Residents who threatened to call in the police to halt a concert dedicated to the memory of Dartmouth ferryman Rob 'Bruno' Wotton have been condemned for 'appalling selfish behaviour'.

Former Royal Navy gunner Rob died suddenly of pneumonia in hospital on June 13 last year, aged just 51.

His widow Stephanie had arranged a memorial concert for him which went ahead at the George and Dragon in Dartmouth on Saturday – a year almost to the day of his shock death.

But 15 minutes after the early evening concert started in the garden of the pub, the landlady began getting complaints about the noise from nearby residents, said band member Gavin Coombes.

The band continually turned the sound down until eventually they abandoned using their professional public performance amplification system to try to satisfy the angry callers.

The concert was scheduled to finish at 9pm specifically to avoid problems over noise and the band was forced to abandon any encores.

Both Stephanie and 16-year-old daughter Katie, along with family and friends, were at the concert which had to be continually interrupted to sort out noise levels following the complaints.

Stephanie, who lives in Raleigh Road, Dartmouth, said she had been 'upset' by the complaints.

And Gavin, who is lead singer with the local group called Tinnitus, said of the people who made the complaints: 'The music was electric and amplified, the audience was well behaved, so why oh why must we tolerate their appalling selfish behaviour?'

And he added: 'What is wrong with these people? It was Saturday night, it's a holiday town and the chances are they spend just enough time in the town to irritate the people who live and work here.'

Mr Wotton was born and bred in Dartmouth and, after leaving the navy, he worked on fishing boats, then for the harbour authority and then on the Lower Ferry.

He was well known in the town and his sudden death in hospital after he was rushed in with breathing problems last year came as a shock.

After his death, his ashes were taken out to sea and scattered over the Skerries.

Stephanie had booked the band to play as a memorial tribute to Rob on the anniversary of his death.

'The complaints upset me because I thought they were going to ruin the whole thing,' she said.

'The people at the pub said there weren't given a chance to explain what was going on and why the music was being played. If they had they might not have known Rob but they would have understood it was a memorial concert.'

Gavin said the complaints started coming into the pub just 15 minutes after the concert started.

'We were not loud. We deliberately kept it down. We got it as low as we could because obviously it was an emotional event for many people and these people were threatening to bring in the police and stop it.'

He pointed out that the local band consists of two vocalists, a bass and lead guitar and drums.

'It's not like Led Zeppelin. We have not go that much gear,' he said.

No one at the George and Dragon wanted to comment `about the incident but did confirm there had been complaints about the noise from the band on Saturday night.