Noosa adventurer Oz Bayldon plans Amazon River musical record attempt

After living in London for two decades, Oz Bayldon returned to Queensland 20-odd years ago, from where he has launched many life-changing expeditions and set some of the most insane world records. Watch the videos.

Adventurer Oz Bayldon has lived a thousand lives.

Now one of Noosa’s more interesting characters, he owned and ran a pub in London before returning to Australia in 2002.

He is a philanthropist, a professional daredevil, a world record holder, and an accomplished musician.

He has travelled the world, founded companies, built orphanages in Nepal, holds multiple world records, including ones he set and then broke himself, and helped transform the Gympie Music Muster into a nationwide charity success story.

Oz Bayldon has two world records for the world’s highest musical gig, a record for the world’s longest gig, and a record for the world’s highest canyon swing gig.

Soon, he’s planning a 60-something hour musical canoe ride along the Amazon River with Cat Stevens’ guitarist Eric Appapoulay and Texan country singer Craig Wayne Boyd, and others, he said.

Why?

Well, to break a record he already set in Nepal during the mid 2000s, playing the world’s longest gig, which clocked in at 44 hours.

Perhaps the one constant in Mr Bayldon’s life has been his heartfelt love of music, and the positive power it can bring.

“Music is the international language, everyone can understand music,” he said.

The rugged Himalayan ranges are Oz Bayldon’s second home. He’s broken two record records and founded orphanages there.

The adventurer cut his teeth in the music industry working at the Glastonbury Festival before relocating permanently to London for many years.

His love for charity started when he began operating the White Lion pub in Streatham more than 25 years ago, where he crossed paths with fame and fortune.

After a trip to Nepal in 2002, he returned to the UK a changed man.

It was there that he had attended a Nepalese music festival, where “I saw this kid and picked him up to walk him up the hill — he had serious disabilities”.

“So I walked him up to the shops to get him some food.

“Next minute, I turned around and there’s 30 kids behind him, all wanting food.”

Mr Bayldon fed the group, which only cost him about 30 pounds, he said.

The remarkable difference he could make with so little resonated powerfully.

Oz Bayldon has done plenty of philanthropic work, including his involvement with HELP NEPAL Network. Picture: HELP NEPAL Network

Mr Bayldon returned to London and founded Music4Children, housing underprivileged youth in the 28 rooms above the White Lion.

Before long, Westminster Abbey, Royal Festival Hall and Channel 4 all jumped on board to provide workshop equipment for the organisation.

“The support was amazing, I’d turn up each day and there was something new,” he said.

Music4Children provides workshops in street dance, DJing, technology and drama, and gives hands-on experience in radio, film and digital media.

It all happened with a budget of effectively zero dollars, owing to the extraordinary community support.

All the while, his “spiritual” love affair with Nepal was well underway, and before long he returned, then returned again, breaking world records and founding orphanages with the company.

Nestled within the Nepalese Himalayas, Kala Patthar was the site of his first world record in 2005, for the world’s highest performed gig above sea level.

After someone beat that in 2007, Mr Bayldon hiked more than 6000m to the summit of Mera Peak near Everest, performing for a freezing 40 minutes to a crowd of 14, reclaiming the title in 2012.

Oz Bayldon reclaimed his world title for the world's highest gig performed at Mera Peak in the Himalayas in 2012. Picture: Oz Bayldon

“We couldn’t have done it without the sherpas who carried all our equipment, they are the unsung heroes,” he said.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he has plans to add another 2000m to the altitude meter by whipping out his guitar at the summit of Cho Oyu, another Himalayan peak.

His world records were all performed to raise money for the various charities he has worked with over the years, he said.

In 2017, Mr Bayldon joined the Gympie Music Muster board, where he worked until 2024 as program director and operations manager.

“I’d come back here to put family around my mother, and I was going mental doing nothing, and a work contract came up with the Muster,” Mr Bayldon said.

He became part of a small group that turned the Gympie Muster from a struggling festival to a nationally-renowned charity operation, he said.

Oz Bayldon and his crew in 2012 after performing the world’s highest gig, recognised by Guinness World Records. Picture: Oz Bayldon

Mr Bayldon said he left the board to focus on his company Events4GreaterGood, a charity dedicated to supporting vulnerable people and communities in Noosa, elsewhere in Australia, and internationally.

E4GG works with the homeless, domestic violence victims and single-parent families, carrying on Mr Bayldon’s lifelong philanthropy.

His new company offshoot is E4GG Travel, which “isn’t like Western charities,” he said.

Mr Bayldon will be taking handfuls of people in a VIP package to remote locations in countries like Nepal and Peru to watch cultural festivities and raise money.

Despite his 20-year stint in London, the daring Aussie said he could do without the hustle and bustle.

“When I go to a big city, I’m never overwhelmed, I’m sort of just like, yeah, it’s the same shit as every other city, you know?

“When you go out there and immerse yourself in the culture” of places like Nepal and South America, “nothing compares to that,” he said.

Mr Bayldon said he’d been filming all his stunts himself, and was after a TV crew to document his relentless pursuit for charity-driven world record setting.

He plans to turn his “world’s highest gig” into an annual occasion, and hopes for a 2026 start.

Originally published as Noosa adventurer Oz Bayldon plans Amazon River musical record attempt