Canberra’s own Joe McGrail-Bateup is now a Guinness World Record holder after recording the world’s loudest shout. Photo: Joe McGrail-Bateup.
Did you hear that loud, screeching noise on 2 May? It was Canberra’s own Joseph McGrail-Bateup setting the record for the world’s loudest shout.
Breaking the 32-year-old record held by Annalisa Flanagan from Ireland, Joe reached a staggering 122.4 decibels, making his voice louder than a jet taking off, police sirens, a chainsaw, and even being front row at a Black Sabbath concert.
While Joe shouting his way into the history books took less than a second, the journey to becoming the world record-holder is an interesting one, and the details are not lost on Joe.
For several years, he has served as Canberra’s official Town Crier, a person who loudly projects news or information at larger gatherings. The practice was most common during the medieval and Renaissance periods to educate or inform towns about information regarding the monarch or government, with the crier often in formal and elaborate clothing.
“I’ve been the Town Crier for Canberra for a while now, and I’ve been competing in the town crier competition for the last five years,” Joe said.
“In 2024, I was crowned the loudest sound crier in Australia, but that was only at 98 decibels.
“At the beginning of the year, I thought, what else can I do that’s a little bit different. So I actually turned to the Guinness World Records, because I have been in there once before for the fastest time to shoot 10 arrows, which was 1 minute and 3 seconds, but that’s since been beaten.
“There was nothing about town cries, but there was a loudest shout world record, which was held by someone for 32 years.”
To break the record, Joe was required to shout a word from the Oxford Dictionary. The word
shouted was, ironically, ”quiet”, but after some research, Joe and his daughter landed on ”now”.
With his word chosen, Joe needed to find a venue to yell in and a couple of acoustic specialists to officially mark the attempt before submitting it to Guinness World Records.
“The acoustics specialist had to write a report about the equipment he was using, when it was calibrated, how it was calibrated on the day, what we did, and how far I was away from the microphone. It was quite detailed,” he said.
“I had to get it videoed, and then I had to get all of that stuff ready so that they could submit it to Guinness World Records. I made the attempt on 2 May and had it ticked off at the end of May.”
Now having officially set the record, Joe is still coming to terms with his achievement.
“It’s funny to think, if I’m at a concert, you could probably hear me better than the music,” Joe joked.
“The feeling right now, knowing that Guinness World Records has made it official, I’m kind of a little bit overwhelmed. It’s real now.
“I still can’t believe that I’m officially the world’s loudest man.”
