Bally Rehearsal Studios.
Tottenham Hale, N17. London. 

Job Vacancy - November 2024. 
Rehearsal Studio Assistant. 

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**Part time position available at Bally Studios.**
**To apply, please email us at BallyStudiosStaff@gmail.com with an application letter and your CV. **

Hello everyone!  

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After more than 450 shifts over the last 3 years, one of our members of staff is moving onto pastures new in Jan 2025,  so we're looking for a new member of staff to join the team at Bally, for only the 5th time since Oct 2017.   We're looking for someone to join the team on a long term basis, starting off as part time, but with the hope of  becoming full time.  

The role available is for a studio assistant, which entails:

- Setting up the rehearsal studios for the bands.
- Helping bands with the equipment.
- Keeping the studios clean.
- Taking phone bookings during their shifts.
- Doing general maintenance on the studio equipment (re-skinning drum-kits, testing guitar amps, etc)
- Basically doing things that keeps the studios in a great condition for the bands that use us.
 
Here is what we are looking for:
 

- If you have made an application in the past and were not successful, please feel more than welcome to re-apply. The studios is always evolving, and so the candidate that we are looking for will change too.  Just because your application wasn't successful at the time, you may be exactly what we are looking for now. 
 

- We can only consider a candidate who either plays in a band, or who has played in a band in the past.  We are a studio that is "run by musicians, for musicians" and so we want someone who has rehearsed a lot in the past, and that is familiar with rehearsal studios.    This is the most important factor, by far.   We value someone who has been in/is in a band MUCH more than we value formal qualifications.    We want someone who knows how annoying it is when the drummer doesn't have enough cymbal stands, how much it affects the vibe of a session when the PA isn't set up properly, who knows how gross it is when the studio hasn't been cleaned properly before the session, who knows the value of having a member of staff put enough microphones in place so that everything is ready to go when the band walks into the studio, and who recognises the value of a rehearsal studio having staff members who really care that the bands have as great a session as possible.  We want someone who has had unproductive rehearsals at bad rehearsal studios, and fantastic rehearsals at great rehearsal studios, and who knows how much that difference means to bands, and who wants to make sure that all bands in the future have the same great experience when they come to Bally Studios. 

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- Someone who loves being around musicians, and wants to play an active part in the music community.  Every session our staff try to engage with the bands that come to us as much as they can. They are interested in hearing about the gigs that the bands that come to us play, what new music venues are opening up, and they want to find out as much information about what is happening in the local music scene so that they can pass that information onto other bands.  Whilst other studios are laying off members of staff and replacing them with apps and digital keypads  in order to cut costs, at Bally we're passionate about the value that an enthusiastic staff member can bring to the team, and to the bands that come to us. Some studios offer bands the bare minimum that they need to get through their session, but we want to help the bands that come to us in any way that we can.  We don't care what music you like, just that you have a passion for music.
 

- Proactiveness. The vast majority of shifts are done with only one staff member on site at any one time, and so you won't have another staff member on hand to tell you what you need to do, and to motivate you to do it.  The best candidate will be someone who is so familiar with how a rehearsal studio operates that they'll see something that just needs to be done, and do it without being told.  Upon setting up a studio for the band, if they see that the drum stool seems a little shaky, a good candidate will make a note in the diary to say, "drum stool seems a little shaky", but a GREAT candidate will get the screwdriver out to see if they can fix it, and then leave a note in the diary to say, "drum stool seemed a little shaky, so I fixed it."   The best rehearsal studios fix small issues before they become big problems, and so much of our work is based around nipping issues in the bud, which requires a high level of proactiveness.     
 

- Someone who is friendly and loves chatting to musicians. That's a big part of the job, we want the bands to feel as welcome as possible at the studios, so we're definitely hiring for attitude, and are happy to train for skills if it is necessary.   We never underestimate the value of someone who is nice, easy to work with, and who just wants to be nice with the people that they meet.  
 

- Living relatively local is a must. As there is only one person at the studio at any one time, it is really important that there are no delays in getting into work, and so we are looking for someone who lives within 30 minutes of the studios at most, to prevent the risk of being late due to traffic or transport problems. At times there is also the possibility of last minute extra shifts being available too, so living locally would mean we could give potential extra shifts on top of your usual shifts,but only if you wanted them. 
 

- As the role is for looking after the rehearsal sessions, a good grasp of the usual gear that bands would use in a rehearsal session is ideal. We are more than happy to help out if you are unsure about bits and pieces, but having good basic knowledge on how to match guitar heads and cabs, the difference between a rack tom and a floor tom and a valve and solid state amp, how a mixing desk works on a basic level and how to re-skin a snare drum will be infinitely more useful than a degree in audio engineering from a prestigious university.  At the very least, a strong desire to learn is a must, and we’ll be happy to train you for this too.
 

