About awesome people

Have you ever thought of doing something meaningful, something that would make a difference? I think all of us often think about it, but to actually do it, it's a different story.

Steve Gaul (shown above) set the world record for marathon drumming just a few days ago, in my hometown! The record was 120 hours, and he beat it by 1 hour. It was so cool to be able to watch him drumming whenever I wanted to, and it was only a 10 minute drive from my house! I could also watch him via an online stream, so that made it really easy to know if he was still drumming.

I went down to the music centre on the first day of his marathon. My producer’s band, Freedom Train, was one of many guests Steve had throughout the drumathon. He had been playing for 9 hours when we went there, and he wasn’t tired at all. I would have already been tired after drumming for that long. But Steve was remarkable and to think he did it for 121 hours is amazing!

Day 1

Guinness’ rules for marathon drumming records are:
Only 1 drummer can attempt the record
It must be played to recognizable songs
Each song must be more than two minutes long
There can be no more than 30 seconds between songs
The songs must be played to a recognizable standard
You get 5 minutes break for every hour completed, and can bank unused.

Day 3

Steve Gaul tried to break the record last year, and only got to 78 hours. He was doing it to help his sister who was battling cancer. Toni had Para-nasal Cancer, and lost her hip, eye and shoulder. She passed away last December. Steve had previously battled and overcame Testicular Cancer himself, so he wanted to break the world record for the cancer society.

So this year, Steve broke the record in honour of Toni. He was constantly surrounded by friends, family and complete strangers who were cheering him on. In the evenings, he was accompanied by local bands.

On Wednesday morning, I woke up and went straight to the online stream to watch him drum to his last song, ‘We Are the Champions’ by Queen. After he finished, he was raided by media crews trying to interview him before he went to bed. His crew had a bed in the music centre for him so he could fall asleep immediately after he finished. Imagine how tired you would be after drumming for 121 hours!

His goal is to raise $100,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society, and you can still donate at beatstobeatcancer.com