The sound of a rusty lawnmower from Wellington is receiving more exposure overseas than any of the Kiwi Olympians.
An article about Geoff "Mad" Marsland's quirky idea of releasing a compact disc of nothing but the sound of a lawnmower first featured in the news early last week.
His idea was pitched
at apartment dwellers sick of noisy neighbours, as well as those who found they missed the sounds of weekend suburbia.
The Wellington coffee baron said he had got hardly any sleep since the article was published because he had been inundated by media attention.
"It's just going berserk.
"I sent CDs to Hollywood, New York and London. They are going to review it on NBC's Today Show in the United States, which, like, has 100 million viewers."
He said that, after the original article appeared, Reuters news service interviewed him.
That was followed by attention from TV3 and a host of New Zealand newspapers and radio stations.
"Then driving home on Tuesday afternoon I got a call from national radio in South Africa and put [the CD] on for them in the car.
"Then I went home and got woken up at midnight and there was the upstate Buffalo New York DJs on the radio and I did 15 minutes with them. Then I woke up again about 3 am and some guy from Iceland who loved it thought I must be bitter and hate my neighbours.
"Then I did something with a Chicago radio station at 6 am."
An Australian TV network wanted him to appear on a show and he had also received calls from radio stations in California and Britain, including the BBC.
But the venture could be worth losing sleep for - he may end up laughing all the way to the bank.
"It's amazing that something so silly has grabbed interest all round the world."
- NZPA
