Cover performance rated “surprisingly un-crap”.
In his usual quirky style Merrick Watts, host of Merrick And The Highway Patrol on the Triple M network, was inspired to put together an entire orchestra full of the world’s most over-looked instruments, to perform the world’s most iconic rock song ‘Stairway To Heaven’. The instruments came from all parts of the world, one of them was edible and others were homemade. The instrumental line-up included:
– Melody Pop (a kids candy)
– An electric bass guitar built out of a garden shovel
– Lagerphone (a percussion stick made of beer bottle tops)
– Concertmate 200 (an 80’s portable synthesiser)
– Tuned bottles
– Egg shakers
– Kids Glockenspiel
– Fyfe
– Theramin (actually controlled without physical contact)
– Jaw Harp
– Recorder
– Trumpet
– Kazoo
– Indian snake charming flute (which actually sounded amazing and possibly the best)
– Gumleaf
– Comb
– Ukulele
– A 230 year old drum made out of a ‘tea chest’ from the First Fleet
The team decided to perfom from the top of the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge for a passing cruise ship. Normally reserved for Sydney’s world famous New Year’s Eve fireworks, this is the first time in the Sydney Harbour Bridge’s 81 year history, that it has ever played host to something this ridiculous.
Will Smith, Matt Damon, Nicole Kidman, Kylie Minogue, Robert De Niro, Prince Harry are just some of the many celebrities who have climbed the bridge. Now, Merrick And The Highway Patrol have added another rivet to the Bridge’s extraordinary history.
There are more than 20,000 versions of the song on video sharing websites like YouTube and Vimeo. But no-one has ever played it on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, with instruments including the gumleaf, melody pop, Indian snake charming flute and theramin (which we had to build from scratch haha).
According to Merrick: “It was actually surprisingly un-crap.”
View video of the performance below: