When Liverpool’s Grammy award winning Parr Street studios was forced to close to make way for redevelopment, many feared the city was losing a priceless cultural asset.
Over the years the city centre studio witnessed the likes of Coldplay, Rhianna, Echo and The Bunnymen, and Take That and many local artists that used the space to lay down their own music. Its previous owners had worked for close to a decade to find a new owner who could potentially help continue its operation, but with the studio downsizing and the same amount of space needing to be maintained, the decision was taken to redevelop the site.
This came as a blow, however in-house producers Rich Turvey, 36, and Chris Taylor, 41, were upbeat about the future. "People make records – buildings don’t,” the pair said in a statement shortly after the plans were announced in 2020.
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Taking forward that mantra, the two are now looking to continue Parr Street’s legacy in the Fabric District, just off London Road. They, along with Coral frontman James Skelly, are behind Kempston Street studios - a new recording facility that hopes to use an old council building to contribute to the next chapter of Merseyside music.
The uncertainty around the Parr Street building meant that a move was always on the cards, Rich, who studied at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, told the ECHO, meaning a search for a new premises was ongoing but he and Chris “were never in a position to do it.” However, with the studio having to close for a number of months due to the pandemic, he described this as a “kick in the backside to get going.”
He added: "We were asking around saying ‘who is up for this, who is doing it?’. In the end, it was me, Chris and James that were up for it. We then started looking for buildings and then eventually found one on Roscoe Street.”
Unfortunately plans to move to the Georgian Quarter fell through before attention turned towards the Fabric District and a council owned building. Rich said the transition from having the idea to it materialising took around two years with the team of three now spearheading the project as co-owners.
The studio is set to formally open on May 22 having been tentatively up and running in January of this year. While the studio and producers are likely to continue working with established names, Miles Kane, The Coral, Elbow, New Order, Blossoms and Everything Everything to name just a few who've used their services, they will still have an ear for the up and coming bands gigging across the city.
In the past, the producers have worked with Jamie Webster and Red Rum Club, two acts that have gone on to set a new bar for the heights local artists can aspire to. Jamie has recently sold out the M&S Bank Arena with two sold out Pierhead shows to come in June, while Red Rum Club is set to be one of the first bands to play the Bootle canal side in a major hometown show - following a sold out show at the Olympia.
In terms of what has enabled local artists to develop so well in recent years, Rich believes this is down to a strong framework in the city. He said: “There’s a good local system that you can plug into, there's a pathway. Here's where you start and here's how you can make your way to the top of Liverpool.
“There’s a good local platform where it can work locally and then you can step outside of that and become national.”
In terms of the energy around the music sector with Eurovision only a few days away, Rich added: "It feels energetic this year. There’s a level of confidence about the city.”
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