Can any Argus reader tell me where I can find, in central Brighton, a pub where people can have a nice, quiet drink and conversation without having their ears bombarded by incessant, unnaturally loud, thumping music?

A bit of quiet background music, of whatever style, is okay but why does it always have to be so loud? And why do speakers have to be placed all around the pub so one cannot get away from it? You cannot hear yourself think, let alone hear what your companions are saying.

So many pubs have their atmosphere destroyed by this moronic din. What should be a pleasant time in the company of friends is turned into a miserable experience.

What are pub landlords - formerly intelligent, sociable individuals - up to these days and why are so many Brighton pubs being ruined?

The one exception is the William IV in Church Street, surely the most pleasant in Brighton; but, alas, it is too far off the beaten track from where the group to which I belong meets.

-John Tatum, Prince Regent's Close, Brighton