That must come as massive consolation to the person in question.

Anything above 80dB SPL(A) you should start thinking of wearing ear protection, training has to b given to employees. It is the law that you must wear hearing protection in an environment with an LEPd of over 85dB SPL(A).

April is when music venues have to provide hearing protection for al – mandatory for all staff to wear ear protection and ear plugs to be offered to the general public. NEC Group, Barfly, Carling Academy and more have all been ahead of the legislation and offer ear plugs.

Your ears should never ring the next day after a gig – it was poorly engineered if they do.

One small point to make though regarding the article (and I’ve already told the BBC about this) – I’m 22, not 21. The RNID passed my age to the BBC and got it wrong by a year (I guess I should take it as a compliment…) They spelt my name wrong, too!

As I mentioned in my blog post, I got my current earplugs (the ones Susannah held up in the video segment) from inkino.co.uk – £11 including £3.50 postage for Etymotic ER20 filtering earplugs (also known as Elacin ER20), which I think is a bargain considering some record shops want to charge you £15 before postage. I don’t leave home without them. They were useful at Gigbeth! :)

Considering these use the same filtering technology as the MUCH more expensive custom-moulded earplugs (just without the custom aspect), I think they’re well worth the investment.

Thanks also to catnip for the manual trackback, I would’ve missed this completely otherwise :)

I was too embarrassed to wear mine cos they stuck out so much so bought more discrete/expensive ones: vanity!

The most cost effective way to get your ears safe is to order your ear plugs online, get some discrete ones so your friends don’t rip the piss and for comfort purposes too. Then pop along to a hearing aid centre and they can do you ear impression for around £20-30 squid. There is a place off New St (the one before temple st)that do them and in Kings Heath (Sietech) too.

I contacted Specsavers first but they refused to do just the ear impressions, they insist on selling you the ear plugs as well, which costs a total sum of £160 I think.

Hope that helps :)

I have been to some valve night at the custard factory and clearly remember seeing ear plugs given out and was impressed.

I felt really old though….

I would not have had a clue where to buy earplugs from myself, although Christopher has a few recommendations in his post and I am seriously thinking of getting a pair of the Etymotic Elacin ER20s that he recommends.

The RNID’s Don’t Lose the Music campaign site also has recommendations of where to buy earplugs. Does anyone know of anywhere in Brum to buy the ‘filtering’ earplugs?

I don’t remember ever being offered earplugs at any gig or clubnight I’ve been to (inc dnb nights but it has been a good while since I last went to those!), whether free or otherwise.

I think it should be a case of everything in moderation. When I was working at Reading we had to have earplugs due to standing a few feet from the speakers for eight hours a day! The punters were probably only there for up to three hours at a time.

Also, and I know it isn’t true of all dj’s/venues but sometimes they’re guilty of turning the music up too loud (thank you Rihanna!) to create some kind of atmosphere…

I am going to show my age and admit that I sometimes just enjoy a pub and a sit down with some jolly good people for a jolly good laugh!

http://mamafeelgoodmusic.co.uk/?p=26
http://mamafeelgoodmusic.co.uk/?p=39

At drum and bass nights where the decibels are really damaging- don’t promoters offer free ear plugs anyways?

I think it’s a perfect branding opportunity, get yer logos and urls printed on some.

I don’t think my hearing has suffered particularly from the many, many, many noisy gigs I’ve been to over time, but then again I was as deaf as a post to begin with.

I will offer, however, the fairly unpleasant anecdote of having left a very loud and very feedback-y metal gig at The Foundry (back when that existed) and seeing someone who had clearly been glassed lying on the pavement outside the Alexandra. I attempted to ring 999… and couldn’t actually hear the operator at all over my ringing ears.

Fortunately a few more people were beginning to accumulate and one of them was able to, but it was a frightening moment.

I wouldn’t draw anything into it, though.

As to the supply of earplugs – attendees at gigs should take their own, not rely on the band or promoter to think for them. (Showing my age again!)