Band for Miners Collects an Apt World Record

Shaft Bottom Boys perform 'deepest concert' ever
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 13, 2020 10:05 AM CDT

The appropriately named Shaft Bottom Boys have nabbed the world record for "deepest concert," performing for 50 miners at the bottom of one of the deepest mines in the world. A Guinness World Records adjudicator was on hand Saturday as the Canadian "novelty band" known for celebrating the mining history of their hometown of Sudbury, Ontario, spent 50 minutes blasting out tunes from Neil Young, Johnny Cash, and Bruce Springsteen at the bottom of Vale's Creighton nickel mine, some 6,213 feet below sea level, per CTV News. In the end, they nabbed the record from Finnish band Agonizer, which performed at a depth of 4,169 feet, 11 inches, in 2007, per HuffPost.

Agonizer had actually stolen the record from another Sudbury group, the Evolutionary Band, which had performed at 3,000 feet a few months earlier, making this a homecoming of sorts. "It was quite emotional when we went off the cage," vocalist Steve Atkins told HuffPost. Bassist John Shelegey, decked out in mining gear, said the experience was "extremely surreal," per CTV. "We love to showcase the stories of these incredible individuals," official adjudicator Kaitlin Vesper tells CTV. "It shows their creativity and imagination." The event raised money for Miners for Cancer and Sudbury's interactive science museum Science North, which just opened an exhibit dedicated to Guinness World Records. (More Guinness World Records stories.)

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