Historic Leeds studios used by Kaiser Chiefs opens for free public tours

A spokesman said: “As well as playing a key part in the stories of some of the city’s best known bands including the Kaiser Chiefs, Embrace, and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Old Chapel Music CIC - a not for profit community interest company which manages the studios in Holbeck - supports young people, up-and-coming artists and community groups, giving them access to the same facilities as established bands.

"The Kaiser Chiefs still rehearse at Old Chapel Music Studios and have their own room in the extension they helped to fund in 2013.”

Kaiser Chiefs keyboard player Nick ‘Peanut’ Baines said: “Old Chapel is our musical home. Wherever we are within these walls it still feels like home. It’s accessible to all, it’s open to all, it’s about music for everyone. It’s a place to create, and a place to be welcomed and a place to be safe.”

Old Chapel Music CIC also works closely with Festival Republic, promoter of the Leeds and Reading Festivals, which guides talented female artists into the industry through its ReBalance programme launched in 2018.

Festival Republic Managing Director Melvin Benn stressed that Old Chapel Music Studios provided support for community-based and professional performers.

He added: “They mix that community approach and commitment with a professionalism at all levels, which means that young female artists making their first EP, like those that have been part of my ReBalance programme, feel absolutely at home.”

The free tours, funded by Leeds Civic Trust, cover the facility’s relocation and rebrand from Parkside Studios in 1992, together with the 30-year tale of its development from a former Wesleyan chapel into the community-focused creative hub it has become.

The tours run at 11.30am and 2.30pm on the last Sunday of every month. They should be booked in advance by visiting oldchapelleeds.org and going to the ‘events’ page.