Chapter 23

It was early in the morning when Willow’s phone alarm woke her. She was slightly disorientated to wake up in a strange room. She looked around and remembered that she was going home in a taxi with her father today. She went to the bathroom and prepared for the day. When she came out, wearing one of the hotel dressing gowns, her father was waiting to go in.

She redressed in the skirt and top she had started off with the day before and spent a little time on her hair, now fallen out of its wedding look. She had the good dress, the reception outfit, and accessories in the garment bag, and her shoulder bag with everything else ready to go, along with the dress and other things that Racheal had left in the room, when a knock on her door told her it was time for breakfast. She followed Ashley down to the hotel dining room, where they grazed at the bain-marie and found a table. They had eaten their breakfast and were finishing some of the best coffee Willow had tasted, when Wendy joined them, dressed for work.

Father and daughter went back to the room and collected the baggage. Willow gave her mother the room card, had a morning hug, and went to the reception area to wait for Ashley. When he had wished Wendy a good day at work, he joined Willow, and they went outside where a line of taxis were waiting for custom. They put their bags in the first one, got in the back seat and were off to Stoneleigh at around the time they would normally be making breakfast.

On the way, the talk was about the wedding and the reception. When they were dropped off at home, Ashley went and changed into his working suit and gave Willow a hug on his way to his car. Willow stood for a while in the empty house, feeling a bit lonely after the events of the day before. She shook herself and took her bags up to her bedroom, stripping off and redressing in a new outfit, then putting all her soiled clothes into her hamper, and hanging Racheal’s garment bag in her wardrobe for later pick-up.

She made herself a cup of tea and some toast, and sat at the kitchen table with it, her new laptop open in front of her. There were a few new emails. One was from Marcus.

‘Willow, this is for your information, prior to a meeting Peter is going to call. The show at the Belgrade will be the three bands and filmed for the Band Spot program with the compere of that show compering on the three nights. The SRDB dinner dance at the football club will be a charity event with the money, after all the expenses, going to an outreach program that the Bishop supports, so there should be a big contingent of dignitaries and celebrities. I have provisional agreement with another promoter to have SRDB playing at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool for the last week of July. The Other Side will be opening for Blastmasters for two weeks at the end of August. That will be something that will knock your socks off. Sixteen shows in sixteen days in sixteen cities. Details later. See you at the reception.’

She looked at the header and saw that he had sent it to her yesterday morning. She was glad she hadn’t read it then, as it was a lot to take in. If they were to be on stage as the Other Side in August, the album would have to be out there before that. Then the Winter Gardens. That was surely a dance place, and the band would need more than internet sales to attract the general public. She drank her tea and wondered what else will be revealed on Sunday.

There was another one from the Head that had come in later yesterday.

‘BBC keen to have orchestra on the Monday of the last week of the Proms. See me Monday!’

She looked in her diary and noted that the Proms Monday was the Monday of the first day of the new term.

She made herself lunch and went for a good walk. She stopped at the church and worked through the music for the normal service, and then the wedding music to make sure she had it right. When she switched off and came down, the Reverend was in the altar area, and she helped him take away the usual altar and reset the main one.

“Thank you for helping, Willow. It’s good to see you making sure that you have the music right. Gina is very good at that as well. It does show a sense of detail that is sadly lacking in a lot of young people, I’m afraid.”

“Talking about detail, Reverend, I have advance notice of a couple of times over the summer when both Gina and I will be performing in another town, so there may be a few Sundays when neither of us will be able to play.”

“That’s all right. We can live with that. If you get famous, I expect that we may lose your services for good.”

“You never know, Reverend. There may be other budding organists out there who will want to play this organ that had been played by the now famous duo. Some would love to sit up there and pretend that they’re us, at first. Then they will realise that they aren’t us and will grow into being themselves.”

“You almost have the mind of a preacher, young lady. You think in parables, sometimes. I might use that insight in a sermon. ‘Do not emulate your idols, become an idol yourself’ sounds like a good topic.”

“I tell you what. When it gets closer, and I know the dates we’ll miss. If I’m being interviewed, I’ll lament that I can’t play here on that Sunday, and we’ll see how many give you a call to fill in.”

They laughed and Willow felt that the Reverend Russell was one of the kindest human beings she had ever met. She surprised him with a kiss on the cheek and left, leaving the Reverend heading for his notebook as the words of a sermon came into his head.

