Beckett (7, centre, holding the guitar) with his father Daniel, sister Brooklyn, 9, brothers Campbell, 13 and Dainton, 12 and mother Candice. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
It started in the front row of the Summernats crowd rocking out to Peking Duk and ended with a Kaleen boy living his dream of being a rock star.
Candice Couper’s seven-year-old son Beckett decided he wanted to stand right up the front of the concert, so there he was with his mother and three siblings, while his father stood further back looking after their bags.
Then Beckett started to dance.
“He starts doing his little Melbourne shuffle and so what happens is … [everyone else], they sort of spread out and they’re watching him and then the circle gets bigger,” Candice recalled.
“And one of the people in the crowd that had made the circle, they’re like, ‘get him up on stage!'”
Beckett’s moves had caught the eye of a security guard, who then flagged down someone working on the show.
Candice and Beckett were told to head around the back and they’d see if he could get on stage.
“The security guard had no idea who we were and I said we were just told to come around and find a door,” Candice said.
An organiser ducked on stage to speak with yet another important looking person and then it happened.
“There was a thumbs up to me and then they moved Beckett out there and were like ‘go ahead and dance’.”
Some seven-year-old boys may have frozen under the bright flashing lights, the hundreds of screaming people on the ground and just the strangeness of the situation.
But Beckett just started doing his thing.
And then he was asked to stay for another song.
“I’m like, yes, and that’s when it got really big,” Candice said.
“The Peking Duk boys were like ‘yay, thanks Beckett’ – had no idea who he was, what he was, what he could do – and for some reason, they just let him be up there.
“And as soon as the bass dropped, you saw Beckett start doing the worm and even in the background, I was watching the Peking Duck boys nod at each other.
“I still can’t believe that it happened, the fact that – because they’re quite famous – that they said yes to a bloody local kid, I just don’t know anyone who would do that.”
But everyone involved with making this magic happen – from the young people on the ground who first saw Beckett dance, to the security guard, promoters and all the way to the Canberra-born disc jockeys – couldn’t know just how special this moment was.
Beckett had only recently gained the ability to fully hear.
Beckett is the youngest of four kids and was born with less than 50 per cent of his hearing.
All sounds were muffled, as if he was underwater, as the organs inside of his ears didn’t have the space to work correctly.
Beckett had his first surgery when he was three (the drive home was when he said “I love you” for the first time) and his last surgery was almost a year-and-a-half ago.
But from the start, music had been there.
“We picked up that he could hear and feel when we played music with stronger basses … music, the vibrations, were so important,” Candice said.
Beckett’s been dancing at home since he was three and wants to be a rock star when he grows up.
“I want to get on stage,” he said.
“I play drums and I play guitar.” (He’s getting an electric guitar for his eighth birthday).
Beckett’s 12-year-old brother Dainton is teaching him the drums and they sing together.
Dainton said it was pretty inspiring to see his little brother on stage.
“It was really exciting, I was really proud of him.”
And it’s given Beckett the belief that becoming a rock star when he grows up is possible.
“Now he’s like, alright, so I need to go into the dance school – he’s never had a dance lesson in his life – I need to get drumming lessons … it’s kind of lit that spark,” Candice said.
She had this message for Peking Duk and the entire team at Summernats: “By allowing him onto your platform, you gave him something so rare – the knowing that his dreams can become reality.
“In that moment, he didn’t just hope any more. He felt it. And that feeling will stay with him forever.
“Because of you, my little boy felt heard and seen.”
