Big Changes

This threw Tess into a frenzy of activity. Our last show was at the end of August and Felicity had stopped booking us to give us a bit of a break before heading to South Africa. Charlie and Tess moved mountains to get her in for the SRS in early September so that she could be fully recovered before we left.

Lesley and I had a long discussion about my future and she told me that while she loved me, my lack of sexual needs had made her think that I was well on my own way to being female. It was a decision I had not thought I would have to make and we managed to get me into the operating theatre only a few days after Tess. It would be a genuine all-girl band that would tour. I did not tell my parents that I was doing this as I was sure they would not fully understand.

When Tess and I were healing, we applied for new passports showing us as female to use on tour. We had both had a decent set of breasts; mine added during surgery and no-one could tell that we had ever been boys. In fact, when Lesley and I were in Cambridge one day shopping for gifts to take with us we were hit on by a couple of fellows and Lesley encouraged them to the point that they took us to their home and she disappeared into a bedroom with one, leaving me to deal with the other. It did not take long for him to start fondling and kissing me and I was almost thinking about smacking his face when a feeling of desire came over me and we ended up in his bedroom for me to lose my virginity again. This time I remembered it with absolute clarity as it was one of the best events of my life so far. That day Lesley and I became true sisters and saw the boys a couple of times again before we left.

We had made time to go into the studio again with the idea that we would make a single but it ended up as four songs which we released in Australia just before we left. It was called ‘Quimble Coming Down-Under’ and was a limited edition that sold out within a week. It was all looking good and our traveling group had grown with the five of us in the band, Cate, Charlie, Felicity and Algernon as well as a couple of roadies who went separately with our equipment. The tour organisers had us finishing each show with a local band opening and had organised all of our accommodation.

We left Heathrow in the first Wednesday in November to fly directly to Cape Town. When we arrived it was a marvellous sunny day that greeted us after the cold of London. The promoters had booked us a small convoy of mini-bus taxis and we were taken to the Sun Square Cape Town hotel where we settled in for a rest before dinner. In the evening we were taken to the stadium where we were to play and caught up with our roadies and equipment. We did a short sound check and went back to the hotel.

The promoters were a bit unsure of us as we wore only normal clothing and make-up when off stage these days. The next day they had us booked to do a session with the local pop station, 94.5, which had been playing our songs so we dressed in our full stage gear for them. The interview went well and we went directly from the radio station to the stadium where we did a full sound check and checked the lighting and effects. The promoters were now smiling. We had the afternoon free so went back to the hotel to laze around their pool. I had to buy my first bikini and felt fabulous.

That night we got back into our stage gear and make-up and were taken to the stadium where we stood in the wings to listen to the local band that were opening the show. They were called Shamble and were a cover band of our stuff. They had enough of their own material to put on a set and were good but insipid compared to us. After the break we went on and showed them what Goth Music should sound like. With the lighting and pyrotechnics we blew them away. The crowd really got behind us and carried everyone along, it was a great show.

Next day was the Friday and we were taken, in the mini-busses, to the cable car station at the bottom of Table Mountain for a trip up. The view from the top was magnificent as the whole area is very mountainous after the flat of East Anglia. The promoters were really happy this morning as there was a full page in the Cape Argus, the English language paper, about our rise to fame and a good write-up about the show, with some good pictures. That night we did the second show to a bigger, and more enthusiastic, audience.

Saturday we were taken to Camps Bay where we could spend some quality time on the beach. The promoters laid on a good lunch in one of the many restaurants there and then we went back to the hotel for more pool time before a solid session in the hotel salon. That evening we did the last show in Cape Town to a great audience. The opening band had raised themselves a couple of notches as well and sounded much more aggressive on stage. I thought that they would benefit greatly from the three outings.

Sunday morning we all went to the airport for our flight to Tambo International at Johannesburg. This was a lot different to Cape Town in climate as it is the Highveld and a lot cooler, especially at night. It was also a much more sophisticated city with lots of skyscrapers. Once again we had the mini-bus taxi fleet to take us to the Ecotel Southgate Hotel, a great building that reminded me of the houses in Gone with The Wind. We were set to play on the Monday to Wednesday at the Joburg Theatre Complex so had an interview set up for YFM Radio that evening. We stayed in our normal clothing for that and they didn’t seem to mind.

