Brian's Basement

While I have the utmost respect for Brian as a humanitarian, animal protector, musician and scholar, I am not in the least interested in hearing him complain about how noisy his neighborhood is. Those of us just managing to get through life living in areas that are always noisy ( airports, freeways, crime etc) just don't relate to having to put up with noise in his million dollar mansion in Kensington. At least he has several more houses to go live in should he choose.
I don't know why he thinks readers to his website would care about this. Am I missing something? Whats next? Airlines taking an inch away from passenger seating in first class? Down to my last $90 million?
Perhaps I am being too harsh. He does a lot of good work and everyone needs to vent a little. I just get a little irked when, celebrities particularly, complain about how difficult their life can be when they have the one thing thing their money brings them. Options.

Well, I do think it's an interesting depate, I understand his point given he works largely at night and sleeps a lot during the day.
The property market in London is now at the point where a first time buyer needs to be earning £100k to manage to buy, which is crazy, and just making massive houses bigger is not helping much as it does mean everywhere in London is being dug up
Where I grew up they have totally ruined the area by people selling gardens and large buildings going up instead,

I think people do have a right to improve there property, but I also think you have to respect the others in your area and two years of constant drilling next door would make most of us go mad
I think what i object to is not so much the fact they do it, more the fact that planning officers let totally inapproporiate work go on.
I think more consideration for neighbours, would go a long way to make this better, but I do take your point, if you live under runway two at heathrow it must be a pain, but I guess it was there before you were so in so ways I guess it's something you have to factor in when moving there

Care to divulge what the bollocks you are talking about?

[QUOTE] [b]mooghead wrote:[/b]

Care to divulge what the bollocks you are talking about?[/QUOTE]

It's written there pretty clearly. It's a complaint about Brian May 's complaints. Basically saying: shut up Brian, your "troubles" aren't all that bad.


I have no part in it. Just trying to sum it up concisely for you

100k a year my arse. Move just outside London. 200k for a 2 bed House. Easily affordable on a 30k salary.

[QUOTE] [b]stevelondon20 wrote:[/b]

100k a year my arse. Move just outside London. 200k for a 2 bed House. Easily affordable on a 30k salary.[/QUOTE]

Not easily affordable at all!!
1k a month mortgage repayment is hardly affordable, but anyway.......

Depends where you are, in the North East of England (outside of the big towns/cities) a 2 bed house, lets presume you mean a semi detached, will cost 130 grand. But in a non big town/city you will not get a 30k job... it is too big a subject to generalise. But yes, Brian May has lived a fairytale life we can only dream of but though he has never struggled financially he cannot relate to the same things as me, his points of reference are way off. He has as much right to be upset at what he sees as injustice as anyone.

Mooghead. If you look hard enough and have the qualifications needed, then a 30k job is possible in many areas outside of London. It anyone has a negative attitude, then they won't end up anywhere.

Brian lives in an area where work is constantly being done. If he doesn't like it, then he should consider moving.

Brian has turned into a bit of a whinger.... unless he has always been one. He should cheer up.

He did move, the building has been going on for 7 years in houses around him, he currently has 5-6 construction projects going on all around his house, constant piling and digging all day.
btw the Halifax (I think) confirmed the £100k min salary on breakfast TV the other day.

A 30k job is indeed possible outside of London. It might not be the first job you get on leaving university, but in 5 years or so, if you have the necessary qualifications (university degree, or a technical or trade qualification, which are probably better than a degree anyway) and have gained 5 or so years' experience, a 30k job is what would you'd expect.

But it is true that around 100k is needed to live in London and be able to afford a mortgage on a two bedroom semi in a good area. If it's a semi off the tube line, you can get it on less than 100k. If you have kids and want to send them to a private school, you'd need even more, even if it's just one kid. So if you're planning on having a full life in central London with a house in a nice neighbourhood, a wife and a child enrolled in a posh school, unless you find a very rich wife, you'd need 100k.

Rent-wise, you're not going to get a studio flat in a good area of central London for less than £1100-1200 a month. I live in Oxford, probably the second most expensive after London, and you can't get a one-bed flat in a good area close to town for less than £750-800.

Outside of London things are a lot more reasonable. But it's very, very difficult to get a mortgage to buy a reasonably nice smallish house in the UK if you don't have a partner, especially in the South East. A combined average salary can be around 55k, which would allow you to purchase a decent place. But even if you earn 30k, if you're single, you're going to be hard pressed to get the bank to loan you enough money for a decent house, unless you have enough saved to put down a big deposit and take out a smaller mortgage.

Things get better the further north you go. The less desirable a city/suburb/town is to live in, the more affordable it is. You can rent a terraced house in Stockport for £450-500.

Do feel slightly sorry for Bri but if you want peace and quiet I'm not sure the middle of London is your best option. A huge house in Surrey seems a better bet...oh he has one!

Rich peoples problems. Brian could by a caravan and live in the field with badgers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3585096/Brian-claims-forced-home-selfish-neighbours-turned-exclusive-London-street-hellhole-basement-extensions.html

Didn't Brian own at least one place in Surrey and one in Wales? I suppose those could be used to chill out. Anyway ... sure, rich people problems, but still, good luck to him with that. If that's annoying him he's entitled to complain.

Yeah, good luck to him, he's earned it.

Though if I had the millions he had, I don't think I'd be relaxing in the UK, with this bloody weather. Southern France more like it. Or a nice place somewhere in Italy, close to the sea. Easy to jet to and from the UK for work.