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Charlie Simpson breaks record for coldest ever gig

By | Published on Monday 3 December 2012

Charlie Simpson

Charlie Simpson has achieved his aim of playing the coldest ever gig. As reported earlier this year, Simpson headed to Oymyakon, Siberia last month in order to carry out the Jägermeister-sponsored stunt, which saw him perform in temperatures of -30˚C.

It took the musician and a three-strong support team four days to reach Oymyakon, which is apparently the coldest permanently inhabited place on the planet. Once there, he played a fifteen minute set of songs from his debut solo album, ‘Young Pilgrim’. There’s perhaps a mild irony in the fact that almost the entire original stock of that album was destroyed in the Sony DADC fire just prior to its release in August 2011.

Simpson told CMU: “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!”

He continued: “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”.

Of the many potential problems facing the record attempt, one was perhaps less expected, explained Jägermeister Music Manager Tom Carson, saying: “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”.

Watch a clip of Charlie in action out in the cold here:



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