I knew back in September, that I wouldn’t be writing much over the following few months. Nearly a year before, we had left our old studio space, created in a warehouse just off Kirkstall Road, and that had meant several weeks of graft – and also that the rest of my life didn’t get a look in for that time.
We left due to an unfortunate situation, which I have no need to go into on here. We left amicably (a rather nasty person spread a rumour that we had been evicted), and in fact we could have stayed, but it would have kiboshed some of our plans, so it made sense not to.
Taking down the old space was hard. Mainly due to the fact that we had built into an empty warehouse quite extensively. In order to retain our deposit and get good references and all that business, we had to fix any ‘dilapidations’. The word brings to mind derelict buildings, and crumbling rental properties, but what it meant, in this context, was any change to the space made by us.
Thinking we were not leaving any time soon, we had built a fully soundproofed recording studio, a separate mezzanine level, which was a workspace, extended the small kitchen, put walls, doors, a false ceiling, and insulation in, and painted the walls in a series of bright colours.
It was not a small space.
Also, we had a qualified and knowledgeable friend who was supposed to oversee the takedown, but due to circumstances that were not his fault, at the last minute he was unable to do the job, and had to go abroad. So we were on our own with various structures to take down, huge walls to repaint, and five fridges to get rid of (really).
Four skips, a scaffold tower, and eight weeks later, we were done. Our nice neighbour, Ash, asked me what it had been like. I told him that I’d learned a lot about backwards joinery.
It was exhausting and depressing, and also, at times, very funny. We’d barely scratched the surface of the potential of the space, as we got it just before Covid, and left not long after the end of restrictions.
There were laugh out loud moments. Somehow, my friend managed to put two sets of our keys in the skip. The skip was overfull, and they would have been impossible to retrieve. In the grand scheme of it all, I felt it was an extremely minor loss, and just found it hilarious.
At the end of all of it, after all the skips, and many car journeys, friends with garages, two large Safestore units, etc., etc., somehow, in the final hour before we were leaving for good, we still had far too many things to take in a taxi. There were things that I didn’t even know where they had come from. Like a pair of chainsaw trousers, for example.
I had a brainwave that I would put said trousers on, over my own trousers, which meant less things. Unfortunately, they were many sizes too large, and they just fell straight down. I briefly looked around in despair, and then realised that another of the untraceable, unthrowable things, was an expensive-looking belt.
“Ah!” I said, laughing, “What excellent serendipity.”
Serendipity, in fact, had very little to do with any of what was going on around me. It had been, to a large extent, a series of very unfortunate events.
When we decided to take a lease on the warehouse, I had no plans to use it as a venue. I had a vague idea, somewhere in the back of my mind, that it would be a nice idea to, at some point in the future, when I was much older, own a club. But not now. My interest in having the warehouse was solely because I wanted a space where I could build a music production studio, and make huge paintings that would not be possible at home. That was it. To make it pay for itself, I thought we could hire out the space and studio to other artists and musicians, and a little later came the idea of hosting workshops, which led to my friend Nigel explaining that we should set up as a Community Interest Company. At that time, when one of our crew suggested that we have a party at the space, and to hire it out to a friend who wanted a space for an event, I was reticent to agree. Then, as the end of 2019 was approaching, we needed some plans for New Year. The year before, we had been doing the Schwein parties, and we played at Wire, then had an afters at 212. I felt that would be hard to top, and I was completely wrong. In spite of my previous misgivings, with a massive warehouse that was no longer a building site, it seemed rude not to.
With hindsight, my original idea to have a ‘little party’ for my good mates, was quite ridiculous. Firstly, there was the fact that most of my good mates in Leeds are DJs, and a lot of these would be playing at the best venues in the city, and wanting to come to our party after with a load of their mates and their mates’ mates. Then, a friend who has a bar in town asked if they would be able to have their New Year afters at our space. I think that was the point at which I realised that I would have to get a large sound system in.
A lot of people were there.
After that, the whole group was keen to utilise the space for music events, too, and I couldn’t, and no longer wanted to disagree. There it was. One of my biggest problems and greatest gifts is that it impossible for me to think small. Once I am actually doing something, I am doing it properly, and to its furthest possibility, or not at all. When I said to Nigel about the workshops, and I said about hiring out our space out at an affordable rate, and he mentioned being a CIC, I went straight off and started researching what that would mean, and what it took, and then ideas came for further things we could do, and I put together a plan. The same happened again, once the party had happened. How would this tie in with everything else, and what would be possible? My friend Ross, who due to external circumstances, is no longer part of our venture, was a big thinker too, and together, we created an extensive compendium of ideas. (There is no bad blood there, it’s just the way life happens sometimes, and he made a huge and immensely valuable contribution to the project.)
A while ago now, just before all this, I wanted to start a record label. This has been on hold for a long time, because I need the time, money and mind space to do it properly, and until that is the case, I will not do it at all.
