Date with history: Pub chiefs hope orange bears fruit in noise row

LICENSING chiefs were preparing to test the capabilities of an "electric orange" this week in 1985 following complaints of excessive noise from a Stockbridge pub.

The orange was a specially-created gadget, designed to cut off music when it got too loud.

For resident Robert Cairns, who lived above Simple Simon's on Hamilton Place, silence was top of his wish-list.

The householder told the city's licensing board that noise at the pub had been a problem for him since 1977.

"I have been at the noise abatement so often, I feel I work up there," he said.

Yet David Stewart, an agent for Scottish and Newcastle Breweries, told the board that over the past two-and-a-half years, more than 3000 had been spent at the premises in an attempt to solve the noise problem, including the installation of the orange.

The board heard the main problems were on Thursdays and Sundays when a DJ played records in the pub, yet Mr Cairns said the jukebox was also an everyday problem.