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I recently made the decision to insure my drums; it’s an expensive kit and I wanted to protect what I considered to be my most important instrument. Soon after, I went to a percussion event in London where someone pointed out that my most important instrument was actually my ears and how much protection did I have for them? None! I decided to visit Harpenden based company, Advanced Communication Solutions, to find out how I could protect my ears, and discovered that I’m in good company. Famous musicians such as Phil Collins, George Michael and David Bowie, and bands like Muse, The Fretellies, Supergrass, Radiohead and The Stereophonics all have hearing protection or in-ear monitoring. | "Someone pointed out that my most important instrument was actually my ears and how much protection do I have for them? None!" | | Gareth Lloyd |
Andy and Joan from the company explained to me how noise can really damage my ears, and it doesn’t even have to be loud, it can just be for a long duration. If the hair cells in the inner ear are damaged you get nerve deafness which is irreparable. You can’t even “toughen up” your ears by growing accustomed to loud sounds. The other main problem people can face is Tinnitus, which is the perception of an abnormal sound coming from inside your head, such as a ringing in your ears after being exposed to loud noise. Danny McNamara from Embrace used to go to bed every night with the radio on to try and drown out the high pitched tone in his head. 'Hear Tomorrow' is a campaign run by ACS to try and catch young and unsigned musicians before they damage their hearing. People like Danny endorse the campaign telling people “If you haven’t got Tinnitus for God’s sake.. take care of your ears before it’s too late”.
 | | The Silicon Gun |
So what options are there? The most basic and cheapest form of ear protection is the foam plugs you can buy from a chemist for as little as a few pence. The problem with these is that they make voices and music sound unclear and unnatural. The next step up is an earplug that copies the ear's natural frequency response (the amount of high frequencies and low frequencies we hear). It’s still “one-size-fits-all”, but for about £10 it does reduce sound levels. A more advanced concept is a custom built hearing protector, and this is what I decided to get. Joan started by looking in my ears to check they were clean and find out how much damage my 16 years of drumming had already done. She then inserted a cotton wool ball all the way down into my ear to protect my ear drum for the next stage in the process when Silicon was pumped into my ears and left to set. After about three minutes the silicon had dried and the impressions were taken out of my ears.
 | | Silicon being placed in the Ear |
The team then turned my impressions into a mould, from which they could make my in-ear hearing protection. The idea is that because it’s custom-made I can wear them for longer without feeling them. They also look discrete and decrease the volume of sounds coming into my ears by a considerable amount. The first night I wore them I was amazed that I could actually hear better with them in, all the really harsh noises from the sound system was reduced and I could talk to people without having to strain to hear them over the music. Personally, I think if you’re into clubbing, gigging or are a musician you need to think of some sort of hearing protection. But it’s not just musicians who wear hearing protection. Top Gear presenters all use them, most of the Formula 1 drivers have them, and DJ’s like Goldie, Sasha, Giles Peterson, Ronnie Size and John Digweed won’t go into a club without them.
 | | Gareth wears his new ear monitors |
Some companies are also required to look into some sort of hearing protection for staff since the law changed in April 2006 to enforce the implementation of new lower noise levels. Workers now have to wear hearing protection when the noise level exceeds 85dB for 8 hours a day… about the volume a hair dryer or a lawn mower produces. In today’s noisy world it seems that high sound levels are the accepted norm. Everyone is at risk from hearing damage at some point during the day and when our ears are damaged it’s permanent. You only get one pair of ears and if they go… | 
