AS more people realise that a night out in a grim boozing pen is an unpleasant way to spend an evening, there is additional bad news for city centre pubs and bars. They could be sitting on a ticking compensation time bomb.
While in a bar where the music was so loud as to render conversation impossible, it struck me that, besides being deeply frustrating, employees have to put up with this night after night after grisly night.
I visit factories on a fairly regular basis and find myself having to interview people wearing earplugs. I even once interviewed someone at an airshow while the Eurofighter was screaming past, in terrifying proximity.
But speaking to anyone in one of Derby's soulless high-density intensive drinking enclosures would be beyond anyone without specially constructed bionic ears.
How they get away with it is beyond me. There must be stricter limits on the volume of music. It makes going down town an ordeal.
I've never seen bar staff wearing earplugs. Anyone exposed to such noise on a regular basis over a long period of time is bound to be affected. And once your hearing starts to go, it rarely comes back.
Where is the Health and Safety Executive when you're trying to order a Babycham. Did I say Babycham? I meant beer.
When the smoking ban was introduced, lots of people suggested it was an attack on civil liberties. They were missing the point. Bar staff were facing daily exposure to carcinogenic chemicals from cigarette smoke. It had to stop.
Though no legal expert, I would have thought that, after a few years of service in a pub, any non-smoking barmaid developing a lung condition would be able to build a decent case against her employer.
By the same logic, it is likely that many bar workers will have had their hearing damaged by noisy environments. A factory would never get away with it. Reading between the lines of the literary rollercoaster ride that is the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, I get the impression there must be thousands who could claim compensation.
My chief argument is not about live music venues or nightclubs. My beef is with places where people meet in an attempt to socialise.
Maybe the idea behind excessively loud music is that owners and operators believe chat gets in the way of booze sales. If you are using your mouth to talk, it will be unavailable for the consumption of alcohol and the generation of revenue.
My annoyance at loud music in bars has nothing to do with my being in my 30s. I felt the same way in my teens. As if talking to girls wasn't tricky enough back in the day, our culture also decreed it had to be done in an environment where conversation had to compete with noise that rendered it all but inaudible.
Is it coincidence that the places I now see doing well in the city centre are the ones in which a conversation can be held and drinks ordered without patrons having to bellow?
It can only be a matter of time before people who have had their hearing damaged by working in excessively noisy venues realise that they may have a compensation claim. Sadly, that is probably what it will take for pub and bar operators to prick up their ears.
