U2 breached Suncorp Stadium noise limit with 100-decibel-plus 360 Degree World Tour concert
by Patrick Lion
From: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
May 29, 2011 12:00AM
AMPED UP: U2′s Bono and The Edge performing at Suncorp Stadium last December. Pic: Peter Wallis Source: The Courier-Mail
PROMISES to keep noise levels down at Suncorp Stadium rock concerts have failed.
Reports obtained by The Sunday Mail show Irish supergroup U2 exceeded the regulated 100-decibel limit inside the venue at one of their two 360 Degree World Tour concerts in Brisbane last year.
The group notched 105 decibels, but will not be fined for the breach, unlike the $50,000 penalty the band received from their hometown of Dublin earlier in the tour.
The reports also reveal one of the five external sites Stadiums Queensland is required to audit is still failing to accurately record noise levels and recorded excess levels for U2 as well as Bon Jovi a few nights later.
Tens of thousands of people live around the stadium in some of Queensland’s most expensive suburbs such as Paddington, Auchenflower, Red Hill and Milton.
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The flaws come five years after a problem with the “skewed” site at 105 Hale St was discovered and recommended to be fixed, and two years after Sports Minister Phil Reeves failed to explain why they had not been fixed.
The reports show acoustics contractor Cardno Consulting had measuring difficulties at the noisy Hale St site, where the same problems occurred during concerts by Robbie Williams in 2006.
The stadium had 21 complaints and three compliments over the two U2 nights last December but only one complaint for Bon Jovi.
“There were some slight exceedences on night one and none on the second night,” the report said of U2′s performances.
Mr Reeves yesterday said the problem site would be reviewed next year.
But Opposition sports spokesman David Gibson said the five-year delay was another example of poor management.
“It is disgraceful that not only has the Government failed to fix the ‘skewed’ monitoring station but that they also fail to adhere to or enforce their own regulations,” he said.
