Gaby Book 27 Smell of the Crowd by Maddy Bell Copyright© 2022 Madeline Bell Life has some certainties, birth and death of course, but the rest is a mix of Minestrone and Spaghetti, some of which we have no direct influence over. We can however decide whether we want Parmesan or other seasoning, we can give Gnochi a try, doesn't mean we'll like it but at least we'll know. Gaby has reached just such a point in her life, she knows she likes Pizza, she's not averse to Spaghetti or Lasagne but is Gnochi for her? The Gnochi in this case is doing the singing with BlauHase on a more serious level, as a 'hobby' its fine but could this be a change of career? Well you don't find out without trying so that's just what our heroine is about to find out in this, the 27th book of the Gaby saga.

 
"Thank you Aschaffenburg, we have been BlauHase!” I yelled into my mic.

The audience have been pretty good, the ‘intimate’ setting no doubt helping the atmosphere but as predicted the room was pretty warm now. The lights dropped for the last time this evening allowing us to scurry from the stage before the house lights came up.

"Great gig guys,” Robert stated with a Cheshire grin plastered across his face.
"Aren’t they all?” Stefan opined mopping himself down.

He wasn’t the only one ‘perspiring’ heavily, well given the atmosphere it was almost inevitable.

"I need some air.”
"Me too,” agreed Mist, "Fire escape.”
"Eh?”
"Come on blondie,” she stated propelling me towards said building exit, "Catch you in a few guys.”
 

After the noise and humidity of the last couple of hours inside Colos Saal, the cool and relative quiet in the space behind the building was sweet relief.

I threw my head back and took a deep breath of the fresher air, “’s better.”
"Yeah,” my companion agreed.

As my hearing readjusted to something like normal, the sounds of the city became apparent, a bit of traffic, probably on the Ring, a strangely loud rumble of a train somewhere, the distant dopplering of a siren all running counterpoint to the lower tones of people talking out on the street and pigeons arguing on nearby rooftops. It wasn’t cold but it was much cooler than inside, the sweat prickled as it dried and I gave an involuntary shiver.

"You cold?”
"Cooling off.”
"Here,” she draped the towel she’d grabbed from Hilde over my bare shoulders, "Better?”
"A lot,” I agreed.

 
I never told you did I, Mist’s great idea to complete my ‘look’ with the painted on trousers? I was expecting a t shirt or maybe even that fishnet thing she’s been wearing, instead I was presented with my black bra.

"What am I wearing this with?”
"With? Dur Bond, that’s it.”
"I can’t go on stage in just my bra!”
"Why not? You’re happy enough to wear a bikini, its not like you’ll only be wearing knickers, you’ll have the pants on.”

She had a point and I couldn’t argue the logic.

"But its a bra.”
"So?”

It is a nice bra, H&M special, lightly padded, underwired, enough lace to suggest it was more than just a support garment for the girls, I might well have worn it anyway.

We didn’t linger outside for much longer, I needed a drink, not the alcohol of last night, well maybe one but my throat was parched, copious volumes of lemonade are in order.
 

I woke with a start, my brain taking a few seconds to catch up and identify the loud clanking and whirring as a) outside and b) as refuse collection. By the time my eyes engaged to look at the time the noise had ended, oh ten past six, far too early to be awake. But awake I was and I doubt I’ll see sleep again any time soon.

The gentle sawing from the other bed suggested Mist was still in the land of nod, that girl could sleep through anything. My bladder demanded attention so reluctantly and through slitted eyes I made my way to the facilities. Of course, once installed I couldn’t actually go but rather than go back to my bed I stayed sat where I was, staring blindly at the shower cubicle.

Geez, how many different showers have I used in the last fortnight, ten? eleven? Of course that translates to a similar number of beds, talk about living out of a suitcase. I know Mum sometimes complains about all the travel for the races but its rare for her to be away for more than a week and even then they generally aren’t changing accommodation every night.

At the beginning of this trip it seemed like fun, moving on each day, somewhere new to explore, never eating in the same place twice with a party every night. But I suppose I’ve become a bit jaded, I think maybe the rest of BlauHase have too, its not affecting the music, but I think if things were going past this weekend cracks would be appearing. Maybe a two week tour was a bit ambitious, bit like going straight to a three week bike race from riding hour plus a lap criteriums.

Don’t get me wrong, it has mostly been fun, the stuff on Wednesday was a bit of a downer of course but we’ve been on the radio once already and tomorrow in Frankfurt has turned from a last gig into an epic. Yeah we’ll be on the radio again, which is cool but apparently that’s enough to attract the attention of ‘sponsors’, well Herr Binder anyway. I wonder exactly what he has in mind?

