UB40 gig made punter's ears bleed

[BigYinUK]

The loudest gig I ever went to, and I've been to Motorhead, Saxon, AC/DC etc gigs, was Ultravox at Brighton's Top Rank suite back in the late 70s/early 80s. It was soooo loud I actually went outside into the foyer to listen. I was about 20 at the time!

[alistermorton]

Siouxsie and the Banshees at the Music Machine, Camden, is (subjectively, anyway) the loudest gig I can recall going to - louder than Motorhead, AC/DC etc by a long chalk. Possibly seemed louder due to the prominence of high frequencies in the sound.

[musht]

The Damned , played Glasgow Apollo night before, followed by Edinburgh Playhouse (cap 3000) , by some booking mixup , actually Playhouse Niteclub (cap 300) still tried to fit all the PA in.

[sam.spoons]

Curved Air at UMIST back in 1970.....

[Stuart91]

The Damned

 

I bumped into a caretaker who was once a roadie for the Damned. He had some entertaining stories...

[Seano]

The loudest gig I ever went to...

 

It was Motorhead for me, I think. Leeds University Refectory. Um.. 1987 probably.

I had tinnitus for days afterwards, it was a bit of a worry at the time. Much relieved when it went away.

[ojc123]

Loudest gig ever? Thin Lizzy 1974. I listened to this in the Foyer along with quite a few others. My ears were ringing for days afterwards and I was worried about permanent damage. I was also at the famous Deep Purple gig in Dundee in the same year when plaster allegedly fell off the walls. Lizzy felt much louder.

[Junior8]

Loudest gig ever? Thin Lizzy 1974. I listened to this in the Foyer along with quite a few others. My ears were ringing for days afterwards and I was worried about permanent damage.

 

A mate who went to see The Who at about the same time reckoned it was six weeks before his hearing got back to normal! If I remember rightly there was a publicity claim at the time that The Who were the loudest band in the world - backed with pictures of the touring equipment. My uncle, who was in a semi-pro band from c1960 through to the mid seventies, with only the usual back-line and PA of the time (total proabaly 500 watts 1968 onwards) but playing at max in small rooms three times a week has significant hearing loss which he is convinced is due to this...

[Stuart91]

It's interesting that in most of the replies above, people's "loudest gigs" were many years back, when PA systems were a fraction of the power they are today. I doubt that band engineers will have gotten any more sensible as the years have progressed. Is it perhaps that modern PAs have much less distortion, so don't "sound as loud"?

 

One of my "loudest" gigs as a punter was Levellers at Glasgow Barrowlands, autumn 1995. I didn't have tinnitus afterwards, but my ears felt "furry" for at least 24hrs afterwards. But again, the rig had significant distortion and was truly painful to listen to close up.

[gibbothegreat]

One of my "loudest" gigs as a punter was Levellers at Glasgow Barrowlands, autumn 1995. I didn't have tinnitus afterwards, but my ears felt "furry" for at least 24hrs afterwards. But again, the rig had significant distortion and was truly painful to listen to close up.

Levellers for me too, albeit more recently - c.2011 at the ABC. Really painful, and had to leave fairly sharpish as I didn't have any hearing protection with me - and the venue weren't offering any.

[Brian]

Trouble is...perceived loudness is not measured in dB.

 

Many years ago we were auditioning some new control room monitors for a 24-track pro recording studio. We saw about 6 or 7 different models in total. It was while we were auditioning the last pair that I thought to myself "These aren't very loud." and turned to the head mixing engineer to tell him as such but when I spoke I found that I couldn't hear a word I was saying. It was a very strange experience. The units under test were so loud, but so totally clean, that they just didn't seem loud at all.

[J Pearce]

I had a similar experience with a Funktion 1 rig, that was somewhat oversized for headroom, thinking 'This is a bit quiet' then looking down at my trusty meter and seeing 105dB(A) (slow ballistic), at the control position. The C reading would have been a lot higher.

The equal loudness curves will give a lot of insight to perceived loudness, whether these have any relation to potential for hearing damage I do not know.

[Junior8]

Loudness is an interesting thing isn't it. In the 1950s Gilbert Briggs of Wharfedale mounted concerts of live and recorded music using his speakers and Quad amplification. One of these included a section where a recording of Thurston Dart on the harpsichord would be sequed in to Dart actually playing live with the audience challenged to spot the join. Apparently the level of amplification required for the recorded section (and in 1955 there wouldn't have been much power anyway. The basic Williamson was only 15 watts if I recall aright and I think the Stereo 70 only came out in 1965?) was tiny in order to match the live sound. Yet the Harpsichord had no trouble filling the Festival Hall.

[ojc123]

It's interesting that in most of the replies above, people's "loudest gigs" were many years back, when PA systems were a fraction of the power they are today. I doubt that band engineers will have gotten any more sensible as the years have progressed. Is it perhaps that modern PAs have much less distortion, so don't "sound as loud"?

I tend to agree. Modern PA doesn't tear at my ears like the 70's PAs did. When I first started teaching (1980's) we used my 1970's HH MA100. It seemed very loud and would leave my ears ringing. The sound was distorted especially at the top end. Our current set up is 2kW RCF in the same venue. It is probably louder but my ears never ring.

 

I do wonder if I might be damaging my ears just as much but just not noticing it. So far so good though.

[Judge]

There is something to that. One of the chief culprits I seem to remember was the JBL 2482 horn which in the wrong hands (and it frequently was) became an instrument of extreme torture.