Chapter 2

Petunia started breathing again.

“This is just for us?”

“This is something for you girls to understand. The school looks after talent. There is a lot of equipment that can come out when you need it. Last term we played a concert where we needed a glass harmonica, and one was available. Now, introduce us to your friends and let’s see what you can do.”

“OK. Girls, this is Willow Rose, Gina Summer and Jacob Epstein. May I introduce Ivy Vines, my sister; Susan Winter, our drummer, Geraldine Hogarth, our bass player; and Brenda Zachary, our singer.”

“Pleased to meet you all. Now, there are a number of guitar cases here. I’m no guitarist, so you’ll have to look through them to see if there’s anything that suits you. Susan, have a look at the drum kit. If there’s anything else that you use, make a list and we can add it next time.”

“Thank you, Willow. I can’t believe that we’ve been made so welcome. We had to hide away in Deen’s garage before. This is awesome.”

She adjusted the seat to suit and moved the drums around to suit her reach, then started playing a quiet syncopated beat that seemed incongruous for the pretty little pre-teen to be playing. The others had sorted through the cases and found guitars that seemed like Christmas presents to them. Petunia and Ivy had a pair of telecaster-style ones, while Geraldine – Deen – had discovered a genuine Fender bass. As they were getting plugged in, Mister Bamborough came in and was introduced to the whole group.

He sat, with the others by the door as the girls had a huddle and Brenda stood at a microphone.

“We sincerely thank you for giving us this opportunity. In the past, we have only played at friends parties, and that was all acoustic. We’re not used to these electric guitars, so please bear with us until we find out what we can do.”

“You have over an hour and a half, girls. We’re here to be amazed, so take your time and be happy with what you find.”

“Thank you, sir. You have no idea how different this is to the attitude of our last school.”

They started out by playing an instrumental, something that may have sounded better as an acoustic piece, then, as the guitarists became more comfortable with their instruments, they started to sound better. Susan started to play the beat that she had intrigued Willow with, and they played a sort of middle eastern tune with Brenda singing a song about girls without hope in a far-off land.

Howard Bamborough looked at Willow and raised an eyebrow, a sure sign that he was excited. Gina and Willow, however, were not just impressed by the original song, but were thinking of piano and organ riffs for it.

After that, the girls went on to play for nearly an hour of what one might call ‘nightclub jazz’, with the teacher hearing shades of Billie Holiday to Brenda Lee. When they finally stopped, the four applauded them. Willow stood and went over.

“That song about girl’s without rights. Do you mind if Gina and I play along with you? We both have ideas about keyboard sounds that go with it.”

The group all grinned. Jamming with the core of Summer Rose was a dream come true. Gina and Willow turned the Yamahas on. Willow tested the organ, and Gina tested the piano. Susan started the drumming and they all got into the groove, with the two extras adding little bits to the mix. Howard was filming this on his phone to show the Head later. When they had finished, there were smiles all round. Willow looked at Petunia.

“Petunia, you said that you and Ivy played piano. If Jacob takes one of the guitar spots, would one of you like to take over here?”

Ivy took over from Gina, giving her a hug. Jacob took her guitar and stood beside her sister, and then they played it again. Willow deliberately refrained from much organ additions, allowing Ivy to sparkle on the piano parts, adding a lot more, showing that she had thought about this in the past.

They were nearly out of time, and Mister Bamborough asked them about the other songs.

“That jazzy set, are they covers or new?”

“They’re mainly new, sir. Ivy and I have a grandfather with a big collection of older records. He’s a fan of the old jazz singers, and it just sort of rubbed off on us. We have a lot of lyrics that we’ve written, between us all, but have never had the chance to develop them.”

“Well, young ladies, you have the chance now. We can set up a smaller rehearsal room for you with what you’ve chosen here, and you can use it whenever you want until we start workshopping ‘Wicked’. Willow, I think that you’ve done it again.”

They moved the desired equipment to a smaller room, and Susan gave the teacher the list of the other items she would like. Leaving the unwanted guitars and one keyboard, they locked both rooms, with the teacher giving Petunia the key to their one.

