News [announcement on Studio 64 web pages May 2006]
Studio 64 is MOVING! After nearly 20 years in our current premises we've had to accept that they are just too small for us and we need to move to a larger building.
An offer to share space with our sister organization at The Georgian Theatre has resulted in a merger between us to form the TEES MUSIC ALLIANCE.
From the 22nd of May 2006, we'll be winding down our rehearsal activity in Middlesbrough and launching a new improved space over at GREEN DRAGON STUDIOS in Stockton-on-Tees.
The new facility will feature two basement rehearsal rooms with full heating and air handling; a pro-designed recording studio plus training rooms, art gallery, coffee shop - and a hard wired link to The Georgian Theatre next door, allowing for live recording of gigs.
If you are a regular user of the studio, please try to keep in touch with what's happening so that you don't end up in the wrong place!
Our recording facilities will follow during the summer as a new state of the art studio is designed and built.
Funding for the move and the new facility has come through the StocktonMiddlesbrough Initiative - with additional revenue support from Arts Council England and Stockton Borough Council.
Studio 64 On The Move! [article from The Link - keepin' It Live]
After nearly 20 years in its current location, Studio 64 is getting a new home - and a new name.
Set up as a DIY music collective in the 80's - originally to serve the needs of musicians in Middlesbrough - the studio has hugely expanded its role whilst we've remained cooped up in our cosy little cellar on corporation Road. The Middlesbrough only' remit has long since gone of course as we've been serving bands and artists from all over the region indeed the country - for the last fifteen of those twenty years.
For a long time now, we've been looking at ways to make better use of our limited space. We offer a range of services recording, rehearsal, training etc but in reality we can only deliver them one at a time [how would you fancy recording your acoustic album with a death metal band rehearsing two yards away?].
As our studio activity outgrew its traditional night time and weekend slots we were starting to impact on our neighbours above and vice-versa. Imagine a couple of rock bands striking up just as the monthly blood donor sessions started at the community centre upstairs or the scene when a very street-cred punk band from Bradford had their vocals overdubbed with Achy-Breaky Heart as it leaked through from the electronic induction loop from an old folks line dancing class one afternoon. You get the picture?
Time and finances were becoming tighter in recent years and then an interesting idea was put to us by our sister collective over at The Georgian Theatre in Stockton-on-Tees
The local council over there was looking for alternative uses for a soon-to-be-vacant museum building; slap bang next to the theatre, giving rise to huge collaborative possibilities. Would we be interested? And by the way, there may be some cash available to invest in the studio. And while we were on why not merge the two collectives to provide one big collective to run the whole shebang?
So that's what's happening. Regular users of Studio 64 will have seen our posters letting them know of the changes. We begin to provide rehearsal space over in Stockton on the 29 th May and our recordings will transfer over during the summer as our professionally designed and built recording studio starts to take shape in another part of the same building.
The new' collective will be called the Tees Music Alliance and will gradually start to raise its profile over the summer. The studios will be known as Green Dragon Studios and will incorporate a whole host of added facilities for the benefit of our users [look out on our web-site www.studio64.org.uk.for up to date announcements].
The ethos of the collective remains though; we're still committed to local music, we'll still run all of the events and projects that we currently do, we'll still be the longest running DIY collective in the north-east and we'll still operate on a not-for-profit basis.
Of course there are always going to be people who see the move as the end of an era or even a dastardly plot to strip Middlesbrough of one of its musical jewels. The truth is we're short of space at Studio 64 and we didn't stand a chance of raising the kind of money needed to invest in it as things stood. The move is a unique opportunity and we'd be foolish to turn it down.
And the truth of the matter is that, apart from a few bands that travel in from outlying areas, our users are split roughly 50/50 between Stockton and Middlesbrough . We have served Stockton musicians well from our Middlesbrough base; we will serve Middlesbrough musicians equally as well if not better from our new Stockton base.
The move is being made possible by the Stockton Middlesbrough Initiative and will form a significant part of the work being undertaken to develop the Stockton Cultural Quarter; providing some kick-ass facilities for musicians along the way.
From all the team at Studio 64 and Green Dragon Studios
Tees music scene to benefit from merger and relocation [official press release]
Cutting edge recording, rehearsal and performance facilities for local musicians and bands are be some of the practical advantages which will created by the merger of two long standing Teesside music development organizations and the relocation of Teesside's longest established recording studio.
Middlesbrough Music Collective (MMC), the oldest music DIY music collective on Teesside, is joining forces with Stockton Music and Arts Collective (SMAC) to form the Tees Music Alliance .
The creation of the new organization will bring under one body a whole range of music centred activities including new recording and rehearsal facilities, refurbished performance space, new arts workshop space and improved music business support.
The reorganization will involve the relocation of Studio64, (currently administered by MMC) to Stockton Council's new Cultural Quarter centred around the Green Dragon Yard, just off the High Street. It will be renamed Green Dragon Studios and will be located immediately adjacent to The Georgian Theatre (currently administered by SMAC). Plans are also being drawn up for refurbishment of the theatre the oldest of its kind in the country - which offers local musicians and bands the experience of performing in a fully equipped, professional venue.
TMA will also administer creative industries business space in Calvin House, also in the Green Dragon Yard. Units in Calvin House will from time to time be offered to start-up arts businesses, where they can benefit from being located in the Cultural Quarter and adjacent to similar minded organizations.
From Teesside with Love, a local music development project of MMC, is already based in the Green Dragon Yard and with the centralizing of all the other activities under the Tees Music Alliance will be in a stronger position to help local musicians and bands develop their businesses.
The new development is a culmination of many years of hard work on the part of both organizations who have in fact worked very closely for that last 16 years or so. The timing seemed right for us to merge and come together on a single site.
"The new facilities will be fantastic and a real benefit to Tees based musicians and indeed the north east as a whole.
"We're delighted that our team and its work has been recognised and rewarded with the level of investment that is being poured into the Cultural Quarter. We are particularly indebted to Stockton Council and the Arts Council for their ongoing help, encouragement and financial support said Paul Burns Director of the new organization.
ENDS