From Brian Rowlands, member of noisy streetband, The Peace Artistes :
“THERE’S TOO MANY OF THEM AND THEY’RE TOO LOUD!” we heard one shopper call out to her friend. Bradford streetband ‘The Peace Artistes’ has been busking, performing at festivals, demonstrations and on parades around the UK and Europe since 1984. They are currently 23 people playing a mix of saxes, brass, drums and other percussion
I’ve been playing with The Peace Artistes for most of that time, and I can tell you that lady was right about the loudness! Though we are all-acoustic (no amplifiers) we have been known to cause a power outage when playing in a venue with a ‘safety’ noise sensor: absurdly, that shut down the lights but didn’t stop us playing!
I play timbales, snare drum and cymbals with The Peace Artistes – so yes, the effect on my hearing at such close range has probably been damaging. I wonder why I left it so long to start wearing decent ear plugs?
Recently Rob and his colleague Kirstin took earmoulds and supplied me with close fitting ‘musician’s earplugs’. These plugs are especially good in rehearsal, where we face each other in a confined indoor space, but they still allow enough filtered sound to hear the music. Using these earplugs has made me realise just how painful loud noise can be!
Many thanks Rob and Kirstin!
