Sat 08 Sep 2007 02:41:00 AM EEST
Air guitars rumbled again in Oulu, Finland, when the 12th Air Guitar World Championships were celebrated in all bling-bling on Friday 7 September. Japan showed again its air strength by picking up the first place already second time in a row. Therefore Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke gets a chance to spread the gospel of air guitar, and becomes the second air guitarist who's ever won two AGWC Finals in a row, along with the 2001 and 2002 World Champion Zac Monro.In addition to the growing fame and prestige, the Japanese received a custom made Finnish guitar "Flying Finn". The second Guillaume "Moche Pitt" de Tonquédec and third Max "Herr Jaquelin" Heller got along Dainoji the Nokia 5700 XpressMusic mobile phones. The international air guitar audience got to vote its favourite during the night, and the air posse selected Herr Jaquelin, who was awarded with a signed Baby Brian May electric guitar.
The four finalists who had made their way from the Qualifying Round on Thursday were challenged with the winners from national championships of Japan, France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, the United States, the Netherlands, Norway, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Greece plus Dainoji, who defended his 2006 AGWC victory. After a round of optional songs, the ten best players performed a song chosen by the organisers, "I Don't Wanna Stop" by the heavy legend Ozzy Osbourne.
Results of the Air Guitar World Championships and the points:
1. Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke, Japan (34,6)
2. Guillaume "Moche Pitt" de Tonquédec, France (34,3)
3. Max "Herr Jaquelin" Heller, Austria (33,9) + The Winner of the Audience Vote
4. Christian "Heart Buckboard" Sweep, Germany (33,5)
5. Alessandro "Mystic Barrito" Veletta, Switzerland ( 33,0)
5. Tatsuya " Ichikawa the Rock" Ichikawa, Japan (33,0)
7. Ramon "The Shaking Devil" Compagnoni, Italy (32,4)
8. David "Moreno del Metal" Moreno, Spain (32,3)
8. Hassan "Mr. Hassan" Cordero Terriguez, Mexico (32,3)
10. John "Rootin Tootin Redneck Johno" Gerrand, New Zealand (31,8)
11. Stefan "Bugi" Meier, Switzerland (16,4)
11. Andrew "William Ocean" Litz, USA (16,4)
13. Tom "The T" Vorstius Kruijff, The Netherlands (16,2)
13. Renè Schmidt, Germany (16,2)
15. Kristian "Living Jukebox" Klevberg, Norway (16,0)
16. Wes "Tommy Air Manuel" Roe, Australia (15,9)
16. Gabi "The Hoxton Creeper" Matzeu, UK (15,9)
18. Tim "Glen Airy Glen Rocks" Evans, Canada (15,8)
18. Hilkka "Gore Kitty" Suvanto, Finland (15,8)
20. Petros "Muruth the Barberian" Stathatos, Greece (15,7)
Press photos of the finalists can be found at:
http://www.airguitarworldchampionships.com/EN/press/press-photos.html
The chair of the prestigious jury was for the 12th time now Juha Torvinen, a legendary Finnish guitarist himself. In addition to Torvinen, the jury included researcher and teacher of Music Science Juha T. Torvinen, 1997 Air Guitar World Champion Ville Paakkari, director Carsten Fiebeler and Rainer Toniatti, the organiser of the Italian national air guitar championships.
As usual, the contestants welcomed everyone to join in as they played their air guitars along with the song Rocking in the Free World. According to the air guitar ideology, all the bad things would disappear from the world if everyone played the air guitar.
Other treats during the night included emo/punk band Disco Ensemble and rapper Signmark. As the official AGWC Host acted radio station YleX host Jani Kortti. The air guitar event gathered approximately an audience of 1100 people.
Festival Producer Hanna Jakku, tel. +358 44 568 1429
Press Coordinator Mikko Lankinen, tel. +358 50 5452 508
