After a close to miss at Eurovision this yr, Perth might nonetheless change into the holders of a worldwide music crown as Billy Damage is heads to Europe in a bid to change into the air guitar world champion.
The Perth would-be rocker reckons his basic windmill and energy slide on his knees will likely be sufficient to get the judges headbanging on the Air Guitar World Championships in Finland.
Damage, actual identify William Denton, already has one title beneath his belt, qualifying to enter the championships after he gained a contest at Perth’s Fringe World — and now he’s up towards the world’s finest.
‘Its a bit daunting — we’re speaking the cream of the world in air guitar that I’m there going up towards, however I’m not going there to make up the numbers. I wish to take house the goodies, mate,” the 44-year-old, who’s Australia’s No.1 ranked air guitarist, mentioned.
“I won the competition at Perth Fringe in January which qualified me to go to the championships as the highest-ranked air guitarist in Australia. So the people in Finland got in contact and said ‘there’s a spot here if you want it’.”
As for what’s going to make him stand out from the opposite imaginary rockers, he mentioned: “The old classic windmills. Also, when there’s a pause in the song, throw the air guitar in the air to rev up the crowd then catch it into a power cord — that’s a good one. There’s a big power slide which is a big knee slide. It’s all about getting the crowd up and about.”
Damage could have music by the band Van Halen in his arsenal on the championships. Damage, who’s a plumber by day, mentioned: “He was the ultimate shredder old Eddie (Van Halen), RIP. Hot For Teacher is one of my favourites with the fret tapping. Cherry Pie is another classic from Warrant. Also, I love Hendrix — set your air guitar on fire, shred, lets go!”
Ironically the profitable prize is a Flying Finn guitar however Damge says he’s “15 years clean of playing any guitar”.
Win or lose, the go to will a minimum of look good on Damage’s Instagram feed.
“The championships are in a little town of about 200,000 people called Oulu,” he advised Perth Mates Podcast with Robbie Von.
“And it’s a crazy place with Arctic temperatures and reindeers. They’ve held it there since about 1996.
“It’s the heartland of air guitar and it originally started for their summer solstice when there’s, like, 22 hours of daylight. It’s so Scando its not even funny — saunas, drinking, air guitar and sunlight!”
Listen to the total interview on the Perth Mates Podcast with Robbie Von wherever you get your podcasts.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
