New rules to turn down the volume in pubs are music to my ears - Anthony Clavane

Not too loudly, mind. One of the most important recommendations of the snappily-titled Keeping Workers And Customers Safe During COVID-19 publication is the insistence that our great public houses turn down the dials on one of the pre-eminent curses of the modern age.

For anyone who has struggled to hear themselves think, or indeed drink, in public places, this is great news. The guidelines insist that venues should keep all their music at a low volume to stop guests raising their voices or leaning in to hear one another. Shouting, you see, increases the risk of transmission from tiny droplets in the air, known as aerosols.

This makes perfect sense in terms of curbing the potential spread of coronavirus. It could also – we can but hope – mark the beginning of a quiet revolution. Before the COVID-19 era, the world was getting progressively noisier. Acoustic pollution was becoming part of everyday life.

Wherever you went – pubs, restaurants, supermarkets, railway stations, hospitals, doctors’ surgeries, swimming pools, airports – you would be bombarded with a cacophony of piped or

canned music. Sometimes known as muzak.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Some of my best friends are musicians. I have even been known, myself, to pick up a guitar in anger and strum a few chords in the privacy of my own bedroom.

But I draw the line at being forced to listen to looped renditions of James Blunt’s greatest hits in bars, shops and restaurants. Or, should I say, James Blunt’s hit. It is not a “beautiful” experience.

In the pre-COVID age, nature abhorred a sonic vacuum. One of the few joys of the lockdown has been a reduction of the daily noise that once filled our lives. The earth has, blissfully, been bathed in an unusual, if sometimes eerie, quiet. Peace and silence, man.

As the late, great Spike Milligan, who often railed against the racket of modern life, put it: “Tranquillity lubricates the soul, muzak destroys it.”

I blame George Owen Squier who, a century ago, discovered a way of transmitting music across electrical wires. In 1934 his company, which enabled businesses to broadcast music in offices, was renamed Muzak. In the 1970s, this name became synonymous with the inane tinkling of bland, easy-listening tunes.

Some of you may be wondering what, exactly, is so wrong with bars, shops and restaurants buzzing to a friendly background hum. Well, to you it might be a friendly background hum. To me, it has the same effect of fingernails scraping down a blackboard. And there is a big difference between choosing to listen to music in a public place and having to listen to it.

“Piped music has an adverse effect on human health,” declares the campaign group Pipedown, which is dedicated to the abolition of muzak. “It puts up blood pressure and depresses the immune system.” It’s a particular problem for people with impaired hearing, whose lives can be made a misery by the playing of non-stop music.

Whenever I complain about annoying, intrusive music in public places, I am told: “No-one else is complaining.” In fact, I believe I am part of the silent majority – or at least the majority who prefer silence to annoying, intrusive music.

This is confirmed by a study, published earlier this year, which revealed that eight out of 10 people had cut short their visit to a pub, restaurant or café because of the noise.

Call me old-fashioned, or an old fogey if you like, but I don’t think music should be played – as the Government’s guidelines state – “at a volume that makes normal conversation difficult”.

As I say, I am not anti-music. I am a regular Radio 3 listener and can’t wait for this Sunday evening when one of my favourite composers will be featured on the station. His name is John Cage, and he is best known for 4’33” – a work made up of complete silence.

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James Mitchinson