I’ve just read an Email from Phil about the UK governments idea to introduce sound control devices to ALL live music venues throughout the UK. These sound control devices literally turn off the amplifiers [sound-system] when the noise level reaches the level programmed into the device. The rumour is that this level will be set as low as 70db (decibels), if you don’t understand how sound levels work, that might seem extremely loud on the scale of 1 -100 but in reality it’s not. This will surprise many but normal conversation is around 60db and a busy pub/venue would be around 80db which would be above the level of the system cut-off. Which in simple terms means that there wouldn’t be any live music or music of any type because the power to the amplifiers would have already been cut off before a single note has been played. We need to protect the hearing of staff and customers alike but this sort of restriction is totally stupid, live music is meant to be loud; that’s the whole point of it! Most live events last less than 4 hours and a person can listen to 90db [which is the same as a busy tube station] sound levels for 8 hours before any damage would be done. Can we do anything to stop this ludacris proposal becoming a reality, yes we can; goto Number10.gov.uk and sign the petition, then cross your fingers that the bureaucrats see sense and scrap this idiotic idea before live music is killed off completely! But please be prompt as the petition closes on the 23rd January, that’s this Friday; sign it people!!!
NME are saying that this is a HOAX started on Facebook. But we’ll see what transpires, the UK already has “noise at work” regulations that venues have to comply with, but currently that isn’t physically enforced, so this action would seem like a natural progression to me!