- Someone who loves taking photos for us to use for the studio's social media, which is a very important aspect. 
 

- Dependability. As there is only one person at the studios at any one time, if you are unable to make a shift it will have knock on effects for sessions. In the last 18 years there have been less than 40 sessions out of 45,000 that we have been unable to meet (mainly due to power cuts, flooding, or our road being closed due to the London riots) and it is really important that we find someone really dependable, as we really value delivering all of the sessions booked. We would rather have less staff members so that the ones that we do have get more shifts, get better at their job and get to know more bands, but as we have so few staff members it means that each one of us is very important to the studios.  There are 2 other members of staff within the team, with a 3rd working for the business remotely. 
 

- The ability to move equipment from room to room is essential.
 

- Great organization and time management. We may have 3 hours when staff members are working but not much is happening, and then a 30 minute period where 5 sessions are ending and another 5 are starting, so we need someone who is able to plan ahead so that the quiet times become times to prepare for the busy times.  Someone who will make sure that the cymbals are put in a bag the door of the studio so that when the band turns up they are able to pick them up as they enter the enter the studios    As there is only one person at the studios at any one time you will need to work well without supervision to make sure that small jobs are completed and everything is kept really clean, problems are spotted, and hurdles overcome. It is impossible to underestimate how important being self motivated is.
 

- Someone who is interested in recording bands. To be clear, you don't have to have experience in this field, or qualifications, but a basic interest in wanting to learn how to record bands is a big benefit. We have an 8-track recorder for hire at the studios, and we've had loads of bands recording really great sessions with us over the last few years, and none of our current staff have any formal qualifications in sound engineering. They learnt on the job by starting off with basic recording set-ups and developing them as they went, and the key to the success that we've has so far is the passion that our staff members have had for recording.   
 

Here are things that we are NOT looking for:
 

- As above, it is always a bonus to have someone who likes recording, and you can do as much recording as you want on a personal basis here using our recording equipment, for free,  but we are not looking for someone who is only looking for a role in a recording studio. In the past many of the applicants would go into great detail about what recording software they are really good at, but we are looking for someone to work in a rehearsal studio, not a recording studio.  First and foremost we are a rehearsal studio.    
 
- You do not necessarily need experience in rehearsal studios or a wealth of qualifications.  As long as you have the basics down, a positive attitude, a good work ethic and are a good team player, we can help with everything else. All we are looking is for a nice person who is hungry to learn, and is a hard worker. We are happy to hire based on attitude and train for skills. 
 

- We are open minded enough to understand that some people's attributes or strengths won't be perfectly represented in their CV or employment history.  Some people spend years working in an industry that they eventually realise isn't for them, or have a year or two where they didn't work due to various reasons.  It's life, it happens, so please don't discount yourself from applying for the job due to factors in the past.  So long as you have a genuine desire to want to work in a rehearsal studio, the ability to commit to completing your arranged shifts to a high standard, and a basic understanding of bands, we're happy to help you with the rest. 

Additional details (related links, contact details, company info):
 

We are looking for someone who can work the following shifts:
 

Immediately:   Every Wednesday, with an average of one extra shift per week, on either a Monday, Tuesday or Sunday.  There are some weeks when only Wednesday will be available, other weeks when we will have 3 shifts, (Wednesday + 2 more), so overall it will work out to be about 2 shifts per week. 
 

Long term: It is extremely likely that we will be able to add an extra regular weekend shift in 2025, at which point we will have shifts every Wednesday,  and then (more likely) Saturday/(less likely) Sunday, and an additional shift on another day, most likely a MOnday or Tueday.   
 
Availability on the regular days is really important.  We kindly ask that candidates not apply for the role if they are not available for these days.    
 

We book our staff shifts based on when there are shifts available, so a certain element of flexibility is preferred as we can only book in staff shifts when there are shifts available.    However, we understand that if you're going to make a commitment to be available for us for a shift, then we need to make a commitment to you in terms of providing you with enough shifts to make the role worthwhile.   We can therefore provide applicants with a detailed record of all of the shifts that were available at the studios from 2013-2024 on all days, so that the applicant can see what kind of length of shifts are likely to be available to them.   Other shifts will also be available when other staff members cannot work/are on holiday, but won't be obligatory.   
 

There will be times that there will be no shift available if a band is not booked in, but over the course of the  whole year your average shifts should be averaging about 4-7 hours per week, at least.  

Shifts availability are based on how many bookings we have, and will usually be between 4 - 14 hours per week.  The current member of staff who you will be replacing had an average of 8 hours per week.    

Wages. 
 

