River Cruise - 6. RC Chapter 6

“This song is in memory of our fallen band members Robert & Hugh, rest in peace guys,” Devon said as the sound of thunder could be heard, soon followed by the bagpipes, and after three songs, Rhol came on stage and announced that the DJ music would continue downstairs.

Once in the restaurant lounge, Rhol loaded the many photographs he had taken during the three songs, with his digital camera, and 6 of them were selected to be the main pictures to be featured on the Facebook page to be launched later in the evening.

An hour later the band returned to the stage to play three band new songs, two that Devon had written some time ago, after the band had disbanded, and one that David had written after the loss of his Scottish first cousin, all three of them were great considering the response from the crowd.

At 9.30 the live music ended again and the band retired to the restaurant lounge, leaving the graduates left to either return to the DJ music downstairs or remain on the sundeck, and only a small group decided to go downstairs.

Meanwhile Rhol, Nicholas and Jordan took on the task to disassemble all the sound equipment before it got ruined from the night air moisture, followed by all the instruments, all which was being temporarily stored in the gymnasium which was not being used.

As a decoy, Rhol had arranged for 7 crew members to pretend they were the band members, as they snuck onto a quietly lowered dinghy, then quickly started the motor and raced away, disappearing into the night darkness, heading for the nearby Barrack Street jetty, where they would wait for an hour before making the 30-minute trip downstream to rejoin the vessel just before midnight.

At 10.45pm the band members were gathered in the lounge, watching as Devon entered all the required information onto their new Facebook page.

“Celtic Lads – created from former members of EQD Devon, David, James & Thomas plus the younger twin brothers of Devon – Flynn & Amos, the Celtic Lads launched their brand with a performance onboard the River Ship MV Albany on the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia tonight, as part of the graduation ball of a local private school.

The City of Perth and the City of South Perth are pleased to be the hosts for a free Community concert featuring the Celtic Lads at 3 pm on Saturday (Tomorrow), with the band performing from the sundeck of the MV Albany, which will be anchored off the foreshore of South Perth, but the concert can also be heard from Kings Park and the City of Perth foreshore”.

Once everyone was happy with their Facebook page, including the photographs that were taken earlier, and a list of the songs that will be performed at the concert the next day, Devon looked up to Rhol who had the phone in his hand in contact with the captain, who was asked to switch off the mobile jamming device, and once this was done Devon hit the enter button and it was now up to people to view and share.

The first to do this was Rhol, Nicholas and Jordan, followed by Devon and the twins since they were local to the state and had a lot of contacts on the friend's list. It was not long after that Margaret sent a text message to Devon, “Permission for family to join you for the day and overnight onboard the MV Albany”, and Devon laughed when he saw the message, and he asked Rhol if it was ok for his sister, brother in law and nephew to join them tomorrow, and Rhol said that it was fine.

“While on that subject, I forgot to mention that I also have relatives from Scotland who are travelling to Australia, who know the former band, and as well as a holiday, they want to see and hear this new band perform.

When I rang them three days ago when the band decided to form, they said they were planning a holiday and that they now have a destination” Devon said.

David frowned at Devon when he said this and Devon smiled, “Yes David it’s my cousins, and yes it’s the whole tribe, the rascals included. Adam and Sue Kilthorne will be coming too, agreeing to help Julia to keep the rascals in order” Devon said before turning to Rhol, “I’m sorry to do this to you; that means an extra 8 people 11 in total” Devon added. Rhol smiled and said there is plenty of room for them all, just make a list of who they are and he will have it arranged.

Do you know when your Scottish family are arriving? Rhol asked. “There plane touches down at 6 am tomorrow, and my sister said they would be arriving at 9 am, so I guess they will all arrive about the same time, once the international guests have passed through customs and quarantine” Devon said as they felt the vessel bump against the jetty, and soon all the students and teachers disembarked racing to their waiting transport, as they quickly started to send Facebook messages to family and friends, plus they soon discovered the bands Facebook page and added it to their list of pages to follow.

