The New Year and New Directions

In the New Year we started January the first a bit slowly, having had our usual two New Years’ parties in this neck of the woods. I had taken Fiona to the border where I saw Jerry, a guy I had gone to school with, and said hello to him, much to his surprise.

He was a bit unsure of just who I was until Fiona mentioned that we were in Quimble. He then told me that he was now a budding lawyer and worked for the company that was handling our defamation case. He confided that there had been an interesting turn of events in that the publishers were, in fact, an offshoot of a bigger publisher from Sydney. They, in turn, were owned -by the media company that owned the radio station where the loud-mouth shock-jock had ranted off about us. This had made the case much more winnable as that particular media company was already under the spotlight of investigations into poor journalistic practises.

He was with a mate of his called Chiller. He was a big bloke and, after my first kiss from Sven, I was well into big blokes, so Fiona welcomed the New Year with Jerry and I welcomed it with Chiller. Actually, we welcomed both New Years the same way and the fireworks were not just outside.

The show was set for the end of the first full week of the month and a couple of days later our roadies returned to the fold. We all helped them and Charlie get the equipment out of storage and put it in the truck. All of us guitarists made sure our instruments were not damaged in any way. We took the truck to the stadium and parked it in a secure zone to await the stage being built the next day. Spittool arrived later in the day and we all went down the beach to show them the best bit of the Coast. It was a good dinner that night and I went off to sleep feeling good with my life. I knew that I was no longer a partner for Lesley but I may catch a guy of my own one day. Cate now had a new dad who was beginning to bond with her and she did need a male influence rather than having two mothers.

The promoters had said that ticket sales had gone through the roof since our surf show and we now had five nights to play. After the stage had been built and the gear set up we did a sound check. Spittool played most of their set now that Kaye was behind the drum kit and she was getting a little worried about the show so we all gave her advice and hugs. We had got the promoters to shell out for air fares for the Spittool girls folks to come for a couple of days and go to the first show along with our own folks. We would have a full block of seats with friends and family so we knew we had better put on a good show.

The first show was Thursday evening and went well. Spittool were good and Kaye went to town on the drums. After the break we did our thing with a few extra pyrotechnics and lots of smoke. We did the encore bit with everyone on stage and did the African songs with Brianna out front and Steve on bongos. All in all we had done well and about twelve thousand customers thought so too. The next day we all got calls from our folks to tell how blown away they were by the full show. It had been the biggest crowd that Spittool had ever played for and were all hyper at breakfast. Ian was with us and was very quiet; I think that it had come home to him just what he was letting himself into. I was also a little surprised to see Jerry sitting with Fiona and with a big smile on both their faces.

We had more in for the Friday show and even more on the Saturday and Sunday, going back just a bit on Monday. Tuesday our roadies took the gear to Auckland where we to play Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We had a dinner for all our families on the Tuesday evening and the promoters gave us all another pendant, this time with an Argyle diamond on it. I think that they may be pleased with us. As we were coming back through Australia we left Cate with her two sets of grandparents to spoil her for a couple of weeks.

We flew to Auckland the next day and straight into a posse of reporters wanting to know how we were doing. We spoke to them as much as we could and stopped any questions about the book by telling them it was now a legal matter. On Thursday we went out to the stadium where we were to play and met our local opening band. How can I describe them – some people in full Goth gear look a bit frightening; a biker Goth looks even more frightening so try to imagine a group of heavily tattooed Maori Goth Bikers who went by the name Why? Tangy. They were all huge guys and the biggest Goth band in New Zealand but were very friendly and we all got on well. At the sound check they were very good and we all needed to be at our best this weekend. It was good that they had their own material to play so we were happy that it wasn’t one huge Quimble show.

When the show began on Friday we were blown away with them and they did their songs in yet another tempo that we hadn’t heard before. It was similar to the African style but more of a South Seas style. Spittool went on and did their thing with a few more pyrotechnics and smoke and, after the break we did our show with a bit more energy than usual. We did not bring anyone back as the African material was not destined for release here. Back at the hotel I quietly said to Algernon that I had just seen the next festival at the Manor and he nodded and gave me a hug.

The second and third show in Auckland were even better and then we all left on Monday to blow away Christchurch for two nights the following weekend. As we had almost a full week in the South Island we were taken to the tourist hotspots. We had the coach trip to Milford Sound, stayed at Taupo and went to see the glow-worms (Tess bumped her head on the tunnel going in and had to have a band-aid put on it). We also went to Dunedin and visited the chocolate factory before a dinner with bagpipes and the haggis ceremony. It was all very different from our Gold Coast time.

The two shows in Christchurch were great and I really did get into the music that Why? Tangy played. On the Monday we flew back into Brisbane where we stopped off for just a day before heading to Tokyo. Lesley had decided that she was going to come back to the Gold Coast after Tokyo so we left Cate happily with the grandies. Actually, Fiona had also said she wanted some time here before heading back to England as well.

