Yes I’ll come along pianissimo, officer.
OK I have to come clean. I now have a police record. Well, my name’s in a policeman’s notebook anyway.
The guys had been practising in our front room this week for a gig they were doing tonight here in Peebles (they’re called V&A - funny in itself because they didn’t even know it’s the name of a museum in London haha) When you see them at Wembley, you’ll know where you heard about them first. That’s my 17-year old son, and 4 other people’s sons. 2 guitars, bass, drums and a “singer”. No it’s not my style of music. In fact I wouldn’t even call some of it music, but they are serious about it, and they put a lot of effort into producing a reasonable sound together, with some quite good original stuff as well as the usual covers.
Anyhow, at about 1.30 this afternoon, yes that’s 1.30 on a Saturday afternoon, a policeman appeared at the door saying that a neighbour had complained about the noise, and they had already responded to this same neighbour when he complained last Tuesday afternoon, a fact which my son had “forgotten” to tell me about!
Now, we live in a big detached Victorian house with pretty thick walls, but the guys had been playing with the windows open on the Tuesday and when they’d said they would shut the windows and stop after an hour, the police were apparently quite happy.
Today, the neighbour was wanting an ASBO to be considered! The nice apologetic policeman said to us that wasn’t really what ASBOs were intended to deal with, however, he wrote down my name in his book and I even had to agree to go to mediation, should it be necessary!
Our guys then went round all the houses in the street explaining that their gig was tonight, they appreciated it wasn’t to everyone’s taste but that they would be stopping at 4pm. The reactions they got varied from “Kids, kids, come and see…it’s the band!” to “What’s the problem? I like your music” to “Don’t worry guys, my son was a drummer and it doesn’t bother me at all” (our 85-year-old, admittedly deaf, next door neighbour). There was only one house where they got a talking to – guess where the complaint came from? “I can hear those drums in my basement” Well yes, and the cars going past in the street, and your own dogs barking, but presumably you’re not requesting ASBOs against them.
Now why couldn’t they have come across the road and spoken to us? What sort of community spirit is that? In my view (and that of our very musical neighbour on the other side) it’s the complaining neighbours who ought to be served with an ASBO! When you think of the stuff these young guys could be up to, and aren’t, and how responsibly they reacted to the complaint….one of them, yes the one with dreadlocks, came and apologised to me for the police having come to the door…
Looking on the bright side, the acquisition of an ASBO might even be a career advantage. The rest of my family are already asking for autographs.
