ROGER TAYLOR: DEAF METAL

Brian May and Roger Taylor. Roger has dramatic hearing loss.

As the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of Queen get underway, drummer Roger Taylor tells how, despite personal setbacks, the band is still a major force

THERE’S a running joke in Roger Taylor’s house. Ask the Queen drummer a question, any question, and the response is always the same. “Half-past seven is my standard reply,” he says with a smile. “It doesn’t matter whether they’ve asked me what I want to drink, watch on TV or where I want to go on holiday.”

Behind this private joke lies the uncomfortable truth that one of the greatest drummers in the history of rock music has suffered dramatic hearing loss.

Talking for the fi rst time about his secret struggle to hear, Taylor revealed that he has joined the ranks of Who guitarist Pete Townshend and former Genesis drummer Phil Collins as the latest casualty of mega-volume stadium concerts.

“I guess it was inevitable and hardly surprising given what I’ve been doing for the past 40 years but at least I’m in good company,” says Roger sitting at a desk in the offi ce at his Surrey home.
“The sound levels on stage were so loud with all that constant banging and smash, smash, smash; it did untold damage to the fi ne nerve endings in the inner ear, though it is worse in the left, which is the side of my snare drum and the monitor.”

It was Roger’s wife Sarina, whom he married last October, who noticed the adroit drummer had a problem.

“She was the one who kept pointing out that the TV volume was up too loud, though I could only just hear it. Then I kept missing out on dialogue in fi lms and at dinner parties and social gatherings I couldn’t understand what people were saying. It felt strange and frustrating to a point where I was starting to lip-read. I realised my hearing wasn’t what it should be.”

Tests at the Harley Street Hearing Clinic in London showed that Roger has hearing loss in both ears due to prolonged exposure to loud noise.

“Now I’m wearing hearing aids in both ears,” he says pointing at said ears which are no longer covered by the trademark blonde mane that was back-lit on Queen’s album covers.

“When hearing aids were fi rst mentioned, I pictured myself as that old geezer at the back of the church with the whistling ear trumpet but you can’t see these Phonak hearing aids and people don’t realise you’ve got them in.”

So hearing loss hasn’t made Roger any less of a rocker?

“No, but I am an older rocker now,” he insists, though at 61, subtly-tanned
and dressed in a smart white shirt and navy trousers, he is still the  looker with the drumsticks whose falsetto highnotes (his voice spans three and a half octaves) characterised many of Queen’s songs; he wrote several more classics for the band, including Radio Ga Ga and It’s A Kind Of Magic.

“Hearing loss has not affected my vocal range. I can still pitch perfectly but without the hearing aids I don’t hear the intricate high parts of the actual spectrum. It goes all ‘wooferly’.”

Still being able to hit the high notes at this time in his life is reassuring for Roger, who has made four solo albums and after a 12-year gap plans to release a fi fth next year.

As he says: “It’s already been three years in the making. I work on it only when it comes to me.” Yet it’s probably wise for Roger to hold back, as this year the attention is on Queen celebrating their 40th anniversary, made all the more remarkable by the fact that the band offi cially “broke up” in 1993, yet have seemingly never ceased to exist.

The enduring legacy of the late Freddie Mercury, the ongoing success of the stage musical We Will Rock You and the Queen reunion in 2004 and subsequent tours with Paul Rodgers of Bad Company are part of the continuing history of a band that sold in excess of 300 million albums worldwide. To mark the anniversary Island Records is reissuing fi ve of Queen’s greatest albums from the years 1977 to 1982, which must make Roger feel very proud. “Some of it does,” he says pensively.

“There are bits where you think I wouldn’t have done that now but a lot of it makes me realise how much work we put into our music. The idea behind reissuing the albums is to get people to reassess their perception of the band as there is a view that we were just a singles band.

“Now we can introduce the albums to a new audience technologically enhanced so that the bass is more defi ned and the sound is crisper. Freddie would have loved the remastering.”

Roger and the then-Freddie Bulsara were particularly close from the moment they met in 1971 when the latter joined Smile, the band formed by Brian May which at art student Freddie’s behest was renamed Queen.

Roger, who had abandoned his dentistry studies, traipsed around London clubs with Freddie to see Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and David Bowie, who all came to infl uence the band’s sound.

“I was thinking about all that the other day and then it hit me that Freddie will have been dead for 20 years in November.” says Roger bowing his head.

“I was staggered because it doesn’t seem possible that all that time has passed and I still miss him. He was my best friend, my best man. We shared so much and I owe so much to him.”

