kwmlondon Posted yesterday at 21:10 Posted yesterday at 21:10 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Burns-bass said: Yes I get that. In Bristol most of the rehearsal rooms have similar systems. The convenience of Pirate is great, but we’ve stopped using the place as it’s just pretty horrid. Equipment is junk and it’s just a poor experience. I did a jazz session in a rehearsal room Saturday and it was about £5 more expensive but light years better in terms of quality. I have had a few really frustrating experiences with pirate, I can’t deny. But the last 4 or 5 have been fine so I’ll keep with them for the time being. If they get go downhill I’ll look elsewhere. Also, me and my band mates almost always use public transport to get to practicing which has a big impact in location. Pirate has chosen really convenient locations in London, fair play. Edited yesterday at 21:13 by kwmlondon Quote
MichaelDean Posted yesterday at 21:17 Posted yesterday at 21:17 11 minutes ago, Burns-bass said: Yes I get that. In Bristol most of the rehearsal rooms have similar systems. The convenience of Pirate is great, but we’ve stopped using the place as it’s just pretty horrid. Equipment is junk and it’s just a poor experience. I did a jazz session in a rehearsal room Saturday and it was about £5 more expensive but light years better in terms of quality. Yeah, I feel like the Bristol one has really gone downhill. The rooms all used to have decent enough gear. A rootmaster head and a 210/410 cab, a 412 and head plus a 212 combo for the guitarists. Now you're lucky to get a 100w Orange combo and one Boss Katana combo. But wait, "we have two guitarists" I hear you say? Tough sh!t. I really don't quite understand how everything gets so broken unless people are intentionally breaking it. Like, a 412? Are people intentionally trashing that? Or was the quality insufficient for the amount of use it gets and the budget not allocated for good replacements? Or perhaps they can just get away with cheap gear so they do. We use the live room of a studio most of the time and it's so much better. No noise from other bands because there aren't any within in the building. I get an 810, both guitarists have 412s and the drum kit is decent. Quote
12stringbassist Posted 22 hours ago Posted 22 hours ago Reporting them to the Fire Service sounds like a plan. Best avoided. 1 Quote
Mediocre Polymath Posted 22 hours ago Posted 22 hours ago 1 hour ago, MichaelDean said: I really don't quite understand how everything gets so broken unless people are intentionally breaking it. Like, a 412? Are people intentionally trashing that? Or was the quality insufficient for the amount of use it gets and the budget not allocated for good replacements? Or perhaps they can just get away with cheap gear so they do. I used to rehearse with a band in one of Pirate's locations in London. The room we used had a Rumble 800 into a 4-ohm 6x10 cab. Quite often we'd get there and every knob on the bass amp was turned up to the max, as well as most of the knobs on the guitar amps. Bear in mind this was a room about the size of the living room in a typical victorian terrace. We assumed someone was doing it as a joke, but then one day I ended up there about 20 minutes early, and heard the metal band that rehearsed in the room in the slot before ours. They really were running everything flat out all the time. 1 Quote
Woodinblack Posted 22 hours ago Posted 22 hours ago 2 hours ago, Burns-bass said: In my experience, it’s worth spending a few more quid for somewhere decent. Or even a bit less for somewhere decent! Quote
Stub Mandrel Posted 22 hours ago Posted 22 hours ago Used to use Pirate in Nottingham without major problems, had to ring once or twice for dodgy access codes. Got used to expecting the Ashdown combo to have really weird settings. Used Cardiff a few times... a bit scruffy and it closed after a few months. Other studios are a mixed bag. Not much difference in price, but the better ones tend to be booked up well in advance. I usually use my own gear and we just use the pa and drumkit less breakables. Quote
BassFace1991 Posted 22 hours ago Posted 22 hours ago 33 minutes ago, Mediocre Polymath said: I used to rehearse with a band in one of Pirate's locations in London. The room we used had a Rumble 800 into a 4-ohm 6x10 cab. Quite often we'd get there and every knob on the bass amp was turned up to the max, as well as most of the knobs on the guitar amps. Bear in mind this was a room about the size of the living room in a typical victorian terrace. We assumed someone was doing it as a joke, but then one day I ended up there about 20 minutes early, and heard the metal band that rehearsed in the room in the slot before ours. They really were running everything flat out all the time. Good greif! Quote
Silky999 Posted 21 hours ago Posted 21 hours ago (edited) We used to use the one in Reading but they decided to increase the number of DJ rooms and with that came the smell of cannabis, phone numbers of drug dealers on the toilet walls and groups of yoofs who would club together to rent a room for the day. They would order drugs, pizza and alcohol and basically have a parties to the soundtrack of overpowering drum and bass echoing down the corridors. It all got quite intimidating so we stopped using the studios. Added to this was the shocking state of the drum hardware which was always broken and the general state of the rooms themselves. Edited 21 hours ago by Silky999 1 Quote
JazzyJ Posted 17 hours ago Posted 17 hours ago As it appears that the incident has been reported the local fire authority, they will be there soon enough to carry out a fire risk assessment. As an ex firefighter with 10 yrs service, I've experienced the aftermath of some terrible incidents. The smell of burnt flesh never really does leave you. For the sake of a few quid, it's just not worth the risk. 2 Quote
kwmlondon Posted 14 hours ago Posted 14 hours ago 8 hours ago, Mediocre Polymath said: I used to rehearse with a band in one of Pirate's locations in London. The room we used had a Rumble 800 into a 4-ohm 6x10 cab. Quite often we'd get there and every knob on the bass amp was turned up to the max, as well as most of the knobs on the guitar amps. Bear in mind this was a room about the size of the living room in a typical victorian terrace. We assumed someone was doing it as a joke, but then one day I ended up there about 20 minutes early, and heard the metal band that rehearsed in the room in the slot before ours. They really were running everything flat out all the time. I used a 6x10 and route master in a pirate. Was fabulous! I get why they’ve gone to 500w rumbles though if that’s what bands are doing. I guess they aren’t using hearing protection either… that’s a recipe for serious hearing loss. Sad. Quote
