IT'S only right that some of the beneficiaries of this year's two summer mega-concerts in Dalby Forest should be the local wildlife.

Genius he may be, but Jools Holland can turn the amplifiers up a little loud when it suits him. And as for Status Quo... the legends of rock were notorious for their ability to blast the eardrums as well as stimulate the musical senses.

It's all well and good for those of us who pays our money and takes our choice. But the forest wildlife will be an essentially captive audience for the explosion of frenetic sound that will be unleashed upon them.

Perhaps some of the money should go towards appropriately animal-sized hearing aids, just in case.

Updated: 11:15 Friday, April 25, 2003