The ongoing Save Tin Pan Alley campaign is opening a new front, calling for 17,000 guitarists to form the world’s biggest band to raise awareness of the street’s rapidly disappearing musical heart.
Also supported by Music Heritage UK, the objective is to get London Mayor, Sadiq Khan to make the street a protected music heritage zone. After continual redevelopment, connected to the Crossrail project, only eight guitars shop remain in the street, which was once the centre of London’s music business, playing host to shops, recording studios, songwriters and publishers.
The campaign is being lead by journalist and film maker, Henry Scott-Irvine, who explained: “We have been calling for developers and the city authorities to make a pledge to keep music in Denmark Street, but the call is falling on deaf ears. So now we need to mount this big event to make the point in the hope that our new Mayor will listen.
“We are calling on all of those guitarists and every other guitarist in the city, of all ages and abilities to come together to from the world’s biggest band and make a stand for Denmark Street.
Scott-Irvine was inspired by a recent tribute to David Bowie in Italy, which saw 1,000 musicians getting together to play the Bowie hit Rebel Rebel.
“It was a night of massed guitars and I thought ‘let’s do this for Denmark Street’.”
The current world record for the most guitarists performing together is held by the Polish town of Wroclaw, where 7,344 guitarists performed Hey Joe, by Jimi Hendrix.
“The plan is to get thousands of guitarists to play three classic hits which were recorded in Denmark Street – The Kinks’ You Really Got Me, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and Not Fade Away by
The Rolling Stones/Buddy Holly.
“We’re going to ask the guitarists of those bands, plus many other star players to take part and we want guitarists from all over London, the UK and from anywhere in the World to join them. We need to make a big noise about keeping the music in Denmark Street. It’s been the guitar centre of rock and roll and we can’t let it die.”
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