Looking for advice on rehearsal space

Toon · December 2017

We are a band looking to identify a village hall or suchlike to hire in the Northampton area for an all day rehearsal session where we can set up our own gear and PA/lights etc.

How would I go about a) identifying a village? and b) finding out if they hire out to bands?

Anyone on here know how to do this?

We can, of course, just hire a rehearsal room at a studio but we want to set all our own gear up.

TIA

not_the_dj · December 2017

We use a village hall for rehearsals (not in Northampton, but not a million miles away, it's in Napton, Warwickshire) but I'm sure ones local to you will be similar.

Costs us a tenner all night, just need to be careful with bookings when there's yoga classes going on in another room, but really that's down to the people that run the place.

They'll usually be a few local residents who are on the committee who'll open up/lock up etc.

Just google or ask around, these places like to be used and unless they;ve had noise complaints I can't image one turning down a booking.

EricTheWeary · December 2017

In one band we did a few rehearsals in a working man's club sort of place. They had a large function room that was barely used in the week so we hired it cheaply and took all our stuff in. Big stage with lights, really cool. Advantage of somewhere like that is that they have the noise issue sorted whereas it can be a problem with places like community centres. MrsTheWeary does her tai chi in a scout hut but we couldn't use it for the band as they said it would be too noisy.
There was someone on here who used to rehearse on the back room of a pub, IIRC they bought a couple of rounds across the evening and that was the only cost. If you know a pub with a function room that doesn't do much business mid week you could ask.

midlifecrisis · December 2017

EricTheWeary said:

In one band we did a few rehearsals in a working man's club sort of place. They had a large function room that was barely used in the week so we hired it cheaply and took all our stuff in. Big stage with lights, really cool. Advantage of somewhere like that is that they have the noise issue sorted whereas it can be a problem with places like community centres. MrsTheWeary does her tai chi in a scout hut but we couldn't use it for the band as they said it would be too noisy.
There was someone on here who used to rehearse on the back room of a pub, IIRC they bought a couple of rounds across the evening and that was the only cost. If you know a pub with a function room that doesn't do much business mid week you could ask.

Not my band but a friends band uses the unused, during the week, function hall for rehearsals every week free of charge and in return they do a couple of unpaid gigs there a year. seems a good arrangment.

ESBlonde · December 2017

Look for tired old hotels too, they often have unused function rooms mid week and are warm/comfortable.

p90fool · December 2017

We have free access to a modern village hall, but empty it sounds awful, with terrible ringing overtones. Most recent ones seem to be built to a standard template, basically a brick-built badminton court with a two-storey ceiling.

I used to drag the band and all the gear there occasionally to do PA "dress rehearsals" to dial in new gear, but in fact it told me less than nothing about how it would perform in a proper gig.

I try and find anything with a bit of furniture and carpeting these days even though I have to pay.

CarpeDiem · December 2017

Type in 'village hall hire' to your search engine and it should come up with a list of ones in your area, as well as consolidating sites such as 'hallshire.com'. I've hired a couple in the past, and found it's best to talk to the local contact. Noise levels were an issue in one but not the other. It is a good way to set up all of the band's kit, but as @p90fool has said, the acoustics can sound poor in an empty room.

Teyeplayer · December 2017

The white rooms in Rushden have a decent upstairs room that isn’t ridiculously priced and sounds like it might suit your needs.

edit: or look into dingley village hall on the Northants-Leicestershire border.

Voxman · December 2017

Teyeplayer said:

The white rooms in Rushden have a decent upstairs room that isn’t ridiculously priced and sounds like it might suit your needs.

edit: or look into dingley village hall on the Northants-Leicestershire border.

If you have a lot of gear that's cumbersome and/or heavy you really want to find somewhere on the ground floor if you can - after a while schlapping gear up/down stairs can be a real bind physically & time-wise.

Teyeplayer · December 2017

Voxman said:

Teyeplayer said:

The white rooms in Rushden have a decent upstairs room that isn’t ridiculously priced and sounds like it might suit your needs.

edit: or look into dingley village hall on the Northants-Leicestershire border.

If you have a lot of gear that's cumbersome and/or heavy you really want to find somewhere on the ground floor if you can - after a while schlapping gear up/down stairs can be a real bind physically & time-wise.

Having done it at various venues and rehearsal spaces for over 20 years now, much as I agree it is a total pita to clamber up and down stairs, I have come to accept the inevitability of lugging gear. As a result I don’t own any pristine gear and equally am rarely precious about the gear I own -it’s a state of mind that works for me though I accept isn’t for everyone.

Another option that I’ve made use of in the past if you are after an all day rehearsal space, are school theatre spaces that are going unused during holidays and weekends.

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