Chapter 3

On Friday morning, there were quite a few of the students wanting to congratulate them on the album. Miss Russell steered them into her office before the first lesson.

“There have been calls to the school to allow reporters to come and talk to you. We expect that they’ll try and ambush you when you leave. Is Wendy picking you up?”

“She is, Miss Russell.”

“Give her a call today and tell her not to come in the main gate. There is an alleyway between the houses from the car park to Terry Road. It’s for the children who come by bus and the stop is there. You three should take that way out and look as if you’re waiting for the bus.”

“Got it, Miss Russell. We’re sorry to cause so many problems.”

“It’s putting the school firmly in the minds of the public, which will help all the Blue Coat Schools in the country, so it’s not a problem we can’t handle. Now, get along to class.”

The half-day of lessons went by in slow-motion, as usual. Lunch was almost a party. Xavier came over to talk.

“My Dad just called me. He was in the line at the record store after finishing his shift and got the CD and DVD. He says that me and the others are clearly listed as the recording engineer and the camera operators, and that the pictures in the lift-out are taken from the video. Thank you for making that happen. We shared out the money after Rick paid us, so each of us got fifteen hundred from that project. That has helped all our families. Are there any other projects coming up?”

“Nothing as big as that one, Xavier. All the bands are playing at the Belgrade at the end of next week. If I bring the cameras in next week, could the others film us backstage? There will be a full set of cameras recording the show, but something for our own collection would be nice. If you want to take pictures yourself, get a camera and I’ll pay.”

“I’m not a movie guy, but I have a good camera that I take still shots with. If you get us backstage passes it would be awesome.”

“We will be at the theatre on Thursday evening for a rehearsal and soundcheck, and there won’t be any TV there, I think. You might get some bloopers.”

They laughed and he went off to tell Frank and Dave. Willow sent Peter a text asking for ten passes to be couriered to her, expecting that some of the families may want to be there. She rang her mother to tell her of the change of pick-up point.

Friday afternoon was Music Study, and the subject was Remix. They found that it was aimed at the more technical side. In the classroom was six mixing boards, each with a digital player and a recording unit. Mister Jamieson split them into groups of three.

“Each team has a mixing unit. I expect that none of you will have any trouble pressing the ‘play’ button on the digital storage, or the ’record’ button on the one marked ‘record unit’. The digital unit all have the same recording, an adagio that lasts for six minutes. One at a time, I want you to listen to the recording and mix the sound to your taste, note all the settings to the nearest marker on a notepad and then zero the slides to allow the next to step in. You only have the one set of headphones, so the others can talk among themselves. When all three have noted their settings, we’ll put all eighteen up on the board and discuss the results, then recording the most popular setting to listen to before we go home.”

The next hour was some silence, some chat, and some who only wanted to talk about the new album, including Mister Jamieson, who told the friends that the school had been promised a box of a hundred CDs and a hundred DVDs to sell through the website or give out among the teachers.

“I don’t think that there’ll be many left for the website. The whole faculty is buzzing with having a group of second years in the charts. The website stuff was below the radar, but this is well in your face.”

“When you see the covers, sir, you’ll see Xavier, Frank, and Dave as the tech team, and a lot is down to their expertise at recording us. The record company will only be adding credits and titles to the DVD, but I doubt that they would need to remix the audio much.”

“I have them listening to film music next week. I’ll be sure to praise them in the class.”

When all the mix numbers were on the board, fifteen were identical, and three were only marginally different. Mister Jamieson put a CD into a player on his desk and played the adagio.

“This, boys and girls, is the actual commercial version of the piece. It has the same mix settings that the majority have noted. Well done, all of you. From my reading of the three of you who had slight changes, I would guess that all three come from large families or live under a flightpath, as some of your higher tones have been lost. That’s all, see you next time.”

They all had smiles as they left the classroom. The three friends gathered up their bags and left the school from the theatre entrance, joining a throng of others heading for the bus stop. Being identically dressed was a bonus. As they reached the alley, Willow looked to the main entrance to see a throng of people and a police car with the lights flashing. They came out on Terry Road and stood to one side as the bus came in. They weren’t alone, as others were coming out of the alley for the next bus. When Wendy pulled up, they got in and Jacob laughed.

“Quick driver, the cops are back there!”

As she drove along Terry Street, Wendy grinned.

“Pull the other one.”

