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Sound to be turned down at NHS games
School district issues draft noise guidelines
By Tim Omarzu
Marinscope Newspapers
Neighbors who oppose athletic-field lights for night football games at Novato High School weren’t able to get the school board to abandon the idea.
But they did get school officials to consider controlling the music that’s played through the public-address system at the NHS football field, which consists of two loudspeakers mounted on the press box.
Draft guidelines for amplified music would forbid “profane” music, prohibit playing music before 11 a.m. and limit playing songs to halftime – not in-between plays or after games – at the field, which is used by youth sports leagues in addition to high school teams.
Helping lead the turn-down-the-sound offensive at the school board’s Oct. 6 meeting was Marc Revere, who said he lives “right behind the scoreboard” and has been driven away from home by loud music – especially early on weekends by youth sports league games.
“I would ask each and every one of you to stop the music,” Revere said to the board, singling out one song in particular: “Welcome to the Jungle,” a single released in 1987 by Guns N’ Roses that reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.
“This is a ‘Dirty Harry’ theme (song),” Revere said during public comment at the board meeting. “It’s about a Satanic-worshipping raping of two sisters, mental hospital after the rape, one of the sisters kills the bad guys and Dirty Harry comes to save the day.”
“Here’s the problem. Here’s the lyrics, some of the lyrics that you condone that’s coming out of the high school: Welcome of the jungle / Having lots of fun / Welcome to the jungle / I like to see you bleed / Welcome of the jungle / You’re a very sexy girl / You can feel my serpentine / I wanna hear you scream,” he said.
“That’s coming out of the high school, and I think you have a serious problem … if you can’t control that,” Revere said.
While Revere didn’t mention it, the NHS Hornets football team has for years used the AC/DC song “Hell’s Bells” as its theme, according to team booster Lisa Weston.
The song, which starts with the slow tolling of a bell 13 times, is played at professional and college sports events around the world, including at San Diego Padres baseball games, Ohio State football games and by Ukranian boxer Vitali Klitschko, said the Web site Wikipedia.
But NHS Principal Rey Mayoral, who wasn’t familiar with the lyrics of either song, said that the high school team only plays snippets of the songs, for example, the tolling bells of “Hell’s Bells.”
“They don’t play the whole song,” Mayoral said. “If I heard anything that was profane … I wouldn’t allow it.”
Also, according to Wikipedia, “Welcome to the Jungle” is played at many college and professional sports events, including at the Cincinnati Bengals’ home games in its stadium, which is nicknamed “the jungle.”
The Web site doesn’t mention the song being inspired by Satanism or the movie “Dirty Harry.” It says that the band’s lead singer Axl Rose wrote it about how life seemed to him in Los Angeles and Hollywood.
• The Novato Unified School District Board will hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27 to discuss music at the athletic field. The meeting will be held in room 107 in the school district’s office at 1015 Seventh St.
But they did get school officials to consider controlling the music that’s played through the public-address system at the NHS football field, which consists of two loudspeakers mounted on the press box.
Draft guidelines for amplified music would forbid “profane” music, prohibit playing music before 11 a.m. and limit playing songs to halftime – not in-between plays or after games – at the field, which is used by youth sports leagues in addition to high school teams.
Helping lead the turn-down-the-sound offensive at the school board’s Oct. 6 meeting was Marc Revere, who said he lives “right behind the scoreboard” and has been driven away from home by loud music – especially early on weekends by youth sports league games.
“I would ask each and every one of you to stop the music,” Revere said to the board, singling out one song in particular: “Welcome to the Jungle,” a single released in 1987 by Guns N’ Roses that reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.
“This is a ‘Dirty Harry’ theme (song),” Revere said during public comment at the board meeting. “It’s about a Satanic-worshipping raping of two sisters, mental hospital after the rape, one of the sisters kills the bad guys and Dirty Harry comes to save the day.”
“Here’s the problem. Here’s the lyrics, some of the lyrics that you condone that’s coming out of the high school: Welcome of the jungle / Having lots of fun / Welcome to the jungle / I like to see you bleed / Welcome of the jungle / You’re a very sexy girl / You can feel my serpentine / I wanna hear you scream,” he said.
“That’s coming out of the high school, and I think you have a serious problem … if you can’t control that,” Revere said.
While Revere didn’t mention it, the NHS Hornets football team has for years used the AC/DC song “Hell’s Bells” as its theme, according to team booster Lisa Weston.
The song, which starts with the slow tolling of a bell 13 times, is played at professional and college sports events around the world, including at San Diego Padres baseball games, Ohio State football games and by Ukranian boxer Vitali Klitschko, said the Web site Wikipedia.
But NHS Principal Rey Mayoral, who wasn’t familiar with the lyrics of either song, said that the high school team only plays snippets of the songs, for example, the tolling bells of “Hell’s Bells.”
“They don’t play the whole song,” Mayoral said. “If I heard anything that was profane … I wouldn’t allow it.”
Also, according to Wikipedia, “Welcome to the Jungle” is played at many college and professional sports events, including at the Cincinnati Bengals’ home games in its stadium, which is nicknamed “the jungle.”
The Web site doesn’t mention the song being inspired by Satanism or the movie “Dirty Harry.” It says that the band’s lead singer Axl Rose wrote it about how life seemed to him in Los Angeles and Hollywood.
• The Novato Unified School District Board will hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27 to discuss music at the athletic field. The meeting will be held in room 107 in the school district’s office at 1015 Seventh St.
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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of marinscope.com.
Mortified wrote on Oct 27, 2009 8:39 AM:
" Seems to me we should be looking at the Novato Municipal Code (NMC) on Noise Abatement; whatever the code states should apply.
Without actually viewing the code (The Novato official webpage's NMC link is broken - go figure), I would assume the language contains the standard 11pm - 7am curfew.
Why would it be ok for any neighbor of the HS to fire off their lawn mower producing a prolonged lound noise as early as 8am disturbing the peace, while intermittent use of a PA system is taboo?
The law is the law, it should be applied across the board, if the school is in wrong by the law then they should immediately comply.
That stated, if the school is currently operating within the NMC, then ANYTHING the superintendant, principle, or sound operator does toward appeasing 'the offended' is well and above any action required; unfortunately actions aleady taken are here-to-fore underappreciated by a few.
Don't like the law, work to get the law changed, until then comply.
This city, this state, and this nation wastes entirely too many resources in needless disputes over matters already codified. "
Without actually viewing the code (The Novato official webpage's NMC link is broken - go figure), I would assume the language contains the standard 11pm - 7am curfew.
Why would it be ok for any neighbor of the HS to fire off their lawn mower producing a prolonged lound noise as early as 8am disturbing the peace, while intermittent use of a PA system is taboo?
The law is the law, it should be applied across the board, if the school is in wrong by the law then they should immediately comply.
That stated, if the school is currently operating within the NMC, then ANYTHING the superintendant, principle, or sound operator does toward appeasing 'the offended' is well and above any action required; unfortunately actions aleady taken are here-to-fore underappreciated by a few.
Don't like the law, work to get the law changed, until then comply.
This city, this state, and this nation wastes entirely too many resources in needless disputes over matters already codified. "
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gb2069 wrote on Oct 22, 2009 5:05 AM: