Coronado Club Faces Day in Court Over Loud Rock

A situation reminiscent of the Belly Up Tavern’s recent travails is raising some ire in Coronado. For the past 18 months or so, someone living across the street from McP’s Pub has repeatedly called police to complain about loud music and other noise emanating from the popular Orange Avenue club. Each time, the Coronado constabulary has issued pub owner Greg McPartlin a “notice of violation,” which is the equivalent of a warning.

If police are called back a second time in one night, however, they can issue a more serious citation, either for violating the city noise ordinance or, if the caller is willing to sign a complaint, for disturbing the peace. McPartlin, who has owned the pub since it was built in 1982, will appear in court Thursday to answer the latter charge as a result of a complaint filed April 18.

As recently as last Thursday night, entertainment at McP’s was curtailed when police responded to a yet another call complaining of excessively loud music. Reportedly, a local trio-- called, ironically, the NoiseBoys--were playing to a packed house that night when a female bartender interrupted them mid-song. Waving a notice of violation in the air, she relayed the message that a cop outside wanted to speak to someone in the band.

With McPartlin standing nearby on the sidewalk, the cop warned drummer Randy Hoffman that if he was called back on another complaint he’d be forced to confiscate the NoiseBoys’ equipment on the direct orders of the new chief of police, Jack Drown. (Drown lost the recent, hotly contested county sheriff’s race to Jim Roach.) After trying to play “semi-acoustically” for a while, the NoiseBoys finally gave up and packed it in around 11:30 p.m.

McPartlin, 42, claims he’s collected “70 or 80” of the lesser notices of violation, and has paid more than $100 in bail for ordinance violations, not including legal fees and court costs. Thursday’s appearance will be his first on charges of disturbing the peace. But the proprietor doesn’t blame the Coronado cops, whom he says are usually “very apologetic.”

“What gets me is that I’m dealing with three different codes about noise--two pertaining to the city of Coronado. The other is the state penal code about disturbing the peace,” he said. “According to the noise abatement regulation of the Coronado Municipal Code, music played between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. cannot exceed an average of 50 decibels for an hour period, as heard from a distance of 50 feet from the club. But the city’s noise ordinance says that amplified musical instruments cannot be audible at that distance. So which do we abide by?”

McPartlin’s attorney has written to Coronado’s city manager and to its director of planning in an effort to reconcile the apparently contradictory statutes. “I’ll do whatever they tell me to do, even if it means doing away with live entertainment,” said the owner. “I just want some consistent ground rules.”

Scott Huth, Coronado’s code enforcement officer, claims that the apparent discrepancies in the city’s noise codes actually allow authorities some flexibility in dealing with different situations. “We’ve taken readings outside McP’s at different times,” Huth said Monday, “the latest being around 11:30 at night. And while we found that the noise from the club, read at 50 feet, exceeded the code limits, readings taken at 200 or 300 feet from the club showed that ambient noise from cars and other sources was even louder. That makes enforcement rather difficult.”

Huth said his department decided to consider complaints about noise from McP’s as a “public nuisance” problem, not unlike those arising from loud private parties. “That leaves it up to the police to deal with the situation on an individual complaint basis,” he said. “We’re trying to appease the complainant and at the same time work with McP’s to arrive at an equitable solution.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Coronado police denied Monday that Chief Drown has issued any special orders regarding the confiscation of musical equipment, and he added that there is no official department policy governing such confiscation. “The officer in question probably was referring to the potential confiscation of equipment as evidence, in the event of a court case,” said Lt. Bill Abel.

The NoiseBoys’ Hoffman was the only party with a non-procedural perspective on the situation at McP’s. “In the first place, we don’t play very loud at all,” said the married father of two, who these days only moonlights as a musician. “But mostly, I found it all very ironic. I had to go through all this stuff as a teen-ager, when I played in local bands in the ‘60s, and here I am, at age 40, standing on a sidewalk talking to a cop 10 or 15 years younger than me, who’s saying my rock ‘n’ roll is too loud. Some things never change.”

The local Musicians Who Care organization is joining with Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas to offer two special health workshops this week, to be held in different departments of the hospital’s 354 Santa Fe Drive address.

On Thursday, the hospital’s orthopedic surgeon, Dr. David G. Smith, will discuss “Musicians and Carpel Tunnel Syndrome.” The painful disorder is aggravated by, among other things, pressure on the main nerve in the hand resulting from the unusual grips required to play such instruments as guitar and drums. The workshop begins at 6:45 p.m. with a networking session in the Rehabilitation Gymnasium. Dr. Smith’s talk follows at 7.

On Tuesday, MWC and Scripps will offer free hearing tests and information for musicians and others whose occupations expose them to potentially damaging, loud, sustained sound. The effect of loud music on hearing has been a controversy almost since the advent of rock ‘n’ roll, but the subject has been of special concern since rock stars such as Pete Townshend, Alex Van Halen and Ted Nugent came forth with disturbing tales of tinnitus (a chronic ringing or buzzing in the ears) and other noise-related maladies.

The “Hearing Tests and Information Workshop” will be held in the Audiology Department from 5 to 7 p.m. Appointments are necessary for the hearing tests. For more information, call Musicians Who Care at 259- 8448.

GRACE NOTES: Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday for Simple Minds’ June 18 concert at Copley Symphony Hall. Opening is Material Issue. . . . On June 23, a concert featuring the San Diego Men’s Chorus, the L.A. Gay Men’s Chorus and the Turtle Creek Chorale will perform at Copley Symphony Hall. One dollar from each ticket will go into a fund to benefit various AIDS organizations. (Sale date: May 19). . . . Steel Pulse and Special Beat will perform “under the sail” at the San Diego Convention Center on July 12. (Sale date: Friday at 3 p.m.)

CRITIC’S CHOICE: POP CROONER FRANKIE VALLI AT HUMPHREY’S

The front man sang like a banshee wearing too-tight underwear, and many of the group’s songs were transcendentally corny. Still, when a song by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons comes on the radio, one rarely can resist the urge to turn it up. Valli--born Francis Casteluccio 54 years ago--brings his current cadre of poppers to Humphrey’s tonight for two shows.