by Jaime Savage
The private jet awaits them on a rain soaked tarmac in New Jersey. The band's name is branded across the exterior of the plane. The jet is every bit as psychedelic as the limo they had just arrived in. Ava and Luke can barely hide their excitement at the prospects of flying as they race each other to get on board.
SCENE: PRIVATE JET
The private jet departs the runway and takes off into the uncertain night. In the distance the neon cityscape of New York City gleams against the backdrop of the harrowing comet, Hale Bopp's Friend.
Inside the jet the band, Luke and Ava drink champagne and dine from a delicate food platter. A flight attendant pours Emile a glass of wine. Emile takes the bottle and pours the attendant a glass urging her to join them.
The party starts up a round of karaoke. What Luke lacks in singing ability he makes up with sheer effort as he sings a duet alongside Emile. The two have surprising chemistry together. As Luke sings with Emile he catches a glimpse of Ava staring at him. One can't help but have the impression that there is a touch of jealously in her reaction to their duet.
After karaoke, the party sits around playing a board game. The game is played on an interactive board. Luke catapults a marble up into the air from the board. The marble narrowly misses a miniature scale river-filled with real water- and instead falls on top of Dennis' playing piece eliminating him from the game. The ricochet makes Kenneth's piece wobble for a few tedious seconds causing all the players to react with excitement.
('A Real Hero' by College & Electric Youth ends.)
SCENE: PRIVATE JET - LATER
EMILE
'Miss America; it's all I wanted to be as a little girl'.
SAMSON
'Strangely?that's what Rex wanted to be too'.
They all laugh.
REX
'They couldn't handle my sense of style'.
EMILE
'I lived out my dream'.
LUKE
'You won it all'?
EMILE
'Yes and no. When I was announced Ms South Carolina, I thought I had reached the pinnacle moment of my life, the moment I had always desired so greatly. But standing there in all my glory, finding myself in a moment of sheer exultation that only a select few others had been fortunate to be in it suddenly dawned upon me that this was not the moment of great gaiety I had imagined it to be. As the confetti fell from the ceiling and the applause sounded throughout the hall in what was supposed to be the happiest moment of my life I knew there and then that this was not meant to be. In that moment I despised what I had become. I knew in my heart of hearts that I was more than this. I was an artist, a musician at heart, I had thoughts, I had opinions, I wanted to express myself, and this was not my destiny'.
AVA
'Is that how you met Mickey'?
EMILE
'It was the first time I met him yes, albeit it was a very brief introduction. He had front row seats because he was friends with the owner of the pageant. Even in that very terse exchange I detected something special about him'.
REX
'Coach clearly has some intangibles. In order to inspire tens of thousands of people from all walks of life to follow you underneath New York one certainly has to have a great deal of charisma'.
AVA (surprised)
'Did you just say Coach? You mean, you're-for lack of a better word-sewer people'?
EMILE
'Yeah sure?sewer people; I like that name; it has got a good ring to it'.
AVA
'All of you'?
They all nod.
AVA
'But you're rock stars. You're the biggest band on Earth. How is this not common knowledge'?
REX
'It's not like we were raised or born in the sewers. We were in every sense once like both of you; soil dwellers, breathing in air above the surface. However, over time, as we came of adolescence we became disillusioned with society, that is the only society we knew, the only society anyone knows. We became conscious of the corruption and flaws of modern society and we simply longed for more'.
EMILE
'I think I speak for everyone when I say that all we wanted to pursue in life was our music. Music is, was and always will be our lives. On the surface world though music can only be the lives of the fortuitous and a select few who can somehow scrape by on nickels and dimes. The absolute last thing I ever wanted to do was to work a nine till five job. To me a nine till five job I hated was like the worst drug in existence. The monetary hit one receives from working in that job exists to keep you coming back time and time again. To leave the drug-that is the security of money-isn't comprehendible once you're on the drug given the hold it has over you. So ingrained in our society is the pressure to go to school, get a job based on money and money alone and work in this same job until we aren't physically fit to work again. As the great philosopher, Alan Watts once said, to work in a job you hate for motives based on monetary purposes only is to ''be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living, that is go on doing things you like doing, which is stupid''.
SAMSON
'I can concur with Emile and the great and late Mr Watts. I had committed myself to the lifelong pursuit of my music; there was to be no going back; I was all in. Unfortunately not a soul seemed to understand my views, not even my friends and family'-
REX
'That was until he met me. It was a chance meeting that brought us together, but nonetheless it was a meeting that would change all of our lives. There we were, two struggling musicians, living off the streets entirely because of our everlasting love for music. Again, by chance it so happened that we shared similar musical tastes and styles but even with this mutual bond which we tried utilizing with a two man collaboration success was not within reach. The harder we tried the more we seemed to fail. You ever hear of street performers ending up living in luxury out West? It never happens and it was the same for us. We were never going to make it; the music industry is a vile, dog eat dog world. The next big thing is chosen by people that haven't got a musical bone in their body and the whole rise and fall of artists is based solely on crafty marketing ploys and gimmicks engineered to take advantage of the masses. Talentless hacks are adored and worshiped as musical geniuses while thousands of worthy musicians are never given the light of day. It didn't take us long to realize this and so angered and bitter we were with society and our own misfortunes we eventually found ourselves venturing to a place that shared our views, a place underground. A place many believed to be a place of no return'.
