09/10/2025
🥳Well it was 20 years ago today..... 🥳
Today we are celebrating our 20th birthday! 🎁🎈🎂 It was on this day back in 2005 that Sync City Studios became Bally Studios when we took over the old existing business, meaning we've been running it for 20 of the 36 years that the studios has been in existence. We've been looking back at the old booking diaries from the last 20 years, and at some of the literally thousands of bands that have rehearsed with us in that time, and it's been lovely to be reminded of so many of the great bands that have used us over the years.
When we first took over the studios we were turned down for the application to get a loan to buy the business 6 different times. The only way that we were able to finally get the money was by supplementing our loan by maxing out an overdraft and a credit card limit on 3 different bank accounts, (2 separate business bank accounts and a personal one), and we took our first wage in 2007, with all of out income before that going to pay them back, The last 5 years has been an incredible challenge, and there were times a few months into the first COVID-19 lockdown that we were told by multiple financial advisors that we had no option but to close our doors, and this is why we're so happy to announce that to date, 2025 has been our best trading year ever, with an average of more than 550 hours of bookings per month!🥳 We've sold hundreds of Bally t-shirts, we've had multiple #1 Albums written/rehearsed/demoed in our rooms, we're churning out badges in the office like there's no tomorrow, we're doing multiple recording sessions on our 8-track recorder each week, and we have big plans for the studio for the future, more of which will be revealed soon.
More than anything, we're now friends with so many of the bands that have come to us over the years, we've been to many of their gigs, been invited to their house parties, we've very rarely had a band skip out on paying us, and we're very proud that we've always tried our very best to give the absolute most to the bands that have come to us. We've had 19 people working at the studios in that time, and in the last month we've been in touch with 3 of those past members of staff, with one of them requesting a job reference to kickstart their new business. One of them was visiting London having moved to Brooklyn NY and they wanted to drop in on the studios and see how things are, with another coming to the studios for their band rehearsals. Our manager, Mark Edwards, has been with us for 15 years so far, and nearly every single staff member who left us in that time did so in order to move to a more senior position within the music industry, and we're so proud that we could play a part in their path through the music industry.
We're very proud of the family that we've created at the studios, and more than anything, we're proud that we've had so many lovely bands coming to us for so long. Some bands have literally done hundreds and hundreds of sessions with us, and we will never take that for granted. So from the bottom of our hearts, thanks so much to each and every band that has used us over the years, and for making the studios what it is. Without you, we would just have empty rooms with a PA system. It's been amazing, and we're looking forward to the next 20 years! We'll be releasing a new blog post with more information on how we started the studios back then, we'll share the link here when that happens. 🥳🎂