martthebass Posted 13 hours ago Posted 13 hours ago I had the 'pleasure' of using this very same studio a couple of weeks back. I was helping out a mates band when their bass player cried off. The PA was a shitshow, only one of the mic inputs worked and the speaker was blown on the bass rig. Glad I wasn't paying for it.... 1 Quote
Dan Dare Posted 12 hours ago Posted 12 hours ago 1 hour ago, kwmlondon said: I guess they aren’t using hearing protection either… that’s a recipe for serious hearing loss. Sad. Oooh, I don't know. Maybe they'll have to give up inflicting their horrible music on the world if they go deaf. Silver linings and all that. Quote
tvickey Posted 11 hours ago Author Posted 11 hours ago I also sent a message to the CEO of Pirate Studios, David Borrie, via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-borrie-33858819/ Quote
tvickey Posted 10 hours ago Author Posted 10 hours ago Actually, I found the names of the board members online... and from there it was not difficult to give a good educated guess as to their individual corporate email addresses. Now they will not be able to say they were genuinely unaware of the fire risk. I've written to each of them, and nothing bounced. 1 Quote
mcnach Posted 10 hours ago Posted 10 hours ago 17 minutes ago, tvickey said: Actually, I found the names of the board members online... and from there it was not difficult to give a good educated guess as to their individual corporate email addresses. Now they will not be able to say they were genuinely unaware of the fire risk. I've written to each of them, and nothing bounced. I hope they use the information to improve their training. 1 Quote
aniki Posted 9 hours ago Posted 9 hours ago My experience of Pirate echoes many of those already stated. Was a user from the beginning and rarely had a single booking without some kind of issue. To be fair to Pirate, the vast majority of problems were just down to people being tw@s! Unfortunately Pirate didn't account for this in their business model. Problems I experienced: Other bands not finishing soon enough to be out of the room at the end of their session (me paying for their time to pack their sh!t up) Other bands leaving trash randomly lying around the room Other users blatantly smoking cigarettes or vapes or dope inside the building (probably the cause of multiple fire alarms) Multiple fire alarms disrupting sessions with similar lack of protocol for investigation as above Arriving at a session to find all the equipment stacked up in a corner of the room Arriving at a session to find some of the equipment broken, missing or not as expected (paid for when booking) Difficulty trying to talk to a human when something goes wrong People and their mates gathering outside studios making lots of noise and generally being antisocial Problems I 'had heard' about which may or may not be true: People renting large rooms and holding all night parties for their mates People renting rooms to play music and take drugs People renting rooms to take hookers to People renting rooms to take hookers to AND take drugs AND leave dead hooker in room A couple of years ago Pirate contacted all registered users asking for them to upload scans of their passports. At this point the party was over for me. They didn't get my details and I started using another studio. No regrets to be honest. Like a lot of things; it was great while it was, then people came along and screwed it up for everyone... 1 1 Quote
gjones Posted 9 hours ago Posted 9 hours ago I wouldn't have bothered trying to talk with Pirate, I'd have just called the fire service right away. They'd confirm the place was safe, or not. They would then contact Pirate. 1 Quote
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago I'd never heard of pirate before reading this thread. It makes me glad to be in a band where the guitarist has a studio in his home. The only hazard I encounter is the possibility of tripping over Ralph. 2 2 Quote
kwmlondon Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago 54 minutes ago, aniki said: Problems I 'had heard' about which may or may not be true: People renting large rooms and holding all night parties for their mates People renting rooms to play music and take drugs People renting rooms to take hookers to People renting rooms to take hookers to AND take drugs AND leave dead hooker in room .... There's a very exciting Netflix drama in this!!!! 3 Quote
TimR Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago https://www.syfire.gov.uk/business-advice/fire-alarms/ South Yorkshire fire service will only attend if there is a confirmed fire. 1 Quote
Stub Mandrel Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago 4 minutes ago, TimR said: https://www.syfire.gov.uk/business-advice/fire-alarms/ South Yorkshire fire service will only attend if there is a confirmed fire. But they would give advice on what to do, and I'd trust them more than Pirate. 1 Quote
tvickey Posted 8 hours ago Author Posted 8 hours ago Just confirmed: I'm permanently banned from Pirate, but they will refund me for the session. Quote
TimR Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago 12 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said: But they would give advice on what to do, and I'd trust them more than Pirate. Yes. Contact the key holder. The fire service will only advise the owner, its down to the owner to implement the policy. Quote
Woodinblack Posted 7 hours ago Posted 7 hours ago 1 hour ago, aniki said: People renting rooms to take hookers to People renting rooms to take hookers to AND take drugs AND leave dead hooker in room A couple of years ago Pirate contacted all registered users asking for them to upload scans of their passports. I presume to work out where the dead hookers are coming from? 2 Quote
Stub Mandrel Posted 7 hours ago Posted 7 hours ago I don’t think telling a customer to cancel an alarm meets the requirements of our local guidance: https://www.southwales-fire.gov.uk/app/uploads/2024/09/Guidance-on-Safe-Investigation-of-Fire-Alarm-Signals-1.pdf At the very least a pair of competent people appointed by the building owner/manager should check the premises. For Pirate I'd assume they should have security on 24hr callout. 1 1 Quote
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