MOTRHEAD's LEMMY Refuses To Turn It Down

April 19, 2008

MOTRHEAD mainman Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister has told Times Online that he would resist any attempt to force him to turn down the music as part of Scotland's new control of noise at work regulations, introduced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following a Brussels (European Union) directive.

"The essence of rock 'n' roll is loud music," he said. "How the hell can we be expected to enjoy ourselves if weve got to turn it down?"

The rules cap weekly average noise exposure at 85 decibels, meaning periods of loud play need to be cancelled out by quiet periods. The idea is not to protect audiences at concerts but performers and other staff.

The new directive also affects rock and classical musicians. Classical orchestras are considering whether they may have to hold quiet rehearsals for music by composers such as Wagner or Verdi to offset the loudness of their concerts.

The loudest rock bands have included THE WHO, who in 1976 reached 126 decibels. They were beaten last year, however, by the Watford punk band GALLOWS, who hit 132.5 decibels.

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).