“True Mum, there’s a police car with the lights flashing at the main entrance and a crowd outside. Miss Russell got it right, and I expect that the Head is addressing the crowd to tell them that the school looks after their students and that there’s no way there would be undisciplined access to reporters.”

“Why all the kerfuffle?”

“I expect that our being second year is a major thrust of the advertising. It wasn’t a problem with the website stuff, but it’s very relevant with national exposure. I reckon that Peter will be inundated with requests for interviews. He can do his manager thing and sort out the ones most beneficial for the band. I wonder if tomorrow’s dinner dance will be booked out. Whatever happens, I think that we’ll enjoy it.”

When they arrived home, there was a package on the front doorstep addressed to Willow. It contained ten copies of the CD’s and ten of the DVD. Wendy went to find a padded envelope to put a set in and send to her parents.

“I’ll post this on Monday. Sign them for Mum, she’ll be happy to see them, but I expect that she already has a set.”

They went to change for the evening, Willow putting on a denim skirt and a top, then turning her computer on. There were emails from the other band members and friends and one from Peter.

‘Have acted on your advice and news. Please give digital version of Other Side to record company. It will give them time to formulate a different focus for advertising. Have been told that launch will be last week of June. I am organising security for you until the interest drops. A security team will pick you three up Monday for school and bring you home. Another will be picking up the others in the city. Cost to come out of the earnings but only expected to be ten thousand a month. Will get payments for sales on twenty-seventh, so first weekend will be in next statement. Your money has been transferred and regular payments made as requested. Your account is just under ninety thousand as of today. Information about security sent to rest of band. Will arrange the security to take you to theatre next week. Passes with you tomorrow. Expect requests for radio and TV spots, will sort the best.’

Willow got the USB stick of the album out of the hiding place and put it in an envelope addressed to Clive. She put it in her bag for Sunday when he said he would be at the Cathedral. She printed off the email and took it down to show her mother.

“That’s nice. I’ll be able to have the radio on my favourite station on the way to work and back.”

“But you’ll miss out on all our childish banter, Mum. Just think of all that mother and daughter time we’ll lose!”

“Don’t worry, darling. I won’t love you any less.”

Ashley came home and changed out of his work suit, then was shown the email.

“Ten thousand a month for security! That’s a bit steep.”

“It will be two vehicles and four men on school days, and probably escorts to interviews and back. Clive said that there was over fifty thousand advance orders for the album on Thursday, so that’s two hundred thousand that the band has earned already.”

“I suppose you’re right. It’s just that the numbers are so huge, and I’m just a simple design engineer.”

“Not so simple, Dad. Woolly, sometimes, but never simple.”

They had dinner and relaxed. For Willow, it had been an interesting week. She had been one of the ones who hadn’t got the mix setting right, and wondered if it was from four years of playing in an orchestra, inside the sound.

On Saturday morning, the courier arrived with the passes, and in the afternoon, Wendy took her to the Cathedral. It was almost like a normal day. She worked through the service and Evensong music, spoke to Tom, who said that he would be at the school with his choir on Tuesday, and came home to get ready for the dinner dance that night.

The rest of the dance band were almost out of their skins as they arrived, even the wind players who had not been on the album. Now, playing with Summer Rose was a thing to be cherished and remembered. As her parents had already bought tickets for the Belgrade, and the rest of the band had received extra passes with theirs, Willow gave the four of the passes for the four nights to the wind players.

“Look, we will need to play the hits. You guys have backed us here, so you may as well back us at the show. You’ve all signed with Peter, so it’s only right that you get paid. I know that you all get cash in hand here, but a share of our payment will go a long way, as well as appearing in the TV show that will be transmitted in Band Spot. Let’s surprise the audience with the full eleven of us.”

They all had dinner in the front section as the other diners came in. They were as far from the passage to the back room as they could be, so had little problem with people wanting to talk. Willow’s phone pinged as she took it out of her bag to turn off. It was a text from Clive.

‘Natsales 2days two-fifty K. See you tomorrow’

She passed the phone around the table to squeals of delight. Malcolm called from the bar if anything was wrong. Willow stood and took the phone over.

“Quarter of a million sales in the first two days, Malcolm. You have a week to make space for that gold disc.”

They talked about what they would play, and Gina suggested that they give the others a break, now and then, with some of the folk music that the three sometimes played for the sing-alongs.

