Chapter 7

Willow led Peter out to the front bar and introduced him to her father, then went back to tidy up on stage. Jacob gave her a look.

“Who was that?”

“If it works out, that’s our manager. Bruce Miller has recommended him and he’s coming along tomorrow to the church. There’s going to be a presentation of a cheque for the Roof Fund, and the Bishop of Coventry will be taking the service. Racheal will be there with Rick, so she might be able to bring you. I’ll be playing the church organ.”

“You mean that I won’t get zapped by lightning if I step inside a church?”

“You attend the school chapel. This place is just a lot older and more interesting. I will instruct the almighty that Jacob Epstein is one of the good guys. Your parents are over there, so pick up your Fender and walk, young man. I’ll see you in the morning.”

They slowly got the stage cleared and the equipment stowed in the storage area. Brent and Gina went behind the backdrop for a little canoodling. Willow made sure everything was neat and then looked at the hall, which looked like there had been a riot. The tables were haphazard, due to the rush to get them up, and there was plates and glasses still on them. Wendy found her, stacking dirties.

“Don’t bother with those, love. The casuals will be coming in tomorrow and clean up. We’ll walk home, your father is talking to a guy.”

“The guy is Peter, and he’s the manager that Bruce knows. He will manage Rick’s band when they’ve signed.”

“Come along, you did well tonight and need your beauty sleep to be ready to be part of tomorrow’s happenings. I suggest that you select something nice to wear tomorrow and hang it on the door hook to fall out.”

They left the club and walked home. The night was chill, and their breath hung like steam around their heads. The house was warm and cosy, and Willow suddenly felt tired, hugging Wendy and going up to get ready for bed. Wendy stood and watched her climbing the stairs, wondering where all that talent had come from. OK, there were two great grandfathers who played piano in pubs, but what Willow was doing at such a young age was unbelievable.

The next morning, Wendy roused a reluctant daughter to get up and in the shower. Willow was dressed in one of her better full skirts and a pink sweater when she came down for breakfast. Ashley was smiling as they ate, which looked almost creepy to Willow.

“What’s the joke, Dad?”

“No joke, just lots of good things. Last night, Peter and I had a good discussion and he agreed that he needed to rebuff any promoter who wants you touring and that you had to be allowed to finish school. He thinks that the idea of an album is a good one, if all you need to do is appear for interviews. He has the idea that you’re creating the brand ‘Willow’ with all the things that you’re involved with.”

“Brand ‘Willow’! Like some washing powder or toothpaste?”

“Exactly. There are products on the market that give their name to the action, like everyone saying that they’re Hoovering. It’s still only local, but Willow Rose is getting linked to brilliant organ playing.”

“Yeah, right. There I was in the Cathedral, willowing away. I need to get the church notice board changed to ‘W.J. Rose, church willower.’ If that’s the sort of thing he comes up with, is he going to be what we want.”

“That was just a bit of what we spoke about. He is a man with a lot of ideas. Some crazy, some not so crazy, but he thinks about his clients and what’s needed to further their careers.”

“My career doesn’t need furthering, Dad. Not until I graduate, and the Brand Willow will be yesterday’s news by then,’

“Maybe so, but we had better get going to the church.”

They arrived at the church as the bells started ringing and went inside. The heaters must have been on all night as it was cosy. Willow went up to the organ to start playing, Wendy went to help Edie with the flower arranging, and Ashley went over to the club to get the urn on and make sure the heaters were on.

Willow was playing Bach as the church filled. She saw Jacob come in with Racheal, and Rick with the rest of the band. There was a guy with a lump of a camera panning around the church and then pointed it up at her. She could just make out the logo of the local TV station on his coat. Bruce, Peter and Marcus came in, followed by another guy who she surmised was Zac. It was standing room only when the bells stopped, and she saw the Bishop and the Reverend appear in the centre aisle.

The service went as usual, with the Bishop giving the readings and the sermon, giving praise for the mysterious ways that his god worked. The four hymns were all rejoicing the wonders of the world, ending with ‘All things Bright and Beautiful’. The Bishop descended from the pulpit and asked everyone to silently pray.

He then turned to the congregation.

“Friends. We are gathered here to give praise for a small act of kindness and a large portion of talent. A few weeks ago, our church organist, Willow Rose, helped out a young band by adding the sound of this wonderful organ to some songs they had produced. I’m told it’s called ‘overdubbing’. In the short period since, that song has, I’m told, ‘gone viral’. The band agreed to pay a percentage into the Roof Fund, and we have Mister Richard Saxon, the lead singer, here today to pass over a cheque for fifty thousand pounds to Reverend Russell, as the donation to the Fund.”

