It’s an issue that’s reached such levels that it’s got shoppers and businesses crying out for The Sound of Silence.
A row has broken out over the noise volume of city centre buskers, with stall holders on Norwich Market complaining that their music is getting progressively louder and disrupting trade.
Unlike other cities, street performers in Norwich don’t need a licence, providing they are not “causing a public nuisance” and can’t “be heard at a distance of 50 metres”.
But Mike Reed, joint owner of fruit and vegetable stall Mike Debs & Sons, said noise levels were out of control.
He said: "It drives you mad when you stand here for six hours, and you have the same drone going on.
“They’re singing so loud it’s like they think they’re playing Hyde Park or something.
“It puts people off and you hear them go ‘it’s too loud’ as they walk past.
“You can’t ask them to turn it down because they dial it back for about a minute but then they just turn it back up again.”
Daisy Blair, whose company Inky Minx has a stall on Gentleman’s Walk, agreed.
She said: “Some people don’t know what an appropriate volume is, and they dominate the street with their noise.
“We sit here all day and that can be quite hard work. It’s great to see people doing their thing but often we have to shout to even hear each other.
“It’s difficult because you don’t want to put too many rules on people, but there should be a volume rule.
“I don’t want to be ‘that person’, but at the same time it’s really inconsiderate.”
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‘Bully buskers’
It’s not just shopkeepers feeling the impact.
Peter Turrell is a classical guitarist who’s been busking in Norwich for more than 10 years.
He said in the past year, a small group of performers had started causing problems for other musicians, interfering with their performances with their excessive noise levels.
He said: “I’ve been busking less and less, and one of the main reasons is a couple of very loud buskers who stay on the same pitch all day and dominate the city centre.
“We call them ‘bully buskers’ because they force everyone else out.
“Busking is a lifeline for a lot of musicians, and I fear this generation of performers won’t get the same opportunities to start their careers because a small group is refusing to be considerate.
“Most of us are community spirited, it really is just the tiny minority that are causing problems.”
'Nothing to do with noise levels'
One of the buskers receiving heat is singer Keane Francis, who recently moved back to Norwich from London.
He said that despite reading criticism about noisy buskers online, he’d never been asked to turn his music down.
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But, he added, nearby construction work on Hay Hill was forcing him to play louder to be heard.
He said: “Because of the diggers, the actual street volume is very high at the moment, so the legal limit has gone up. The drills are often louder than my amp.”
And, he said, the level of vitriol he had experienced online was out of proportion with the issue at hand.
He said: “People write things that are just personal and have nothing to do with noise levels.
“It’s had a bad impact on my mental health and just amounts to bullying.”
Norwich City Council said it welcomed complaints of anti-social busking and added: “Buskers don’t need a license to perform in Norwich city centre, but we do provide advice for them on our website.
“This includes information on noise levels, appropriate locations, and suitable times of the day for busking.”
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