[Slowhand] (no subject)

[Dale.Kalina at rrd.com]

See the attached article.

I think we can do better than this.  Just imagine - 50,000 Clapton fans at
the Crossroads Guitar Festival at Toyota Park on a gorgeous Saturday
afternoon in July, guitars in hand, all playing as with one voice (or hand,
I guess), the beautiful strains of Wonderful Tonight...

Now if we can only get our instruments past the bloody park security!

Dale



1,680 guitarists join in world record attempt

Musicians mass in Kansas City to play Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’

Associated Press
Updated: 8:09 p.m. CT June 4, 2007

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - More than 1,680 guitar players turned out, tuned up and
took part in what organizers say was a world record rendition of a song
that was the first many of them ever learned.

The pickers, ranging from kindergartners to folks who were playing music
long before a Cleveland disc jockey coined term "rock and roll" in 1951,
played Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" a little after noon Sunday at
CommunityAmerica Ballpark.

Some came from as far away as California and Germany to take part in a
Kansas City radio station's effort to break a Guinness world record for the
most people playing the same song simultaneously. The record had been 1,323
people playing a song in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1994.

"It was cool to see little kids playing, people who had been playing for
their whole lives, like older people, and then I'm sure there were people
like me who just picked up the song a couple days before," said Autumn
McPherson of Winfield, a senior at the University of Kansas.

Preliminary numbers show 1,683 people played the popular early '70s guitar
riff on Sunday.

"I thought it was going to be kind of cheesy," said Hannah Koch of Prairie
Village, who came clad in an elf costume. "But after I got here, I got
caught up in the excitement of it."

Tanna Guthrie, a morning show host for KYYS (99.7 FM), came up with the
idea for the record attempt. She said her station will send participant
sign-up lists, photos, videos and copies of media coverage to Guinness
seeking official recognition of a record.

Guthrie said she chose "Smoke on the Water," a track off Deep Purple's
"Machine Head" album, because it's one of the first songs many guitarists
learn.

"You never know if you can pull something like this off," she said.

Autographs from fellow guitarists

One of the participants, John Cardona of Hanford, Calif., said he brought
felt-tip pens so he could get others to sign his guitar.

"It was the guitar I learned on," the 41-year-old said. "It was very
dispensable on the way here, but very valuable to me now."

Tony Garcia, 40, of Lee's Summit said he wanted to help break a world
record to show his appreciation for the radio station.

"They were my baby sitter when I was growing up," he said. "It was through
their station that I became the music fanatic I am today."

For Hunter Sprong, 11, of Kansas City, Kan., his participation in the event
gives him something to tell his friends.

"I just went and broke a world's record," he said.
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