There was applause and a TV camera light came on to allow the handover to be filmed. Rick was gracious, and the Reverend was duly thankful, and then everyone clapped. The local paper wanted photos and Rick refused unless Willow was included. Willow switched off the fans and went down to join the official party.

The paper wanted interviews and they all told the reporter that he could ask his questions across the road and over a mug of tea. For once, Willow wasn’t the last one in the church, as she was included in the main group heading for the club.

Once in the warm, she made sure to separate herself from the band and went to help Ashley dispensing the drinks, joined by Jacob.

“That organ in the video can’t be any other than the one in that church. It has a distinctive sound.”

“If you mean that you can hear its aging wheeze, then you’re right.”

“But you play it like an angel of music!”

“It’s a church, Jacob. You’re supposed to see angels.”

“I see my angel in all sorts of places.”

“You are so sweet, my lad, you could replace the sugar in that big bowl.”

They were interrupted by Racheal, who was letting Rick and the band hog the limelight.

“Anyone would think that those boys have made a hit record.”

“But they did, Racheal. It must had been viewed close to a million times.”

“Actually, Willow, it’s nearly two million but it’s slowed down. The odd thing is that there must be people who took a while to decide to spend the money on the album. Where it was running at about fifty-fifty, it’s now close to seventy percent that have bought the album. The boys are going on national TV next week in one of those chat shows. They’ll be showing the video, rather than playing. Rick is talking about buying a big house and a flash car, but I’m trying to keep him in the real world.”

“Good luck with that.”

“Will you play at our wedding? Not only the service, but the reception as well. There isn’t another band around that Rick wants other than you.”

“I’ll get my manager to talk to your manager.”

Racheal stood for a few moments and then saw the joke. That started them laughing. The Bishop came over and said hello to Willow, who introduced Racheal and Jacob.

“Ah, a pair of the original flock, with names like that. Did you enjoy the service?”

Racheal smiled.

“Rick and I have been to this church a few times, now. My little brother was here for the first time and was worried about getting a lightning bolt.”

“No need to worry, young man. The Lord grew up before electricity was invented. It would be more like having a slab of stone, covered in writing, landing on your head. Do I detect that you and Willow are a couple?”

“Yes, sir. We both go to the Blue Coat and play in the orchestra.”

“I don’t remember seeing you in the Cathedral Concert.”

“I wasn’t in the orchestra then, sir. I play guitar with Willow in the school dance band as well.”

“Ah! A guitar player. You know, I sometimes think that if Jesus had played guitar and travelled around as a troubadour, he may have got his ideas accepted and lived to a ripe old age.”

The Bishop gave Willow a hug and shook Jacob’s hand, then went off to get his picture taken again.

“Wow! If that’s the main man, I’m joining his party. He’s a great guy!”

“He also likes to play games, Jacob. He has a mischievous streak a mile wide. He will remember you when we play at the Cathedral again. If he had gone into politics, he would have been dangerous.”

Gina joined them.

“This is some show for our little old village. The TV guys have been filming the church and the surroundings. If we’re lucky, we may score a visit from the Antiques Roadshow next.”

“That would have to wait until summer. How are you this morning, friend. Lips sore, are they?”

“Not chapped enough, friend. That was an interesting night for us, the first outing of the Summer Rose Quartet went well. I didn’t expect the crowds, though.”

“Nobody expected that, but I reckon Malcolm will leave the tables in place in case it happens again.”

Ashley came over to them.

“Can you get a table and about a dozen chairs ready out the back, please? Just about everyone who are involved are here and we can have a conference to make some plans for the future.”

The four went to the back room and put together two of the tables. Wendy joined them with a damp cloth and wiped them down as they put chairs around it. Willow went off to get a couple of water jugs and some glasses. The activity in the front room abated as the reporters got their copy and the TV got their pictures. The villagers, agog with all the excitement, started going home. Ashley left Malcolm in the front bar and ushered the others to the back room.

When everyone was seated, Willow, Jacob and Gina sat together, with the Roses, Maisie, Racheal and Rick. They were joined by Bruce, Marcus, Peter and Zac Martin, as well was the three Russells and the Bishop. They had to pull another table up with chairs to fit them all. Marcus Waddington took the lead.

