The last time Joyzine had a proper chat with Brixton Hill Studios, it was 2023 and they were fighting to stay open. I popped in for an update from Stephen and Jen and heard not only about how hard they’re working to keep the studios open, but also about how they’re collaborating with other people and organisations to build a bright future for music in Lambeth. As music fans, writers and musicians, we can support what they’re doing for the scene we love.
The threat of closure is over for now. “We have got through that,’ says Jen. ‘We’re still here!“
Stephen elaborates on what happened. “We got through the pandemic, we got out the other side, which was great, and it wasn’t without a lot of hard work.” They got a considerable amount of help from the Arts Council, but things were still tight. “We were having to do a lot of scrimping… all the amps started going wrong, stuff like that.” By September 2022, they were in the last year of their contract and tried to start negotiations with the landlord, but they didn’t hear back until April the following year. Eventually the landlord sent someone round.
They were told their rent would go up by 136%. There was no room for negotiation. Stephen continues: “The agent who was being given it was really pushy – it was horrible, it was really stressful… It was too much of a risk, because I could end up being in loads of debt; I was just like, I can’t do it. So we had to have a meeting with everybody and say, I’m sorry, we’re going to have to close down. So we made the announcement and then all the patrons made a huge fuss about it. There was a petition to our landlord; it then got into the community, to the counsellors, our MP got involved, Brixton Buzz got involved. Our landlord then saw they needed to be a little more reasonable and open negotiations and we managed a rent review… it wasn’t great, but we knew we could stay open. We’re two years into that now.“
It looks like it’s going quite well – whenever my band pitch up to practice, there are lots of people there (and some phenomenal tunes). “That’s brilliant’ Stephen says, ‘But it could be filled for every hour that we are open and you still wouldn’t see us smoking cigars and drinking champagne. We’re all musicians, and every time we have to put prices up, I’m the one going, “We need to put this up” and they’re all going “No”. So we come to a compromise.”
Bands are finding it tough. “The gigging situation’s not great. We’ve got bands who are playing massive venues and don’t necessarily go in studio 1, the big room. They do all their woodshedding in the smaller rooms and maybe if they’ve got a production rehearsal before going off and playing at the Brixton Academy they’ll go into studio 1 for a day or so. Everyone’s really squeezed, so we try and make sure it’s affordable. It’s got to be within reach of everybody because otherwise it’ll just be those who can afford it doing it and we want everyone to be able to afford it.“
Have the kind of people who come in changed at all in the years they’ve been running it? “The daytime has definitely got a lot busier” Stephen says. Jen has noticed that bands come in a lot, even if they’re not specifically touring or recording. “I think we get a lot more grassroots, up-and-coming bands coming in’ Stephen says. ‘It’s really nice when they see someone like Shame and they go, “Oh my god man, did you see Shame are in?”’ He remembers what that meant to him: “I remember going to places like The Fortress back in the day. I used walk past the cage and go “Ooh, Elastica’s gear’s in there”. I think it’s brilliant – aspiration for those people to be your peers, because we’re all each other’s peers, it’s just some of us are more successful than others and some of us just manage to do it in our spare time.”
So what does the future look like?
When they were facing closure in 2023, they spoke to the council, who said they could try to find something for them, but they needed a couple more years to make that happen – and they only had about six months. But once the contract was renewed and they got some breathing space, they started to look into other options, and undertook what sounds like a huge research project.
Stephen explains the background: “Traditionally there’s always been commercial planning and there’s been residential planning. Residential people need places to live and you know the way that kind of goes up in price, it wasn’t the same as commercial property. But the lines have become blurred. So, for example, when I moved here, I was told that these three industrial units were a quarter of a million pounds for the whole lot. You couldn’t buy a one-bed flat in Brixton for two fifty then…. The idea is that, with commercial property, you buy it, it’s an investment in places for people to work. With the amount of development and gentrification and everything, what’s happened is that the lines have become blurred.’
‘If you look at London say maybe in the late seventies and eighties, a lot of people who worked in London lived in the commuter belt in Surrey, in Kent, in Maidstone and only came in to work. So London became quite a cheap place to live. And also maybe the industry depleted as a result. So commercial property was left empty, there was a big squatting scene… all the arty farty types like us moved in. So places that were neglected became cooler because there’s all this stuff going on.’ But with the coolness came gentrification. ‘So gentrification happens, prices go up. Fair enough.”
But, because people couldn’t fill commercial property, they’d ask to turn it into flats and that became the norm. “When we tried to buy a commercial property, it was too expensive.”