WITH SUCH treasured memories of Freddie and periodic contact with his mother, Jer, and sister, Kashmira, one might assume that Roger would have mixed feelings about the forthcoming bio-pic starring Sacha Baron-Cohen, of Ali G and Borat fame, as the idolised front man but both he and Brian couldn’t be happier.

“The casting is inspired and we have a lot of faith in Sacha because he is an incredibly clever artist who runs a lot deeper than most people realise.

He is much taller than Freddie but I think he might really surprise people with this performance, though I haven’t seen him do any scenes.

“We haven’t yet got to that stage but we have given lots of material to help Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen) fashion the script so that he could recreate the dynamic and the dialogue that went on between us.”

As to which handsome blond actor will be playing Roger is yet to be revealed. “I don’t want to be involved in that,” he retorts with a grin. “Brian May and I will just supervise the music.”

The interview is interrupted briefl y by a text from Roger’s daughter Rory. “She says that Dragon Attack (writtenby Brian) is a great track and has had it on repeat on her iPod,” he laughs, adding: “She’s a junior doctor.” Roger has fi ve children, aged from 31 to 11.

He is delighted, however, that his son Rufus took to the drums without any persuasion or pushing from him and is now on the We Will Rock You tour.

“He is a brilliant drummer and will be joining Brian when he performs with Kerry Ellis.”

With his solo album bubbling on a low-heat, Roger has been busy watching rushes for a BBC2 documentary on the band to be shown tonight and tomorrow.

“Our story is in two halves as the band’s career up to Freddie’s death was 20 years and 20 years later, our music is as popular as it was then. It’s a sort of everlasting…income.”

So what does he think he’s worth? “7.30pm,” says Roger, with a smile.

If you have any questions about hearing loss contact Hidden Hearing

Source: http://www.express.co.uk

Hearing aids help battle Alzheimer’s

When Lisle resident Angela Perosi, 85, started forgetting things and tuning out conversations, her daughter took her to a doctor — and then got her fitted for new hearing aids. Studies have shown hearing loss can increase a person’s risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

When Lisle resident Angela Perosi, 85, started forgetting things and tuning out conversations, her daughter took her to a doctor — and then got her fitted for new hearing aids.

Studies have shown hearing loss can increase a person’s risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Perosi had hearing loss before she was diagnosed with mild dementia. But her arthritis made it difficult to keep taking the over-the-ear hearing aids in and out, said her daughter, Debby Berger, a Naperville resident and registered nurse. So Perosi started wearing “invisible” hearing aids that fit inside the ear canal and can be worn for months at a time.

“She’s more into the conversation at the dinner table,” Berger said. “(Before,) she just sort of sat there. I thought maybe this will help. The way to help her dementia is to get mental stimulation, and way to get mental stimulation is to hear.”

Over the last two years, doctors at the Hearing Health Center in Naperville have fitted 11 patients with the completely-inside-the-canal hearing aids. Audiologist Ronna Fisher, founder and president of the Hearing Health Center, said eight of those patients have experienced significant improvements in memory, mood and social interaction.

“I’ve been impressed, but not surprised,” Fisher said in a statement. “Studies show even mild hearing loss impairs patients’ relationships, incomes and emotional states. I’d always suspected it impairs their memories as well.”

In a recent National Institutes of Health study, researchers who followed 639 adults for 12 years found the worse the subjects’ initial hearing, the greater their likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s. The risk doubled with mild hearing loss, tripled with moderate loss and went up five times for those with severe hearing loss.

The researchers theorized hearing loss may cause Alzheimer’s disease by creating cognitive stress or social isolation. Whether hearing devices affect cognitive decline and dementia will require further study.

Berger has noticed the link between hearing loss and memory loss with both of her parents. Her father, who died two years ago, lived with Alzheimer’s for 15 years. He also had hearing loss.

As a result, she’s consciously keeping her own mind — and ears — alert. When she took her mom to the Hearing Health Center, the doctor invited Berger to get a hearing test as well. It turns out she has high-frequency hearing loss from going to loud concerts when she was younger.

“I do not require any hearing aids as of yet,” Berger said. “But I do crossword puzzles every day, trust me.”

If you have any questions about hearing loss contact Hidden Hearing

Husband won’t accept that he’s going deaf

Thursday May 26 2011

He turns up the volume on the television so high that the rest of us cannot bear to stay in the same room.

I think my husband is going deaf. That, in itself, is not a problem, but he won’t accept it.

He turns up the volume on the television so high that the rest of us cannot bear to stay in the same room.

He grumbles at us all that we are mumbling and deliberately trying to exclude him from conversations.

