Who's Loudest

[Rich Bogovich <bogie@itis.com>]

Two or three days ago somebody (sorry, I don't recall who) mentioned that
the last time The Who were listed as "Loudest Pop Group" in the Guinness
Book Of World Records was 1982, and that the category was dropped the
following year.  However, my 1987 edition says:

"The amplification for The Who concert at Charlton Atletic Football Ground,
London, England ["England" added for the benifit of Tommy Smothers], May 31,
1976, provided by a Tasco PA system, had a total power of 76,000 watts from
eighty 800 W Crown DC 300 A amplifiers and twenty 600 W Phase Linear 200's
[sounds like a Star Trek gizmo].  The readings at 50 m (164 ft) from the
front of the sound system were 120 decibels."

"Sound engineer Rob Cowlyn with Duran Duran claimed that the audience's
level of anticipatory screaming in Australia in Nov 1983 exceeded 120 dB
BEFORE [the book's emphasis, not mine] the group came on stage."  [Yeah,
I'll bet; and when the band actually appeared on stage, monkeys flew out of
their butts.]

"The claim by the US group Manowar, a heavy metal rock band, to have reached
a reading of 160 dB in Oct 1984 is unsupportable."

"Exposure to high noise levels is known to cause PSH--Permanent Shift of
Hearing or partial to total instant deafness."


So there you have it.  Perhaps the Guinness people dropped the category
temporarily due the competing (though suspect) claims listed above.  I
checked a much more recent Guinness edition but as far as I could determine
the category was missing from that one as well.  Perhaps they've ultimately
decided to do away with the category because of the danger to audience
members in trying to break it--witness their Surgeon Generalesque warning above.

Rich