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.

 
I poked my head around the end of the curtain and scanned the dimly lit auditorium in search of my family and friends. I thought I saw Dad in the dark recesses, is that Boris he’s talking to? So where’s Mum? I’m sure they’re all out there some where, Connie, Manda, Max of course, Mist’s parents, Rosinna and Joachim are supposed to be here – I wonder what they’ll think of their daughters new look?

My spying mission was interrupted by Marcus.

"Erd, meeting in the green room.”
"Anything wrong?” I asked letting the curtain slip back into place.
"Not as far as I know, I think the radio lot want to go over some stuff.”
"Okay,” I allowed as we headed for the small haven of peace reserved for the artistes, vis a vis, us.

It’s actually a fairly generous room here at Das Bett but add three significant others, a manager, venue people and a small flotilla of, I presume people involved in the transmission and it was quite cosy. I shuffled in and there not being any vacant seating, I commandeered what there was which happened to be Big Jo’s knees.

"We all here,” a tall, thin chap sporting a goatee and chino’s queried.
"Now Erd’s back,” Stefan offered giving me a wink.
"Great,” thin man opined, "Thorsten Grieve, production manager for Samstag Live. We’ll be going live in…” he looked to a young woman with a clipboard stood behind Animal and Sam across the room.
"Six minutes.”
"Six minutes,” he repeated, "So we’d best make this short. Britta, introduction ready?”
"As ever Thor,”
"Just checking, so BlauHase people, Brit will do her intro then we go straight into your set okay?”
"You do know we have some theatrics before the first number?” Stefan asked.
"We have that covered, Brit will do a bit of voice over off stage for the radio audience until you go into the first song, er, Thunder in the Mountains.”
"Just checking,” Stefan replied.
"Best to know,” Thorsten stated, "Just do your normal thing, we’ll keep out of your way as much as we can, Sascha will be on the stage some of the time for some close ups, its all straight to tape so there aren’t any cables trailing, questions, no, time to move people.”

The HR staffers melted from the room to take up their posts which gave those remaining a bit more air.

"Good luck everyone,” Britta told us, "As Thorsten said, just do your own thing, there is a ten second delay to transmission so we can catch any expletives, enjoy yourselves, I’ll see you after.”
"Thanks Brit,” I offered to her departing back.
 

"So we all set?” Robert asked once we were alone.
"Bit late if we’re not,” Animal mentioned.
"Lets do this then,” Little Jo stated before giving Hilde a peck on the cheek.
"Erd?” BJ prompted.
"Oh right,” I started, "Miles away, you’ve got bony knees.”
"You didn’t have to sit on them,” my erstwhile seat pointed out.
"There wasn’t anywhere else,” I pouted.
"Children, play nice,” Stefan told us, "Time to rock!”
"Ye ha!” Marcus cheered.
 
We filed out to the backstage area, the lights were down and Britta Bursche had already started her opening spiel by the time I clomped up behind Mist. I’ve no idea what she was saying, my heart was giving it some, all I could hear was the surge of blood through my head.

"You okay Gab?” Mist asked, adjusting her strappy bra through her shirt.
"I guess, you?”
"Think so, you see my parents out there?”
"Job to see anyone, think I saw my Dad.”

Frau Bursche came back through the curtain just then, guess its time to rock’n’roll.

 
The pseudo Baroque intro wound down, I took a deep breath, switched on my mic and as Animal stilled the drumming, I stepped out into the darkened stage. I counted down in my head, ‘three, two, one’, deep breath Bond, the lights came up and it was BlauHase are go!

'’Where the mountains meet the sea
And lights spit stains on the scenery
And the air is heavy with a sticky unease
I wish for my world of make believe
And the rebel in my soul says go!"

It was probably not my best rendition of the Toyah classic, to be honest I was feeling quite nervous, not just the fact we were being broadcast live across the airwaves but, and probably more importantly, my parents and boyfriend are in the audience. The audience were well into things though, it was a bit strange having them on three sides, and glad of my more practical footwear, found myself moving about the stage more than usual. By the closing notes of our opener I’d forgotten about any nerves, I glanced over to Stefan who just grinned back at me.

"Hallo Frankfurt!”

Well you have to interact with the crowd.

"So I hope that’s got you all in the mood, we move from the mountains down to the river, not just any river but Father Rhein himself on whose waters we find the Wassernymphe Lorelei.“

There must have been some repeat offenders out there as the intro was greeted by a cheer as BJ started plucking the intro.

