This afternoon took the daughters and a couple of their friends to a TGI Fridays in Castleford for a meal.
Now its not something that has just happened but I have become more intolerant of loud background music.
The purpose of going for a meal or drinks is to enjoy the conversation and banter among those you are with.
It seems now that you have to compete with the house music which is no longer background but full on so that you are constantly shouting 'Hey??' or just nodding in agreement without a clue as to what has been said.
Low volume background music is fine but when it interferes with conversation then its too loud. Does it not occur to whoever actually operates the volume control that it maybe a tad too loud?
I like popular music and am not averse to pumping up the volume to max for a good bit of Quo or Sultans of Swing. But there's a time and place.
Of course you could vote with your feet but its everywhere.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Sun 19 May 19 at 21:27
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I absolutely agree. I'm afraid it gets worse as we get older.
We had a work 'do' at end on March when projects a dozen of us had been working on came to an end. I specifically requested a place without background music so we could converse.
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>> I absolutely agree. I'm afraid it gets worse as we get older
>>
Yep, definitely an age thing!
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I often walk out of shops if the music is loud. I find it irritating, because as you say it's everywhere.
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There ar plenty of perfectly good restaurants without music.
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If you go to a TGI fridays, its a themed restaurant, which will invariably mean obtrusive music.
It really wasn't the place to go if you wanted conversation or banter within your party.
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Wasn't my top choice rest assured. But we were accompanied by younger members of the family who make the choice but strangely don't pay.
There is a very popular bar locally which does not have music. But as it fills everyone is competing to be heard in their groups. It then becomes intolerable. To me anyway :O
Last edited by: Fullchat on Sun 19 May 19 at 22:17
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>> There ar plenty of perfectly good restaurants without music.
No shortage of them round here. I do find tho that most Pizza Expresses have poor accoustics and are quite noisy.
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Not many at all round here, apart from two very small cafes. Sometimes staff are willing to turn down the sound.
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Looking back, I am hard pressed to find a situation where there was obtrusive music.
Last time out was a nearby authentic italian (well as authentic as you can be in a 17th century cottage with beams - fantastic escalope of veal) - no music, not even a hint of "o sole mio"
Time before, busy riverside semi gastro pub lunchtime, just the chatter of sociable families.
Time before, another semi gastro pub, sunday lunch, same - family chatter.
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>> Looking back, I am hard pressed to find a situation where there was obtrusive music.
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same here, either that or I've forgotten about them or learned to block the music and not notice it.
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>> Not many at all round here, apart from two very small cafes. Sometimes staff are
>> willing to turn down the sound.
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Every restaurant near you has loud/intrusive music playing?
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My "local", which was a regular old fashioned pub for grown ups, now likes to think it's a family gastro pub, where children, who were initially restricted to the restaurant area, are allowed (by parents and staff) to run and scream around the whole area including the "grown ups" bar, along with their not-so-grown up parents sometimes!
It really oughtn't be beyond the staff to maintain some kind of segregation between the two areas, so people coming in for a quiet drink can have one, but it is. The parents, like the dog owners who frequent the place, have little respect for other customers, each thinking their pet should be adored by all. Families now sit at the unnumbered tables in the bar area for meals.
Don't start me on how the music volume has gradually been increased, and a speaker put into the "snug" area, which used to be the one area you had a chance of a quiet drink and a chat.
Oh, and some nights they have no beer on....
That'll be the Three Frogs, London Road, Wokingham. On TripAdvisor many people like it, but none for the beer and pub atmosphere!
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“My regular,which was a regular old fashioned pub for grown ups,”
Ah, one of those places with three old blokes sitting in a corner nursing a pint of beer”
I’m afraid they can’t possibly survive. Food is the only way most pubs can make sufficient money.
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I know, doesn't stop me hankering after it though :-)
Though to be fair, the particular establishment I'm talking about has plenty of room to enable some segregation. And they ought at least to not allow children in the immediate bar area.
As parents, back in our day, we wouldn't have let our brats run around spoiling other peoples day in the way that some parents do these days, while we got on with troughing and generally enjoying ourselves. (Or sometimes dogs, coming round sniffing and slobbering).
All the best,
Grumpy from Wokingham :-)
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Times have changed GFW.
Sure you didnt vote for Brexit and the return of Empire?
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>> the Three Frogs, London Road, Wokingham.
Almost exactly 40 years to the day I bought a Norton Dominator from a house just next to that pub.
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I've just recalled that even going for a waz in TGIs there was no escape, there was even a speaker in the bog. :((
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I meet a biking friend in a pub in the next town (roll on bus-pass !) - it's a great little place, discrete TV (volume turned down normally). Serves proper beer and is in fact a very old little pub. For some obscure reason, the landlord (and owner) is a decent bloke. Normal conversation is held and is very popular with regular drinkers (rare breeds these days) for some obscure reason he puts the juke box on at around the same time every evening and it's quite loud - a look was enough the last time we were there and he turned it off. I go to pubs to have a beer and a chat, there's plenty of options in the town, including one very old fashioned little place with bar like a living room...all for diversity.
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If is was music it 'might' be tolerable, but it ain't It's usually electric shizzle or rap crap. I'm with Smokie and FC.
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Absolutely agree. That's why when we old folk venture out into the town, I'll push for a few scoops and a basic meal at a Wetherspoons. Only the screeches from hen parties drown out the background hum of conversation. When we were in Goa earlier this year I put my foot down with a firm hand over the loud music at a couple of the beach bars. One turned the music down, the other said goodbye.
I'm a self-diagnosed amusic (I think melophobe is a synonym). Never had much to do with it as a child, no idea what it's for, although I know it's important to other people. A hearing test at Specsavers (where else?) showed I have a large part of the audible spectrum missing; whether from birth, undiagnosed ear infection or other causes I know not. It isn't something that a hearing aid can rescue apparently.
The swim pool I used to teach at used to try and play music over my lessons and it was more often than not turned off when requested.
I would like to see a little sticky sign like the American Express, Visa or Apple pay signs on doors of establishments without background music, "No music here, grumpy b-----s tolerated".
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One of my favourite bars in Norwich is the Playhouse Theatre bar. Its next to the Norwich University of the Arts so its full of students spending their grants. They play all sorts of music all day long and the beer is cheap. Great cheerful atmosphere and no old blokes moaning!
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O right. Erm, haven't seen that one :o
This
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melophobia
is what I thought I had.
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Music in Restaurants/Bars - Bromptonaut
