Part 30
Janet and Gaurav had been watching on the monitors and she said that it had, indeed, gone well. Gaurav commented that it will be interesting to see the newspapers over the next couple of days and he was right, the darling.
There was comment in the TV reports about the stunning video that the show had scooped and some had op-eds about Anudeep and his fame in India. A couple even managed to find pictures of our wedding that had only made the local paper last week. The caption was ‘Local stars become a sensation in India’ and a couple even had a story about the ‘Local band in sub-Continent top ten’.
Jack was over the moon and he said that the initial bookings had accelerated and that we may even play to a full house on our first night. The other thing that our exposure brought about was the fact that our coaches outside the hotel attracted fans, with the hotel management asking us if we could please put on a show for the locals before we left. Gaurav negotiated a discount on our stay if we put on a show with half the door takings going to charity and the hotel keeping anything they made on food and drink sales. He insisted that it be cabaret style with chairs and tables.
The hotel jumped at it and our last evening there was a full dress rehearsal in front of several hundred locals. Now, that one did go well as we had a polished presentation in the bag by that time but we did not do the Hindi number as this crowd would not understand a word. It turned out to be a win-win for everyone; the locals got a show, the hotel made a good bit on food and drinks as well as getting kudos when they presented a cheque to charity. For us, we made enough to cover our diesel costs for the first week or so.
The following day we packed up all of our kit and luggage, loaded the two coaches and left for the north. We were to stay at a hotel in Leicester for ten nights and it worked out well. The hotel was reasonable, although Anu and Anna were not impressed, seeing what their lifestyle usually demanded. The venue in Coventry was good and Bill had made sure the PA was up to scratch. He had organised small clip-on microphones for the Indian instruments and there were a couple on short stands to the dholaks and we did a sound check with them. It was the first time the Dhawanees had played a space big enough to need amplification and everyone hoped it would be good.
It turned out well as no-one complained that they couldn’t hear afterwards. We had an audience close to capacity and, by the spicy aroma in the theatre, most of them were Indian. Lajpal and his wife had flown in from Mumbai that day and were staying in Coventry so they sat with Jack and our family members to see the show. I would have thought that Aganee would be thoroughly sick of it by now but she kept telling me it was like reading a book where each chapter was the same, but different as it evolved.
Actually, I realised how right she was when I walked onto the stage to wait for the curtain to go up. With an audience out there we lifted our game a little. At seven the curtain lifted and we hit it with ‘It’s so nice to be here tonight. Let’s cuddle and turn down the light’ as the house lights went down, a nice touch, I thought, and something that Bill had come up with just this afternoon. Our set went as planned and we even got called up for an encore.
In the break Janet and the salon girls were earning their keep selling tour tee-shirts and CDs and even some photos we had made. With the curtain down, the boys and I quickly removed our kit to the wings out of sight and then we went out to mingle a while and sign some purchases before I slid away to be transformed. It would be a good fifteen minutes into the second half before I was needed on stage so I wasn’t in a hurry. In the dressing room I met up with Anu and the band and they all thought it had gone well. I told Anu that, by the aroma, we would need to do the Hindi number tonight. I went to change from my cocktail dress into a salwar kameez with a very colourful tunic and matching chunni.
Anu was a little worried tonight and I stood by him while the band did the ten minute raga. I told him that he was the star and to go and lap it up. Even if this crowd was not his usual adoring fans, they will love him and adore him after the show. As the raga came to an end he walked out onto the stage to a roar of approval and they went into his first song. I went back and the salon girls did their magic on me and then I was up in the wings again to wait for my part of the first duet.
Again, it was a little different. Anu and I had remote microphones so we could move around and the band started the song and, although I was to come on as he sang, I held back and came on singing my first line to some applause. We worked through the show and came to the point when Anu asked the audience how many of them spoke Hindi. A forest of hands went up so he said “This one is just for you” and we did the Hindi duet, with an absolute roar of applause as we finished. The rest of the set was almost an encore in itself and they did not want us to leave the stage. We added three songs before Anu had to tell them that it was time we finished and we sang our last for the night. All lining up across the stage as the curtain lifted again to our standing ovation.