One of the many awful things about the covid situation was that our original team of six people ended up going down to three, and a warehouse, particularly one that with social restrictions, you cannot make any money out of, is an expensive thing to maintain. We somehow managed to keep just about afloat through it all, but it was hard. To be faced, at the end of all that, with a decision to leave the place you had worked so hard to keep hold of was awful. Then, I had the realisation, after we had said to the landlords that we would not be renewing our lease, and whilst we had not found a new space, that it was all completely unnecessary. All the things I had wanted the warehouse for in the first place were still possible. Had I just given up something amazing because I had managed to become completely diverted from my original vision? I honestly didn’t know. I had to take some acid and sit on my own and think long and hard about that. It was a horrible few hours, and the conclusion I came to was that I had made the right choice.
I also realised afterwards that I had done the thing that people are always saying you should do, and I always roll my eyes at them.
“You need to go in with a question.”
“No, mate. I go in for fun.” Anyway…
Sorting the ‘dilapidations’ meant me and Rory working twelve hour days (often longer) pretty much every day for over six weeks. Rob Chadwick put in a lot of hours as well (he wasn’t able to do quite as many as me and Rory due to his job). Our whole remaining team were absolute legends when the unfortunate situation had begun. I wasn’t sure if that would be the end of it, but nobody wanted to walk away. That is also why, in spite of it being seemingly pointless to have gone through hell to keep a space through the pandemic, and then have to leave in the end anyway, it actually wasn’t, because if we hadn’t done that, we would not be where we are now.
‘Ledge’ is an oft-used word in our WhatsApp group, as a result of a long-ago joke. But everyone really has been a legend. I will not forget that Rory, who had only joined us a couple of months earlier, and had basically walked into a disaster, decided to not walk away, and through no pressure from us, came in every day to the detriment of everything else he needed to be doing at the time, and grafted to undo a load of building work that he hadn’t been responsible for in the first place.
The horrible part was that, as the end of the takedown approached, we did not have a new unit. I was spurred on, I think, by finding an almost-suitable place, on one of the last days of our graft. In the end, we didn’t go for that. For months, we had been unsuccessfully stalking The Arch Company, determined to have a look at one of their properties, and nothing came of it. I jokingly even said one afternoon in early December last year: “All I want for Christmas is an Arch!” And I sort of got my wish.
It took a lot longer than we expected. After making our offer, we thought that we would be in the space by February, but we were into September before that happened. We had to wait for Network Rail to do a structural inspection on the arch before we moved in, and there was no clear timescale. So there followed months of limbo time. The lack of knowing when we would have to drop everything and start work on the new space was the hardest part, and it was definitely not serendipitous that in the middle of us getting our new space ready, I had to move house. It seemed an unfortunate coincidence, too, because the year before, when we had to do our takedown, I moved house, and then immediately began the graft, and that was exhausting.
I still have not fully unpacked. My studio/office room at home is organised and beautiful. I cannot exist in chaos. I have Aspergers and it breaks my head. My clothes, however, are still largely in bags and cases. Between getting the space ready, working at the space, and having to do catch up work on several large projects after moving and then having no internet beyond hot spotting off my phone for several weeks, time has been lacking. I am just now seeing the possibility of getting my head back into a creative space. It’s been worth the trouble, though.
We have a wonderful team, and we’ve had some amazing events, and we are are home to some excellent projects, and have the work of some talented people on our walls, and Pete Melba’s awesome and ever-evolving sound system for parties.
A very beautiful thing was that the people that are now involved approached us. We didn’t approach them. Our mates saw the potential in the project, and have helped us build it into something beyond what we had even imagined ourselves.
Phil, who is a resident at Subterranea with Rory, had been looking for a space to start a record and houseplant shop, but hasn’t found anything suitable. He even had a wonderful name ready. And now, Plant and Deck is a thing, in our Imaginarium. (Check out this recent interview with Phil on That Saturday Show on LDC – 29ish mins in)
I had also long sought to exhibit and promote the work of talented local artists as part of the project. There is still much to do. We’d like to have some exhibitions and installations in our upstairs space, after more work on it, and currently, we have work on show and for sale by A Village Mind, Vintage Disco Biscuit, Rory and myself, and Nigel’s awesome t-shirts.
As well as this, I got us in a small selection of Vintage Penguin paperbacks, which are available to buy at £3 each. We’re hoping as well, to host a reading group in 2023, and thanks to my pal and our long time contributor and LAU graduate, Josefus Haze, we’ll be hosting some of his Prismatic spoken word events too.
Also, NARR Radio were looking for a new home, and they will now be broadcasting from upstairs at The Imaginarium. For the UFO Club show on their first weekend, they hosted a live set from Leifert.
We had hoped to have a small cafe open by now, but we realised that it is quite cold downstairs at this time of year, so that is pending a heating unit being installed.
Our next party is for New Year. An in-house thing, sandwiched between Audial at Doghouse and our Imaginarium Sundays NYD party at Distrikt. That’s going to be quite a couple of days…
And that’s where we’re at. I didn’t actually intend to write so much, so here are some pictures…
Check out our website here. All the best for 2023 folks x
Some minor edits made. I thought I had proof read this on Boxing day, but clearly I’d had a few too many drinks :-p