A New Direction?

On the Sunday we had a big spread in the papers, photos of both bands and a good review of the show with a special mention of the last four numbers and how different they sounded.

In the morning both bands were taken to Taronga Zoo where the media took pictures of us cuddling furry animals and especially Cate enjoying herself. I think that the girl will have a scrapbook bigger than an encyclopaedia by the time she can read. One of the newspaper guys had a small radio with him and he called for us to listen as an overweight, overblown, red-necked has-been ranted on about our show. He had obviously not seen it and was only going by snippets of information. However, when he brought up the book and the terrible goings-on we just laughed. Whatever he was trying to do, painting a Goth band as over the top and wild was just good publicity. The newspaper guys asked us about the book and we told them it was a load of bunkum.

The Sunday show was great and the crowd seemed to have a few darker faces among it which made me think more about the new sound. Monday morning we were visited by a legal type from the law firm regarding the book. He had a Justice of the Peace with him and we all sat in a private room while we went through the book he supplied, highlighting all the lies and fabrications while signing bits of paper for the JP to show that we had done the highlighting under oath and that the bits we had highlighted were not true. By the time we finished the book looked like a redacted report from a security service to the government. The only white bits on some of the pages were the margins.

The promoters wanted us to record the new sound as soon as we could and I thought that it would be a very good boost for Spittool. I was not happy about the way the sound was moving and, over lunch, made my thoughts clear. The rest of our band agreed as we had worked hard to get where we were today. Tess came up with the idea that we record it and it would be a Spittool and friends release. With that thought I suggested that we rethink the one with Shamble and allow them to hog the Quamble image as well. It would be like we had mini-Quimble groups around the world doing songs that were like us, but not us, and that we had better come up with a new direction in our own material. This gave everyone a thoughtful moment. Fiona suggested that we rework a couple of our really old songs in a Japanese vein to play as the encores in Japan next year. Tess said that she had some old school friends in Brisbane who were Japanese and it was decided that she get on to them for tips.

When Brianna and the rest of her band were brought to the hotel to change we asked her if she would like to take on the African style songs for their own and her whole band was excited by the prospect. They had already started to rethink a few of her own songs into the genre and thought that it would be a good boost because of the increasing African population in Australia. The promoters told us that we had all day Wednesday in the studio so we set ourselves to get a good number of Spittool songs on tape.

The Monday evening show was different in that there were a lot of darker faces in the crowd and the encore numbers had a lot of the audience on their feet and swaying. During the post-show signings we made sure that anyone who asked about the songs was told that it would be a new Spittool release in the New Year. Tuesday we had a day off and our coach took us into the Hunter region and the Blue Mountains where we stopped at a number of wineries for Algernon and Charlie to hone their tastebuds and for the rest of us to take in the sights. It was a good day and we all realised that, after the recording session tomorrow, we would not have to play again until the show at the Carrara Stadium in early January.

The Wednesday saw us all in the studio bright and early and we worked non-stop until we had good recordings of the four songs with Brianna and her band out front. We then had time to work on the four songs of our original EP and, as we already knew them, had them in the can by late afternoon. We all went back to the hotel for a well-deserved dinner. Brianna and Stevie were coming with us to Brisbane while the rest of her band was having their Christmas at home. Kaye, their drummer, would be back behind her kit for the Brisbane show so was very happy about that. She said that the moon-boot would be an advantage with the bass drum pedal.

On Thursday we flew to Brisbane and our first meeting with our families for a couple of years. Tess and I knew just how much had changed since we last saw them and we were both very anxious about the welcome we may receive. We needn’t have worried as all of our folks were there as we came off the plane, along with a barrage of reporters and TV cameras. As far as they were concerned, we were a Brisbane band who went to England as nobodies and were returning as stars and they ‘owned’ us as their own. It was absolute bedlam for a while until the airport security asked us to move outside as we were blocking the walkways. My parents almost smothered me with hugs and did the same for Lesley but the main attraction for them was their grand-daughter Cate, who lapped it up like the little diva she was.

Charlie had a cooler reception but Tess’s parents soon warmed to him when they realised just how much in love the two were. Even Briannas’ folks were there as she had taken herself to Sydney under a cloud but they had come to realise that they loved their child, whatever gender it was. We answered a lot of questions from the press who were amazed that Stevie was with us after the book release and that she was wearing a very nice blouse and skirt combination and was being closely held by Faith. We told them all that we just wanted some quiet time with our folks and to show our English members around our home town and that we were happy to receive the media in smaller numbers for discussions over the next few weeks. The only odd thing about our welcome was my seeing Adrian standing by a car, a little way away, with a scowl on his face as a couple of security guys stopped him from coming over. I wondered if the legal firm had foreseen his wanting to confront us and had organised protection.

We had been booked into a hotel in Broadbeach, not far from the stadium, and we had a coach for us. All of our families followed on and a few of the press did as well. Once we had been settled in we all walked to the Broadbeach Bowling and Social Club where a big table had been set up for us. I asked Stevie why she hadn’t been met by anyone and she told me that her parents were really mad at her about the book so I suggested that we ring them from the reception counter and invite them over for the lunch.

