Today Is Gonna Be The Day

Casino’s Gonna Throw it Back to You. Casino Guitars wanted to do a fun giveaway and came up with the “wonderwallathon.” Whoever played the song Wonderwall by Oasis the longest would win a free GS Mini guitar, which retails for around $1,000. We can’t make this riff up.

The marathon began a little after noon Sunday with 15 players. Three hours later, it had only dwindled to eight people. The competition became an endurance sport, with staying on rhythm becoming harder as the hours drug on. Casino staffers added distractions by badly playing an accordion or bagpipes. They ordered pizza and ate it in front of the players. They threw marshmallows at them as kids ran around the store. 

Why Wonderwall? Aside from it being the meme of the music world, it’s also just 4 chords over and over. “We thought it’d be funny,” says Derrick Numbers, who handles the social media for Casino. 

“I thought it would last about three hours overall but that there would be more dropout by now— more hand spasms or something,” said store owner, Baxter Clement around the 3.5 hour mark. 

Tempo sped up and slowed down throughout the day. Occasionally people would softly sing the lyrics. Fingers bled. You could see the look of pain in the player’s eyes. “I think at this point it’s more about the competition than the guitar,” said Baxter that evening. 

We left and came back close to 8 p.m. It was down to two players but some of the same spectators were still there. “I’ve been here all day. After about four hours it all started bleeding into the background,” says Jonathan Robinson. 

People began asking if they were ever going to stop or give up. They said maybe…

And afterrrrr allllllll 7 hours and 52 minutes, a winner was crowned — Noelle Gilliam, 17, a student at Sandhills Classical Christian School who said she made eye contact with spectators to distract herself from the task at hand.

The runner-up was Barrett Kesling (15) who traveled from Angier for the competition. He also walked away with a new guitar for his dedication. Both had shaky, bruised hands by the time it was over. No one expected the wonderwallathon to last as long as it did. Watch for the video on Casino Guitars’ YouTube Channel.