This piece was first published in September 2019
I thought going to Germany with my parents’ band (The Neptune Power Federation) would be a boring experience (and in part, it was only because I needed to hang out with adults the whole time) but travelling to Germany was a lot better than staying at home and it really showed me a whole different culture and way of life.
It also showed me that music from this side of the world can reach people all the way over on the other side.
The first thing I noticed when we arrived was the weather. It was absolutely freezing! Everyone needed to be covered from head to toe in coats, gloves, beanies and scarves.
I also realised I don’t speak any German at all, but lucky for us, most of the people spoke English and sometimes two or three other languages as well!
Something I found really unusual were the signs on the toilet doors.There was a picture of a man standing up doing a number one with a big cross through it! Dad explained that they don’t want their toilet seats messed up. So I needed to respect that and for the rest of the trip I had to do number 1’s sitting down!
I also noticed that the buildings were way different – especially a castle that we visited-it looked a million years old but I found out it was only 800 years old! It was still amazing though!
The main reason we were in Germany was because my parents band was playing at a big festival in Hamburg. There were lots of bands there from all over the world. France, Italy, America and Japan. I think most of the audience was from Europe but I bet there were some Australians hidden out in the fog of the smoke machine that I was operating!
Looking from the stage at the amount of people from all different places, I thought music really does bring people together. Especially my parents band… Dean the drummer, is from Croatia. Troy is a really good guitarist who likes photo bombing (especially on me). He’s from Malta. Dad plays the bass and got me into trouble when I gave him a wedgy on stage. Anyway, he’s from Scotland. Mum who is the singer has Italian heritage and was born in Australia but when she puts her wild costume on she looks like she’s from another dimension!
And then there’s Fox (not the animal fox but the guitarist Fox) I can’t tell you where he’s from but I can tell you he has red hair and he is a great artist. He can draw anything. He also loves comedy and his favourite saying is “Yaaa Baassic!”
So that’s my experience of traveling to a different country with a band. As the Germans would say, “Danke schon for reading!”