When they went through to the back room, there was applause as they went up on stage and plugged in. Willow could see a lot of new faces in the crowd and spoke into her microphone.

“Welcome to the Stoneleigh Community Club tonight. We are the Blue Coat School Dance Band, and any similarity with Summer Rose is in your imagination. We welcome the new faces in the audience and hope that the evening is up to expectations. We will start out with easy-listening band standards while you eat, and then move on to dance music.”

They started in the usual fashion as the dinners were being served and drinks quaffed. For the band, this was now almost automatic and flawless from repetition. As the empty plates were being taken away, they moved into the dance music, the folk songs, and gentle ballads. At eight, Willow announced a fifteen-minute comfort break.

“When we return, we’ll play some songs that you might have heard on the radio this week.”

There were some cheers as they left the stage. While they were off-stage, Willow asked everyone if they could wait a while after the show, as they needed to sort out the list for the Belgrade performance.

“If you could tell those taking you home to be a little patient, we’ll try to be quick. Everyone has a say in what we play.”

Back on stage, they opened with ‘Close to You’, then worked through a mixture from the first and second album, a little Moody Blues, ‘Dust in the Wind,’ and ending the night with ‘Finding a Friend’, ‘Only Just Begun’, and ‘Her Day’. They hadn’t left the stage when Herb announced that this should be the set on the weekend, which everyone agreed was good. Jacob asked that, if they needed an encore, they should do ‘Sparks of the Tempest’ from the Other Side and leave the introduction to him. The others grinned and nodded. It would be a hell of a way to end the gentleness of the concert. Willow told the extra four that she would bring copies of the DVD into school on Monday.

They stored all the equipment in double quick time and left the club, with all the band having a hug-fest. Jacob and Willow, and Brent with Gina having more than a hug. Willow did note that Herb and Roy spent extra time with Vivienne and Nancy, the two girl wind players. Jacob’s father had come to take him home, and then Willow walked home, leaving the table cleaning and tidy up to her parents. She put the four DVDs aside for school and then stripped to have a shower.

She was really happy with the way the evening had gone. They had mixed it up a bit but covered the main ground, and had now played everything so many times, it had almost become second nature. As she showered, she wondered if there would be anything that she ended up refusing to play one more time.

She got into bed with her laptop on her lap and checked the emails. Most didn’t need a reply, but one stood out. It was a group broadcast from Marcus, telling them that he would not continue being their promoter as they went behind his back, so the Belgrade would be the last thing he would be involved with. He ended with a vicious swipe, telling them that he had cancelled the week at the Winter Gardens.

Willow wrote a reply, thanking him for his work and acknowledging the cancelled arrangement. She sent the reply with Peter, Clive, and the team cc’ed into the message. She turned the laptop off and put it on the floor beside the bed. Laying back, she realised that she wasn’t unhappy about losing that week in Blackpool. It was the sort of show that a fading band will happily fill. The Other Side album would have been launched by then, and a genteel ‘lavender and lace’ venue was no place for a rock band. It would also give them time to work on new material to follow the Kansas cover. They would need it when they toured with Blastmasters.

Sunday was her turn in the Cathedral. After this one, there was just another four weeks to go. She had come to enjoy playing their organ and was slowly trying new things with the stops when she practised. It must be working, as nobody had asked her what she was playing at. Ashley took her in, and she saw Tom, giving him the last two passes to the shows. After the service, father and daughter went into the city, browsing the stores, having lunch and looking at something both had been interested in back in Bristol, but had never been able to indulge in. Radio controlled cars.

They bought one each. Both needed to be built from parts and used electric motors with a bank of batteries to drive them. They both knew that it would take some months before they could get the cars going, but it was a project for both of them, outside of work or school. On the way back to the Cathedral, Willow remarked that Ashley now had a reason to get the shed up, to give them a proper workshop.

“Not building a studio, then?”

“Not now, Dad. The record company has access to good studios in London. Marcus has spat the dummy and I think we’ll be looked after better with Clive and his friends. He’s setting up with a friend of his to take the school orchestra to Abbey Road to record a classic album. That’s something so far over Marcus’ head it’s not funny. Anyway, there’s an album out there that was recorded in the Community Club. I’ve promised Malcolm the loan of our first Gold Record for the bar.”

“How long will that take to happen?”

“Halfway there as of last night.”

Ashley had to pull over to get his breath back.

“Just how many gets gold?”

“Half a million.”

