Guitarists Hope To 'Smoke' World Record Mass Performance Of DEEP PURPLE Song

May 31, 2007

James A. Fussell of The Kansas City Star reports: This Sunday (June 3) thousands of guitarists — including local rockers, hobbyists, parents, teens, senior citizens, people from other states, other countries and, yes, even kindergartners — will try to break the record for the world's largest ensemble performance of the same song.

The effort is a promotion of radio station KYYS (99.7 on the FM dial),which hopes to sign up 2,000 players for the assault on the recognized record of 1,322, which was set in 1994 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The attempt, which is free to the public, will be witnessed by several political officials, videotaped, then sent to Guinness for validation.

The effort is the brainchild of Tanna Guthrie, one of the station's morning hosts. The attempt at the record will take place from 10 a.m. to noon at Community America Ballpark in Wyandotte County.

"We have people coming in from London, Sarajevo, from California, Minnesota, Nebraska and Michigan," Guthrie said. "After we play we're going to turn it into a huge jam session — everybody play what you want. Wouldn't that be nuts?"

She got the idea in late February after reading a story about a planned attempt at Harrods department store in London that got called off.

"I thought, 'We could do that in Kansas City!'" she said.

If she can get enough guitarists, that is. Guthrie is aiming for 2,000 because she knows a certain number will not show up. She chose DEEP PURPLE's "Smoke on the Water" with its iconic chord progression because it's one of the first songs guitarists learn.

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).