cloody.co.uk

Who Turned the Music Down? (The council probably).

by Adam Mackay

I attended a festival called Field Day in Victoria Park in the East End of London a couple of weeks ago and said I would write a few words on the bands I saw for Cloody’s website.

The line up was quite sort of indie/alternative and can be viewed here http://www.fielddayfestivals.com/lineup/ First off we went to see a Glasgow band called Errors on the main stage. They’re sound is quite sort of electronic although they do have a full band set up with drummer, bass, guitars etc. I quite enjoyed their set, with some good dance along tunes which fitted the nice early good weather atmosphere pretty well.

A good early crowd and a lot of familiar Scottish accents also added to the vibe (There was quite a Scottish vibe to the festival with, Mogwai, Malcolm Middleton, Optimo all playing).

A little while later we went back to the main stage to see The Horrors. I’m not particularly familiar with their body of work but had read good reviews of their new album so thought I’d go and check them out. Well it was pretty much a let down and to be fair I’m not sure it was entirely the band’s fault.

The volume levels were so low you could easily have a conversation with the person next to you at normal speaking volume.

The Horrors, it struck me, were kind of about making a lot of noise and a big theatrical performance, and with the music at such low volumes it was almost impossible to get in to them. We left after about three songs.

We later went to see Mumford and Sons in one of the marquee tents. At least being in the tent the volume levels were a bit better but it could still have done with being a bit louder. I quite enjoyed their set though, sort of toe tapping folk rock I suppose. The kind of band I imagine would go down a storm at a marquee dance in the Highlands of Scotland. Someone did tell me that they’re quite heavily religious though and are a bit preachy about it. This would certainly put me off them. There are no good god-bothering bands!

Whilst in the tent watching Mumford the heavens opened and the next couple of hours were spent crammed in a beer tent with the occasional sprint to the strangest toilets ever. I don’t know if any males have experienced these at festival this year but they were basically four man, square urinals that come to about belly button height, so you’re standing taking a piss with the three other blokes all looking each other right in the face, literally about a foot and a half away.

The only other band we went to see were Mogwai, last on the main stage. Again the ridiculously low volume levels meant that their set was completely underwhelming. It is music that needs to be played loud and allowed to kind of wash over and around you -if that makes sense. I felt kind of bad that for a lot of the crowd this would be the first, and maybe only time they would see them and would just go away with a pretty poor experience.

Victoria Park where the festival was held is right in the middle of London, which is why there were such noise restrictions I suppose, but at the same time it was a daytime festival and finished at 10 o’clock so what’s the problem with a bit of noise.

I started talking about the noise problem with the people I went with and apparently it’s become a big issue over the last couple of years. Councils are coming down really hard on events who exceed the allowed levels and imposing big fines. They have people at every festival with noise measuring machines making sure the noise rules aren’t broken.

You may think that this is only a problem for city festivals but it’s not. It’s a problem for any festival with any kind of residential housing within earshot. Over the last couple of years it’s been a problem at Glastonbury and most notably Reading, where last year heavy atmospheric weather meant the sound carried more and levels had to be turned down even lower. People were complaining Rage Against the Machine were being drowned out by people talking! That’d make you want to spew!

At Glastonbury just because there are a few houses in the area the noise levels have had to be turned down over the last couple of years to the point where people are noticing and complaining about it.

That can’t be right! Surely the musical pleasure of 100,000 is more important than a few days of noise pollution for a handful of residents. Without wanting to sound too Daily Mail, it feels like it’s the sort of thing that would only happy in Britain at the moment.

So to councils of Britain I say; Turn the music back up please.