From the outset the BlauHase tour meant different things to each of us, for Stefan it was all about living his dream. Then there’s Misty, it took me a while to realise, but for her this was a chance to reinvent herself, she’s certainly not the fairly shy young woman who left the Ahrtal a fortnight ago. And then there’s me.

What did I really want out of this trip? I know what I said I wanted but is it really that simple? I’ve tried on the mantle of ‘Rock Diva’, I think I’ve pulled it off okay but does it really fit the person inside?

I suppose the sixty four million euro question is, can I see me doing this as a career? I don’t mean the intensity of a tour but rather a life where adopting a stage persona and literally singing for my supper is the reality not just the occasional diversion. This trip has already upped the band’s stock, Saturday will likely cement that even more, I won’t be the only one needing to assess our commitment to our musical career and BlauHase in particular.

I’m sure the Rents will be asking the same questions and I know they’ll have my back whatever I decide down the line. They don’t have the same investment in my singing career as my riding of course, until now its just been a bit of fun on the side whereas you can barely get through the door to Schloss Bond without being reminded of the families commitment to bicycle sport. It infects pretty much every aspect of our family life, the choice of car, what we eat, hell, even the very fact that we upped sticks and moved from Warsop to Dernau.

Music isn’t like that for us, sure there might be a picture or two of The Angels singing mixed in with the cycling stuff but that’s about it. Can I give all that up, no, do I even want to give it up? Bike racing as a career isn’t for dabblers, even as a serious hobby rider you need a level of commitment verging on obsessive.

I can’t deny that there are days when I question my commitment to the sport, but as Gran would say, you get out what you put in and the returns for me have been huge. Its not just the titles, I’ve travelled far and wide, I’ve made some good friends along the way. There’ve been some ups and downs, of course there have but on balance there are more plusses than minuses in the ledger.

My musings were disturbed by a gentle tap on the door, "Gab? You okay, you’ve been in there ages.”
"Er yeah, fine, be right out.”

I finished my business and returned to the main room.
 

"You alright?” Mist queried once more as I made my way back to my bed of the night, "You were in there a long time.”

I glanced at the time on the TV, I guess half an hour is a long time to be in the loo, if that’s what you were doing, using the lav that is.

"I was thinking.”
She propped herself up on her elbows so she could see me, "For that long? You could sprain something.”
"Ha, ha.”
"So what’s had you so contemplative at this hour of the morning?”
"What’re you gonna do after tomorrow?”
She gave a shrug, "Dunno, go home I guess, do my shifts at the Kabin.”
"What about singing? Don’t you want to pursue this stuff?”
"Seriously Gab, I can barely hold a tune, you on the other hand can actually sing. Yeah it would be cool to be in a band and stuff but Madonna I’m not.” She paused as if considering her next words, "Rob thinks he might be able to get me a part time backing gig in a few weeks but I’m not holding my breath. What about you, thinking of changing your life plan?”
"Maybe.”
"You don’t sound very certain.”
"I’m not, I mean this trip has been brill and all but I don’t know that music matters enough to me to give up everything else.”
"You wouldn’t have to do that.”
"I would, to be fair to everyone, I’d be letting everyone down if I wasn’t giving a hundred percent, the team, the other girls, they invest a lot in getting me, Gaby Bond, to the finish.”
"So if someone offered you like a million euro to make an album and be some big international singing star you’d turn it down?”
"Like that’s gonna happen,” I scoffed.
"But if it did?” Mist pressed.
"Okay, I’d have to consider it I guess but lets face it, BlauHase aren’t exactly mainstream pop, we’re a bit niche.”
"Maybe its a bigger niche than you think?”
"If you say so.”
"I do, so, given we’re awake, brekkie?”

Breakfast was of course the usual, a buffet with everything from cereal to scrambled egg, fresh fruit to a selection of cheese. The bonus this morning was the availability of oven fresh croissants and pain au chocolate, well I grabbed a couple of each, the croissants will make a change to the Brötchen as carrier for my Nutella® fix! But I’m missing the breakfast highlight, nothing to do with the food but rather a chance for Fruhstück al fresco, there were several tables out on the terrace and there was actual sunshine warming things a little.

"Guess you couldn’t sleep either,” Hilde suggested when she joined us mid way through my first chocolate laden pastry.
"Mornin’, yeah, the bins woke me and I couldn’t get back to sleep then.”
"And then she woke me up,” Mist complained.
"I didn’t mean to,” I shot back in my defence, "You never said.”
"What’d be the point,” she er, pointed out.
"So you two got anything planned for today?” Hilde asked.
"Well I’d sort of planned to get something to wear tomorrow night but as that Binder bloke has offered something, don’t need to do that now.”
"This that chap you were telling me about yesterday Mist?”
"I didn’t get his name but I guess so.”
"What I don’t get is what’s in it for him?” I threw to the floor, "Its not like we’ll be on telly.”
"You do know that the Station will be filming tomorrow night, we might make one of their Specials.”

