to replace it with a much sturdier soundproofeded ceiling. Two hours into the job we suddenly realise that extensive work is needed on the ceiling, and studio two is closed for seven weeks while a brand-new soundproofed ceiling is installed June 2011: - Tom Oakes starts fixing Bally Studios guitar amps. July 2011: - We finally stop using MySpace despite having 130,000 friends as by now we are getting about 100 messages a day that are all spam. Switchover to Facebook instead August 2011: - London riots caused by a police shooting nearby in Tottenham means that Mill Mead Road has to shut for four days. First time since opening six years ago that sessions are unavailable at the studio. September 2011: - Vox Escort 50 watt guitar amp added to studio stock. October 2011: - Bally Day Hire Recording Studio is opened, meaning that bands and sound engineers/producers can hire a room at Bally and all of the equipment and record their own sessions November 2011: -
Christopher Pinkston starts working at Bally studios, having recently
moved into the same apartment block that Jimmy and Francesca used to
live in, at the end of Mill Mead road. December 2011: - spend £600 replacing small things such as XLR cables, microphone stands, microphone clips, etc, to make sure that everything is in top notch condition. January 2012: - Tesco just down the road from us opens, meaning a new cashpoint for the bands. February 2012: - Bally
studios starts the hunt for a new location to open another branch of
Bally studios. April 2012 - Buy a CD burner so that bands can take away a rough mix of their recordings at the end of recording sessions May 2012 - Brand New PV 215 Speakers installed into Studio 1, which are double the size, both in volume and size of the last ones. June 2012 - After committing to the project for over 4 months, HSBC pull out of funding the new studio 4 days before building work is due to start. In 23 days, we manage to switch our objectives, and by the end of the month, we now have a new mixing studio all set up in Muswell Hill, which means we can take on extra work which will hopeful give us the opportunity to self fund the new rehearsal studios. The timescale is unclear as to how long it will be before the new rehearsal studios are set up, but the studio is still moving forward with new mixing facility, which incorporates full analogue and digital interfaces, with full outboard. July 2012
- Start selling Moen
Guitar peals at the studios, all of which are brand new, and will a 12
month guarantee. August 2012 - Upgrade the recording mixing desk from the Allen Heath GL2200 to the GL2400, which is very much like the old one, but just better!! September 2012 - Horror Film
"The Voice" is filmed at the Studios, staring our very own Francesca De
Luca. October 2012 - Installed brand
new tweeter arrays in Studio 2 to make sure that the high frequencies
are as crisp as possible. We now have 8 tweeters taking on the
high frequencies, as oppose to the 2 we had before.
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