Leighton Buzzard ‘Independents’ unite to help artist achieve a new World Record

The early hours of a Sunday are usually quiet in Leighton Buzzard, but at 1am on Sunday the 5th May a large crowd had gathered outside The Crooked Crow Bar eager to witness international artist Frank Turner perform his ninth show of the 15 scheduled within the 24 hour period. The World Record attempt was in conjunction with The Music Venues Trust, a body that helps support grassroots music venues like The Crooked Crow Bar across the UK. Tickets had to be sold through independent record stores like Black Circle Records.

At around 2am Frank Turner’s roadie arrived on stage and plugged in the mic and around a minute later Frank arrived on stage welcomed by a huge cheer from the excited sell-out audience of 100 people who had been getting into things singing along to a DJ set by Anj n Ben from Leighton Buzz Radio. En route to venues Frank had been giving out video updates and famously said’ I’m on route to Leighton Buzzard now, a place I’ve never heard of before – does it even exist?’. With the great welcome he received on entering The Crooked Crow Bar he certainly knows it exists now and hopefully it will be a great memory of his feat!

With each show requiring a minimum 15 minutes performance to qualify, the full 30 minute set performed not only delighted the audience, but also well and truly met the specification for the World Record. Having performed a few older songs, he did several of his new album ‘Undefeated’ which had been released on 3rd May. David Kosky from Black Circle Records was doing a great trade with the album at his stall set up at the gig and a few lucky people even received a signed ‘World Record Attempt’ commemorative with their album.

Maxine Bambrook, co-owner of The Crooked Crow Bar said ‘It’s amazing to have Frank play here - I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn’t all a dream’

Frank Turner is now set to go on tour in support of his new album ‘Undefeated’. His tour kicks off on May 23 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at XL Live.

CEO and Founder of the Music Venue Trust, Mark Davyd, said in a statement that they will be submitting details of all the shows to Guinness World Records along with the evidence required to verify each one. He believes they will recognise that Frank as the new World Record holder.

The Crooked Crow Bar has a great lineup of events with a quiz on Wednesday 8th (8pm), the band ‘Indie Scene’ playing on Friday 10th (8.30pm) and band ‘Black Rose Society’ on Saturday 11th at 9pm. Full details are on the website https://www.crookedcrowbar.com/