Part 29

We stayed in our bunker for four days before we needed to go out and get some more supplies. We went to a restaurant first for a meal as we had always been taught that you should never shop on an empty stomach.

For our shopping we went into the big Hi-Jet store as you can never knock back staff discount. We did only need enough for a few days as we would be going to the seaside hotel next week to start preparing for the tour. We had slowed down on our lovemaking as we were both starting to walk funny so we popped into his old home to see the family. Guptar was sitting with a book in his hand when we were shown into the lounge and Birgitta was watching a soap opera on the TV. They both looked bored and were happy to see us.

We had a chat about how the wedding went and they thought that it was beautiful, if not traditional. Birgitta told us that Aganee had taken Anu and Anna out to see some of her old friends at a retirement home as she thought that it would brighten the old dears’ day. I found out that we were all going on tour, Birgitta and two of her girls from the salon, who had volunteered for the fun of it; Aganee and Guptar for the experience. Gaurav said that he wanted to go along as Grette could look after the business and, after all, we were just a phone call away.

Balnoor and Tavleen would be a couple, as would Jenianna and Bill who had left his job. It was handy that he had electrical skills as well as being an electronics whizz so would be a real asset with the amplification. Jack was going to send him off around our venues to make sure that everything was all right. You didn’t want to turn up and find you had no PA system. It was really a belt and braces exercise as we were told all the venues were well equipped. I did ask where we were playing and was told that Jack would give us the itinerary when were at the hotel.

By the time we left to go to the hotel, Gaurav and I were down to twice a day and I was starting to think that it may be nice to get down to one a day as it was getting a little wearing on bits of my anatomy. We packed for a few weeks and Janet picked us up. She had organised two coaches that had been air-brushed. One had ‘Anudeep Dhawan and the Dhawanees on Tour’ both sides and the other had ‘Gayle and the Four Winds on Tour’.

Anu, Anna and the band plus Bill would travel in one and my four guys, Gaurav, Guptar, Aganee, Birgitta and her salon girls would travel with me. Her husband was driving one and had picked up his load already and headed south. Janet loaded our cases on, plus my dholaks (just in case) and then we went around and picked up the band and then the salon girls and the Hidjeet family members before setting off south ourselves.

On the way down I got in a huddle with the band to choose what we planned to play for the shows. The first just had to be ‘So nice to be here tonight’ and we put together a list with another nine songs, including one off the fado album and four each off the first and last albums. If we did need more we had plenty to pick from. When we got to the hotel I found out that the others had done the same and their set would start with the ten minute raga, followed by Anudeep joining them for four solo songs off his two albums. Then I would join them for five or six duets, depending on the reception. Again we could do more and it would be up to the audience on the night.

We had, of course, overthought things, as we found out with our first rehearsals. We settled in and the hotel gave us dinner and we relaxed that first evening. The next day we went into the ballroom to find Bill testing the PA. The Four Winds were set up on one side of the stage and the others on the other side, just to make it easier. On the tour we would need to clear the stage during the intermission. To make things easier we had gone electric. We had four small amps with Alan on a good keyboard; Chico on guitar, Alec with a pick-up on the bass and Joe sporting electric drums. It will certainly sound a bit different but it was all easily moved. For the moment the Dhawanees did not have amplification but we could add that as needed.

It had been decided that we would rehearse the Four Winds in the morning and the others in the afternoon. We set a three hour limit on each per day as we did have a couple of weeks to spare. So that first morning I got up in front of the Four Winds while the others watched on. We started with “So nice’ and worked through the list we had picked. It went for about eighty minutes and that meant that we needed to cut about thirty. With the shows, if we started at seven and the first half went to eight, we could have a twenty to thirty minute break to sell the drinks and souvenirs. The second half should kick off at eight thirty and go to about ten.

We dropped the fado and a couple of others and tried again, coming in at just under the sixty minutes so we all stopped for lunch. Anu came up to me and the band as we were turning things off and told us that he was extremely happy about our set and then said to me that it had given him a lot of ideas for the movie. I asked him if he had thought about doing one of our duets in Hindi and he had a think; then said “Let’s ponder that one.”

Jack and Sheila had turned up while we were playing and, at lunch, told us the itinerary for the tour. We would leave here and go to Coventry for three nights, Leicester for three and Nottingham for three. We had a day off and the following day we had four nights in Newcastle and another four in Edinburgh. After four in Glasgow, three each in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield we had another day off before two nights in Wolverhampton, four in Birmingham and then another day off before two nights in Cardiff and another two in Bristol.

With another day break we then finished off with four nights in Sikh central, Slough, before our final date being four nights back in London. The venues were three to four thousand seats each and there was already good bookings which he expected would lift after our TV appearance. He had got us into a chat show two evenings hence where they would play the duet clip and Anudeep and the Dhawanees would be interviewed. He did have feelers out to get the Four Winds on TV for a playing appearance as we were coming down the west coast. Alan joked that we needed to form a union if we were only getting four days off in six weeks and we all had a laugh.

It did help that some of the venues were closer together as we would be staying in Leicester for the first ten nights and Manchester for twelve. Then there would be another six near Birmingham. This allowed us time between shows to get our dry cleaning done. Janet had got our two sets of outfits and I had a good supply of dresses for the first half. We would not be going far from any shops and could add things as we needed. I did a mental calculation and reckoned that if we got near capacity we could get about one and a half million gross at ten pounds a seat.

With all of that sorted we went back into the ballroom to work on the second half. I was starting to think of the Four Winds as my band and the others as a band I sometimes sang with for some reason and it bugged me a bit. I asked Gaurav about it that night as we snuggled and he said that it must be that I was happier as an Anglo in an Anglo band, singing Anglo songs. It made me stop and think as I had always been considering myself as an honorary Indian.

The next day we worked through the play list with ease and each band did a couple of extras, just in case. Anu said that he had thought about my suggestion and that we would spend a couple of days just working on a Hindi version of one of our duets. That evening he related the words while Aganee wrote them down. I would need some time to get it worked out and I hoped the rest of the band had some patience. We gave all the others the next day off to have a rest and get ready for the TV interview. Anu, Aganee and I spent our day working through the duet, firstly speaking the words and then singing acapella. We thought that we would be able to try it out tomorrow afternoon.

We had an early dinner and went off in one coach to the TV studio where we were primped and painted for the interview. It was not too bad, they showed the duet and we were asked about our album with Anu and when he told them that the band had its own album in the top ten in India, the questions got more aimed at us all, after spending ten minutes in his shadow. The interviewer had obviously not done a full research.

We wound up our segment and he thanked us as an aide rushed over to say that the next guest had not turned up. They had a worried discussion before I said “Excuse me; I have a DVD in my bag of a scoop scene from Anudeeps last ever movie, which is yet to be completed. It runs for just ten minutes and was shot by a great Bollywood director. Would that help?”

Anu winked at me and I went to get it with the aide. We sat down on the set again and waited until the break had finished. The interviewer opened up by apologising that the other star on the show was, unfortunately, unable to make it but that he had a scoop video that will be shown. He asked Anu about the scene and he described what they would see and where it fitted into the movie. Interestingly he described the movie in much the way I had laid it out and I saw the others in the band get their eyes widened as they took in the future consequences. Then the DVD was shown and when we got back on air the interviewer, as well as the small audience, was silent before bursting into spontaneous applause as the credits for the show started rolling. The interviewer managed to regain his composure to give the farewell that he usually did. As we were ushered out of the studio I went and got the DVD back and we had the TV make-up removed.

Back in the bus, Anu said, “That went well, didn’t it?”

Marianne G 2021