August 26, 2002

9:10 PM

All you need is three chords and a guitar? Zac 'Mr. Magnet' Monro didn't even have an instrument when he won the 7th Annual Air Guitar World Championships (video) in Oulu, Finland. And it's two years in a row for him.
posted by mathowie (15 comments total)

The terrorists have won.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 9:27 PM on August 26, 2002

Good song. So-so performance.
posted by bloggboy at 9:39 PM on August 26, 2002

If THAT was the winner, I'm glad you didn't link to any of the losers. My cat played better air guitar.
posted by HTuttle at 9:44 PM on August 26, 2002

Uh-Huh...

If you're gonna play air guitar, you should at least try to simulate chord changes by switching fingers and moving your hand up and down the "neck" of the guitar, as it were.

Then there's the whole issue of whether on not to use an air pic or whammy bar...

I spend too much time contemplating this stuff, don't I?
posted by jonmc at 10:01 PM on August 26, 2002

Dude, did he play a Philson?
posted by chipr at 10:12 PM on August 26, 2002

Our bloke came second and it made the TV news. Twice.
posted by Foaf at 10:18 PM on August 26, 2002

[according] to the Air Guitar Philosophy all the bad things in the world will vanish, if everybody in the world played the air guitar.
posted by swift at 10:52 PM on August 26, 2002

Good stuff. If an air guitar falls at the high altitude training camp and no one is there to not hear it, would it still make no sound?
posted by onlyconnect at 12:32 AM on August 27, 2002

“Air Guitar is the last pure art form,” says Zac Monro. “There’s no sponsorship. No one does it for the money. It’s about going out there and expressing yourself.”

Jan Malvern from the London Times went to cover the event, had a lot of fun and came fourth.

"The Finnish competitor pulls down his trousers on stage in protest, realising only later that his mother was in the audience. This is rock’n’roll, man,” one of the Canadian competitors tells me. And for a moment, as we stand before the crowd with fireworks fizzing behind us, I think I know what he means."
posted by grahamwell at 4:23 AM on August 27, 2002

Aargh ... the squares, the squares.
posted by grahamwell at 4:24 AM on August 27, 2002

Then there's the whole issue of whether on not to use an air pic or whammy
bar...

Or a wah-wah pedal.
posted by debralee at 6:14 AM on August 27, 2002

Any good air guitarist knows a I-IV-V progression. He wasn't even close. Hell, maybe I'm jealous. I play a real guitar and don't get a third of the pub he gets.

*grumble*
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 6:23 AM on August 27, 2002

He won one of these. I'd thrash around like an idiot on stage for that.
posted by gottabefunky at 7:54 AM on August 27, 2002

That guy was really poor. His upper body was too much Keith Richards, his legs were too much Richard Simmons. Terrible. If you're playing air guitar, you've gotta feel it!
posted by bullitt 5 at 9:43 AM on August 27, 2002

re: Philsons- I've been looking for a product to sell on Ebay, I think I've found it. Free Shipping!
posted by pekar wood at 10:32 AM on August 27, 2002