Sydney dream pop duo Fathom recently attempted a Guinness World Records title by performing nine shows in just 12 hours across New South Wales and Canberra. For this, vocalist Cate Guirguis and keyboardist Jaxon Italiano travelled from Singleton to Newcastle, Gosford, Sydney, Penrith, Lithgow, Bathurst and Goulburn before reaching Canberra for their final performance.
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The challenge required the duo to perform at least nine shows, with each show lasting at least 15 minutes, ABC news reported. The venues also had to be at least 50 kilometres apart and located in areas with populations of more than 15,000. At least half of those areas had to have populations of 100,000 or more.
Fathom used a tour bus for most of the journey, but the route also involved a helicopter, a car and a plane. They nearly failed at their goal several times because of delays during the journey. However, the duo managed to reach their final venue in Canberra and completed their 15-minute set with only 15 seconds left on the clock. "It was right down to the wire," Italiano recalled, as quoted by ABC news.
Traffic and a missing helicopter
The first major delay came in Sydney. Italiano said he had expected traffic between Sydney and Penrith to be one of the biggest challenges of the day. An accident on the M4 caused delays, making the journey slower than expected.
The bigger problem came after the Penrith show. Fathom had arranged a helicopter flight over the Blue Mountains to get to Lithgow. The flight was planned to help them avoid the closure of Victoria Pass. But when Guirguis and Italiano arrived at the helicopter base, their scheduled helicopter was not there.
"We needed to board the helicopter by 5.10 pm because they wouldn't fly after sunset. But then we got there early and there was no helicopter there," Guirguis said.
They received a call from the company's head office informing them that the helicopter was being used to help extinguish bushfires in the Blue Mountains.
"Then we got a call back from the lady at head office, and she was saying that they were out extinguishing bushfires in the Blue Mountains, which is a fair enough excuse," Italiano said.
The delay lasted about 30 minutes and Fathom eventually took the helicopter to Lithgow and continued with the next part of the challenge.
Plane problem added to delay
The journey became difficult again when the duo travelled from Bathurst to Goulburn. They had arranged a chartered plane for this part of the trip, but even getting to the flight became a problem. "Firstly we went to the wrong terminal," Guirguis said.
Once they were ready to leave, another problem appeared. Italiano said the plane's right propeller stopped working as they were taking off.
"As soon as we were taking off, the right propeller stopped working," he said. The pilot then upgraded the pair to a jet. Our pilot upgraded us to a jet which was fantastic and a lot safer," Italiano said.
