Former pit village plays host to rehearsal room for stars

A BUSINESS park on the edge of the former mining village of South Kirkby isn’t an obvious musical Mecca. But Robbie Williams has been there, so, too, have Kylie Minogue and Take That.

This unassuming corner of West Yorkshire is home to Europe’s biggest purpose-built rehearsal arena which, since it was opened in 2005, has played host to a stellar line-up of musical superstars.

LS-Live, formerly Litestructures, designs stage sets for some of the biggest names in music, as well as providing a raft of on-site facilities that now includes dressing rooms, 14 en-suite bedrooms, a dance studio and a huge rehearsal space. It is the brainchild of Adrian Brooks who, having been in the business for many years, spotted an opportunity that allows artists to work with set designers and rehearse under one roof.

“It opened with Coldplay, they were the first people to come here when they launched their last album, so that wasn’t a bad start because that gave it a bit of kudos. It wasn’t long after that when Robbie [Williams] went on tour with a very big stage set and he came here,” says Brooks.

“Elbow were here recently and they were the first to use the bedrooms, they booked all of them.” Part of the attraction lies in the fact that because it’s off the beaten track it doesn’t attract the attention of the paparazzi, while for the inhabitants of South Kirkby there’s always the chance that groups like Westlife might pop in to their local for a quick pint.

On the back of his success with LS-Live, Brooks is launching the Backstage Academy, a new training centre which from September plans to run a one-year foundation degree in live event production. “We felt the students being educated in our universities aren’t actually fit for work,” says academy director Robin Watkinson.

“They are fit for many things but they aren’t work ready and we felt that we need to be offering training, because if you look at the way training inherently works in this country, industry rarely gets what it wants. It’s a bit like a pantomime horse designed by a committee and you end up with a camel.”

Watkinson says the aim of the course, which is awaiting validation, is to give students a good understanding of all aspects of live production, from staging and lighting to laser shows and videos, which they can take straight into the workplace.

“It will teach people how to stand up in a room full of people and pitch a design idea. Because it’s all very well teaching someone how to design a set or design staging, or lighting, but if you’re standing in front of a client pitching your idea against five, or six others you need to be able to communicate that properly.”

Although the academy students will, at times, be sharing a building with some of the biggest names in the music business they won’t be able to hang around with them when they’re rehearsing.

“No, but I like the notion of opening a door and shouting, ‘Oi, Elton, turn it down I’m trying to do a lesson here’,” jokes Watkinson.

The course has government funding for 20 students this year. The academy is already an authorised Apple training centre and at time when university fees are under the spotlight the 12-month foundation course will cost £6,000 – whereas most foundation degrees charge about £9,000 per year, over two years.

“There’s a huge interest locally and there are feeder courses in York and Leeds to come into ours,” says Watkinson. “But if we manage to get this through as we hope it will be such a different course and such a different way of doing things there will be interest from all over the country and Europe, because we are still world leaders in technical events staging.”

The idea is to encourage local bands, theatre groups and art organisations to use the facilities. “You can’t teach something without doing it, so you can’t teach somebody how to light a show without having a show to light and we want to get the community involved because it gives our students the chance to work with them. If we get a band in from Wakefield we can get the students to do a promo video for them, film it and edit it. The band get a DVD and the students get the experience of making it.”

“Long term we hope the more production companies and artists come through here and see the Backstage Academy the more they will engage with it. Who knows, it might be the case that the bands coming here in five years time to rehearse will want people to come on tour with them and we provide them.”

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