{"id":891479,"date":"2026-09-14T08:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T08:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/891479\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T08:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T08:24:16","slug":"sydney-band-fathom-attempts-world-record-for-most-gigs-in-12-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/891479\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney band Fathom attempts world record for most gigs in 12 hours"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Sydney band has pulled off a herculean effort to play nine shows in 12 hours across NSW and into Canberra in an attempt to break a Guinness World Record.<\/p>\n

Dream pop duo Fathom had to play at least nine 15-minute shows at venues at least 50 kilometres apart, in areas with populations of more than 15,000, with half of those areas having populations of at least 100,000.<\/p>\n

Vocalist Cate Guirguis and keyboardist Jaxon Italiano travelled on Saturday from Singleton to Newcastle, Gosford, Sydney, Penrith, Lithgow, Bathurst and Goulburn before playing a final set in Canberra.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Jaxon Italiano wore a camera on his chest during the record attempt for evidence. (Supplied: Nicole Tabuena)<\/p>\n

A tour bus took them between all the venues, except for a helicopter flight over the Blue Mountains between Penrith and Lithgow, a car ride between Lithgow and Bathurst, and a plane flight between Bathurst and Goulburn.<\/p>\n

The attempt was almost derailed three times, but they were able to finish their last show in Canberra with 15 seconds to spare.<\/p>\n

“It was right down to the wire,” Mr Italiano said.<\/p>\n

“When we had this whole idea, we had 10 in mind, but in hindsight I’m so glad we just stuck to nine.”<\/p>\n

Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n

Sydney traffic, missing helicopter, flight delays<\/p>\n

Mr Italiano said he expected Sydney traffic between the city and Penrith to be the worst, and an accident on the M4 caused delays that fulfilled that expectation.<\/p>\n

However, after their Penrith show, the pair’s journey hit the brakes.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Fathom played as a four-piece band in Canberra and Sydney during the record attempt. (Supplied: Nicole Tabuena)<\/p>\n

They had chartered a helicopter to take them over the Blue Mountains and avoid the Victoria Pass closure, but arrived at the base to find no helicopter.<\/p>\n

“We needed to board the helicopter by 5:10pm because they wouldn’t fly after sunset,” Ms Guirguis said.<\/p>\n

“But then we got there early and there was no helicopter there.<\/p>\n

“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,” Mr Italiano said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The band were delayed by 30 minutes because their scheduled helicopter was busy assisting with firefighting.\u00a0 (Supplied: Nicole Tabuena)<\/p>\n

Half an hour later, the duo got their helicopter ride to Lithgow.<\/p>\n

It wouldn’t be until their chartered plane leg between Bathurst and Goulburn that they would hit another snag.<\/p>\n

“Firstly we went to the wrong terminal,” Ms Guirguis said.<\/p>\n

“As soon as we were taking off, the right propeller stopped working,” Mr Italiano said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The band used the tour to fundraise for mental health charity Beyond Blue.\u00a0 (Supplied: Nicole Tabuena)<\/p>\n

“Our pilot \u2026 upgraded us to a jet which was fantastic and a lot safer.”<\/p>\n

The delay put the band an hour behind schedule, but a blessed run of traffic lights to Canberra helped them get on stage with time to spare.<\/p>\n

“We just had green lights all the way to the venue,” Ms Guirguis said.<\/p>\n

“Cate and I jumped on stage, pumped out a 15-minute set,” Mr Italiano said.<\/p>\n

“We had a look at the countdown, there was only about 15 seconds.”Thousands raised for mental health<\/p>\n

The band said they fundraised for Beyond Blue as part of the tour, gathering at least $2,200.<\/p>\n

“We wanted half of the sale going to Beyond Blue and the other half going to the bands that were supporting us,” Mr Italiano said.<\/p>\n

“So we actually won’t be making any profit from this.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The band travelled in a minibus between most of the venues. (Supplied: Nicole Tabuena)<\/p>\n

Mr Italiano said they wanted to support musicians doing it tough, trying to make it amid venue closures and festival cancellations following the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

“Ever since COVID the music industry definitely took a big hit,” Mr Italiano said.<\/p>\n

“We found out that musicians are five times more likely to experience depression and anxiety just from the amount of stress that goes into finding work.”<\/p>\n

Certification under way<\/p>\n

To certify the record, the band need to prove there were 10 people at every venue through their ticket links, and at least two witnesses with them at all times.<\/p>\n

They also captured video evidence of their attempt, with Mr Italiano wearing a body-worn camera strapped to his chest the entire way.<\/p>\n

Ms Guirguis and Mr Italiano will now compile their evidence and submit the claim to Guinness World Records, which they say could take months to verify.<\/p>\n

Mr Italiano is no stranger to the process, having previously broken the record for most pull-ups in 24 hours in 2022.<\/p>\n

For now, the band plans on resting after releasing their aptly named song Record Breakers on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“That’ll be our soundtrack for the next few months,” Mr Italiano said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Sydney band has pulled off a herculean effort to play nine shows in 12 hours across NSW…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,461228,461231,134,461227,461232,461230,461234,461233,136,461229],"class_list":["post-891479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-band-most-gigs-record","tag-cate-guirguis","tag-entertainment","tag-fathom-band-world-record","tag-fathom-record-attempt","tag-jaxon-italiano","tag-most-gigs-12-hours","tag-most-gigs-world-record","tag-music","tag-sydney-band-world-record"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}