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Occasional posts on subjects like field recording, London sounds past and present, other websites worth looking at, articles in the press, and news of audio-related events.
World Cup horns of Africa
Posted by IMR on 12 June 2010
WATCHING ENGLAND PLAY USA on the telly right now and the droning of massed horns is as distracting as the USA just scoring. Every other fan seems to have one and you can barely hear any chanting or singing through what sounds like a wasps’ nest being poked with a stick.
These plastic horns have already been deemed newsworthy in their own right. According to this Associated Press report:
Nothing represents the sheer exuberance of South African soccer fans better than the “vuvuzela,” the trombone-length plastic horn that will be heard in force starting Friday at the World Cup. Some say the vuvuzela – pronounced voo-voo-ZAY-lah – makes a beautiful, boisterous noise. Others call it an annoying racket.
The loudness of the vuvuzelas must help even a modest-sized crowd of people feel like a mighty army, quantity having a quality all of its own.
Horns of more diffident homegrown proportions were at Wembley during the last England vs USA World Cup match in 2008. Here’s an early London Sound Survey recording of the approach to Wembley with a throng of horn-sellers giving it the World of Stereo wow factor at the beginning:
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