Meghalaya all set to strum into record books

Shillong, Oct 25 (UNI) More than 2000 guitarists from across the North Eastern states will gather at Shillong tomorrow to set the new world for the 'largest guitar ensemble' ever in its history.

However, there is a visible threat to this, as Londoners too have decided to make similar attempt on November 2 under the aegis of Guitar Trade Fair.

The current Guinness world record - 1,683 guitarists - for the largest ensemble performance of Deep Purple's ''Smoke on the Water'' was set in June 3, 2007 at Kansas City in the US.

"We are aware of the London meet, but our attempt is to gather more than 2,000 guitarists from Meghalaya and other North Eastern States to strum the three chords of Bob Dylan's classic 'Knocking on Heaven's Door'," Meghalaya Information and Technology Minister Robert G Lyngdoh told UNI here today.

The mega-event will be held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium with foreign and domestic tourists would get a chance to observe the guitar ensemble in the land of abode of clouds.

Last autumn, Meghalaya had created a new world record for the largest drum ensemble. 7,951 drummers, irrespective of age and skill surpassed the record of Po Leung Kuk - a charity organisation in Hong Kong helping orphaned children - which assembled 7,727 drummers.

So far, guitarists from Nagaland, Manipur and other states have confirmed their participation for the largest guitar ensemble, Mr Lyngdoh informed.

The guitar ensemble is also to herald the month-long annual Autumn Festival, which is aimed at projecting Meghalaya and its other seven sister states to the world community, as a region which can boast of positive and constructive ideas.

The largest guitar ensemble will be followed by ''Festival of Rock: Shillong'', wherein voice of former international rock band 'Mr Big'' Eric Matrin would perform live for the first time in India on October 27.

Apart from music, the MTDF would also organise the 'Vintage car pageant'- a presentation of classic automobiles from Shillong and Guwahati to be part of the festival.

The star of the automobile pageant shall be the Model T Ford that was featured in the film 'Gandhi' apart from the American World War II jeeps.

UNI