Man Jailed 4 Months for Playing Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton Records Too Loud
Just goes to show you that some people’s villains can be other people’s heroes … though I’m not sure any of us would even want to hear our favorite country stars blaring through the windows at 1:30 a.m. when we’re trying to get some shuteye.
56-year-old Michael O’Rourke from Peterhead, Scotland has been sentenced to four months in jail after repeatedly violating noise ordinances and pissing off his neighbors by playing his music too loud. You see, Mr. O’Rourke is partially deaf, but he also happens to be Peterhead’s biggest audiophile, fessing up to a vast collection of vinyl and a propensity to listen to it at top volume at any time in the day or night. People call him the “oldest raver in town,” but O’Rourke isn’t listening to Skrillex. His weapon of choice is classic country, and plenty of it, especially folks like Johnny Cash, and Dolly Parton.
O’Rourke has run afoul of law enforcement before for his loud music, and has been designated an “Asbo,” which is apparently an “anti-social behavior order” in Scotland—almost like probation for introverts I guess. He was first slapped with a three-year “Asbo” in 2009, and has been charged seven times for violating noise ordinances. Two years ago, Michael O’Rourke had his record player seized by the sheriff in an effort to stop the noise complaints, so he bought a CD player and kept the tunes pumping. Each time O’Rourke’s sentence has been deferred due to good behavior, but not this time, especially since the latest incident involved getting rough with a police officer and resisting arrest.
O’Rourke appeared in Peterhead Sheriff Court on Monday (1-11), where he admitted to playing the music too loud, and was sentenced to four months in jail.
“This is the sort of behavior that when it does occur is expected to come from a teenager living away from their parents for the first time,” the judge said. “This course of conduct from you—a man of 56—is appalling. You must have lost sound equipment worth thousands of pounds over the years due to forfeitures. I don’t think there is any other option than a fairly long prison sentence.”
O’Rourke’s sentence was backdated to January 8th when he was arrested, but he’s expected to serve the entire four months.
“I used to hear him quite a lot,” says one of his neighbors. “Most weekends you would hear the stereo going. Always Country and Western music. I wasn’t sorry to see him go. He wasn’t the best of neighbors.”
Nadia Lockheart
January 12, 2016 @ 9:59 am
Wow!
So some folks really DO love to “crank that country music loud” like countless laundry list songs from the likes of Brantley Gilbert, Jason Aldean, Chris Cagle and others insist! 😉
Except I haven’t heard anyone say “blastin’ Parton at full throttle” in a choice song yet! =P
Robert S
January 12, 2016 @ 11:38 am
“Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It’s Flavour On the Bedpost Overnight” by Dolly Parton from her TV show in the 1970s (a version of a similar song by the Happiness Boys for those of us who like old Edison records) would be considered a weapon of mass destruction if played at high volume on continuous loop. At the least, someone needs to send that dude a copy of Slim Whitman’s “Indian Love Call” to see if it has the same effect on Peterhead residents as it has on Martians.
BJones
January 12, 2016 @ 10:07 am
Huh huh … huh huh … Peterhead.
hoptowntiger94
January 12, 2016 @ 10:11 am
Ha! I spent a night sobering up in the Royal Oak city jail for playing Willie Nelson’s ‘Red Head Stranger’ too loud at 2:30 am (and for being intoxicated and the ensuing fight with the police officer). Disorderly Conduct was the charge and the citation stated “playing loud country music.” At the hearing my lawyer claimed, “the only thing my client is guilty of is bad taste in music” (which got a good laugh from the judge). Charges were dropped and I had to pay $100 noise violation fine.
So, I feel for you Mr. O’Rourke!
scott
January 12, 2016 @ 11:23 am
Another reason not to trust lawyers…
hoptowntiger94
January 12, 2016 @ 4:39 pm
Or answer the door for the police! Never answer the door. Let them go wake up a judge!
Zack Kephart
January 12, 2016 @ 10:18 am
I thought two things before I read this:
1. Immediately look for the “fake news” tag
2. We may have found the real life Reginald Spears
Nadia Lockheart
January 12, 2016 @ 11:44 am
Reginald Spears is probably the same guy who posts here as “Blake Shelton”, for all we know! 😉
Zack Kephart
January 12, 2016 @ 12:23 pm
Don’t forget Chase Rice! 🙂
A.B.
January 12, 2016 @ 10:20 am
If Mr. O’Rourke ever chooses to move somewhere that won’t care much about the loud music, maybe he could move to Greenwich Village in NYC where James Spader plays his jazz records extremely loud. So loud that he wants to hear it outside as he’s coming back from walking the dog. I’m pretty sure that late night interview is on YT somewhere. He hasn’t gotten into too much trouble for it yet either.
Andy
January 12, 2016 @ 10:39 am
One word: headphones.
Trigger
January 12, 2016 @ 1:47 pm
Any true audiophile will tell you: headphones won’t suffice for the experience of a loud, booming system.
Acca Dacca
January 13, 2016 @ 12:40 pm
I’m not a true audiophile (in that I much prefer a well-produced CD to vinyl), but there’s definitely something to be said for the sound interacting with the room around you.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
January 12, 2016 @ 10:50 am
Well, at 1:30 this morning I was putting a new set of strings on a mandolin, so a bit of Cash would probably have been welcome.
I live not too far from a Dirt Track Raceway, and neighbors in the other direction have a mud track, so I can hear motors in the summer, and some nights I can hear the party music so loud I can discern lyrics. Last thing I remember hearing them play was “Boy Named Sue.”
Deborah Cheplic
January 12, 2016 @ 10:55 am
Poor guy .. someone should just buy him an awesome set of headphones .. 🙂
PETE MARSHALL
January 12, 2016 @ 10:58 am
GET HEARING AID. then you can hear the music without playing music way to loud.