When we got to Tokyo we found that we were to play the last night of a Goth Festival and I was happily surprised when I walked into the hotel to find Sven there. He came over and welcomed me with one of his toe-curling kisses and told me that he had been following our rise to stardom and was happy that we had followed his advice to play our own stuff. That night I didn’t sleep in my own bed at all and, by morning, realised that I loved him. In fact, I only used my own room to change in the whole time we were there.

Theatre of Tragedy was going to play the Saturday night and we were set for the closing on the Sunday so we had a bit of free time before we were needed on stage. Sven and I went off to do our own thing, visiting a few gardens and shrines. It was an eye-opener that he was into flowers and architecture and he also told me that he had been a qualified marine engineer before taking up the music and that he was feeling a calling to go back to a quieter life. I suggested that he may like to visit the Gold Coast sometime and see the opportunities on offer with tourist boats from Nerang. He was suddenly thoughtful at that and said “Only if you were there with me as my wife”. I asked him if that was a proposal and, when he nodded, I kissed him and said “Yes please”.

When the Saturday came around we all went to the festival for the first time. We dressed as normal girls and were immediately feeling out of place. The whole area was covered in Goth Lolitas as well as the different variations – Punk, Steampunk, Classic and a few that were difficult to categorise. Even the guys were in Regency fashions. Not to be outdone we headed for the vendors stalls where we all ended up as Goth Lolitas. There was a cosmetic stall where the owner recognised us as Quimble and did the proper Japanese Goth make-up for free if we got him to do us before our show.

We had fun that day as ordinary punters, grooving to the music. Theatre of Tragedy finished the day and I was surprised to hear the singer saying “Thank you and Goodbye” before the last number. When Sven and I were in bed that night I asked him about that and he told me that the band was going back to Norway and that it was unlikely that they would tour again for a while as the singer was leaving. I said that this would allow him to come back to Australia with me next week and we sealed it with a kiss – and more.

Sunday was the last day of the festival and the most manic. Several bands were on before us and when we all got into the Lolita costume and presented ourselves to the cosmetic stand, the owner made sure we all looked like genuine Japanese Goths. Spittool opened the evening with a great set and the crowd was with it but when we arrived on stage in our Lolita fashions they went wild. We played just about everything we knew that night, from the early stuff to the later and finished off with our hits. We were on stage for the best part of four hours and were all looking like dishrags when we finished and I knew that, if I never played in Quimble again, I would be proud of myself and the rest of the band for that experience.

In fact, it was the beginning of one end and the start of another life for several of us. The plane to England the following week only had Algernon, Felicity, Tess and Charlie as well as our roadies. Fiona, Faith, Lesley and I were joined by Spittool and Sven to fly back to Brisbane, Brianna and Spittool all giving us hugs as we left them at the airport for their own flight home to Sydney. Fiona was met by Jerry, Lesley was met by Ian and Cate, Faith was met by Stevie and Sven and I went to a hotel in Nerang.

Sven immediately fell in love with the area and the sun. We used our savings to get a house on one of the waterways and Sven bought two boats. One was a tourist boat which he spent months getting back into order, the other a smaller speedboat which he used to go between our house and the marina. He even learned to surf and we enrolled him in the lifesavers. We married, by civil ceremony, in the middle of the year, just after Jerry and Fiona (who was showing a bit of a bump) and a couple of weeks before Faith and Steve (in a suit and ponytail – just for the day). Leslie and Ian followed us all later in the year but theirs was a church wedding with Faith and I as bridesmaids. Chiller was best man but when he saw how big Sven was he only gave me a peck on the cheek. Leslie and Ian now had a surfing shop where Fiona and Stevie helped out when they were not teaching percussion.

It was Spittool that went to Durban to record with Shamble and they toured South Africa with them for a couple of months. They were now big in Australia with the African style and the resulting album was a big hit. In England it was as I predicted, Spittool and Why? Tangy were hits at Algernons’ Festival. Felicity had married her guy from Cambridge and still ran the festivals as well as booking for the two new bands. Tess and Charlie used their money to buy another club where they are doing well.

As for us, you can’t stop a musician playing and we formed a new band with Lesley on keyboard, me on bass, Fiona on rhythm, Sven on lead and both Faith and Stevie on percussion. We called ourselves Stinson and kept our playing to the South East Queensland area as international fame and fortune had been our way and we were all over it. Believe it or not, we had come back to being a party band and got lots of work. The outcome of the legal case went our way as our guys had gone for a hundred million in damages and the media company had settled out of court for thirty million. It was a good deal all round, even if it was shared by ten of us after we had paid the legal costs. The last I heard of that was that the media company was now chasing Adrian and his author mate to recover some of the cost.

Our families are now intertwined and we have great Christmas’s and do big birthday parties. As Sven had only seen me as a woman I didn’t tell him about fathering Cate but I think he suspected when I would cuddle her as she grew into a surfer girl. The only time we went Goth these days was for Halloween when we went out bothering the populace for donations to the surf club in exchange for sweets they could give out on that night. The tourist boat is doing well and we are looking at a second if we can get a good crew together. That is the microcosm of life though; anything is possible if you have a good crew behind you.

The End – Really!!

Marianne G 2020