SAMSON
'I had heard a smatterings of rumours, Rex had heard a smattering of rumours, we met others who had heard a smatterings of rumours. When we put it all together we devised that there must be some degree of fact in there somewhere, and however small it was, if it indeed existed then we had to go there and see this place with our own eyes. It was desperation. Even now I don't know how we found the balls to go under there but we were undeniably in a dark place with no one to turn to apart from each other. No one else on the surface world could seemingly understand our disillusionment with society. It wasn't even curiosity that got the best of us; we really were at the point of no return. On one the coldest nights of a particularly brutal New York winter we ventured into the Unnamed District and the rest they say is history'.
LUKE
'What a remarkable story. That was very brave of you'.
AVA
'But how did you make it so big when so few people know about what's happening under the city'?
DENNIS
'You underestimate the pull of Mickey McKay'.
SAMSON
'Mickey fell in love with our music. He loved that even though we sung about the need for rapid change and the pitfalls of society that our music remained positive and jovial. He felt warm listening to our music and compelled to further his masterpiece that was his underworld.
Even though we were in some horrible places we never lost hope. We always main
tained that we as humans-with seemingly unlimited potential-that we didn't have to submit to a society that wanted us to be a blip. Every human has it in them to do something remarkable; it's something I firmly believe. There is something we can all do better than anybody else on this planet. It may take a lifetime to find it, we may never find it, but I truly believe we have some unique talent that defines who we are'.
DENNIS
'We wanted to compel people to change openly and freely, we didn't want to incite violence and riots like most other musicians do these days. We wanted to make people proactive and open about change. Mickey fed off this energy and fell in love with our work. He was bold enough to take a gamble on us after the War of the Bands and we've been forever grateful for that'.
LUKE
'War of the Bands'?
The Secret of Youth look amongst one another with wide smiles etched onto their faces.
SAMSON
'The War of the Bands is like the underground equivalent of the Olympics'.
DENNIS
'It's bigger than that'.
SAMSON
'Ok the Superbowl then'.
DENNIS
'Bigger than that'.
SAMSON
'Imagine if you rolled every Superbowl into one'.
LUKE
'It's that big'?
DENNIS
'It was probably bigger'.
AVA
'So you beat out all the competition then'?
SAMSON
'We didn't beat anyone; there are neither winners nor losers in music. One cannot simply pit musicians against one another and hope to find a winner as they do up here in the surface world. The whole premise behind these frivolous, pop idol shows is contrary to everything art stands for. There's no right or wrong in music, no one performance is greater than another; it's all to do with perception. Art is what each individual makes of it and it was to our fortune that Mickey found something in our performances that compelled him enough to promote us to the outside world'.
DENNIS
'He took us under his wings and as you have already borne witness to tonight the power the man holds can never be understated. Because of Coach we were propelled into the limelight, fulfilling our childhood dreams on the world stage. It would have been easy to lose our heads in all the hype but it's something we meditate over every day. Modesty-at least in my mind-is the most underappreciated virtue'.
LUKE
'So Mickey wants you to act as preachers to the world'.
EMILE
'Correct. Music as you have may have seen tonight from Barry Ernest's emotional performance at the Doomsday Concert can speak levels no great speech could ever hope to. Sure we get to drive around in limos and private jets, but money isn't integral to our survival. We still live underground when we aren't preaching our message. We refuse to accept any advertising contracts or deals and we donate all of our monetary compensation to charity'.
LUKE
'You give every cent away'?
SAMSON
'It's mostly based on principal but also due to the fact that we have no need for money down there. The underground environment is unique in that we have no currency or form of bartering. It's a take what you need economy where every resident is in it together'.
Ava is stunned by the sound of this.
AVA
'Does the system not get abused'?
REX
'I suppose it does. But no system is perfect and our system-based entirely on trust and teamwork-hangs inherently tediously in the balance. But we're all in it together; either we survive together or we go down together-for now, at least, the system is thriving'.
SCENE: PRIVATE JET (DAWN)
('This will destroy you' by The Mighty Rio Grande plays.)
The jet flies smoothly across the Atlantic. Ava is asleep stretched across three seats. Dawn is breaking outside. We see Luke gently wake her up and usher her toward the other side of the plane.
AVA
'What's going on'?
