Charlie Simpson’s sung himself into the Guinness Book of Records by playing the world’s coldest gig.
Playing in Oymyakon in Siberia, the British rocker faced down temperatures of -30ËC to perform at the Jägermeister Ice Cold Gig to get himself into the famous book.
Oymyakon is the coldest permanently inhabited place of Earth, and the locals turned out to see the former Busted and play the acoustic solo set of tracks off his new album ‘Young Pilgrim’.
Charlie managed a fifteen minute session out in the cold, more than most visitors can manage, after taking four days to travel there across the frozen landscape.
Charlie said, “This has been a trip of a lifetime and a gig unlike anything I thought I’d ever experience in my career. The town has no TV or radio, so they’ve had little to no contact with rock music before. This was definitely a world first in many respects!
“It was unbearably cold and playing guitar with gloves on wasn’t an option. We had to pack hand warmers into my sleeves before the performance to keep my blood warm and stop my fingers from getting frostbite. It was hard for the whole team but the experience has definitely brought us all closer together and we’re all firm friends now.
“The trip was tough, but it feels amazing to have set a world record and we’ll be celebrating with a few ice cold shots of Jägermeister now we’re home.”
Levison Wood, expedition leader and director of expeditionary company, Secret Compass, said, “There are all manner of things that can go wrong when travelling in conditions as freezing and remote as this, so hats off to Charlie for completing the record. We tried to prepare the team as much as possible with a few training sessions inside a giant freezer in the UK, but you can never recreate the real danger we faced whilst out in Siberia.”
Tom Carson, Jägermeister music manager, added, “One of our biggest concerns was Charlie’s guitar, as they are not designed to be exposed to those temperatures. We were warned that it might just disintegrate because the glue won’t be able to withstand the cold. That’s certainly not a factor we’ve ever had to consider with our other gigs.
We’ve got the video for you right here of Charlie’s record breaking concert.
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