Once the headmaster had thanked Rhol for being a wonderful host and said goodnight, the crew secured the walkway once again and the vessel cruised out into the river to set anchor for the night, and the dinghy arrived just as they had shut down the engines for the night.

Before the crew went off to their cabins, Rhol made a PA announcement, informing the crew that 11 more guests would be joining the vessel early in the morning, with most of them being international guests who will want to rest for most of the morning, so noise was to be kept to a bare minimum until lunchtime.

Devon contacted a limo company and asked for two limos to collect the Carson family and Mr & Mrs Kilthorne from the airport at 6 am and deliver them to the Freshwater Bay Yacht Club in Peppermint Grove.

When Devon woke at 7 am the next morning to the sound of his mobile ringing, he sleepily answered it, half knowing that it would be his cousins. “Hey Mr, are you still in bed?” came the cheeky voice of his cousin Edgar, and Devon couldn’t help but laugh, “Hello cousin, did you have a pleasurable flight, are you in the Limo already? Devon said as he tried to wake up fully, jumping out of bed and walking into the bathroom to wash his face.

“No, we have just stepped out of the plane, we still got to pick up our bags and go through customs and quarantine yet, and we are near the end of the line, so I am guessing another two hours at least. It’s good to hear your voice again, we will see you soon” Edgar said and he hung up not waiting for a response from his older cousin. Soon after the call ended the phone rang again, the caller ID read Margaret. “Hey sis, what’s happening,” Devon said as he answered the call.

“Hello uncle Dev, this is Chas speaking, mum wanted you to know that she dragged me out of bed soon after the cows were milked and fed, and we left home at 6 am, so we will be in Perth at 9 am” Devon laughed at the way that his young nephew said that as he heard his sister telling her son off for stretching the truth, which made Devon laugh even louder.

“Ok Mr smart guy, we will see who thinks it is funny when we arrive,” Margaret said in the phone, and Devon chuckled a bit more before settling down. ‘Ok sis, see you then” Devon said as they hung up the phone at the same time and Devon continued to chuckle as he finished his bathroom duties, before he went online to see how the Facebook page was going, and he was shocked to see that in just over 8 hours, there had been over 368,000 views on the Celtic Lads page.

Devon and his band members had been assigned large cabins on the Cello deck, while upstairs on the Violin Deck, Hugh and Grace enjoy the luxurious Executive Suite 301, as will Douglas & Julia in 303, Mr & Mrs Kilthorne in 302 and Margaret and Michael in 304, Chas will be in the smaller cabin next to his parents in 306, the younger Carlton twins will be in the cabin next to their parents in 305, Edgar and Eliza will have their own cabins in 307 & 308.

When Hugh and Grace joined Devon for some early breakfast, they said they both slept very well in their luxurious cabin, and they were thankful for having such a wonderful and caring son. Devon let his parents know about the delay with the arrival of their cousins from Scotland, and that they would arrive about the same time as Margaret and family. After breakfast, Hugh and Grace retreated to the library to do some quiet reading, while Devon went to round up the rest of the band members, who were still sleeping.

By the time Devon had got his band members awake and decent, they made their way to the restaurant lounge, where they enjoyed a very nice late breakfast, while Devon informed the rest about the number of visits of the facebook page, and suggested a rehearsal straight after lunchtime, they also discussed a few more songs and also finalised the playlist for the afternoon concert.

As predicted, at 9.30am two limos and a 4-wheel drive arrived at the same time at the jetty, and there was a huge family reunion, the first in quite some time, once everyone was shown their cabins, the international guests were allowed to catch up on some sleep, and just after noon they reappeared looking more refreshed, and in the main restaurant the Carlton family plus the Kilthorne’s chatted while eating a light lunch.

The other band members decided that they would have a quiet lunch in the River Bistro upstairs, and they were joined by Reeve, Nicholas, Jordan, Langley and Mrs Garner, as the Captain set sail upstream to Deep Water Point, to allow the guests a varied view of the landscape of the Swan & Canning Rivers.