We went out front again to sign for a while and Anu was besieged by adoring fans. I knew that the band would find it odd for the first time doing their signatures but they took to it with gusto. It was close to midnight when the last person left and the doors were locked. There would be a cleaning crew in next day and we could leave the kit on stage so we were able to go back to the hotel for some well-deserved sleep. Gaurav was effusive in his praise as we went to bed and we did stay awake a little longer than I hoped; but it was nice.
At breakfast we had a discussion on how it went and the general consensus was that, if was all as good as this, we would be very happy. Janet said that by our sales last night she had better order some more for the second half of the tour. I thanked the salon girls and they told me that they loved every minute of it as it was so exciting. Lajpal had been quiet and then, in a moment of silence, said “I had my doubts when the UK tour was proposed. I did not think that Anudeep would be as big here as it has turned out he is. Last night was a wake-up call to me and I pledge to make his farewell tour, as well as his last film, as good as they can be. I have to admit that I had resigned myself to allowing him to simply fade away but now we will work to make him go out as the star he has always been.”
Anu said “Thank you, dear friend. I know that we have gone with the flow of second rate scripts and the last couple of albums have been so sweet they almost made me gag when I heard the final result. Going back to traditional roots has relit my fire and last night showed me that I still had it in me to be a good showman. These good people who grace the stage with me have created the magic, maybe by accident, but it is a wave we must ride to the beach of my retirement and the ocean of fame that awaits them.” Aganee looked at me and shrugged.
There was a smattering of applause and Anna gave him a kiss on the cheek. Jack and Sheila left us to continue their own business and also our tour promotion. We went back to the venue in the morning to reset the stage and restock the souvenir stand. I was interested to see how much Guptar, Birgitta and Gaurav were getting engrossed in the activities. Guptar was shedding his upright persona and was really getting closer to Gaurav than I had seen before. Aganee was already our number one groupie and she was getting Birgitta into the small activities that would help everyone, like making sure our stage outfits were clean and ready for use or that our cosmetic supplies were up to scratch.
During the course of those first three venues, we melded into a team and everything seemed to work as it should. Because they had already seen the show from the seats, Guptar and Gaurav became our stage hands. The second and third nights in Coventry were as good as the first, while the three nights in Leicester and Nottingham were similar. The show became more polished as we went on and, by the time Lajpal left us after the first week, he was assured that when we hit our first stage in India, we would be ready for whatever they threw at us. We had a day off after the last show in Nottingham and toured some of the local attractions, finding that we had become an attraction ourselves whenever we got out the coaches. We left very early the following morning to drive to Newcastle and the next stage of the tour.
After the four full shows there it was on to Scotland where I wondered if our four nights would go down well. I needn’t have worried as we were almost full every night, as it was with our four nights in Glasgow. Our next stop was another long stay so, when we booked into the country hotel just north of Manchester we could arrange for our clothes to be cleaned. We had three nights in Leeds where we had already stopped at the venue to unload the kit and stock on the way through. Then it was Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield. The tour was getting popular but we could not add any more nights as everything was already booked but Jack asked us if we could do an extra night in Sheffield instead of having a day off.
So, after four shows there, we went directly to our hotel just north of Birmingham. We had just two nights in Wolverhampton but already four in Birmingham – which became five because of the demand. Then it was the two in Cardiff and two in Bristol. All the time Anu was getting stronger and stronger and was looking like the star he had been as he went on. He exuded confidence and this transmitted itself to all of us. While we were in Bristol we were told that Jack had added another night at the start of the Slough engagements as well as two extra nights in London and that all were close to being booked out. No rest for the wicked was what they said. Aganee assured me that it was no rest for the talented.
Marianne G 2021
