We were recently contacted by a friend and neighbour, a fellow Brit in our little Bulgarian village, who runs the local village community Facebook group. He had been contacted by the daughter of an elderly village resident, complaining that her Mum, who has "sensitive ears" was being disturbed by the noisy English musicians in the village playing at all Godforsaken hours, and as he knows the other English in the village, would he mind having a word before they get the police involved.
Given that we only practice one day a week, for about 3 hours in the afternoon, and my drummer and guitarist live about 30km away, I was rather perplexed by this.
So I told him it wasn't us, and if they were hearing anything on a night the only thing I could think of was my home cinema system up in the barn, and I would endeavor to keep it down. So for the next couple of weeks, I wore headphones when watching the cinema so there was absolutely zero noise. Then one morning when we were out shopping, the local plod turned up at the gate, which was answered by my 75 year old mum who's currently battling cancer and undergoing chemo every three weeks. Who did her best to explain we weren't in. I actually really, really wish we had been, because the sh!t would have seriously hit the fan right then and there.
A couple of weeks later, my friend received another complaint about the noise we were making, except this time we were 40km away playing a gig in another town. My friend informed them as much, and told them there was no way that it could be us making the noise she was hearing.
Since then, I've played as loud as I want, whenever I want, and will happily watch my home cinema in the wee small hours with the sound on full blast. Until I get an apology for sending the police round and disturbing my seriously ill mother, they can quite frankly kiss my @rse!