“So, you’ve sold a quarter of a million in two days!”

“Yes. That’s a million pounds that will be paid to Peter for us tomorrow. It should be an interesting statement when we get it.”

They got to the Cathedral and Ashley found himself a seat as Willow went up to the organ. Clive sat on one side and the photographer sat the other, taking zoom pictures of Willow with the organ.

“Interesting daughter you have there, Ashley.”

“Oh! Hello Clive. She has certainly made this an interesting year for us since I got the job at Aston Martin. She just told me that you’ve sold a quarter of a million albums.”

“And counting, with a lot of shops open for Sunday trading. At this rate, it could be gold by the end of the month. I can tell you that my boss is very happy.”

“I bet. We would be hard pressed to make that many cars a year, let alone sell them.”

“All a matter of being with the right product at the right time. She’s a remarkable musician. I had a producer with me from the Abbey Road studio when we visited the school as they were practising. He was gobsmacked when she and Gina played the entire ‘Carnival of the Animals’ on piano without having the score in front of them.”

“You need to have a word with the Bishop. She outsmarted him at his own game with hymns. She can play pretty well every hymn she’s played without the music and only needing the hymn number. He used to play a trick by calling out a number that wasn’t on the board. He tried that at St. Marys. He called four hymn numbers that are his favourites, and she was only a second or two before she was playing the intro.”

“And an ‘A’ student, along with most of the band. When I spoke to the Head, she said that Willow brought the best out of those around her.”

They stopped speaking as Willow started to play. Clive sat, in wonderment, at how she made that huge organ sing, and how that made all around him sing, as the voices swelled in the Cathedral. For the whole hour, he was transported to a happy place, and when the choir came in, felt his heart beating in his chest.

When the last note faded among the columns, Ashley stood and led the two over to meet Tom and Sally.

“Tom, meet Clive, the executive with Willow’s record company. This is his photographer. Clive, Tom is the choirmaster here and is helping Willow and Gina train the village choir in the club. It’s coming along nicely, so my wife tells me.”

“It is, Ashley. Having three ex-professional singers is a real help. Margaret is brilliant, despite her problems, and her alto props up the rest.”

“I caught the end of an interview a couple of weeks ago. Was that done in the club?”

“It was, right after the interview with Willow, Gina and Jacob. You should contact the local station if you want a copy.”

Willow joined them.

“Hello Clive.”

“Hello, Willow. I got your email. That Marcus turned out to be a fine piece of work. Cancelling a week-long gig wasn’t nice.”

“But better for us, I think. A week at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool is something we can play when we’re getting about on walkers and needing diapers.”

“Ever the pragmatist, but you’re right. What do you plan to spend that time doing?”

“Writing and recording original material for The Other Side. If we’re going to open for Blastmasters, we’ll need more than a cover of a concept album, even if it was recorded thirty-five years before I was born.”

“Any ideas on that score?”

“One that I only have the title of. It came to me last night and will be called ‘Dummy Spitter’.”

They laughed, and the men shook hands and Willow gave Clive the USB. Tom said he would see them on Wednesday and Willow followed her father to the car. When they got home, he took their boxed projects out of the back and put them up on the top of the new storage cabinets. The Aston Martin DB3 on his, and the pink Lady Penelope Rolls Royce on Willow’s.

Monday morning was different, to say the least. A people mover with dark windows arrived before her parents left for work. Two guys got out, one watching the street as the other rang the bell. Willow was ready to go, the two cameras and empty memory cards in a bag and got in as her parents went to their own cars. She asked the two men their names and was told that they were Max and Sebastian, and that they would be her regular drivers, as it was easy to see any problems if you’ve travelled the same way a lot of times.

They picked up Gina and then Jacob. Arriving at the school and driving past a line of cameramen at the front gate, pulling up next to the theatre and out of the line of sight of the cameras. They were told that they would be picked up when school was out, and they told the guys that Tuesday would be about half-past six. The other people mover came in and the band entered the school as a group.

Miss Russell intercepted them and took them all to see the Head.

“I just wanted to talk to you about Friday. You were all very good in getting away. The reporters got a little heated, but the police made sure that nothing happened. I told them that they were banned from the school grounds unless invited. I hope that they give up and allow you to live a normal life. I think you’ll find that the rest of the school is better behaved, so have a good week and I hope that the only time I see you will be when you’re on-stage Friday night.”

Marianne Gregory © 2025