She went over to the club and Malcolm helped her to pull the two keyboards to the middle of the stage for the sing-along on Saturday evening. They also pulled out the amplifiers, but only plugged two in that had the cables from the keyboards. They set up the PA system and then Willow helped him tidy up the room and get the tables and chairs set. They talked as they worked, and Willow told him about the wedding, the day before.

“I suppose they got you to sing, then.”

“They did. There was a nice grand piano and I did three songs for the bridal dance.”

“The wedding day one from the album was one, I expect.”

“How did you guess?”

“I’ve been humming it since I heard it. The topic is so uplifting. Don’t be surprised if that becomes one of the most requested songs for wedding receptions this summer.”

“That will mean that there will be lots of downloads. I’ll ask Peter not to make it a free view. I think that he’s adding ‘Finding a Friend’ as the main vision.”

“That one’s nice as well. The rest are, quite frankly, beyond me, but seem to hit a nerve with all the women in the room.”

“Women are half the population, and if they all buy the album, we’ll throw a party. Talking about parties, both me and Gina have our birthday next month. We will talk about it, but I’m all for throwing a dinner dance, similar to a reception. I’ve never had an actual birthday party, so I’m keen to make this one pop. We haven’t decided, but are thinking about the Friday night, and there’s a dinner dance on the Saturday. We might get the Hikers to play if they’ve got enough material by then. I expect that there’ll be us and the Gees there as well, so we may just get up and jam rock and roll.”

“That’s something I’d pay to see. Be sure that you order the cakes early. One big enough to feed a hundred will take several days to make.”

With the room ready to go, Willow went home to slice and dice for dinner. When her mother got home, she came into the kitchen.

“Willow, great news! The fashion house owner has seen the pictures from yesterday and she wants both you and Gina to model the best items from her summer range. They guy took pictures of others there, and she asked me about the young lad, so I told her that it was Jacob, also in the band. We will all go to a studio next Thursday after I pick you up from school. She’ll lay on some food and you three will have a photo shoot. She hopes to complete the range that night, so the brochure can be designed. She has been in touch with Peter and discussed your fee.”

“That’s wicked, Mum. Gina will be beside herself. I have some news for you. We will be busy next month. We play at the Belgrade Theatre on the first weekend, have the concert in the Cathedral in the middle, then there’s that big dinner dance in the football stadium function room. That one, I’ve been told, will be our full dance band and a charity function involving the school.”

“Any word on what’s happening during summer?”

“All I know is that we could be having a week in the Winter Gardens in Blackpool at the end of July, and sixteen days touring with a rock band called Blastmasters at the end of August. Oh! And a possible performance in the Proms on the Monday of the first day of term. Only I have been given that information, so far. We’re having a big meeting with Peter and Marcus between the wedding and the reception on Sunday, where all will be revealed.”

“Why only you?’

“Because I was the one to get Peter moving on our recording day. He was dragging his heels and walked in demanding to know what we were doing without his permission.”

When Ashley arrived, they had dinner and Willow sat with them to watch TV, dozing off on the couch. She was woken with a nudge from her mother and went up to cleanse and get into bed. Despite her snooze, she slept well.

Saturday morning, the new cabinets and work bench arrived. Willow helped her father position them in the garage, with one cabinet near the work bench and the other some way away. Ashley started to collect his tools from where they were strewn over the floor and put them into one cabinet, while Willow made several trips to transfer the recording equipment, mixer, cables, microphones and her old laptop to her cupboard. She added the drum machine for safe keeping. The cabinet had a lock, so she locked it and put the key in her sock drawer. The spare room now was clear and ready for visitors, and her own room had more space. She flattened all the boxes and bundled them up with string to go out on the next rubbish pick-up day.

Later that afternoon, the family walked to the club, where Gina and Jacob joined them, along with Maisie and Jacob’s parents. They commented on how well the wedding had gone and how beautiful the bride and maid of honour were. Gina told her friends about the following Thursday evening, and complained that they would all be wearing the uniform. Wendy assured her that they would be given outfits to wear, possibly given something to come home in. They had their early dinner and then went up on the stage for the sing-along, surprised to see an audience that was close to capacity. They played and sung until after ten, finishing with ‘Now is the Hour’. They switched everything off and Jacob left his guitar in the storage room for the next night. The three of them pulled the drum kit out and roughly set it up. They all had a hug and Willow and Jacob shared a kiss or three, then he left with his parents. Gina told Willow that Sally sounded even better during the practise that afternoon, and they spoke about the meeting.

“I’ll record the meeting for you until you get back from Evensong. I think I know what it will be about. We’ll start playing after you arrive, OK?”

“OK, Willow. You know me. I’ll go along with whatever the band agrees to, as long as it keeps the money coming in.”

