Scores walk out of Carr's gig

Sound problems at Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall on Saturday meant fans to the side of the venue struggled to hear his routine.

Fan Richard Brown told the city’s Evening Post: ‘A couple of hundred people left about halfway through. There were major problems with the sound from the start for people sitting around the sides.’

Those who left early were given refunds from the box office.

Another fan, called Gaz, said: ‘We could hear Jimmy, until there was any kind of audience reaction. Jimmy is really quickfire and quickly spoken so we were missing middle bits, punchlines etc. The sound guy did turn it up a little which was better, but Jimmy complained he was getting feedback.’

‘Andy W’, who was at the end of a row in the stalls added: ‘The sound was fairly awful, as it hadn't been speakered up properly, and we could only hear via the main speakers at the front. I was directly under a secondary speaker in the ceiling, but it simply wasn't turned on.

‘It wasn't so bad you couldn't hear at all, but the slightest crowd noise covered his punchlines. Jimmy was excellent, and apologetic about the issue.’

‘Steven G’ said the problem was sorted out in the second half.

‘Carr did very well calming the situation when disgruntled fans turned on him when the sound was dodgy, which led to scores of people leaving early,’ he said.

‘I was one off the unfortunate people who couldn't hear, yet we decided to stick with it. The second half was possibly the funniest hour of my life so far, the sound was sorted and he had us all in the palm of his hand.’

Carr said today: 'There were some problems with the speakers on the middle tier on Saturday night. 2,300 people could hear and had a good time - 100 couldn't. We refunded those - although some would say they were the lucky ones.'

The Royal Concert Hall has not responded to a request for comment.

Published: 12 May 2008