Wages are in excess of the minimum wage, and meet current UK Living Wage Standards, (£12 per hour)  with Christmas bonuses on top for hitting yearly targets.  Wages will rise as the UK living wage rises.   All staff members are self employed contractors, and pay their own taxes and NI payments to HMRC themselves. They complete their shifts and then invoice us for their payments and we'll usually get it to you on the day.   Some staff members invoice us once a month, others once a week, whatever suits you best. 
 
We use self employed contracts as there are only 2 shifts a week available, and in the past staff members have found having a part time permanent contract has meant that they were unable to find additional work outside of their studio commitments, since other businesses may feel weary of giving an employment contract to someone who already has an employment contract elsewhere that pre-dates theirs. Most of our staff members have contracts for 30+ hours a week elsewhere and use their Bally Studios shifts to supplement their income, and all of our past staff members have found that completing their shifts as a self employed contractor has meant that this job doesn't affect their other job, and they don't have the restrictions that permanent contracts bring with them.   Give us a shout if you have any other questions about this, and if you need any help setting this up, we'll be happy to help you with it all. 
 
We always aim to make sure that shifts are arranged in advance, avoiding this "always-finding-out-on-the-day-if-you-have-a-shift" nonsense as much as possible.   We want to get shifts confirmed as soon as possible to make sure that the studio is as stable as possible, and we know that a settled staff member will perform better, so we'll strive to make sure that everything is planned as much in advance as possible.  Usually we organise the shifts about a week or two in advance, based on what is best for everyone as a whole.  There are times that bands only book at the very last minute, in which case shifts may be last minute, but we'll do everything to minimise that as much as we can, and it's a very rare occurrence.  We understand that you need a certain amount of hours to make the job worthwhile, and will let you know how many we have available so you can make plans.   We are happy for applicants to chat to current/past members to find out how they found working at the studios. 
 

We are also happy for candidates to have other jobs as well, or to be studying at the same time. As long as you are able to complete your usual shifts, and have the possibility of doing other shifts when people go away (which will be arranged in advance, and are not obligatory,) you will never need to give up anything else to work at the studios.   After all, the whole point of a job is to make your life better, so we would not want you to have to give anything up to work here.  We try to work with staff members to make sure that they get a great work-life balance, everyone who works at the studio will have the right to disconnect from work when not there, and so long as you are able to do your shifts, whatever you do outside of work is your business, not ours.
 

Needless to say, we are open to applications from everyone, no matter what their personal circumstances are.  So long as you're friendly and happy to work hard, that's all we care about.   This is the 21st century, and we know that factors such as gender, sexual orientation, race, political views or anything like that don't make a good/bad worker. If you are able to do the job, and are a friendly, honest and hardworking person,  that's all that we care about.  

If you feel that you have the potential to do a great job but need a bit of extra help to do so, then please let us know and we'll do everything that we can to make this possible. No-one will be discounted on the basis that they need our support to do a great job.  If you're going to make a commitment to us, then we're happy to do the same to you. If you are able to commit a part of your week to us, we will make sure that there are shifts for you. 
 

Extra bonuses of the job.
 
We offer unlimited free rehearsals for staff members and their main bands in times when the studios have availability, which has enabled current staff members to record whole albums themselves, over long stretches of time in the studios, for free.   We also always promote from within, with our current Studio Manager starting off working at the studios one day a week in 2009, with him now working full time at the studios as Manager. The job also includes meeting lots of other band members, including Mercury Prize nominated acts.  7 different #1 albums have been written or rehearsed at our studios, which we are very proud of, but most of the bands that we have using our studios are on their way up through the industry and are still at a less established level. We take great pride in helping them at this stage of their career, and we hope that you will too.   You'll also get trade prices on gear and extra things like that.  
 

Seeing as we are a small company, the people that we hire are so important to us, so if you know us already or already use the studios it will help your chances, as then we will know that you understand how the studios operate. If you applied for a past job position and were not successful, feel more than welcome to get in touch with us, since many people in the past were not selected because we needed different candidates to augment the skills that other staff members had. Now that our current staff members have changed, so too will our needs.   
 

In the past 19 years we have had 16 staff members at the studios, (with between 2-6 working at the studios at any one time) and each and every one of them has played an important role in the studios development. Nearly all of them have gone onto more senior positions elsewhere in the industry. We've had staff members leave us as their band got signed, (helped by having so much free rehearsal sessions),, another who got a full time position in a recording studio, another who was able to join a road crew for a VERY established act, another who used their contacts at the studio to become a full time live sound engineer, and so on.   We hope that the next person that we find is able to continue this trend of using the studios as a great first opportunity to start working in the music industry

Don't be shy, get in touch!! :-) 

Thanks!  The Bally Studios Team.