A Japanese woman eighty-three years of age has been declared by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest professional club DJ.
83-year-old Sumiko Iwamura said she chose to attend a DJ school at the tender age of 77 and soon detected she had a talent for it.
Iwamura, who operates and works in a Chinese food restaurant kitchen, has a steady DJ slot at Decabar Z in Shinjuku, but her gifts have led to guest gigs at exotic locations including New Zealand and Paris.
She stated to Guinness World Records that DJ’ing isn’t much different from running her restaurant.
“You get feedback from your customers quickly in both cases,” she said. “If you’re playing tracks and they don’t like it, they’ll leave the floor and start drinking at the bar. If the tracks are danceable, then they’ll stay on and dance their heart out.”
“Restaurant customers are the same — if it tastes good, then they look happy, and they’ll tell me that they like it. For me, it’s easy to work out how people are feeling in both cases,” said Iwamura.
On November, 10 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Breweries at that time, went on a shooting party by the River Slaney (Ireland). After blowing a shot at a golden plover, he became engaged in a heated debate over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the red grouse or the golden.
That evening, Beaver realized that it was totally unlikely to confirm in reference books whether or not the plover was Europe’s speediest game bird.
He knew that there must be numerous other questions debated daily and nightly, but there was no book in the world with which to settle arguments about records.
He figured then that a book delivering the answers to inquiries such as ‘which’s the fastest game bird’ might prove successful. Beaver’s notion became reality when Guinness employee Christopher Chataway suggested University friends Ross and Norris McWhirter. The twin brothers were enlisted to collate what became The Guinness Book of Records in August 1954. 1,000 copies were printed and handed out.
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