Anti-cancer group holds concert on Everest slopes

KATHMANDU, Oct 29 (Reuters) A US based anti-cancer group said international musicians had staged the world's highest rock concert on the icy slopes of Mount Everest to raise awareness about the disease.

The concert was held on October 21 at an altitude of 18,500 feet (5,638 metres) by musicians who also included a cancer survivor, said Shannon Foley, a director of the Love Hope Strength Foundation, the Denver charity that organised the gig.

''We have registered with the Guinness Book of World Records to become the highest concert on earth,'' Foley said yesterday late evening, adding that the feat was the first of its kind.

''Yes, they have confirmed that if we go above 18,200 feet (5,547 metres) we become the highest concert on land, on earth,'' she told Reuters in Kathmandu after returning from the mountain, whose peak touches 29,035 feet (8,850 metres).

Guinness World Records officials could not be contacted immediately for their comments.

Foley said the event was ''a very big step for cancer awareness'' and participants included musicians from bands like The Alarm, Stray Cats, the Fixx and the Squeeze.

The charity said the money raised from sponsors of the concert would be donated to a Nepali cancer hospital near Kathmandu.

REUTERS SYU HS1121