After lunch, the band got together to have a good rehearsal in the restaurant lounge, so as not to be heard outside, and they finished at 2 pm as the vessel was heading towards its concert location.

Jordan had been kept busy since breakfast time, arranging for the installation of giant speakers that will be connected to the sound control system on the vessel via a dedicated radiofrequency. The speakers were placed on Harrison Island, in Kings Park, on riverfront buildings in the city, and various locations along the foreshore on both sides of the river.

Jordan was also able to arrange for giant screens to be assembled in the parkland in Kings Park, at Burswood Park, As the vessel came under the Narrows bridge, it was clear that this was going to be a very big open concert, people were settled on the foreshore beside Riverside drive, from below Kings Park, all the way along to the causeway bridge on the north side.

The same along the south side from Mill Point in South Perth to the Causeway in Victoria Park, even the western side of Harrison Island was full of people looking for a good spot to watch the concert.

Devon had another look at the facebook page and saw that there were now 1.6 million views of their page and that the free community concert on the Perth foreshore was all that everyone was talking about. As the MV Albany set anchor 400 metres off the foreshore from South Perth, a middle way between the two jetties, it was decided that the further out they were from the shore, the less likely of having anyone swimming out to the vessel to interrupt the concert.

The band members had started setting up the instruments on the sundeck straight after the end of rehearsals, and once done they retired to the restaurant lounge directly below, just before the vessel was getting into place. From the lounge they could easily see the crowds gathering on the foreshores, and they were amazed at how big it was getting, Devon turned on the radio to a commercial channel and as the music ended the announcer made a stunning announcement, “…our news reporter is on the foreshore at Barrack Street Jetty and what are your thoughts on the numbers coming to see this free concert” the announcer asked.

”Well Jim, I have just spoken to the incident controller at the WA Police Mobile Control centre, and it is the Police’s view that the crowd has exceeded the huge numbers of 300 thousand at the Australia Day Skyworks show, that is one amazing number of people to come and see a band for a few hours, back to you at the studio” the reporter said, and Devon turned off the radio.

Devon opened the Facebook account and added a status, “Local Community radio station just interviewed police who stated that there are more people on the foreshores and Kings Park to see our concert, than there was to see the Skyworks on Australia Day, Like this message if you are one of those who is on the foreshore or in Kings Park, waiting to see us in twenty minutes”. Jordan had arranged for two camera persons to be onboard to film the band as they were performing, which is broadcasted to the giant screens around the city foreshore.

When the 6 band members came onto the sundeck, and this was broadcasted onto the giant screens, the applause and screaming shattered the city sounds, and this was outdone by the sounds of music coming from the MV Albany.

“Hello Perth, it is good to be here, thank you for coming this afternoon, we hope you enjoy our free community concert, our thanks to the Cities of Perth and South Perth for allowing us to perform today, also a special thanks for the emergency services and volunteers. We are Celtic Lads, and our first song tonight is in memory of our two former bandmates Robert and Hugh, and it’s called Storm” Devon said and they started the song.

With 7 songs performed one after the other, the band was exhausted, so Devon announced a twenty-minuteintermission, and in the mean-time, some video clips of EQD will be played on the screens and through the speakers. During the intermission break, Devon had a quick look at the Facebook page, and he was amazed at the number of likes that were on the page regarding people who are attending the concert, and so far, it was 416,000 people.

At the start of the second half of the concert, Devon walked up to the microphone after a loud applause, “Hello again, thank-you for your patience, let’s get back to the music” and for another hour the band continued playing old EQD songs, plus new Celtic Lads songs, and at the end of each song there was huge applause all around the vessel.

At the end of the last song, which was Amazing Grace, the twins walked up to the front microphone, “Thankyou Perth, you have been a wonderful audience; we hope to be performing here again soon. Have a safe trip home, good afternoon to you all” they said before disappearing downstairs, pleased that their first official performance was a total success.

The End