IT had to happen sooner or later.
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On their second tour of Australia, Irish singing sensations Celtic Thunder have been affected by the major flooding in Queensland and northern NSW from ex-tropical cyclone Oswald.
“Maybe we were due to have some problems,” Celtic Thunder’s Ryan Kelly said.
They had to cancel their Townsville and Brisbane shows – on January 24 and 29 respectively – because their tour bus couldn’t get through or the venues were affected by the floods .
Ryan spoke to The Leader yesterday as their tour bus headed towards Tamworth for tonight’s show at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment and Conference Centre.
For the Brisbane show, they’d flown to the Queensland capital, where Ryan has family, but were devastated when they weren’t allowed to play because of the flooding.
“We were gutted about that, to be honest,” he said.
On Sunday, at the Gold Coast Convention Centre where they were due to play that night, it was “pretty scary” when they looked out the window.
“The day of the show itself, we were in the venue and looking out the window and it was raining,” Ryan said.
“We’re used to seeing rain in Ireland – but nothing like this. I think the weather is following us.
“We did drive through some floodwater (in the night). I woke up the next morning and found that we got to our destination and there was no water in the bus, so that was a bonus.”
But he said, with their schedule – the tour finishes up in Perth on February 16 – they probably wouldn’t be able to reschedule the two missed Queensland shows.
“It’s probably not going to work out,” Ryan said.
Tomorrow night they’ll be playing at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre, before playing at Allphones Arena in Sydney the following night.
But the wild weather would not deter them from making an annual pilgrimage to Australia, he said: they’ll be back next year.
“It takes more than a bit of water to put us off,” Ryan said.
“Every city’s different – and that’s what I love about this country.”