Champ dates in full: get there, rock out

Just for the record - that ringing in your ears IS a bad thing. After a while it will never stop, it will be with you for the rest of your life, and you will never hear silence again.

I appreciate that glorifying ear-splittingly loud music is all part of rock n' roll custom, but seriously, once you fuck your ears up that's it. I'm 25 years old and it just took one gig, after 10 years of loud gigs, to push my hearing over the edge.

Now I get stabbing pains in my ears every time there's a slightly shrill noise (smoke alarms are torture, even doing the washing up and crashing plates together is unbearable), my ability to hear in normal situations is severely compromised, and there was one week where I didn't sleep because the ringing was so loud it kept me awake.

Some people get affected really, really badly by tinnitus. It can cause serious depression and ruin people's ability to appreciate music for good. The problem is, it doesn't affect everyone, and those lucky people who are unaffected so far need to be warned about the risk they're running. It's only now that people are beginning to realise just how big a problem it is, and my generation is going to be one big deaf one. I know that I'll probably be wearing a hearing aid in 10 year's time, and I know I won't be alone.

I really, really love loud music. But I have to wear earplugs all the time now. You can get a pair of moulded earplugs for around £165 that doesn't compromise the sound quality, thanks to filters, but does protect your hearing. It might seem like a stupid amount of money, but it's worth it. I wear them now, I just wish someone had told me about them five years ago.

Sorry to put a downer on this, but it really bothers me. Anyone who says something trite like "rock n' roll is supposed to be dangerous" about tinnitus obviously doesn't know what the hell they're talking about.

I used to think tinnitus was funny. It's not.

Yeah, sadly not everyone is sensible enough to take precautions - mainly because the problem hasn't really received enough exposure yet. One of the big problems is that when you're young and loud noise makes your ears ring, you get told it will go away. And it does, so you don't worry about, and you think this will always happen.

Be especially wary of arena gigs - the pyrotechnics at a recent Green Day one were the final straw for me. Before that I never had a problem, after that it was massive.

Anyway, no more whinging, just a bit of useful information for anyone who might need some:

This is a good place for anyone who's having problems, and there's a list of quality hearing protection suppliers on there somewhere as well:

http://www.tinnitus.org.uk/

Though I heartily recommend the £165+ ones (they're called ER-15s), as they sound excellent, those who can't afford them should know the universal ER-20s are only about £15 and not really too bad at all.

Oh, and would you believe I got my own age wrong. I'm 26.

I'm going easy with my ears now too Tomassi. The clink of washing up is really painful to my right ear. Thank God my situ's not as bad as yours but mine "broke" at one gig too. It wasn't as dramatic as pyrotechnics - just a constant wall of noise Mogwai style at TJs from some band with Eddy Vedder's wife in it.

the music was so loud, I couldn't hear properly for 3 days (this was about 3 years ago). My right ear still feels funny sometimes and is probably slighlty damaged. Since that night I have worn earplugs to nearly every gig i have been to and it has helped a lot. I accept that we should rock out to loud stuff, but i hate it when everything is turned up to high, and fuzzed out, especially the vocals which makes the gig crap and all you are listening to his a hum and crashing of drums. Bah. My student union has a lot to answer for, i.e. the guys in charge of the sound are twats. Where can i get these £15 ER-20 earplugs from?

i think i'll get some myself.

I've thought of getting plugs before but i've ben put off cos of mising out on sound quality and convos, but these look pretty neat (and unobtrusive). Thanks for the link.

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