Musicians and crazy volume levels?!?

CaseOfAce

Reading the recent Lemmy feature in Bass Player mag I'm struck by the insane volume levels he used to run his Marshall bass stacks at (Treble 10 / Bass 0 with a Rickenbacker bass) to the extent that Mikkey Dee  used to plead with him to turn it down since he was being pulverized by the sheer onslaught of sound from Lemmy's rig from behind his drum kit.

J. Mascis is notorious for running 3 FULL STACKS behind him on stage with a Fender Twin / bassman AT head level.

At the very least they must have (had) insane tinnitus not to mention early onset deafness?
Hendrix was said to have been virtually deaf in one ear towards the end..?

Danny1969

Older rock musicians did tend to play crazy loud. Bands like The Who, Van Halen etc had massive backline and side fill PA. Most of those guys went half deaf in their forties.

In the eighties  / early nineties I used to have two 4 x 12" cabs but mainly for show .. it was mic'ed and quite quiet onstage but looked like it was loud if that makes sense. 

Gassage

I miss outrageously loud.

The Stranglers 1979 still the loudest gig I've ever been to. Deafening.

Hootsmon

For me one of the LOUDEST was also one of the first.....Led Zep doing the LZ4 tour in Glasgow

Around 3 hours of VOLUME........ears took a full week to recover

Overriding memory was Rubber Plant and his register in the opening rock and roll song

Sang it half arsed and down an octave or whatever and practically spoke the bloody thing. GREAT show though

His voice was gone and this was 71/72

scrumhalf

Chicken Shack at the Marquee, if you stood too near Stan Webb's amp your teeth would go back into your gums.

Reverend

I saw Swans but not in the 80s, I can't imagine any band will ever be as loud as they were then, not even My Bloody Valentine. 
Sunn are probably the loudest band I've seen but as it is mostly low end it doesn't hurt quite as much.

Cols

I can remember seeing Deep Purple in Belfast about 10 years ago, and having to stand behind a pillar in order to avoid being pulverised by the noise levels.

lysander

It’s just dumb IMO. What’s the point being deaf at 40. See Paul Gilbert, I think he wishes he had been a bit less rock and roll. 

Even Pat Metheny is half deaf.
I got some mild hearing damage at a Dream Theater concert 20 years ago and have been careful since then and have no wish to be blasted away by a wall of sound, ever.
I’d rather just be able to hear the damn music ( let’s be honest you can’t actually hear much at stupid sound levels ), on the day and later in life.

bazxkr

Cols said:

I can remember seeing Deep Purple in Belfast about 10 years ago, and having to stand behind a pillar in order to avoid being pulverised by the noise levels.

I was at the Deep Purple guinness book of records gig (117 decibels) & it was insanely loud. Blackmores Marshall Majors with the extra added output stage were bone jarring. The Morse era I have not found as anywhere near as loud

The Mk iii era 1974 gigs were bloody loud too

digitalkettle

"...generally held to be not only the loudest rock band in the Galaxy, but in fact the loudest noise of any kind at all." 

Cols

bazxkr said:

Cols said:

I can remember seeing Deep Purple in Belfast about 10 years ago, and having to stand behind a pillar in order to avoid being pulverised by the noise levels.

I was at the Deep Purple guinness book of records gig (117 decibels) & it was insanely loud. Blackmores Marshall Majors with the extra added output stage were bone jarring. The Morse era I have not found as anywhere near as loud

The Mk iii era 1974 gigs were bloody loud too

“Ritchie, you’re known for using 200 watt Marshalls - the most powerful guitar amplifiers available.  Do you find that your hearing has been affected as a result?”

”Not at all.  I point my amplifiers at the singer, consequently his hearing’s not so good.”

bazxkr

Cols said:

bazxkr said:

Cols said:

I can remember seeing Deep Purple in Belfast about 10 years ago, and having to stand behind a pillar in order to avoid being pulverised by the noise levels.

I was at the Deep Purple guinness book of records gig (117 decibels) & it was insanely loud. Blackmores Marshall Majors with the extra added output stage were bone jarring. The Morse era I have not found as anywhere near as loud

The Mk iii era 1974 gigs were bloody loud too

“Ritchie, you’re known for using 200 watt Marshalls - the most powerful guitar amplifiers available.  Do you find that your hearing has been affected as a result?”

”Not at all.  I point my amplifiers at the singer, consequently his hearing’s not so good.”

Haha... remember Rick wakeman interviewing Jon Lord and asked him to sum up Ritchie in just one word.    His answer was 'LOUD'  LOL
So just think..  if ritchie was not so aggressive and loud sounding then Jon Lord would not have  developed his wonderful Hammond sound through marshalls to try and compete with the guitar.
So that gorgeous driving organ may not have arrived within Purple and that wonderful early mk ii sound may not have happened.

Going back to the loud gigs. Seem to remember the 72 rainbow theatre shows, 73 rainbow show and 74 Kilburn show were extremely loud. I would have said the 73 was by far the loudest but seem to recall the Guinness book showing the 72 shows as loudest

Reverend

Weird to think of 117db being a recitd, considering how many bands have exceeded that since.