Willow left her parents to it and walked home, going off to bed as soon as she arrived. She thought back to some advice from ages ago. She should see about a personal trainer to get her into shape. She was able to go longer than before, but still needed plenty of sleep.

Sunday morning, Willow dressed in one of her fuller skirts and a top, and then the family walked to the church. She switched on and started playing the Bach as the bells rang. The church filled up, several new faces in the congregation. She wondered if some may be very early for the wedding. The service went the usual way, with her ending the music as the bells finished. When she came down, two gentlemen in suits were waiting for her.

“Miss Rose. I hope that we are not upsetting you, but we are both A and R executives with a record distributor based in London. My name is Clive. Mister Waddington came to see us last week and showed us a DVD which we loved, but we frankly found hard to believe was work of teenagers.”

“Every member of Summer Rose, sir, is starting the third term of second year tomorrow. We all go to Blue Coat in Coventry. How did you know where to find me?”

“Mister Waddington mentioned that you played organ here. Is the other girl around? Gina Summer, isn’t it?”

“Gina is in Coventry Cathedral, getting ready to play the organ there for the service. We alternate, and you will be able to see her in a live feed if you go across to the club. It’s where we recorded the shows last Wednesday week.”

“When are you playing again?”

“If you hang about, I’m playing organ for a wedding at four, Gina will be playing Evensong in Coventry until five, and then Peter, our manager, has called a meeting in the club between five and six, then we play for the reception from half-past six and late.”

“Is there anywhere we can stand where we can see the show?”

“Follow me. I’ll show you the layout. I don’t see any problem if you sat at the bar and looked like late-coming guests. The room sits over two-hundred and fifty, and I believe that it’s fully booked. If you eat a good lunch, you can get dinner in the front area before you go in.”

She led them across to the club, where she introduced them to her parents and the two men gave all three of them their business cards. She showed them the back room, the stools where they would be unobtrusive, the stage and the equipment.

“That looks exactly how it looked in the video. I’m becoming a convert, Miss Rose.”

“Please call me Willow, everyone else does.”

“All right, Willow. Mister Waddington said something about other bands but didn’t have anything to show us.”

“That would be G-Force and Rick Sacks and the Hikers. When Marcus went to London, they hadn’t given him their discs because they only got them Friday.”

“Is that the Hikers who had their album go viral some weeks back?”

“It is. We did a recording session here with all three bands. The Hikers played a lot of new material. G-Force are fourth years from our school. They have both signed with Peter and Marcus should have their shows now. You can ask Peter and Marcus when they come here this afternoon.”

“Are they on the guest list?”

“I doubt that either of them would know an Earl and a Baron, gentlemen.”

They laughed.

“No, so if we stay out of sight, we can come in when they leave.”

“Don’t you want them to see you?”

“Well, we don’t want them to think we have doubts. We’re committed to giving them our answer tomorrow.”

“What sort of answer would that be?”

“Whether we commit to manufacturing your CD and DVD to distribute world-wide. It was good enough for that, but we’ve been had before.”

“What show did he give you?”

“One called ‘Journey into Womanhood’. He said that there’s another but will show us that in some months’ time.”

“Get yourselves a drink and watch Gina on the big screen. I’ll go and get you a set of the other discs so you can see what he held back.”

She went home and came back with a CD and DVD of ‘The Other Side’ and a note with her phone number and email address. Giving them to the men, she went to sit with her parents, and they followed, sitting at the table and making conversation. They were very friendly, but Willow could see that their conversation was designed to draw out any chinks in the story. They were praising Wendy when she said that she had done the cover art, and surprised when she said that she had also done the ‘Coventry Carpentry’ album.

“You recorded that album as well?”

“Yes. It’s only been available on the website, But I believe that it’s been getting a lot of airplay. We’ll do some tracks off of it tonight, along with the two, more uplifting tracks off ‘Journey’. One thing about tonight. We will have a wind section for the dance band, on top of the seven of us.”

They all had lunch, after watching Gina on the big screen. Willow excused herself and went home to get herself ready for the wedding. As she showered, she thought long and hard about what had been said. World-wide distribution! That would be brilliant. She was ready to go at just after three and went to the church, her new dress wafting in the slight breeze.

Since she had left it, that morning, workmen had been inside, setting up a number of cameras, and there was a big screen set up outside, with each camera vision shown in one of the segments. She went and spoke to the Reverend, commenting on how many flowers now decorated the place. At half-past three, she went up to the organ, turned on the fans and got comfortable.

