DRUMMING FOR HIS DAUGHTER
Dad literally beats record in 134-hour solo ‘Drumathon’ to raise money for Cardiac Kids,
Gentle piano chords swooned and drifted through the standup speakers surrounding Steve Gaul’s elaborate drum kit, eliciting a sigh from the dead-tired 45-yearold. The song was “My Way,” but not the Frank Sinatra version.
“Nothing like a nice, slow ballad to keep you awake in the morning,” he quipped, his drooping eyes and half smile suggesting drunkenness, but really it was exhaustion.
Somehow he kept time: eighth notes on the hi-hat, offbeats cracked against the edge of the snare. And when the final chorus rose — “For what is a man, what has he got!?!” — Gaul switched from the hi-hat to the ride, raising the energy with a burst of enthusiasm.
“The record shows, I took the blows, and did it myyyyyy wayyyyyyy!”
It was the start of his 122nd hour on the drums.
Gaul made the final push on Wednesday to reclaim the Guinness World Record for the longest-ever drum solo, a feat he accomplished in 2011, only to be eclipsed soon thereafter. But this, his third “Drumathon” that began on Friday at the Burlington Music Centre, wasn’t just about securing a spot in the books of posterity.
Gaul was drumming for his daughter, 2-year-old Jersey. Jersey was born with a congenital heart defect, with resulting complications defining much of her young life, including the installation of a pacemaker and open-heart surgery that triggered a stroke.
So not only was Steve Gaul aiming for 134 hours on the kit — a mark he hit at10 p.m. Wednesday, and then ended with a performance of Rush’s “Closer to the Heart” to a standing ovation from his supporters. He was also drumming to raise money for the Cardiac Kids charity.
By Wednesday morning, people had donated more than $25,000, which will go to help youngsters like Jersey at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.
“I’m crashing, but I’m kind of euphoric at the same time,” Gaul told the Star on the morning of his sixth and final day behind at the drums. “I just want to stop.” There was a small audience of supporters in the room, who sporadically clapped and cheered as Gaul played along to tracks such as “3 a.m.” by Matchbox 20 and AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.”
A “command centre” was set up at the back of the room, where Gaul’s friends took shifts at a computer to select music and communicate with him through a hand-held microphone. A camera was recording the entire proceedings and the team planned to send the tape to Guinness World Records to authenticate the feat.
To set the record, Gaul — an avid drummer since he was a kid, who has a tattoo of Animal from the Muppets on his right shoulder — was allowed 30 seconds between songs if he needed to scoff a quick bite of food or use the washroom.
A portable toilet was set up at the back of the room behind a curtain and his support team kept plying him with water and nutritional supplements.
He was also given five minutes rest per hour, which could be “banked” to accumulate some time to sleep. Gaul said he drummed without stopping for the first 44 hours and has slept 90 minutes or so per day since then. A chiropractor has also visited him three times because he was beset with back spasms.
“It seemed like it was easier on him this time around,” said Casey Stinchcombe, Gaul’s wife, as Jersey scrambled around on the floor in a plaid dress.
“But I talk to him, and he said it’s harder,” she laughed. “Just watching what he goes through and how motivated he is, and how stubborn he is, it’s a great representation of what the families (of kids with heart defects) go through,” she said.
And what did Gaul plan to do when he finally put down the sticks after 134 hours?
“I’m going to go hug my wife and my kids. I’ll be pretty emotional, I think,” he said, before pausing.
“Heck of a bender, maybe. One beer, then you’re done.”