Pipedown newsWebjamatom@webjam.comen38571b7d-2bc4-4db7-8b69-963c3f3706a0Lloyds' Pharmacy Drops the Music!20-Apr-2012Lloyds' 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.

]]>Published1fe436b9-4d11-4f89-a867-5cb3c705f230WHOSE CHOICE IS IT ANYWAY BOOKLET 25-Mar-2012The 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

]]>Publishedec706791-d899-455c-a339-69e8379324cbLONDON/SURREY LOCAL GROUP BEING FORMED 12-Mar-2012Melanie Eskenazi asks: Would anyone like to help set up a Surrey/Greater London
group?  Her email address is melanieeskenazi@blueyonder.co.uk

]]>Published4600d4df-6c35-439e-ad23-bd8cf3613fd5Somerset Anti-Muzac Local Group Formed.30-Jan-2012Nick 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


                                                                                                

]]>Published4b0b102b-915f-4a27-a899-046e87e74aa9Andrew Martin talks on Noise Matters Radio 3 10.45pm23-Jan-2012Every 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.

]]>Published4eed2141-09dd-4cdf-ade3-c4e0af7abe16Write to Virgin Money urging them to keep Northern Rock branches free of piped music 12-Jan-2012Virgin 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

]]>Published8111a925-550a-4b5a-adff-847c0525b05fNew Survey of Shoppers slams piped music's effects09-Nov-2011Petrie 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.

]]>Published8ac6a132-0490-4b60-8984-87a8e8c51c15Edinburgh Local Group being started16-Oct-2011Dorothy 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

]]>Published05ab20ba-1f03-4a05-bcad-54d3334d4bdfCo-op voted the UK's most muzac-fouled supermarket by Pipedowners12-Oct-2011The 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.

]]>Publishede224514e-aebc-4378-9ec5-e81a156c5620John Lewis/Waitrose announces it will remain piped music-free03-Aug-2011Good 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.

]]>Publishedeeefdd2c-b62b-4688-a305-58463455a7ab Why Noise Matters has been published on 2 September 2011 15-Jun-2011Why Noise Matters has been published by Earthscan, a leading environmental publisher.

It is the first book of its kind, for there are currently no books on the overall problems of noise pollution and how to deal with them, in Britain at all. The book is written by John Stewart, chair of HACA and UKNA, Britain's leading noise campaigner, with four other authors, all experts in their different fields: Professor Arline Bronzaft of New York University, Professor Francis McManus of Napier University Edinburgh, Nigel Rodgers of  Pipedown, and Val Weedon of Noise Direct. The book will deal with almost every aspect of noise, from traffic, windmills and noisy neighbours to piped music. It is aimed at both the specialist - environmental health officers, for example - and the general reader suffering from noise problems and needing advice. It has graphs and diagrams where relevant but is not a technical book.

]]>Published4e4ff2e7-2b6c-4856-a056-17872b90d4e7QUIET LONDON guide published 05-Apr-2011Siobhan Wall's new guide  Quiet London has just been published by Frances Lincoln @£9.99.

Quiet London is a guide to quiet places to meet, drink, eat, swim, rest, shop, sleep or read. It includes interesting, attractive places where people don't have to strain to hear each other speak. There are short descriptions for each venue, alongside travel and contact details and simple but atmospheric photographs in colour and black and white.

Like its much valued predecessor Quiet Amsterdam, the book is as beautiful as it is practical, a pleasure to read and hold in the hand.

]]>Publishede2864794-6b96-4b3e-af31-f2ef770e614dLoud music on television documentaries: the BBC wakes up to viewers' real feelings.20-Mar-2011Suddenly, after years of ignoring viewers' protests, the BBC has  accepted that there really is a case to answer about piped music  on television (and radio) documentaries. The trigger for this was the flood of protests (over 110, which is a lot in such instances) over the first programme in the new Wonders of the Universe series. The first programme had intolerably loud foreground music, almost totally drowning out what its presenter Brian Cox had to say at times.

The BBC has now edited the soundtrack - something they have always declined to do earlier - greatly reducing the volume.

This shows that concerted and determined protests can work!

Not  by coincidence, Pipedown is about to relaunch its sub-campaign against television music, a problem that has been growing for years.

If you have comments to make, please add them and watch this space for news of the developing protest.

]]>Published5fad2f9c-81bd-47bb-a8f2-3f3165a7a3f9Composer lambasts piped music 06-Mar-2011Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen’s Music, has lambasted piped music repeatedly in recent weeks. As he is writing the music for the Royal Wedding in April and so is much in the public eye, his protests have made the headlines. This has generated a welcome flurry of publicity and attracted many new members. Sir Peter visited Olive Grove, a trattoria in Canterbury, to find it filled with piped music. ‘I asked the waitress if it could be turned down and it was, but then it came back up again… You just couldn’t hear yourself think, let alone order. It was deafening,’ said Sir Peter. ‘So I told the owner we were going elsewhere. We found a very nice Italian restaurant a few doors down. It too was playing muzac but agreed to turn it off. Nobody noticed – in fact the atmosphere noticeably improved. People were actually talking to each other and enjoying the art of conversation without the dulling, stupefying effects of muzac. I would urge more people to demand that piped music is turned off and vote with their feet if shops and restaurants don’t comply.’ Gianni Pasquino, the restaurant manager, said, ‘We have never had a complaint before.’  The composer recently walked out of Waterstone’s in Oxford Street because he objected to the piped music played there. He also hates ‘moronic melodies’ on mobile phones and refuses to hold for call centres if muzac is played. We should all follow the example of Sir Peter! “Piped music is commercial and cultural terrorism”

]]>Published6c349675-0609-432b-a050-47d94bbdabc0Inside a New Parliament02-Jun-2010With so many new MPs in the House of Commons, 2010 could be a propitious year for Pipedowners to lobby their MPs.

The previous government was markedly uninterested in noise pollution in any form but the new Coalition might well prove more sympathetic - if chiefly concerned with matters economic. Building on the two bills already introduced in Parliament - Robert Key's Ten-Minute Bill of 2000, which was not passed, and Lord Beaumont's more recent bill which got through the Lords but not into the Commons - Pipedown hopes to find an MP willing to try to introduce a broadly bill to restrict piped music in places such as hospitals where it is literally impossible to escape.   (The campaign remains wholly independent and not committed to any party.)

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