"Oh mein gott!“ Pia exclaimed when Gaby appeared on the stage.
"Told you,“ Manda stated, shocked herself at her friends new look.
"Are they tattoos?“ Bridget asked no one in particular.
"Her parents will go mental,“ Kristin opined.
"I thought you said Nena was singing too, where is she?“ Connie asked in a loud whisper.
"Shush!“ Steffi told her.
"Sorry.“
"Guys,“ Anna interrupted, "At the side.“

The party from the Ahr valley all strained to see the figure at the far side of the stage.

"I did say,“ Mand repeated.

Of course they’d all come, the Ahrtal Angels that is, you have to support your own right? They weren’t alone so whilst the Bond household had driven down, the mini coach was bolstered by a few others including Rosina and Joachim Fischer, Mist’s parents. Pias’s sister Ingrid, Freddy, Max, Christina, Kristin, Isolde had joined the trip along with the Preiser’s, that is Freddy and Bernie, Drea being looked after by Oma and Opa for the day.
 

Living with the Bond’s, Manda had long since gained control over any, er, feelings for Gaby beyond sisterly ‘love‘ but seeing her friend up there on the stage tonight looking like, well, not Gaby Bond that’s for sure, well it stirred things that she’d thought were well buried. Indeed the girl, no woman up on the stage was the antithesis of Manda’s own style, since the disaster in Switzerland with the bleach she hadn’t even used a temporary hair colour! And as for the tattoos, not something she aspired to and yet, somehow she was drawn to the figure on the stage in a way that was fringing on lust.

Jenny stared at the stage, what had ‘they‘ done to her daughter? She knew about the hair colour of course, Dave had already tipped her on that after last weekend, but tattoos and that dress, what happened to the one her friend made her? It was definately her youngest up there, despite the makeup and everything, she could recognise her own but something was different, apart from the tattoos, the young woman holding the microphone ten metres away was clearly in control, self assured, things that were alien to Gaby unless she was astride a bike.

For the last time, the single spotlight lit me up as I stood in the middle of the stage. The first half just disapeared and now here I am, front and centre to begin the last part of the last gig of the BlauHase tour. I took a seep breath to calm myself before addressing the crowd surrounding our performance platform.

"Welcome back Frankfurt, are you ready for some more music?”

There was a cheer in reply, I won’t say it was guaranteed but we’ve had a good response from the first show, so yeah, it was expected.

"So before we return to the music, I, no we, just want to thank everyone who has supported us over the last two weeks, we really couldn’t have done it without you. And special thanks to Britta and all the folks at HR3 for giving us the chance to assail the nations airwaves.”

Our audience responded with another cheer which I let fade off before continuing,

"I guess we should introduce you to the band, on bass, Big Jo!”

I think everyone was a little bit hyper, putting in extra flourishes to their pieces, not that the auditorium seemed to mind.

"And lastly, lead guitar and vocals, Stefan!”

The lighting came up after Stefan finished, revealling everyone on stage. Our pantomime isn’t over of course until the fat lady sings.

"So now we've been properly introduced...”

The audience were keen to join in, they’d been whistling and cheering as I did my stand up routine.

“... our songbird, Erdbeer!” Stefan put in which raised a further bit of audience participation.

And so, for the last time, the lights lowered to the single spot, the noise in the room receded and the guys began to play, the last segment of our final concert was under way.

'Edelweiss, Edelweiss
Every morning you greet me
Small and white, clean and bright
You look happy to meet me
Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever
Edelweiss, Edelweiss
Bless my homeland forever'

Edelweiss always gets a good response, more than a few voices joined in along the way, i’m sure i could hear my girl friends somewhere out there.
 

The remainder of our set went without a hitch, well it should after playing it for a fortnight. The radio people had been adamant that they didn’t want us to change anything so apart from the bit of extra during the intro’s we’d stayed to script. Okay, there was one thing but it wasn’t so much a change as an addition.

The last notes of our usual show finisher and singalong, Luftballons faded away.

"Thank you Frankfurt, we hope you've enjoyed yourselves tonight, we certainly have.“

I waved my microphone at the crowd and got a big cheer in reply.

"You did? Great that makes me, us very happy, so, as you've been kind to us tonight here at the Das Bett, we'll leave you with one more. This is one of my Dad’s favourites from well back in the day, thank you again for having us, we give you Deborah!“

Big Jo went into the bass intro and we started our final number.

‘Na na na na na na na na na na
Oh Debora, oh Debora
Da da da da da da da
Deboree-deb n' deboree-de-bree-deb
Da da da da da da da
Na na na na na na na na na na
Shh‘

As the final notes faded and the lights blinked out, Das Bett erupted with sound, a regular cacophony which we could still hear once we’d returned to the green room.
 