Every time he called an estate agent to ask about a property, ‘They’d go “Alright, are you interested in investing as a tenant or a developer?” Everything’s a potential development. So sites like this get built up, they get developed. The knock-on effect is that somewhere like this, because it’s industrial, becomes valuable because there is a paucity of it, but also because potentially it’s a nice block of flats.’ He explains that the councils try and get round this with a first floor of offices or retail with flats above. But that won’t necessarily work. “If whatever you’re doing below is something the residents won’t like above then you’re screwed… you get the idea.“
They looked into other options. Jen talks about Creative Land Trust, who find buildings for visual arts, and told them a lot about how things work, but it looks like the options are limited, and so is the funding. “What would be ideal’ she says ‘is to be able say, look we have a functioning workspace here that is used by a large number of people, local music community, wider music community. It’s working, can we not have this space? Don’t develop into something else, have it here as that landlord’s contribution to whatever it is they have to contribute. It’s like, hello? Anyone?“
So as well as running the studios day to day, they constantly have to think about how they’ll keep going – which led to their new project, Perfect Pitch, a way of funding a sustainable space for music. It came about when they thought about the future: Stephen is frank: “If we’re struggling, everybody’s struggling. We know everyone’s struggling.’ He lists music charities, luthiers, recording studios like One Cat Studios in Crystal Palace. ‘It’s always that thing of the rent is so difficult and it’s put up. So we thought instead of just trying to find somewhere for us, why don’t we try and raise money to buy a building?“
Perfect Pitch is a community benefit society (CBS), which is based on a co-operative model. “It will be owned by the community.’ Stephen says. ‘Members of the community can buy shares in it. Those shares aren’t necessarily going to pay for the building, but we’ll have a membership, we’ll have a core of people who will own this building.’
They’re launching Perfect Pitch at the studios on 27 September – tickets to the launch event are free, and there will be music lessons, talks and performances. “The idea is that as we’re building membership, we’re looking at fundraising, so we’ll be going to certain bodies, we’ll be looking at grants, different ways that we can finance it, we’ll be asking, hopefully, some people with some capital to invest. And the idea is that we can hopefully buy a building up to about 10,000 square feet that remains in Brixton, or at least the Lambeth area. We’ll be an ethical landlord. So, if you’re in the musical arts, you’ll come and go, okay well I’ve got this music project and I need a space to work from… and we’ll carve up that space, go right, this is your space. They can either build what they need to build in there or we’ll look at ways we can assist to do it. The bottom line is… we aim to keep the rent at as low a rate as we can… That rent will not rise above the level of inflation, so we’re effectively putting in a rent control.”
They’re hoping it’ll be a model that other cities like Bristol, Leeds, Manchester can use. “Something has to be done, and we don’t know if we’re going to achieve it, but we’re having a jolly good try. And like I said, it might take years. It might not happen before we have to find another home, but the important thing is that it will be there for the next generation, the generation after that. If we can own the building, we can look into putting protections in. We can say, right, this building has a covenant on it, it must only be used for the practice of the musical arts. We can put in that it cannot be developed. The other thing about a CBS, the important thing about the community, is that everyone who owns a share will have a say… each member has an equal vote… And we’ll have the board, and the board will change and evolve, over the years. We’re starting it, but I don’t expect to be necessarily the person who completes it. I’ll always be involved in it hopefully… It’s nobody’s. It doesn’t belong to anybody: it belongs to everybody, and that’s the important thing.” Other venues have started looking at running in a more community-led way – Jen mentions the venue Sister Midnight, who have mentored them.
It has been a busy two years – “From us going how, what, what, how?’ Jen says ‘To being advised on which way to go, actually setting up the benefit society. We had a big old meeting the other day and the facilitator said you’ve done really well to get this far this quickly. Which you don’t feel, at all, but what’s really heartwarming is that now… people are coming to the desk now and going, “Can I get involved? What can I do?” It’s like the touchpaper. And it’s amazing to have a community that want to be involved and want to help. So that boosts us, because we feel we’re slowly going up a really big hill. We feel like we’ve got some people with us now and we’ll get there.”
“It’s quite an undertaking” Stephen says.
“Quite!” says Jen, picking up on the understatement.
“I’m English, I’m not going to use superlatives here.’ Stephen counters. ‘It’s an undertaking and it can be really overwhelming sometimes, but the attitude you have to take is a bit like when I started this. When I started Brixton Hill Studios… I remember the night before we got the keys and we’d basically break the ground the next day, I was lying in bed and the back of my neck went on fire. It felt like it was burning. And I just went, hang on a tick. Can I have a word? If you’re going to do this, you’ve got to kind of just accept the fact that you can only do your best. And if it doesn’t happen, you tried… You’ve just got to have a bit of calm. But it is exciting, and it’s potentially a really amazing thing. And I’m doing it with my best pal!”
Get involved!
Want to support Brixton Hill Studios and Perfect Pitch?
- Follow Brixton Hill Studios and Perfect Pitch on Instagram. There are surveys you can fill in on their linktrees that you can use to show you’re interested and support the idea. Jen explains ‘It gives us something to show investors or donors that this is an actual thing that’s going to happen, it’s not just, we’ll build it and then it’ll be empty.’
- They’re putting on gigs too. Jen lists the Windmill, Off the Cuff, the Cavendish Arms and Dash the Henge as venues who are aware of what they’re doing and supportive of it. ‘We really appreciate what they’re doing.’
- Join the campaign launch on 27 September.
- Sign up to their mailing list.
Perfect Pitch Instagram | Mailing list
Brixton Hill Studios Facebook | Website
Interview by Hannah Boothby
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