Monday we were taken to the Carlton Centre where we went up to the look-out on the fiftieth floor. Once again I couldn’t believe the views and had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. We had a good lunch and then went to the Theatre to do a sound check. After dinner at the hotel we all got ourselves dressed and painted and went to the Theatre and again heard a local band that were good but not where they could be. We did our thing after the break and I could see the other band members in a huddle when we had finished. The promoters were also in deep discussion and the next day they asked us if we didn’t mind it if the band that opened in Cape Town did the same in Durban as they now knew that the band they had booked were really not in our league. We told them that they should not drop the Durban band but suggested that they add them to open before the second band and that we would go later in the evening with our set. That way it would be a bigger spectacle to finish in South Africa.

The Tuesday show was much better for the opening band as they seemed to now be really trying, not just performing for a bunch of friends. During the day we were taken out to the Lion Park Nature Reserve where I lost count of the number of lions I saw. Cate wanted to stroke the big pussies. One thing that I liked about Joburg was the layout of the city because it was a grid pattern, a bit like Melbourne and was very easy to locate oneself. The rest of the place was on a scale I had never seen before, the place covered, I was told, over five hundred square kilometres and looked to be going on for ever.

We had Wednesday as a rest day at the hotel to catch up with our letters and postcards. Brianna had written a letter which I had got just before we left England. She said that Spittool had been booked to open our show in Sydney and Brisbane and wondered how much of our music we would let them play as they were mainly a Quimble cover band. I posted my reply from the hotel, telling her what our play list would be for the two shows and told her to play all of the early material if they wanted. I also told her that we were looking forward to meeting up again.

At our Wednesday show the other band really put on a performance and we were happy for them as it would be a good help in their future gigs. Thursday morning we flew out of Tambo and into King Shaka International in Durban. The promoters had told us that they had originally intended for us to play Friday to Sunday but the ticket sales had allowed them to go to Monday as well. We were to play at the Moses Mabhida Stadium so they were extremely happy with the result and promised us a bonus. When we arrived there was the usual fleet of mini-bus taxis to take us all to the Breakers Resort. I nearly had to put on a second pair of sunglasses when we got there as the hotel was extremely white and literally shone in the sunlight. It had several pools and, as we were now back at a decent height, it was up in the low thirties centigrade, ideal swimming weather.

Shamble was already there and we all got together for lunch. Over the meal we talked about the music they played and we discovered that they did our songs with an African slant. One had a cassette player with a few of the numbers that they had recorded at one of the practise sessions and we were blown away with how different they sounded. Algernon was extremely interested and asked them if they would consider going to England in our next summer if he promoted an African themed festival. Felicity wondered if we could do a jam session when the stadium was set up and see what the combined bands sounded like. We spent the rest of the day around the pool. Well, some of it. We were chatted up by a bunch of very fit lads who were in town for a basketball double-header and ended up pairing off for a late afternoon bout of sex, the only girl not joining in being Tess who took Charlie up to their room so she didn’t miss out. We left Cate with Algernon to look after, something he didn’t seem to mind lately. He was starting to act like her grandfather.

Friday morning we all went to the stadium where we met the local band. We took it in turns to do a sound check and it was obvious that the locals were outgunned. We all tried to give them pointers on how to improve the performance and they did a second check which sounded much better. The promoters were again smiling. We then got on stage with Shamble and had a go at their version of one of our songs. It took a couple of tries before we got into their rhythm and I thought it sounded good. We then did a second song which came good much quicker. The promoters said that there was a studio in town where we could record the result and that they would put it out as a single as soon as they could. Lesley suggested that we bring Shamble back on stage at the end of the shows here and that we would finish with the two songs. It was decided that the band on the disc would be Quamble and that we would share any profits. The local band was amazed at how quickly we had ‘perfected’ an obvious local hit record.

Marianne G 2020