Lots of noise at St Andrew's Hall, Norwich

Nice lead story on page 19 of today's Eastern Daily Press ...

Music Venue may fall silent after 400 years by Ben Kendall

Live music at St Andrew's Hall, Norwich, could become a thing of the past, throwing the venue's future into doubt, city council bosses warned yesterday.

A sound limiter and a deadline of 11.30pm on amplified music were introduced at the hall at the end of last year following complaints from a minority of residents.But it has now emerged that the limiter - which automatically cuts off electricity to the stage, is so sensitive that even the sound of applause can trigger it.

If the conditions remain in place it effectively means any performance relying on electricity in any way will be out of the question at the hall, where the walls have echoed to the sound of music since Tudor times ....

Read the full EDP article online here.

Great to see this deserving story suddenly making the headlines. But hey, wait a moment, doesn't it sound a bit like yesterday's article Not quite so loudly please Maestro Ashkenazy On An Overgrown Path filled out with some additional reporting?

As there is no mention at all of the article On An Overgrown Path it must be a complete coincidence. But ....

Email to: 'pat.prekopp at archant.co.uk' - EDP website editor, April 7 9.55h
Subject: Not quite so loudly please Maestro Ashkenazy
Hi Pat, hope all goes well with you. Thought you might be interested in this story today which will get a lot of readership in the US particularly –
http://theovergrownpath.blogspot.com/2006/04/not-quite-so-loudly-please-maestro.html
Regards,
Pliable


Email from: pat.prekopp at archant.co.uk' - EDP website editor, April 7 9.57h
Subject: Not quite so loudly please Maestro Ashkenazy
Pliable, Many thanks for that. I'll try and get this on the site in some form.
Pat

Image credit - St Andrew's Hall - unattributable. Image owners - if you do not want your picture used in this article please contact me and it will be removed. Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Guilty of remix?

Comments

Pliable said…
That's strange, Tim Worstall doesn't think it was a coincidence.
Anonymous said…
Hardman by name, Hardman by nature ?

The Eastern Daily Press has now published a copy of their article on their website :
http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=EDPOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED09%20Apr%202006%2012%3A06%3A19%3A460
The web article ends:

" ... One of the principal figures to call for the restrictions is Norwich solicitor John Hardman, who lives near the hall.
It is understood he plans to appeal to magistrates in an attempt to have last year's licensing committee restrictions increased further.
Yesterday Mr Hardman said: “I have no comment to make on this at this stage.” ..."

In the spirit of his objection, it's appropriate that he wishes to remain silent.

"Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men" (William Empson)
Pliable said…
Googling 'John Hardman solicitor Norwich' and similar produces no results.

Can anyone shed any light on this Trappist legal eagle?
A search of the Law Society's records shows that he's a partner in Hassell's (again oddly well-named, if not correctly spelled), a firm of Solicitors in the Cathedral Close.

13 Months after the St Andrew's Hall story, he's at it again, this time over proposals for pavement tables outside nearby cafes:

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/News/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=enonline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED16%20May%202007%2009%3A27%3A13%3A003

he seems to be a one-man serial complainer with nothing better to do than interfere with good ideas.

Gareth

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