Still groggy from being awoken, Ava is reluctant to follow. All the band members are lined across the other side of the plane with their heads pressed against the windows.
AVA
'What are they looking at? Why are we flying so low'?
LUKE
'You'll never guess'.
AVA
'This better be good'.
Ava presses her face against an empty window and gazes out. Below them, revelling in the early morning light is the Titanic. Three of its four funnels emit smoke as it sails at full speed across the calm waters.
REX
'The unsinkable ship in all her glory'.
Ava is blown away by the image of the mighty ship sailing against the magenta pink backdrop.
EMILE
'Isn't she beautiful? I'm so glad they rebuilt her; what a testament'.
As the jet flies onwards Ava's eyes remain fixed on the majestic ship.
SCENE: BARCELONA AIRSTRIP
The jet lands smoothly onto the private airstrip in Barcelona. Weary eyed from the experiences of the past twenty four hours, Ava rests her head on the side window. She closes her eyes and listens to the sound of the soothing wind hitting the jet. It is a moment of tranquillity.
('This will destroy you' by The Mighty Rio Grande ends.)
Chapter 13
SCENE: BARCELONA
The band's limousine makes its way through the streets of Barcelona on route for the Nou Camp. The limousine's free run comes to a halt when it suddenly veers into an all too familiar sight of what appears to be a protest.
DRIVER
'This may take a while'.
For Ava, it appears to be d?j? vu. As they etch closer to the crowd Ava soon realizes that this isn't a mob of enraged protestors that she had been so accustomed to seeing in New York. Rather it is quite the opposite. People in the streets are losing parity not because of rage but because of ecstasy. Whereas seemingly everywhere else in the world people were lamenting the sombre state of affairs, here, in the heart of Catalonia, on this Saturday afternoon, the exact opposite was true. As the limo makes its way slowly through the crowds they see the whole city is draped out in carnival mode. It seems everyone-ticket to the festival or not-wants in on the action.
DRIVER
'I have been here during the Olympics and following Barcelona Football Club's greatest victories and I can honestly say that I have never experienced anything that compares to this'.
SCENE: OUTSIDE THE NOU CAMP
The iconic stadium appears into view. Just before entering the underpass that leads directly underneath the stadium the limo passes a rather bizarre advertisement-especially from an American standpoint-depicting The Turk endorsing a major animal rights organisation. He looks like the most unlikely ally for such a cause. The vehicle enters the underpass and drives onwards deep into the bowels of the Nou Camp. The limo breaks to a halt before a media circus. Almost as soon as the vehicle stops it is fully surrounded by the swarming media.
LUKE
'How can you ever get used to this'?
REX
'Nothing?absolutely nothing prepares you for this. Just you wait'.
The security man gives them the thumbs up and the door is opened. The Secret of Youth pile out and Luke and Ava follow Dennis who is the last member out of the limo. Ava grasps Luke's hand and they attempt to follow Dennis through the frenzy. Once the media get their bearing they converge around the rear of Dennis essentially cutting off Luke and Ava from the band. They catch one last glimpse of Dennis studiously making his way through the madness. It is a peculiar sight, seeing the frantic media circling a fragile, seventy eight year old man. To Dennis' credit he remains the ultimate gentle man-even in the face of such hysteria. Unlike their new, famous friends, Ava and Luke pass through the crowd unannounced almost as though they are draped in some invisibility cloak of unimportance.
Once they are free from the grips of the c
rowd they wander aimlessly backstage amongst the flurry of stage hands, assistants, speakers and musical instruments until they finally find an opening into the coliseum.
AVA (looking at the crowd coming into view)
'How the hell am I going to explain this to Perkins and my people back home'?
SCENE: NOU CAMP (AFTERNOON)
(The start of 'Dissolve Me' by Alt J plays.)
We see the vast cauldron that is the Nou Camp at full capacity. It is an atmosphere unrivalled elsewhere. In the centre of all the hysteria is an elevated, open air centre stage where some of the most well-known acts of the world have been playing since Friday afternoon. The youthful crowd-that is said to be in the extent of 150,000 people-are in jovial spirits basking under the Mediterranean sun. The overwhelming density of young, free-loving people who hold the knowledge in their inebriated minds that only hours may remain in their lives has the effect of creating a unique atmosphere that is unlikely to have been replicated elsewhere before-or ever again for that matter. Alcohol and drugs are trivial and appear to flow freely without restrictions of any kind. For many, make out sessions often took preference over the music. Above the centre stage, arches an electronic doomsday timer which ominously counts down the supposed minutes remaining of human existence on earth. Underneath the timer are the words: 'With Music, comes life'. If the world was to truly end at midnight, then there was simply no greater place to receive the last rights. Ava and Luke jostle their way through the fervent participants of this extravaganza soaking up the once in a lifetime atmosphere they were fortunate enough to experience.