She did that and when they answered she handed the phone to me as she was having a fit of nerves. I explained to her folks that Stevie was really not to blame for the book and that it was a load of lies that will be contested in the courts soon. I asked them if they wanted to come to Broadbeach this afternoon and see just how their child had changed and how much we had forgiven her. When I said her there was an intake of breath on the other end and her mother demanded to speak to her child. I handed the phone back to Stevie and let her explain that she was a girl at the moment for the shows with Spittool as the replacement drummer but was now feeling that a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Her parents said they would be with us in an hour or so.

That done we had lunch and then spent a lot of time with the media talking about our career so far and our thoughts on our future. When I could I managed to sit with my parents, my mother having her grand-daughter on her knee. I quietly told them that, thanks to the miracle of modern medicine, I was now just another girl in an all-girl band and my mother put Cate down long enough to give me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, saying “welcome home, my daughter, I’m so proud of you and Lesley, you are all stars.” I sobbed and told her I loved her and Dad and hoped that I didn’t disappoint them. My father also gave me a big hug and also said he loved me and I was almost awash when Lesley came over to receive hugs as a wonderful daughter in law.

Tess and Charlie were in a similar position with Tess’s parents and I could see Algernon and the sisters in deep conversations with the press when Stevies parents walked in. Her mother went straight to her and enveloped her in her arms while her father had a look of anger mixed with awe. I excused myself from my folks and went over to him to placate him. I knew that he would have a problem with it all as he was a surfer type and had been one of our biggest fans when we were all still lads. I suspected that he may secretly have a few of our records stashed away now.

I went up to him and welcomed him to the lunch and introduced myself as Susie, once known as Stuart. He was gobsmacked and blustered “If you hadn’t told me that I would never have known. I have come here expecting to see a bunch of queers in dresses, even though I like the music, and I thought that the photos were all played with. Then here you are as much of a woman as my wife!” I pointed out Tess and Brianna and told him that he was looking at Terry and Bruce and then he really noticed the girl his wife was talking to and stuttered “That’s not Steven, surely!” I told him he was right and that he had better go and make friends with his new daughter as I was sure she wasn’t going to come back to him a Steve any more.

As the afternoon wore on it became apparent that all of our families had made their peace and that, thankfully, they all accepted that their sons were now daughters. This just left Lesley and her folks. She had always been a little cagey about her family and I had just thought that she had left them as the dark Goth sheep of the family. I cornered her with Cate and we went to sit outside, looking over the bowls greens where members were deep in their own clashes with the little white ball. I asked her if she wanted to contact her own folks and she sat for several minutes before telling me about them. “They live just around the corner, in one of the apartment towers. They are pretty well off and I was the rebel of the family. When I walked out it was after a gigantic row and I have not seen or spoken to them since. I don’t even know if they know of my music career or even if they remember that they have a daughter.” I said “Why don’t we take Cate and go and see them to find out.”

We told the rest that we were going for a walk and took Cate the couple of blocks to the tower. At the entrance we rang the bell for her parents’ apartment and, when her mother answered, Lesly just said the one word “Mum?” There was a shriek from the speaker and her mother said “you’d better come up here, NOW!”

We took the elevator to the right floor and when the doors opened her mother pulled her out of the car and wrapped her arms around her as if she was never going to let her go. It was lucky I was holding Cate at the time as she would have been crushed. When her mother settled down a bit she pulled Lesley into the apartment and I just followed on with Cate in my arms, closing the door behind us. As we went into the lounge her father stood up and took Lesley into his arms and told her over and over that he was sorry that he had been such a fool to take umbrage at her Goth dressing back then and that he had regretted it ever since. Lesley was in tears herself and had to sit down. Her mother then turned to me and asked “Then who are these girls?” I told her that we were her second daughter and her grand-daughter and she promptly fell back into a chair in a daze.

After we had revived her we gave them both a potted history from the time Lesley walked out to the present. Her parents had a very hard time getting their heads around several things. The first thing was that I was the father of their grand-child; and the second being that we were members of the band that had been in all the papers lately. They were very conservative and had not even known about us when we still played gigs on the Gold Coast. They readily agreed to come back with us to meet all the rest of the gang so we had to wait until they changed into something more suitable.

When we got back to the rest of the group we introduced them around. I made sure to introduce the Wizard as Lord Algernon Transgerant, our benefactor from England and Mr Craven was immediately determined to be as nice as he could be while his wife was delighted to meet the three sisters and probably thought that they would all be Ladies. Come to think of it, they probably were, I had never considered that before. The management was happy to let us carry on and re-laid our table with extra places to cater for our expanded group. One by one the press left us alone, happy with all the copy and photos they had, promising us a good write up as we had been so open and welcoming, unlike other overseas artists and their wall of security.

We had a great dinner and then the extended families went home and we all went back to the hotel and a much needed bed. It had been a wonderful day.

Marianne G 2020