"Brilliant!” Robert enthused joining us as we scrambled for liquid refreshment.
Mist threw me a towel, "Well I’m done in.”
"Early night then?” I suggested.
"There is no way I’m missing tonight!”

There was a knock on the door followed by the familiar face of Britta Bursche.

"Great gig everyone, apparently our switchboard has been like a Weihnachtsbaum for the last hour.“
"Complaining i guess,“ Marcus proposed with a twinkle in his eye.
"In a positive way,“ Britta replied, "Its one of the best responses we’ve had from one of these broadcasts, seems you have some fans out there.“
"More than just our girlfriends?“ Animal opined.
"Look, i have to get off, some production stuff that won’t wait,“ Britta told us, "Enjoy tonight and good luck for the future.“

"I bet she says that to all the bands,“ Little Jo joked after she’d left.
"Nah, only the really bad ones,“ Stefan suggested with a grin.

"So?” I asked after finally releasing the suction equipment from Max’s.
"Well I prefer Ilse Werner myself,” von Strechau dead panned.
"Who?”
"Ask Gran,” he sighed, his attempt at humour having fallen on blonde ears.
"Well what do you think,” I tried again stepping back for effect.
"Not sure about the tattoos,” he admitted, "Your parents aren’t gonna like them.”
"They aren’t the ones who had to suffer for them.”
"They hurt a lot?”
"What do you think?”
"A lot.”
"Gotcha!”
"Eh?”
"They’re not real dumbo, they wash off.”
"Geez Gab, don’t do that to me, I was trying to think how I’d tell Mum her favourite clothes horse had gone to the dark side.”
"I am not your mothers clothes horse!”
"Haven’t noticed her taking anyone else to fancy fashion shows.”
"Yeah, well.”
"I do like the fringe, its very, er…”
"You better not say the c word,” I warned.
"I was going to say kitsche but that’d fit too.”
"Look, I’m gonna wind my olds up with the tattoos, so not a word that they aren’t real.”
"What’s it worth?”
"How about….”
 

The after party was more exhausting than the actual gig, Robert wheeled various ‘somethings’ in the industry through plus of course some local journo’s which meant I didn’t get to spend much time with Max or indeed any of my cheer team from the Ahrtal, I’d likely be in bed before they even got home. Yeah I know I’ll be home tomorrow and I’ll see most of them during the week but still, I hadn’t realised how much I missed them.

I did get to thank the Binder’s for the stage outfits, Larry was still rocking the kilt but Maria was almost in civvies, well jeans and a corsetted top anyhow. Larry was well made up, the guys had all gone for the shirts he’d sent along and he was talking about us doing some sort of photo shoot, you know, modeling his wares, we’ll see.

And I was probably drinking too much too.
 

The band, their partners and the Bond clan weren’t the last to leave but one in the morning is late enough after the day I’ve had. At least the hotel, the Goethe Business, was only a short walk away. Somehow I’d avoided anything more than the briefest greetings with my family and at the hotel I managed to slip away as Mum fussed over my pregnant sister.

I was still sharing with Mist even if the rest of the family are here – it was just easier when all is said and done.

"So did you speak to your parents?” I enquired as we both lay in the darkness.
"We touched base, you?”
"About the same, so what did yours think of the new you?”
"Don’t think Mum was keen on the hair, Dad was less impressed by how I was dressed.”
"I’m sure mine woulda been too.”
"So what about yours?”
"We didn’t really get a chance for much more than ‘hi’, it was a bit mental really, Robert kept wheeling all those industry types past, I did get a bit of Max time though.”
"It was noted,” my roomie observed with a smile in her voice.
"A girl has needs you know.”
"Don’t I know it.”

We lay in silence for a bit, each lost in our own thoughts, well I was and I’m sure Mist was too. The tour is over, tomorrow its back home, heck I’m back at college on Monday, one sure way to bring you back to reality.

"Its been fun right?” Mist proposed after a few minutes.
"Had its moments,” I agreed.
"It was different to how I thought.”
"Yeah, can’t wait to sleep in my own bed again.”
"That has been weird,” Mist concurred, "But I meant the whole thing, you know, you’re on the go from waking up to well after the gig every day.”
"Its not like hard labour,” I pointed out.
"Maybe not but its still tiring, I’ll need a week to get over it.”
"So you won’t be wanting the extra hours at the Kabin then?”
"Never said that.”

The conversation fizzled out again, not that sleep was ready to visit, no there was far too much chasing around inside my head for that.
 
Maddy Bell © 28.10.2022