“As you know, this meeting is going to lay some ground rules and plans to allow the Summer Rose Quartet to become well-known but refrain from touring because of their age. I’ll lay out my part in it. I want to record a ‘Coventry Carpenters’ album. This will be taken around to radio stations and the media. My business partner, Zac Martin, will have that job with his connections from promoting pop concerts. After that, I will like a follow-up album if the first one takes off. I will fund the process until the returns outweigh the costs, then the band will start to be paid. That becomes Peter’s part of it.”

Peter had a briefcase which he had collected from his car.

“I’m here as the manager of Rick’s band, when they finally sign. I want to be able to manage the Quartet and the individuals that make it up, including additions and replacements. I will supply assistance with interviews and performances, with my initial fee being five percent of earnings. That will increase to the usual fifteen percent once the band, or individuals, come of age or are playing regularly. I will organise transport and logistics, as well as administration and financial services. I will open a trust account for every member and any earnings would go into that. Any payments earned, before I get your signatures, will be yours to keep. With Rick, I will only start taking my fee after the band have signed, as what they are currently earning is still theirs to keep. Of course, as all of the quartet are still underage, we will need the parents to authorise the contracts.”

The Bishop put his hand up.

“Are you telling me that I will need to pay Willow to play at the Cathedral?”

“Not if she is volunteering, no. The same with both her and Gina playing the church organ here. The school orchestra at the Cathedral is a grey area, which depends on whether the members of the orchestra get a financial return on their involvement, seeing that all of the quartet are members.”

Miss Russell came in.

“The school gets no payment from the BBC, except for a percentage of the DVD sales, which haven’t started yet. The school will use that income to pay for equipment. The money that was taken for our concert goes to charity after costs are taken.”

“That makes that clearer. As I said, the aim is to get the quartet played by the radio, and we will also create a Summer Rose website, with links to whatever video that we film. Miss Russell, I believe that the entire show on Friday evening was filmed?”

“That’s correct, our technical students will have something for us to put out as merchandise in the next half-term.”

“Can I ask that you put a premium price on the complete show and allow me to have a master of the Carpenters section. We can put up one of the songs as a leader on the website and have a paid download of the complete set that we’ll split seventy-thirty between the quartet and the school. It would work like Rick’s website, but we’ll charge extra because there are a lot more tracks. We will also have a link to buy the physical CD that Marcus will be recording.”

“What sort of timeline are we talking about?”

Marcus leaned forward.

“If we start getting management contracts going, I’m able to have a recording studio on Thursday, all day. We can have digital versions available the next week, with the CDs coming off the production line later that week, as long as the radio stations start playing it. I guess that we can be completely operational by the middle of next month.”

Willow put her hand up.

“What say do we have in all this?”

Peter smiled.

“You four get to say what you want to record, who you talk to, and how you live your lives at home and at school. Remember, once this starts to work, your status at school will be different. You’ll be celebrities, and it will be up to Miss Russell to handle that side of it.”

“Yes, Peter. It has already started to happen. When Willow rehearsed at the Cathedral, she played a bit of the ‘Organ Symphony’ to test the new devices we had for the choir. There was a camera over her, and she was singing along with them. The BBC want to promote her as the face of the advertising for the live concert, and I had a call from them on Friday to verify that she was, indeed, the Willow Rose that played organ on the smash hit with Rick’s band. I’m afraid that she is already on the way to being a celebrity. They have already bought copies of our school DVDs and have asked for permission to use cuts from these. We haven’t given that permission, yet, but if we agree that there’s a contractual requirement, we can ask them for a payment, with residuals, that we will split with Willow.”

“Does anyone else have any questions? If not, I need to ask the parents here if they have any reservations.”

Ashley said that it all seemed reasonable, as long as the children were able to continue with their schooling. Maisie agreed. Racheal said that Jacob’s parents would need to be spoken to. Peter asked if anyone could contact Brent, so Gina pulled out her phone and called him. When he answered, she told him what was happening and asked him if he could get his parents and put his phone on speaker.

When the parents were listening, she quickly described what had happened that morning, named all of those around the table, and told them that she, and Willow, would be signing with Peter as their manager. She then pushed the phone towards Peter, who outlined what had been discussed. At the end of the conversation, Peter asked for, and got, Brent’s address with an appointment to see the family that afternoon.

The paperwork was signed by Willow, her parents, and Maisie and Gina. The band’s payments to Willow would be diverted to her new account when it was set up. Racheal had a grin and asked.

“Mister manager. I asked Willow if she would play at my wedding. She told me that I needed my manager to ask her manager. With you handling both her band and Rick’s, it will be a good promotional event. Perhaps you can organise one of the magazines to pay for exclusive rights, split both ways, of course. What do you say?”

