BIFFY STAR REGRETS HEARING LOSS

WELL’S 80s HELL

AUSSIE songwriters were celebrated in London at the first Global APRA Music Awards.

Nick Cave and songwriting partner Warren Ellis nabbed the Distinguished Services prize.

PAUL Weller admits he was “far up my own arse” by the end of the 1980s. The Modfather opened up about his post-style Council career at the 6Music Festival. He said: “I thought I was

frontman says he wishes he had listened to The Who as he is losing his hearing.

Tinnitus sufferers Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend warned Simon many times that he was damaging his lugholes at the volume he was playing.

The Who legends famously ended up impairing their own hearing after years of loud touring.

Simon revealed: “I do have problems

BIFFY Neil Clyro

unaffected by success or fame but looking back I wasn’t.

“By the end of the 80s I had no record deal, no band, no publishing deal, it made me realise that you’re only as good as your last record so I had to start again from 1990.”

Simon

with my ears now. “When we played with The Who, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend took real exception to the volume of my guitars.

“To be fair they found out the hard way why you shouldn’t be that loud.”

Simon and bandmates James and Ben Johnston were twice told to sort out the volume by The Who, the second time at Scotland’s T In The

Park festival.

But Simon saw it as a badge of honour, explaining: “On two separate occasions the same summer we got told by The Who that the noise was outrageous.

“For a few months I was like, ‘We’re too loud for The Who.’”

Biffy return with new album, A Celebration Of Endings on May 15 and now regret turning their amplifiers up to 11.

Singer/guitarist Simon told Slacker podcast: “There was a period of time, and I can’t believe I’m not deaf, where at my microphone stand it was the same volume as a jumbo jet taking off.

“It was 118 decibels and I used to have amplifiers just to the right of me firing into my head. I used to think I needed to physically feel the music, it wasn’t enough to just hear, I needed to feel my bones shaking.

“It was after The Who said that, I thought, ‘I should probably turn it down.’ People were saying, ‘You’re going to be deaf if you tour like this any longer.’”

Let’s hope they can still hear when they tour and perhaps play a rumoured Glasto set this summer.