“I do not visit any pubs or shops that play music”
Drinkers complain their ears are being assaulted with the thumping beat of modern summer anthems from the likes of Taylor Swift or the clang of sleighbells at Christmas.
Fiona Stapley, the editor of the Good Pub Guide 2017, is calling for an end to the curse, saying it is one of the biggest problems raised by reviewers.
‘Piped music, canned music, muzak, lift music, airport music – call it what you will, it’s there and our readers loathe it in any shape or form,’ she said.
‘It enlists bitter complaints from our readers and has done so ever since we started the Guide 35 years ago.
‘It’s such an issue that we have always asked every main entry pub since 1983 whether or not they have it, and then clearly state this in each review.’
She added: ‘In the end it comes down to the question we’ve been asking for years. Do good pubs need piped music and do the majority of good pubs’ customers want it?
‘And hand on heart – of all the thousands of pubs we have visited over the many years of producing The Good Pub Guide, it’s pretty rare for us to feel our pub experience has been heightened by what is being played through the speakers above our heads.
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