“Remember, girls. With opportunity comes responsibility. Use the room wisely and you’ll be able to spread your wings. Never forget that there are others who can help you. I’m sure that Willow and her band can help you with creating tunes. You, Susan, can teach Brent a thing or two. Geraldine, can you bow?”

“I have played a bit of cello, for fun, but have never done so seriously.”

“All right. Next week will be the first tryouts for the new orchestra. I want you all to come along. We will just see if we have instruments for you and test your abilities. It doesn’t matter if you don’t play anything. We have plenty of triangles.”

They walked out, via the music student’s lockers where the three friends loaded up with their cases and garment bags. Brenda smiled.

“Are those what you wore at the concert? Can I see?”

Willow unzipped her bag to show the yellow dress and Brenda felt the material.

“That is so lovely. I wish that I had a chance to wear something like that.”

“Keep up with what you’re doing now, and I predict that you’ll be wearing something similar on our stage before the end of the year.”

They got to the main door where Sebastian was waiting, talking to the driver of another people-mover. The three went to get in theirs, and the smiling girls got in the other one. On the way south, Willow chuckled.

“So, Sebastian, what can you tell us about those girls?”

“Their driver is Bernie, and he used to be with us until he started to drive for the Vines. We had a chat at the dinner dance you did at the football stadium. The Vines are seriously loaded. He has a large machine shop where he manufactures very expensive small parts for car racing, including Formula One. He used to have his own Touring Car team but sold the licence to another company. He also has another company that produces carbon-fibre bodies and other parts for racing and the military. The twins are his youngest, and Bernie said that up until mid-summer, they were destined to go to a very posh college for ladies.”

“That’s what they said. They wanted to come here to be allowed to play music.”

“Can they play?”

“You bet. When it comes to pop, they’re streets ahead of where we were at their age. They just treated us to an hour of original material. All of it was sort of forties and fifties sounding, with hints of early sixties. The drummer will be the backbone of the percussion section of the next orchestra.”

“So, serious competition, then?”

“Not competition, but the next wave. I expected to hear some covers, but everything was new and different. Now, tomorrow is the new day for us to be staying behind for the orchestra. We’ll be starting to work on our project. Next week, we will need our Stoneleigh choir to be brought to the school to join us. Can you ask your boss to see if he can organise transport which is wheelchair friendly for a motorised one? It will continue until December. The first Tuesday we’ll be performing it at the school, and the following weekend we have three performances in the Cathedral.”

“I’ll talk to him. I think that we do have a minibus with a rear-mounted wheelchair lift. Anything else?”

“Not at the moment, but I believe that the work on our studio project is getting close to finish. We’ll need transport to take everyone there to have a look, including the techs. That will be a minimum of fourteen of us.’

They dropped Jacob off, after he and Willow had a kiss, and then went to Gina’s house.

“It’s odd, friend. We’re back in the old ways, but, even now, they’re new ways. It will be nice to know that I’ll be sleeping in my own bed for a while.”

“I know exactly how you feel, sister. All those hotel breakfasts and restaurant dinners have gone to my hips.”

“And very nice they look too.”

They both laughed as Gina left the vehicle. When Willow had been dropped off, she went in with her luggage to find her mother preparing dinner.

“Hello. Who are you?”

“I’m you’re daughter, Mum. I know that I haven’t been home a lot for a while, but I’m back now because I’ve missed your cooking.”

“What, not dashing off again?”

“Not that I know of, Mum, but who knows what the label is planning for us. I’m hoping that they’ll let us have some time to develop some new songs. I’ve found out that our new orchestra sessions are on Wednesdays, now that most of us are in the combined orchestra for the project. The ones not needed will be the core of the new junior orchestra until we’ve performed in the Cathedral, then we’ll revert to a junior and senior orchestra next year,”

“There was a package for you from the school last week, which is in your father’s office. You had better have a look, as it’s your new schedules for the specialists subjects.”

