In Strict Tempo, vol. 97: Why I Missed The Biggest Show of The Year...
Everyone went to watch My Bloody Valentine this week except me.
If you’re anything like me, your social media this week would have been flooded with people who went to one of the recent My Bloody Valentine shows in Dublin, Manchester, London or Glasgow. Honestly it feels like ninety percent of the people I follow on Instagram were there, but I wasn’t.
Why? Well it’s not for any dislike of the band, that’s for sure. Loveless remains one of my favourite albums of all time, and the collection of their earlier EP’s was never off the stereo where I used to work, and Isn’t Anything is a record I always enjoy going back to too, although nowhere near enough as Loveless. If I’m honest I don’t listen to 2013’s M B V that often, but that’s not because I don’t like it - it’s just one of those.
My worry wasn’t even the ticket prices, or the fact it was at Wembley Arena. Although they were expensive, and Wembley is a crap place to get to for any reason be it music or football, that still wasn’t what put me off.
My main reason for not going then? The noise. My Bloody Valentine have long been notorious for playing at a punishingly loud volume, and several people I know who went to their 2008 show at the Roundhouse suffered hearing damage after the gig.
I’ve long struggled with my hearing. As a teenager I lost most of the hearing in my left ear, which as you can imagine was devastating for a young music lover. I had tonnes of hearing tests in hospital, MRI scans, all sorts. Luckily my right ear is fine, but there’s still times it causes me grief, being in a big group in a noisy pub or having a conversation with a passenger whilst driving (being a passenger is fine). At dinners with friends I’ll always dive in and grab the seat on the left end of the table so no-one sits next to me on that side. At weddings, I just apologise and hope that whoever’s on my left isn’t that interesting.
There’s some benefits. Being able to sleep in a noisy room the main one, but that’s pretty much it. So you can understand why I didn’t want to risk putting my remaining good ear through the kind of punishment MBV are known for.
Recently I tried some of those bone conduction headphones that my wife had bought for running with. It was a revelation of sorts. The sound quality was crap, as you’d expect, but being able to hear properly in stereo for the first time in over 25 years was amazing. I lost my AirPods a few weeks ago so replaced them with the latest version, which have some kind of built-in hearing aid which was pretty clever to use, but I’d feel like a bit of a wally putting in AirPods to talk to someone. I’ve never worn a hearing aid (my doctor advised me that as I’d go through 14 years without one it would upset my balance by using one) so it’s just been something I’ve got on with.
How does all this affect my listening to music then? On the whole it doesn’t - at least not through speakers. I might miss a bit of clarity compared to someone with two healthy ears, but the songs I remember listening to pre-hearing loss sound much the same as when I listen to them now. Listening through headphones is tougher, especially on a track where different elements are panned heavily to one side or another. There’s a couple of examples off the top of my head - Golden Brown by the Stranglers and Helicopter by Bloc Party are the only two I can think of, I’m sure there’s loads of others. Luckily it’s not a technique used all that often in dance music.
Live music is different - I always carry earplugs, and I don’t care what people say - they do make a difference to the sound. I’ve tried a few brands and they all tend to block out a lot of the atmosphere of a gig too, that general low-level background noise that’s the difference between being in a buzzy place with lots of people or an empty room. I still enjoy live music, but I enjoy it more when I’m not wearing earplugs but that’s not a risk I really want to take, especially as I get older. Would I have risked suffering more damage just to see MBV? I’m not sure I can take that risk.
Early on in my career it was always something I kept quiet (who’s gonna employ someone in music who’s deaf?), and it’s only recently I’ve started ticking the boxes marked ‘do you have a disability’ on equality monitoring forms, and even then I still think I probably shouldn’t, as it doesn’t really cause me that much bother in day-to-day life.
I guess what I’m saying is look after your hearing, guys. You’ll miss it when it’s gone.
No New Music Reviews this week - I’ll make up for it next week. As things start to wind down for Xmas I reckon I’ve got a couple of newsletters left for the year - one of which will be a Best of 2025 type thing. I’m going to try and fit in another Ceremony mix before the year is out too.
Thanks as always for reading!