DEEP PURPLE's STEVE MORSE Helps Set New World Record For Largest Guitar Ensemble

May 6, 2009

On Friday, May 1, 2009, 6,346 guitar players joined together at the "Thanks Jimi Festival" in Poland to play the JIMI HENDRIX hit "Hey Joe", more than tripling the standing record for "Largest Guitar Ensemble" of 2,052 set last year in Concord, California. The event took place in the historic center of Wroclaw, Poland (formerly Breslau) — a city which has taken on the title of "Wroclaw Guitar City" — a title that seems merited. In fact the mayor, Rafa Dutkiewicz, was among those playing, as was DEEP PURPLE guitarist Steve Morse and festival founder and director, Leszek Cichoñski. Cichoñski is a well-known musician and music educator in Poland and the festival was an outgrowth of one of his educational programs and has taken place — and grown — annually since 2003.

Online and in coordinated events in Sweden, the U.S., Canada and Australia (though those do not count toward the record). One of the objectives of the organizers was to establish May 1 as "World Guitar Day" and more coordinated simultaneous events are planed for next year and beyond.

On May 10, Germany will make an attempt at breaking the record in the city of Mainz.

Commented Steve Morse: "I played onstage at a town square, for the Guiness Book Of World Records. The most guitar players playing 'Smoke On the Water'. For sure, if they don't get the world's record, something is seriously wrong, because there were 6,000 people in front of us, with guitars, playing it! At the end of the song, they all held up their guitars, mostly acoustic, and it looked like we were in a forest. Nothing but guitars for as far as you could see. We also played 'Hey Joe', which Stan sang, and everybody played along with that one. Last year, they had 1,800 plus people playing along with that song. In the middle of the song today, they brought the volume way down, and you could only hear the background singers and the thousands of acoustics playing C, G, D, A, E... After that, I don't know how the gig could be any more intense. But, it was. The crowd was totally into everything, and when they sang along on 'Smoke', it was the loudest ever. A lot of them were at the town square earlier, and they knew it for sure! Fantastic crowd."

(Thanks: Ultimate-Guitar.com)

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).