Popular music rehearsal and recording space Pirate Studios is to shut its doors on 17th March.

The studio in Cardiff was one of the first to open in the Pirate Studios franchise, which is now worldwide.

It offered rooms for musicians to rehearse, record and DJ in at a fraction of the price of a typical professional studio.

Cardiff’s site manager, Sean Magee, said: “It’s quite expensive kit, and a lot of people, especially younger people can’t afford to buy it themselves. But with Pirate they get to use industry standard kit and the rooms create a kind of tiny club environment.

“Our studio is used by a lot of musicians. Cardiff was quite short on studio space before Pirate came along.

“People would meet here and the same bands would come every week for a chat. There was a community element to it as well as it being a rehearsal space.”

Pirate Studios are currently the only well-known DJ studios accessible to all in Cardiff.

Musician and Cardiff University student Thibault Segrott has used Pirate Studios frequently with his band The Malakites over the last few years. He said: “Rehearsal space in Cardiff is very limited as it is, so I think this is going to make it very hard for independent bands to find a place to practice.

“We all have university or work commitments and we don’t have time to plan rehearsal times. It’s going to pile pressure on other music studios in Cardiff and will make it trickier to practice as a band”.

In a statement, Pirate said:

“With only 11 studios, Pirate Cardiff is one of our smaller sites, but it’s been around for many years and holds a special place in our hearts. We know many artists in the area have made a lot of music, mates and memories inside its walls.

“Unfortunately, due to the lease on our property coming to an end, Pirate Cardiff will permanently close its doors on March 17th.

“There’s no getting around the fact that this will make it harder for many artists in our Cardiff community to create.
We’ll be back in Cardiff at some point in the future, but we can’t say when just now.“

Despite the closure in Cardiff, you are able to book at Pirate’s nearby venues in Bristol and Cheltenham here: https://pirate.com/en/