He is getting to be a miserable grouch. I have tried to tell him that it’s because he doesn’t hear well rather than us not speaking properly but he won’t have it.

He seems to regard deafness as something to be ashamed of, so how can I get him to see reason? LG

FIONA SAYS: ENCOURAGE HIM TO GET A CHECK-UP

He may be embarrassed about going deaf but it’s not something he has brought on himself. How you can encourage him to see things logically and seek help, though, is tricky. He could improve his life so much if he just sought some help.

Point out to him that ear infections or even a build-up of wax can muffle hearing and that just to be sure, it would be worth asking your GP for a check-up.

Alternatively go to have a free hearing test yourself. They are available from a number of places.

Then tell him what you’ve had done and suggests he does the same thing.

If his hearing loss would be helped by the use of an aid he should remember that these days they can be so small they are practically invisible.

They can even be hidden in the frame of a pair of glasses.

Thursday May 26 2011 Belfast Telegraph

If you have any questions about hearing loss contact Hidden Hearing

Musicians ‘have less hearing loss’

Learning music may improve the listening ability of older generations.

Learning music may offset some of the effects of ageing and improve the listening ability of older generations, a study has found.

Years spent playing a musical instrument “fine tunes” the nervous system, said scientists.

As a result auditory memory – the ability to remember what is heard – and to distinguish sounds is improved.

“Lifelong musical training appears to confer advantages in at least two important functions known to decline with age – memory and the ability to hear speech in noise,” said researcher Professor Nina Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University in Illinois, US.

Previous research has suggested that learning music confers learning advantages on youngsters in the classroom.

The scientists carried out tests of memory and speech recognition on 18 musicians and 19 non-musicians aged 45 to 65.

All the musicians started learning an instrument at the age of nine or earlier and had continued to play throughout their lives.

In the tests they outperformed the non-musician group in auditory memory and sound processing tasks, and were better at detecting speech against background noise. Both groups showed an equal ability in tests of visual memory.

“Difficulty hearing speech in noise is among the most common complaints of older adults, but age-related hearing loss only partially accounts for this impediment that can lead to social isolation and depression,” said Prof Kraus. “It’s well known that adults with virtually the same hearing profile can differ dramatically in their ability to hear speech in noise.”

The research was published in the online journal Public Library of Science One.

For information on Hearing Loss please contact Hidden Hearing

The loudest cat in the world!

Smokey the loudest cat in the world!

A MOGGY with a purr as loud as a lawnmower has been officially named as the loudest cat in the world today.

Smokey, 12, has gained a place in the Guinness World Record Book for her purr of 67.7 decibels.

Most domestic cats purr at around 25 decibels.

But pet Smokey has been known to purr as loudly as 90 decibels at home — which is as loud as a lawnmower or a hairdryer.

Owner Ruth Adams, from Northampton, said: “It all originally started as a purring competition in our home town of Northampton to support the cats protection charity.

“I can’t believe Smokey now has a Guinness World Records title.”

Ruth has previously said Smokey’s deafening purrs make it impossible for her family to hear the television or radio and they struggle to have telephone conversations.

She said: “She has always been very vocal and purrs at some level nearly all the time.

“She even manages to purr while she eats. The only time she is quiet is when she is asleep.

“When I’m on the phone friends often ask what the loud noise is and they can’t believe it is coming from a cat.”

Ruth, who runs an office park, adopted Smokey from rescue centre NANNA in Northants three years ago for her ten-year-old daughter Amy.

The family has two dogs and two other cats but say 12-year-old Smokey is by far the loudest cat they have ever heard.

Ruth said: “It’s either adorable or annoying, depending on what mood you’re in and it’s very loud.

“You don’t even have to stroke her to start a purring session, often she’ll do it for no reason

“It can be annoying if her loud purring starts as you are watching television and it has reached a romantic bit in a film, because it’s impossible to hear and spoils the moment.

“I don’t know why she does it. It doesn’t seem to bother her in any way. She’s very happy and content, just very loud.”

Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief of Guinness World Records, said: “Guinness World Records is a veritable cat-alogue of fantastic felines, and Smokey is a welcome addition to the family.

“It’s incredible to think that a cat’s purr can be as loud as a vacuum cleaner.”

RNID in call for funding for lip-reading classes

Claire Lavery said lip-reading classes could improve people's confidence

A local charity is calling on any new health minister to recognise lip-reading as a vital skill for the thousands of people who lose their hearing during their lifetime.

RNID Northern Ireland said funding urgently needed to be made available for lip-reading classes taught by specialists.

The charity’s Claire Lavery said sufferers deserve professional support.

She said lip-reading could help change the lives of the hard of hearing.