I vaguely recalled something being mentioned, well I must’ve, that’s why I was gonna get a new frock or something in the first place.

"I still don’t get what he thinks he’ll get out of it.”
"Product placement,” Hilde offered, "Whether you get on TV or not he can point to you and say you were wearing his stuff, free advertising if you like.”
"Well I like anything I get for free,” I smirked.
"You don’t know what you’ll be wearing yet,” Mist pointed out.
"Guess we find that out tomorrow,” I allowed.
"Stefan suggested we stop at some place along the river for lunch,” Hilde mentioned, "Selstadt or something, supposed to be quite pretty.”
"Sounds good,” I allowed finishing off my second still vaguely warm croissant.
 

It was a quite relaxed start to the penultimate day of BlauHase do Hesse. Mulheim isn’t that far from Aschaff so its not like we have a long drive to get there and if we’re stopping along the river on the way, well a more relaxing day is a bit overdue. Of course we still had to check out by ten and collect the gear from Colos Saal but given the female contingent were breakfasted well before nine, some of us were almost chomping at the bit to get going.

"I’m sure I’ve forgotten something,” I puzzled before taking a sip of my third cup of caffeine juice since breakfast.
"Like what?” Mist queried, "I went through the room myself.”
"Dunno,” I admitted, "But I’m sure there’s something.”

I’ve already been through everything in my head about five times, everything that should be is in my Handtasche, my cases are here of course and if Mist checked the room over I have to presume everything is inside them that should be. I know my Microphone is with the rest of the gear at Colos, I can’t think of anything else.

"Can’t be that important if you don’t know what it is,” Mist opined.
"Yeah, you’re probably right.”
"You two ready?” Animal asked from across the reception area.
"Yep, all present and correct,” Mist told him even as she grabbed her luggage.

I’m sure I’ve missed something.
 

It took longer to drive to Colos Saal this morning than it did to walk last night, one way streets, traffic lights and of course a good dose of actual traffic too. In the cold light of day, Roßmarkt, home to the venue was still largely in shadow despite the earlier sunshine we’d enjoyed, everything looked, well, bland I guess. Few people were about, I guess it sees more business later when the various food places that dominate the street open for lunch. At a bit after ten though the street had more delivery bikes and vans than actual pedestrians.

After a fortnight the guys have got loading the gear down to a fine art, a place for everything and everything in its place. It wasn’t sexism or anything chivalrous on the guys part that left me, Mist and Hilde twiddling our thumbs whilst the loading took place, it was just easier to stay out of the way. There was of course no sign of Robert, what does he do away from the gigs, indeed where does he even sleep?

With five of them on the job it didn’t take long to get everything loaded, as Marcus closed the back doors I still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something missing.

 
Even with stopping to put fuel in the bus, the journey to our lunch stop, less than twenty kilometres down the river, took barely thirty minutes. The place is actually Seligenstadt, I passed through on the bike the other day, it finally clicked when I saw the ferry I used next to the car parking. It was a bit early for lunch, I mean we’ve hardly digested breakfast, so the consensus was to have a walk around first.

I had the nagging feeling that I’d been here before this week, probably on a racing jaunt, the walk up from the river felt, well kind of familiar.

"Sugar!”
"What now?” the orange haired Goth beside me asked with a sigh.
"I know what’s missing.”
"Which is?”
"My bike, bum its still at the hotel.”
"Really?”
"I was gonna put it on the bus before the gig but Stefan thought it’d be safer in the hotel’s store cupboard.”

Mist replied by rolling her eyes to the heavens – a bit disconcerting with all that black around her eyes.

"You sure?”
"Certain.”
"Stefan!” she yelled up the street, "I think we’ve got a problem.”

 
It didn’t take more than a brief explanation to confirm my prognosis, Stefan vaguely recalled our discussion last night, no one had given it a thought this morning.

"I’ll go back with Pete,” Stefan stated, "No point in us all going, we’ll fetch Gab’s bike, we should be back in about an hour?”
"About that,” Animal confirmed.
"We can all eat together when we get back.”
"Sorry Stef.”
"What for Erd?”
"You having to go back, I should’ve remembered it earlier.”
"These things happen girl, none of us noticed it was missing when we loaded the gear so we’re equally to blame.”

I know he was trying to make me feel better about it but it wasn’t really working, still the others had taken in it in good part so I really should let it rest I guess.
 
Maddy Bell © 20.08.2022