A MUSICAL VOYAGE - Royal Australian Navy

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Our journey has taken us to Goa, India, through the Suez Canal, on to Alexandria and to the
magnificent pyramids of Giza, Cairo, (amid a local bombing!) and the experience of having
countless hawkers keen to fleece you of every last Egyptian pound you have shout “Gift,
gift! Gift for you!” as an item is placed in your hand “Now you give me money!” Obviously
the word “gift” has another meaning in Egypt!!! To get on a camel and go for a ride was
relatively cheap and fun experience however, getting off said camel was considerably more
pricey!
Crete proved to be a fantastic port for both the gigs and the food (despite the poorer than
average exchange rate of the Aussie dollar to the Euro (to make our dollar worth around 50
cents!) The opportunity to perform public concerts in two buildings (the Venetian Arsenals
in Crete and the Conservatorium Turkish Mosque in Rethymno) of at twice (closer to three
times) the age of modern Australia was phenomenal. We played (via our bus expertly
negotiated narrow back streets) at a concert hall (previously a Turkish mosque) in the
locality-city of Rethymno. The Mayor (a musician himself) was astounded at the talents of
our detachment and despite the language barrier of a good majority of the audience the
Mayor gave up on translating our commentary and sat back and enjoyed the show with the
rest of the crowd. The Mayor was so impressed in fact, that he was reluctant to let us stop
playing! The biggest surprise was near end of the night however, when one local member of
the audience stood up from her chair and yelled out “play Jimmy Barnes’ Working class
man!!!!” We were more than happy to oblige! All of the official guests, including us, were
then subsequently treated to a feast at Rethymno’s top restaurant all at the Mayor’s
expense, but that is a story for another time and another of my favourite parts of the
deployment.
Having been one of the three Anzac detachment members that participated in the 2004
ANZAC day ceremonies at Anzac Cove, the opportunity to repeat the opportunity was one
hard to fathom. Istanbul was much more relaxed experience and at one point in the best
spirit and tradition of our last year’s tour guide; “Mert”, I dragged members of the ship’s
company (thankfully much to their delight) on a free tour around the Grand Bazaar and
other sights of Istanbul. Oh and the Grand bazaar… did I mention the Grand Bazaar? I can
only imagine the economic boost HMAS Anzac had over the week she spent anchored off
Istanbul in the Bosphorus Strait.
Ninety members of ship’s company formed a skeleton crew on ANZAC day morning as the
remainder of the crew boarded ferries and HMAS Anzac’s RHIB in turns to make the journey
ashore to Anzac Cove. It was eerie feeling thinking that this would have been a very similar
view of the Cove that the Digger’s would have seen ninety years ago. Leading Seaman
Aaron Geeves, Able Seaman Damian Dowd and Able Seaman Andrew Hansch had the honour
however, of being in Anzac Cove on Anzac Day as members of the crew on HMAS Anzac
providing the music for the Anzac Day service held on board.
The “Festival of the Sea” at the Turkish resort town of Marmaris was a fairly event filled
stop over. There were ships and representatives from the USA, UK, French, Italian, Russian,
German, Ukrainian, Turkish, Greek, Romanian and Spanish Navies as well as ourselves.
Having the smallest parade contingent did not deter the local crowd from giving the
Australians the biggest cheers of the day. We performed every day in various capacities:
performing marches and jazz at the Australian Navy (HMAS Anzac) stall at the International
Seafaring Exhibition.
We also performed with the Russian Navy Band in the Armatulan district: They were very
impressed by the performance of our detachment’s comparatively tiny (to the Russian
Navy’s 60 piece contingent) Jazz Group. We then played Australian Rock songs to the
excited crowd (including the Hon. Bronwyn Bishop who seemed to be enjoying herself more
than anyone!) at the Areena night-club to end the week’s festivities.
On to Malta and to Toulon in France where we all took some well deserved leave and
dissipated over the country-sides of France and Spain to meet up with the ship in La Coruña
Spain.
Royal Australian Navy Band: A Musical Voyage