“Hearing loss is very isolating for people,” she said.

“It can affect their confidence because it affects their ability to communicate particularly in noisy situations or social situations or even relationships within the family.

“So learning to lip-read can increase your confidence in communication and open up avenues of life that you have perhaps left behind.”

A Million Adults ‘Unable To Hear An Ordinary Smoke Alarm’

Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service is reminding residents of the importance of fitting and testing appropriate smoke alarms

Firefighters are reaching out to deaf and hard-of-hearing communities this week in support of a national campaign.

According to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, an estimated one million adults in the UK are unable to hear an ordinary smoke alarm because of hearing difficulties or because they take out their hearing aids at night. In Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes, this could be as many as 20,000 people.

As part of Deaf Awareness Week, which runs from 2nd May to 8th May, Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service is reminding residents of the importance of fitting and testing appropriate smoke alarms to alert them to a fire in their home.

A number of alarms designed specifically for people who are hard of hearing are available, from strobe lighting and vibrating alarms to small wearable radio-linked pagers.

These specialist alarms can save lives, alerting residents to a fire in the home even if they have removed their hearing aids at night.

Chris Bailey, who heads Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service’s community safety team, said: “It’s vital that people who are deaf or hard of hearing ensure they have the right smoke alarm technology in their home to protect them, and that they test it weekly, to make sure it works.

“Many people with hearing loss could be at serious risk if they don’t have the right alarm in place, particularly if a fire were to break out while they were sleeping. A specialist alarm system provides valuable time to escape from a house blaze, and without it lives could be lost.”

Anyone in doubt about the alarm they need should contact Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service for a free home safety check.

They will be given invaluable advice about planning escape routes, positioning alarms and ensuring that the right smoke alarms are fitted.

How we’re putting our hearing at risk by listening to music that’s louder than a pneumatic drill

Deafening: Nine in ten said they didn't know what the safe level of sound was for their ears

Millions of Britons are risking their hearing by listening to music at a volume louder than a pneumatic drill, a study revealed today.

One in ten people regularly turns their MP3 up to a higher volume than a drill on a building site, research found

A further one in six listening to their MP3 player at a level which is more deafening than an aeroplane taking off.

One in twenty regularly plug into their music which is more thunderous than a train hurtling past in a station, a car alarm ringing in your ears and even screaming children.

Deafening: Nine in ten said they didn’t know what the safe level of sound was for their ears

Nearly one in five (17 per cent) have been left with ringing ears after listening to blaring music for a long period of time.

Peter Worthington, director of The Hearing Company who commissioned the study, said: ‘These results prove that most Brits are blissfully unaware how a simple everyday pleasure of listening to music can actually be harmful to their hearing.

‘Damage begins when ears are exposed to noises louder than 85 decibels for prolonged periods of time.

‘A pneumatic drill, for example, reaches 110 decibels, which means that millions of Brits are listening to their music at a level of almost 40 per cent higher than is naturally safe. A shocking statistic.’

The study, which polled 2,000 adults, also found a quarter turn off their ‘volume limiter’ and one in twenty listen to music at its highest volume level.

Worryingly, nine in ten said they didn’t know what the safe level of sound was for their ears and 43 per cent said they weren’t bothered that loud music might be damaging their hearing.

 Damaging: Millions are listening to music at a decibel level louder than a pneumatic drill or a speeding train

One in twenty said their music is often noisier than road works, or a car back-firing.

Four in ten of those who have been left with ringing ears said it started to hurt after just ten minutes.

It also emerged one in five listen to music full blast in the car – and one in twenty have been distracted by it blaring so loudly they have had a near miss.

One in three have also made themselves jump as they haven’t heard someone approach them and one in fourteen have had a close call crossing a road while out jogging.

The study found one in five listen to loud music because it ‘sounds better the louder it is’ and 7 per cent said it’s the ‘only way to enjoy it’.

Another 14 per cent claim it drowns out outside noises, while 3 per cent said it blocks out their own singing.

Four in ten have gone out for the night and danced next to a loud speaker for their hearing to return to normal five hours after they wake up the next day.

Mr Worthington added: ‘These results don’t mean the fun needs to come out of listening to music, but our aim at The Hearing Company is to educate the public on the importance of protecting their hearing.

‘Protecting it now will reduce deafness in the future and as a result we have just introduced a range of customised ear plugs called ProGuard that protect your hearing, no matter how noisy the environment.

‘It is easy to take hearing for granted, but it is so important to protect your ears.

‘Getting your hearing tested should be part of your regular ‘health-check’ routine such as visiting the dentist or optician.’
For more information see Hidden Hearing