Yesterday, we reported how Jack White slammed Guinness World Records as an “elitist organisation” over their decision to snub his submitted record for ‘World’s Shortest Concert.’
In the same Interview article that he told Buzz Aldrin he wanted to play the first vinyl record in space, White discussed how back in his White Stripes days, he and Meg attempted to set the record for ‘World’s Shortest Concert’ at a show in Newfoundland, Canada in 2007 where they played a single note.
When they contacted Guinness to confirm their achievement however, “they turned us down” confirmed White. Today, Guinness World Records representatives told the UK”s NME that in fact, they didn’t.
“The White Stripes were in fact recognized in the 2009 edition of the Guinness World Records book for the shortest music concert ever when, on July 16 2007, they played just one note at St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada” reports the official records body.
But following a torrent of submissions attempting to trump the record became ‘overly trivialised,’ they subsequently withdraw all categories, including similar attempts at shortest concert, shortest song and shortest performance.
“We received a large volume of applications from bands and performers seeking to beat this record,” said a spokesperson for Guinness, “we got an influx of individuals claiming that simply appearing on stage was enough to qualify them for this record.”
They rebuffed White’s comments of ‘elitism,’ instead stating it had more to do with how Guinness were to qualify what constituted a performance or concert.
“It became increasingly difficult for us to measure this objectively” they added. “The nature of competing to make something the ‘shortest’ by its very nature trivializes the activity being carried out, and Guinness World Records has been forced to reject many claims of this kind.”
“As such, we have closed record categories for similar designations such as the shortest song, shortest poem, and also the record of shortest concert currently in question.”
In a potential peace offering to White, the organisation were quick to add an official statement of praise to the Blunderbuss rockstar, “many of us at Guinness World Records are enormous admirers of Mr White’s oeuvre; and we would be extremely pleased if he were to attempt any of the 40,000 records that are currently active on our database. ”
Perhaps White should take them up on their offer with his secret Third Man project “to have the first vinyl record played in outer space,” and knowing Mr. White’s penchant for the uniquely bizarre, we’re pretty sure he will.
