Beloved ‘Brummie’ presenter Alison Hammond has narrowly missed out on being crowned the celebrity winner of the UK’s largest ever measure of how loud we can yell. Narrowly missing out to TV star James Nesbit. A reading of the voice of Nesbitt, revealed it to be 94.51 decibels – as loud as both a jack hammer and a motorcycle engine and fractionally lower than Hammonds’ 94.1 decibels.
Recordings of over 10,000 British residents were taken by Yell.com, in a specially designed booth, which travelled over 9,000 miles across the UK, visiting 20 different locations. The tour marked the final delivery of the Yellow Pages in each area and challenged people to yell different types of small businesses as loudly as they could – for example ‘pub’, ‘florist’, or ‘plumber’. Oxford resident Lucian Ghimpu was crowned the overall winner in the competition recording an impressive 94.51 decibels.
Celebrities local to each location also took part in the competition. Cardiff-born TV presenter Matt Johnson came in third place with 94.20, followed by beloved Glaswegian Lorraine Kelly in fourth with 89.79 decibels. In Manchester ex-Coronation Street and X Factor star Shayne Ward managed 85.76 decibels.
Speaking to Alison Hammond post the roadshows she said: “I can’t believe that I wasn’t the loudest celebrity yeller – I gave it my all – but congratulations to James and his dulcet Belfast tones for beating me!”
Richard Hanscott, CEO of Yell Ltd, commented: “At all of these roadshows the engagement with the public, our #JustYell booth, celebrities and prize activity was fantastic. We asked the public to Yell for their favourite type of small business, needless to say “pub” was the most popular! With the final delivery of Yellow Pages having now taken place – we wanted to remind everyone we’re still here for them as we’ve always been and that they can search through the free Yell app for their favourite local business and leave reviews and feedback for them.”