She was playing Bach as people started to come in. They were definitely a different crowd from the usual congregation. The wedding went as well as the practise, but with more robes, better dresses, jewels, and more pomp. When the happy couple left the church, she continued to play until the church was empty. Then, she went outside, where there was quite a crowd and several photographers making things difficult. She endured a quarter of an hour being positioned in group photos, and then was able to make her escape, going over to the club. Wendy told her that the others were in the back room, so she made sure her phone was on record, in her bag, and went in.

The rest of the band were sitting at a table, close to the stage and with their backs to it. Peter and Marcus were facing them, their backs to the bar where the two men sat quietly. When Willow joined them, Peter asked where Gina was.

“On her way from Coventry. I’ll record this for her.”

She took the phone out and put it on the table.

Peter and Marcus outlined what she had already read. Jacob was holding her hand at it tightened as the shows were spoken about. She whispered to him.

“Ease off on the grip or else I won’t be able to play tonight.”

The grip eased, and they sat while Marcus told them a bit more detail about the Winter Gardens show. They would be the house band for a week, as Summer Rose, and staying in a hotel nearby. As far as the Blastmasters shows went, all he could tell them that the tour would start in Liverpool and end in London, with the sixteen shows spaced to be easily moved from place to place, with two sets of equipment leapfrogging the venues. Both bands would be using the one set of amps, which would be bigger than anything they had played before. There were questions about accommodation and security, which they were told would be suitable for their age. They would not be travelling with the other band, who already had a reputation as hard drinkers.

Gina came in as they were finishing, and Willow linked to her phone and transferred the recording. Peter and Marcus were asked to leave the room as the guests started arriving. Willow looked across to the bar and Clive winked at her. The band went up on stage so that the diners could take their seats, and switched on, tuned up, and started playing what Willow had once heard called ‘Elevator Music’.

They played the background music until the main course had been consumed and stopped when Chris stood. He made a gentle sort of speech, followed by the best man, who Willow considered to be an upper-class chinless twit. Toasts were made to just about everyone, and then Terry led Cassie onto the dancefloor. Rather than a traditional waltz, which she doubted they could dance anyway, she played the intro to ‘Her Day’ and the band followed her, with it being such a simple tune that the winds could fill in. They moved on to the two that she had played on Thursday, because they had worked there. They continued playing dance music until the floor was only filled with younger dancers and then they upped the tempo, getting into some Moody’s, more Carpenters, other sixties tunes that always got the floor heaving. They played, until nine, when the happy couple left, then non-stop until ten-thirty when Willow announced that they would be playing the last tune.

As they were switching off and getting the instruments in the cases, Clive came over to speak to Willow.

“Willow, my hearty congratulations. You and your band are the real thing. I will be contacting Marcus tomorrow to tell him that we’ll throw our weight behind you and put the album out. I expect that he will organise an immediate tour.”

“Not on, sir. We’re all at school, you would have heard that we will play Blackpool in the holidays and that he’s also set up a tour with Blastmasters in the holidays.”

“Yes, that one is very odd.”

“Not when you’ve seen the other DVD.”

He smiled, gave her a nod and joined his companion to leave the room. Gina asked who he was, so Willow just said that he was someone who had enjoyed the show. That night as she lay in bed, she wondered how the record company would deal with them now, seeing that there was no way they could tour to promote the record.

On Monday morning, they were in the car and heading for school. Wendy could tell that Willow was stressed but wasn’t able to find out why. When they left the car and walked into the school, Miss Russell was at the door. She pointed at Willow.

“You have your orders Miss Rose, go and wait with the others. Miss Summer, you’re on the organ this morning. Go to the stage and check the music. It’s just a standard hymn today.”

Willow went to the Head’s office, where she found Abbie, the orchestra leader of the junior group, and Moyra, the leader of the senior group.

When they were called into the office, the Head got them to sit down.

“I’ve called you three in because we have an odd situation which needs the three of you in agreement. The Bishop has suggested that we perform The Messiah at Christmas, in the Cathedral. He will expect Willow, who has been playing their organ for a couple of months, to be prominent because of her high profile with her band. We have decided that the best place for Willow is right out in front as the orchestra leader for this one project only. What do you say?”

Abbie spoke first.

“I’m happy with that if I can sit beside her. She has acted more like a leader in the orchestra than anyone else I’ve seen.”

Moyra just said that she agreed. The Head smiled.

“I will announce her as leader for the project. It will be hard work to get it right and the three of you will have to work together. Now, let’s get to the theatre and start the last term.”

Marianne Gregory © 2025
End of book two.