Tezca
January 12, 2016 @ 3:11 pm
I have a hearing aid(born hard of hearing) and I blast the music loud with my headphones and mine is pretty much my fm transmitter connected to my computer.
Some songs just sound better at high volume like Big Kenny’s old rock band.
PETE MARSHALL
January 12, 2016 @ 7:55 pm
I like to play my music loud sometimes and I am very sorry you have a hard time hearing since your birth.
F Minor to C
January 12, 2016 @ 11:05 am
As an FYI, in the UK, “anti-social” doesn’t mean introverted (ie anti-sociable) the way it does here, but rather destructive behavior, like vandalism, fighting, drunkenness (ie anti-societal).
Eric
January 12, 2016 @ 2:56 pm
“Anti-social” has nothing to do with introversion. The word for that is “unsocial”.
“Anti-social” behavior is about disregarding the lives of others.
Trainwreck92
January 12, 2016 @ 3:37 pm
I often hear anti-social used to describe, quiet, shy, not outwardly friendly individuals. That may not be what it’s supposed to mean, but I’ve heard far more people use that definition than yours.
Eric
January 12, 2016 @ 3:40 pm
Many people confuse the terms in everyday usage, but in criminal cases, the word “antisocial” is essentially synonymous with “sociopathic”.
j
January 12, 2016 @ 4:43 pm
unsocial is a synonym for antisocial which has 2 different defined meanings.
NPC
January 12, 2016 @ 11:42 am
You should have gone with a clickbait title: “SCOTLAND ARRESTS MAN FOR PLAYING COUNTRY MUSIC… THE REASON WILL SHOCK YOU!”
Pool
January 12, 2016 @ 12:06 pm
Jesus Christ. I mean, I get it, but that’s a stiff sentence for a violation like that. It seems like you could make punishment predominately financial and he would still get the point. They’re treating him more like he robbed them all.
“F*ck the law!”
– Bob Wayne
Pool
January 12, 2016 @ 12:21 pm
Jesus Christ. I mean, I get it, but that’s a stiff sentence for a violation like that. It seems like you could make punishment predominately financial and he would still get the point. They’re treating him more like he robbed them all.
“F*ck the law!”
– Bob Wayne
David Hamilton
January 12, 2016 @ 12:37 pm
I’m sorry for being picky, but as a Scot I must reiterate, Scotland is NOT part of England. England is a separate country. So saying “anti-social behavior order” in England…” is inaccurate.
JDub
January 12, 2016 @ 12:56 pm
Kind of off topic here, but my sister spent a few weeks studying abroad in Ireland this past summer. She came back saying that Johnny Cash’s music is HUGE over there, especially there in Ireland.
Convict Charlie
January 12, 2016 @ 1:15 pm
If you do a bit of research in many other parts of the world country music is huge. We just never cover it as Americans or look on the outside. Norway has a major festival. Japan has a festival on an active volcanoe in October called the country gold festival- it’s the largest outdoor concert in the world and mostly traditional. It’s run by Charlie nagatani. Australia is huge for country music and even a few have crossed over here. Ireland and Sweden also. England has been doing a yearly concert.
JDub
January 13, 2016 @ 6:49 am
Very interesting! I would’ve never guessed that Japan would have a country music festival. As for Australia, I’ve listened to Roo Arcus’s album that was reviewed here on the site. It’s great to see a passion for making traditional style country come out of Australia, compared to the garbage coming off the assembly line with Keith Urban’s name on it.
Convict Charlie
January 13, 2016 @ 8:00 am
A buddy of mine went to Japan to play traditional country music for a few weeks at different festivals. There’s a few videos of Charlie playing on YouTube and they sing in very good English compared to talking voice- check out “good time charlie” would be his signature hit.
This was from the opry
http://youtu.be/_tmfcogfL4c
Think it was 07 or 08 but he was the official opener for cma fest. Speaking of that they now have an international showcase for cma fest earlier in the week usually.
Out of Australia the big star is lee kernighan/
(Spelling it’s close) but few times Craig Campbell has been wearing a shirt of his in various press photos over the years.
Jen
January 12, 2016 @ 1:46 pm
Someone buy the poor guy some headphones!
Eric
January 12, 2016 @ 3:00 pm
This is a ridiculously harsh punishment for the given crime. It’s not like he directly attacked someone else’s life, liberty, or property. He should have been given an increased fine or, in the worst case, evicted from his house.
Here is a great example of over-incarceration. It’s not just an American problem.
Melissa
January 12, 2016 @ 4:15 pm
He got off lucky; the penalty for blasting Luke Bryan and Brantley Gilbert is 4 years.
Jordan K
January 12, 2016 @ 4:50 pm
They can take our lives, but they will never take our classic country music – William Wallace
CAH
January 12, 2016 @ 5:26 pm
I hate reading about things like this.
But I would hate, even worse, being the guy’s neighbor.
Glad our neighbors aren’t on top of us.
Glad they (and we) are all considerate.
I reember 50 years ago the nuns at my grade school playing Burl Ives over and over.
Robert S
January 12, 2016 @ 5:55 pm
Peas, peas,peas,peas,eating goober peas…
Jackie Treehorn
January 12, 2016 @ 8:38 pm
Peterhead, Scotland. The name of the town alone partially explains the problem here.
Dan
January 13, 2016 @ 4:40 am
What a moron.
Charlie
January 13, 2016 @ 7:04 am
I bet he was trying to make the Martians’ heads explode.
Bob
January 13, 2016 @ 2:29 pm
Is there any sort of fund available to donate to his legal council? I’m sure we could get people to donate and definitely starting with me.