Lloyds' Pharmacy, the second biggest such chain in the UK, has dropped its in-store radio. This was partly due to the expense but mainly due to negative responses from customers. This shows that protest, repeated many times if necessary, can and does work!  All who detest piped music should make a point of telling Boots, or any other muzac-polluted shop, about Lloyds wise decision – and should vote with their feet.

The booklet Whose Choice is it Anyway?  giving case details of people tormented by piped music in hospitals and doctors' surgeries and in the workplace and suggesting courses of action, has been updated and republished. Copies are available for an SAE and a cheque for £2, of £5 for three copies  (to cover printing and postage costs,  made out to Pipedown) from Pipedown, 1 The Row, Berwick St James,  Salisbury SP3 4TP

Melanie Eskenazi asks: Would anyone like to help set up a Surrey/Greater London
group?  Her email address is melanieeskenazi@blueyonder.co.uk

Nick Harrison is starting a local group of Pipedowners to campaign on local problems with piped music.

He is  planning to organise a petition to the local Co-Op in Glastonbury. requesting a 'Quiet Hour' when there would be no piped music playing in the store.
He is also planning to have an exhibition in the Glastonbury High Street – sometime later in the year when the weather gets warmer – of photographs of items he has purchased from retail outlets where piped music is not played. The exhibition will be called The Sale You Missed.

Contact him at nicktheffiddle@yahoo.co.uk

6 St Edmunds Road
Glastonbury BA6 9HU
tel  07 56 58 75 866

Every night in the week beginning 23rd January the author Andrew Martin talked on noise problems at 10.45pm on Radio 3.

On Tuesday 24th January his subject was piped music.  It should still be possible to listen to his amusing and original broadcasts  on Iplayer.

Virgin Money, in the process of taking over the branches of Northern Rock, is inviting comments and suggestions on its current takeover of Northern Rock branches. At present Northern Rock is almost the only High Street bank that does not have piped music in all or most of its branches.

Email Virgin Money to encourage them to keep these branches quiet via their website virginmoney.com/feedback

Petrie Hosken on LBC 97.3 Radio did an hour-long programme about piped music on 6th November, following up a recent survey that found at least 50% of people  would walk out of shops with it.
Sarah Cawley from the British Retail Consortium, as might be expected, tried to ridicule such reactions as being those of just a few ‘sensitive’ folk. But the emails that Petrie Hosken read generally supported the survey’s findings. One person said she did not mind piped music in principle but agreed it was too loud, a couple of people liked it, but at least 20 other emails that were read out supported the survey’s stance.Petrie indicated that there were many more similarly supportive text messages and e-mails. Yet again, the smooth-talking, well-paid proponents of piped music have been shown to be strangers to the truth.

Dorothy Lewis, a Pipedown member living near Edinburgh, is keen to get in touch with other Pipedowners living in southeast Scotland to discuss starting a local group.  This could deal with local issues far better than Pipedown HQ.

Contact her at lewisda@blueyonder.co.uk

The Co-op chain of supermarkets has won the shameful distinction of being voted the national chain most polluted by piped music by Pipedowners. It has won this odious post, narrowly beating several of the major banking chains, by its ever-increasing deployment of piped music in its stores throughout Britain and by its persistent refusal to respond intelligently to letters of protest.

Just as the Co-op, which makes much of being an 'ethical trader', has in the past boycotted exploitative or racist suppliers, so anyone who cares about music, silence and above all human freedom is now urged to boycott the Co-op. Waitrose, Aldi, Liddl and Tesco  are alternatives  generally free of piped music  – except for Tesco at Christmas – and are often cheaper too. Waitrose is a partnership like the Co-op. Unlike the Co-op, it has not succumbed to the piped music industry's propaganda.

Also write in protest to Mr Peter Marks, Chief Executive, The Co-op, New Century House, Corporation Street, Manchester M60 4ES .

The East of England Co-op chain, which retains a certain autonomy from the Manchester headquarters and does not normally inflict piped music on its customers and staff, makes a happy exception to this deplorable status, and does not need to be boycotted.

Good news from the John Lewis/Waitrose chain. Craig Lewis, the new marketing director of John Lewis, has confirmed that he 'has no plans to introduce piped music in our stores. The calmness of the John Lewis shopping experience is held in high regard by our customers and we would not wish to compromise this in any way.' This announcement, which will please not only Pipedowners but the third of the population who detest piped music, reconfirms the fact that piped music is anything but essential to commercial success.