“I say that I think it’s a great idea, and something that I’ll start my office thinking about. Have you set a date yet?”

“Not firm, but it will be before summer, perhaps after Easter. Willow is already booked for a society wedding before Easter, and I’m sure that the church or the Cathedral will have plans for her over the Easter weekend.”

“A society wedding. Who are the lucky couple?”

The Reverend took over, telling them about Cassandra and Terry, and Willow’s link to Cassandra’s family, by association. This was news to Jacob, who had a big grin on his face. He whispered to Willow.

“I promise to stop calling you my angel, from now on you’re my Princess!”

“You dare, Jacob Epstein. Just you dare!”

There was general talk, a few niggling points cleared up, and then Bruce, Peter and Marcus went out to their cars to follow Rick as he took Jacob home. Willow and Gina made a start on the mess until the casuals came in to take over. As they were working, Gina was a bit quiet.

“What’s the problem, Gina?”

“I was just thinking about how we’ll be treated at school.”

“The thing is that we just be ourselves, without getting above ourselves. Everyone will then start to see that we haven’t changed. We will probably be on the ‘A’ list for evenings in the theatre, but, besides that, we’ll just continue to be members of the orchestra and ordinary students. If we continue with the sing-alongs and dinner dances, Malcolm will need to send our payments to Peter. That will provide a small, but steady income.”

“He paid us fifty, each, last night. That, alone makes me independent.”

“Wait a while, and then we’ll tap Peter for a regular transfer from our accounts. The cash in hand will have to stop. If the album takes off there will be enough money coming in to see you right.”

Gina and her mother left, with the girls having made a time to meet on Tuesday, with Maisie taking them into the city. They were pencilled in to talk to the Bishop, who was a bit cagey about what he wanted to talk about.

When the Roses walked home, they were all quiet. Inside, Wendy put the kettle on, and Ashley opened his laptop. He checked the account balance. He whistled.

“I was a bit conservative when I estimated your income, rich daughter of mine.”

“Rach told me that the video had got to two million, with an album take-up of around seventy percent. That would be one point four million, so my account should be close to seventy thousand. Am I close?”

“Just a whisker shy of that, you clever thing. That’s also after the money I transferred back into my account after your shopping spree.”

Wendy, who was pouring out mugs of tea, sat down with a thump.

“Did I just hear you say seventy grand?”

“That’s what it says here. Whatever is in here will be more than enough for Willow to go to Cambridge. It may even allow her to go for a sex change privately. When you’re talking to the doctor, tomorrow, you may want to bring that up.”

“I will Dad. There must be some way that I can get in earlier.”

They had lunch and Ashley went out into the back garden. The temporary storehouse was looking worse for wear, so he decided that he would investigate a proper shed, big enough for all the odds and ends that were taking up space.

Willow went up to her room, thinking about her own songs. She decided that she would only record them as piano, organ, or other sounds over the vocals. That way, they could play them as the quartet. If she did the vocal, piano and organ, she could email each track to the other to work out what they wanted to do with them. She would make the organ part simple, to allow Gina to fill in with more complicated arrangements.

She saved the output, so far, to her new SSD storage, and made room on the laptop for a second go at her songs. By the end of the afternoon, she had laid down the new tracks, and had started thinking about her fourth song, as well as investigating the internet for suitable songs. She entered ‘Young Love’ into her search engine, and immediately came up with a song that she loved. It was from the fifties, by Sonny James. She copied the audio track to her laptop and downloaded the lyrics. After hearing it a few times, she added her vocals and backing to her ‘new song file’ then went down to help her mother make dinner.

After dinner, her phone rang. It was Jacob to tell her that his parents had signed the paperwork to allow him to be part of the band. He said that his father was a little sceptical about the future earnings, but went along with it, considering that there were a few years before he came of age. They spoke for a while and Willow asked him for his email address to send him some sound files that he might like to add to.

Five minutes after they hung up, her phone rang again, with Brent telling her that his parents had signed. He apologised for it being a bit late, but he had been on the phone to Gina for an hour. Willow got his email with the promise of sending him something to work on. He told her that his father was taking him to Birmingham in the morning, to look at drums. His father would pay, and he would scan and email the account for her father.

In her room, she turned on her laptop and sent both boys the four sound files and the link to the original song, then sent Gina the same, with a note that these were new songs that Gina had heard three of some weeks before, after the break-up with Alec. She went to bed early, to catch up on her sleep, happy with the outcomes from a momentous day.

Marianne Gregory © 2025