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Re: Pete's Hearing & Other Matters!



>------------------------------
>
>Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 01:47:37 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Vacc116@aol.com
>Subject: Pete on Electric---How does he do it?
>
>Leo (and others),
>
>     I'll start with what I know from the '89 tour where Pete played a
>handful of songs on electric. He had the stage designed in a way where he
>didn't hear the guitar at the same volume as the audiance. There were also a
>number of glass walls that surrounded Pete so he didn't get the full volume
>of the band. All of this was done to protect Pete's ears from getting worse.
>Contrary to what most people think, Pete is not close to deafness. His
>condition does give him pain when agrivated by stress or sounds at certain
>decibles. I have heard once that the loudness of the ringing in Pete's ears
>is equal to the loudness of traffic. This sounds pretty bad, but I've heard
>Pete say that he is perfectly capable to play the electric guitar whenever he
>wants to. For the '89 tour he felt that he could no longer pull out all of
>the tricks he used to (Feedback, windmills, smashing, running and jumping,
>etc.). So, because of this he decided to go with another lead guitarist. Now
>we can't always believe what Pete says, but that's another story :) The
>bottom line is that Pete's ears are bad enough that if he wants to play
>electric he must make certain modifications to the sound set up which takes a
>lot of work and energy from a lot of different people and he didn't want to
>go through all of that.
>    As for the Jones Beach show, the stage was also set up with many glass
>barriors to protect Pete from the noise. Pete did play a lot of electric but
>he wasn't always playing the lead, he had a lead guitarist for that tour who
>was very good. Pete did play some lead though and I believe he had most of
>his sound going right out over the PA instead of going into the wall of
>Highwatts he had with The Who. The difference being that the noise on stage
>is much lower. Pete's old setup had the noise comming directly behind him.
>When he plays now he has a monitor on stage so he can hear what he's playing,
>but the rest of the sound is infront of him which is much better for his
>fragile ears. Plus Jones Beach was the last show of the tour. If he let loose
>that night he would have plenty of time for silent recovery. That's why Pete
>was able to go alittle crazy that night. 
>
>Pete talking about his ears and giving his best serious Dr. voice, "...I
would
> advise him to learn to lip read." -----Pete and Kieth laughing!!
>
>Vac
>
>------------------------------
>
The whole business is a little unclear isn't it? If he can play the
electric and protect himself from its volume then why doesn't he do it? And
what is the advantage of playing accoustic if you are standing in front of
monitors blasting back the electric guitarist's playing. I saw the first
Quad show in Vancouver at which Pete played accoustic until "Substitute" in
the encore. I saw no plastic barriers of any kind and he roamed quite
freely around stage left. Simon was positioned just right of centre stage
and Pete must have been in the line of sound of his monitor.

As for the magnitude of his hearing loss, I understood it to be quite
considerable. He's fine in situations where there is no background noise
and people are talking directly to him, but has some difficulty otherwise.
Given the volume at which the lads used to play I'm surprised that any of
them can hear a thing.

Incidentally, at the above show Pete played like a fiend during "Who Are
You" kicking up a glorious electric racket. Before leaving the stage he
displayed his hand to the crowd so that we could see that it was bleeding,
as if to say "see, I can still do it."
_______________________________________________
Martin O. Screech		E-Mail: screech@bc.sympatico.ca
"Trapped in Nanaimo"		Home: (250) 390 - 4826
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