Last night, I was a little later home than other days, and my dear other half suggested a visit to the pub for tea (for those of you of a posh or southern disposition, that’s the evening meal). I was, actually, very slightly reluctant, as I usually don’t drink alcohol in the week, but only for a short while: the idea of a sit with a pint while someone else cooks my food seems like a great idea, so off we went.

When we arrived, there was another group (of 3) in there. The pub was pretty quiet; that early-doors feeling of wind-down. In love pubs at this time, or on Sunday evenings: quiet, relaxing, peaceful. The pub is one that does good business with food, but it is still very much a pub, not a restaurant.

I was a little disturbed, but not too much, at the request to turn the TV on. After all, part of being in a PUBlic house is that it is shared space; and a bit of news or maybe, if you really, really must, some sport doesn’t seem inappropriate, even if not my choice.

This dismay worsened when the TV was put on to The Box, and some dreadful bollocks that I believe calls itself R&B these days was on, and not quietly. Some tracks sounded faintly like someone rapping over a car alarm. Dismay turned to disbelief when the party that asked for it then ignored it, and started playing videos on their smartphones- with sound (which alone should be a punishable crime). The result turned the formerly peaceful pub into a cacophony of noise: something you’d maybe expect on a Friday or Saturday night in a town centre pub frequented by the under 25s, but less in a community pub in Walsall Wood early on a Tuesday evening, and more importantly, a cacophony of noise that the instigators were largely ignoring.

Oddly, while I was halfway through writing this, Pub Curmudgeon came up with this post discussing a “real pub” guide, featuring

those dismal dumps where the only sound is the ticking of the clock and the plaintive miaowing of the pub cat.

[Quote from Cooking Lager]

while a pub trade website detailed a bar that has installed a Faraday cage to effectively disable mobile phones, and of course, we’ve discussed this before.

I can’t agree with the mobile phone blocker, or indeed a mobile phone ban: it is not unusual to find me surfing the web on a phone in a pub- but If I *really must* use sound, I’ll have headphones on, and I go outside if I need to take or make a call: it’s just good manners. I’m not entirely against music in pubs either- one of my favourites regularly has a band on, and at other times tends to have the radio on, but notably the band plays in one of two rooms, and the radio is loud enough to talk over (and Radio 6, so while not my first choice, at least it sounds like music), though at times it’s cursed with bastards standing or sitting at the bar.

Here’s my point: as asked in Andy’s post, how much of the noise in pubs is wanted? I’d personally love to see no TVs in pubs, and the quote above sounds perfect. Perhaps we need a return to multi-room pubs, as I can think of one or two like that round here that can accomodate the music or sport and still allow miserable twats like me a quiet pint.