Originally Posted by
theboss
While I agree a dedicated rehearsal space would be a great addition to Caithness, the actual mechanics of running such an environment is incredibly challenging.
You're talking about obtaining funding for one rehearsal room, with a dedicated P.A and drum kit and possibly additional guitar, bass, keyboard amplifiers.
While I lived in Glasgow I used many of their reheasal rooms (Berkeley, Urban Studios, Soundhaus... etc etc) These were all professionally set up and run, rehearsal/recording studios with ALOT of money invested in them. They were also fully staffed 12 hours a day and provided a high standard of equipment. Now you would think that these kind of places would be respected, a place to get away from the missus for a while to make a racket with your friends, unfortunately not everyone saw it that way. Every single week we went in we were faced with the same problems. The speaker cabinets had been abused to the point that they had just given in, pieces of the drum kit were missing (things like cymbal felts, clutches, bass drum pedals), the P.A was turned up to the max and was screaming etc etc... Now agreed that these were rooms that were being let out 12 hours a day 7 days a week, but even with a full staff on hand to keep an eye on it, the equipment was being abused and was costing alot of money to repair/replace.
My point is that while in theory, bands will go in to a dedicated rehearsal space, bring their own drum breakables, guitars, leads, fx etc, get a sound they're happy with from the P.A and spend a couple of hours a week becoming the next Howlin' Gaels, this is not how it works. Not everyone knows how to work a P.A! Do you have it fully staffed all the time? Who pays the wages? How do you stop damage to equipment? Who pays for damage to the equipment? Is there to be someone there to check the room everytime a band leave? I'm not calling everyone vandals, and i'm also not going to pinpoint one age-group/type of person that would do this, but all it takes is for one person to spoil it for everyone and no matter how hard you try, you can't watch the place all the time.
I know this all sounds very negative, but I do agree with what you're saying to a certain extent. The younger generation do require a facility, but i'm pretty certain the High School allow there music rooms to be used at lunchtimes for rehearsal. The bigger problem is when you leave the High School but surely by then, if you're REALLY into your music and keen to push yourself, you should have made contacts in Caithness who have rehearsal space. You should know, or be able to find out where the more established local bands rehearse and be bold enough to approach whoever it is with the facility, whether it be a garage, a shed or a dedicated studio. I know of at least two places you have used for rehearsal Clash and another one where you considered. Maybe you should approach these folk for an opinion on using their facilities to see what they think, or WHY they don't let EVERY Keith Moon or Donnie Williamson wannabe use their space.
I await the response...
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