An Australian air conditioner cleaner and honorary town crier has been recognised as the world’s loudest person.
Joseph McGrail-Bateup, 58, from Canberra, achieved the Guinness World Record last week by yelling “now” at an astonishing 122.4 decibels – a volume comparable to a chainsaw or jet aircraft taking off.
The ear-splitting shout broke the previous record of 121.7 dB, set in 1994 by Northern Irish schoolteacher Annalisa Flanagan, who had yelled “quiet”.
Mr McGrail-Bateup said that the record attempt was not something he could train for.
“There’s no way that you can actually practise for it. You have to just keep it for the day.
“It took me seven attempts just for one word, which was the word ‘now,’ and my voice was shot for the next couple of days as well. It was husky. It was terrible. So no, you can’t really practise for it. But it’s a lot of fun when you’re doing it.”
Mr McGrail-Bateup considers himself the world’s loudest man rather than the loudest person, he said. There was no previous record for the loudest man.
“I’m pleased that she (Ms Flanagan) gets to keep her record. So she’s still the loudest woman in the world and I’m the loudest male in the world,” he said.
Mr McGrail-Bateup said he stumbled upon Ms Flanagan’s record when searching Guinness World Records unsuccessfully for feats in the realm of town crying.
He became competitively loud when he was appointed the official town crier of the national capital Canberra in 2017. It is an honorary and part-time role established by the local government, which he considers “a bit of fun”.
His town crier name is Lord Joseph and he makes announcements at community events, school fetes and car shows.
With the job came membership of the Ancient and Honorable Guild of Australian Town Criers, a competitive professional organisation dedicated to preserving members’ historic and ceremonial roles.
Mr McGrail-Bateup won a 2024 guild competition with the loudest “Oyez, Oyez, Oyez”, at 98 dB. That was a command for silence and attention before an Australian town crier makes a proclamation.
He experimented with several words for his world record attempt before settling on “now”.
His shout was recorded on 2 May in a Canberra radio studio by a professional acoustic engineer and with witnesses present. The files were sent to Guinness World Records, which announced the record on Friday.
It’s the second time Mr McGrail-Bateup has broken a world record. In 2019, he broke a speed record for an archer shooting 10 arrows. His time of 60.03 seconds shaved a fraction of a second off a record that had stood since 2015.
Nine months later, a 7-year-old boy shattered McGrail-Bateup’s record by 11.4 seconds.
McGrail-Bateup wasn’t interested in attempting to regain the archery record or in keeping his shouting record.
“If someone beats me, that’s fantastic,” he said.
“Records are meant to be broken.”