Willow went into the office and brought the package back to the kitchen table, where she had a look at it.

“It says here that I’m now concert master in the senior orchestra until Christmas. I knew that, as I’m sort of in charge of rehearsing the Messiah. Oh! I’ll be continuing as concert master for the rest of the school year as well. I suppose that they have decided, with the other leaders, to keep me up front where they can keep an eye on me. It does relieve me of playing big organs.”

“What does my daughter know about big organs, dear?”

“I played what was the biggest in its day last night, and I played the biggest one in the country in Liverpool. Other than that, dear mother, my lips are sealed.”

Ashley came home and walked into the kitchen.

“Who’s this then?”

“Already done that one, Dad. Tell me, have you ever heard of a guy in motorsport called Vines?”

“We do deal with Vines Precision Engineering. They provide some parts for our competition cars and special orders. Why?”

“Because his twin daughters are at our school. They started Monday. From what they said, they should have been sent to a posh girl’s school but insisted that they wanted to come to Blue Coat because of the band. In fact, the Head did speak about a lot of new students joining us because of the bands.”

“I gather that you met them?”

“They came to talk on Monday at lunch. I organised them in a visit to Mister Bamborough to try out today. They had three of their friends with them and they blew us away. They played a bunch of original material and have found themselves in the new orchestra as well as getting their own room to develop material that they were unable to work on.”

He laughed.

“Competition to Summer Rose?”

“Everybody thinks that! No, I think that they’re the next generation. Their music is based more on nightclubs at two in the morning. They’re really good. Anyway, the orchestra for me is now Wednesday, so we’ll have to see about the Stoneleigh choir. We’ll need them at the school to rehearse soon. I’m organising transport for them.”

She looked at the paperwork again.

“I now have gym on Fridays and the Music Studies has been shifted to Thursday afternoon. Oh! I’ve been designated as the artistic director of the school musical. We’re going to put ‘Wicked’ on the stage over three nights in the middle of November. That’s a surprise. I think that the Head is determined to work me to death. That will be Friday after gym.”

“I think the Head knows how good you are at managing. You can compartmentalise the two responsibilities regarding rehearsal, but I’m pretty sure that you’ll be acting as the leader with the two orchestral groups. If the first years don’t have a leader yet, who best to keep them in line?”

“Maybe you’re right, Dad. We get that one out of the way with two weeks to finalise the Messiah.”

“Before we have dinner, will you stand so that I can give my talented daughter a big hug. Last night was magnificent! All three of you were great, and Zara playing the ‘Swan’ was a beautiful ending.”

“That was a surprise to her as well. We needed an encore, and it was too far for me to walk back to the organ.”

They had dinner and she went up to her room to unload her bags and mark up her diary with the new appointments. She emailed Jill to tell her that she would be late at school on Fridays.

There was an email from Wilhelm, asking if she would be free to have a look at the Leicester project on Saturday. He would pick Jacob, Gina, and her at about ten. He noted that Jacob had told him that they had a sing-along on Saturday evening. She replied that she would be ready. She then sent an email to the real estate agent, after looking on the web, asking him to look into a large food store property for sale in Leicestershire, with a price over three point eight million pounds. She wondered if the others would be interested in a property like this. It would be an investment of around three hundred and fifty thousand if all eleven join in. It would have to be a new holding company. When she prepared for bed, she was looking in the mirror cleaning her face when she started thinking about the auditions for ‘Wicked’.

On Wednesday, they had chapel for the first time as third years. Ivy spoke to her at lunch.

“Willow, we spoke to my parents last night and they want to come to the school on Friday to see for themselves what we’re doing.”

“That will be OK. Ask Mister Bamborough to stop a bit later on the day and he’ll show them around. Tell your sister and your friends that I want you in the rehearsal room we used last night, on Friday after school, for a while. I want to start with the auditions for the first-years musical. There will be a notice for all first years to attend. We’ll be doing ‘Wicked’, and I’m sure that Brenda could be a shoo-in for one of the lead roles. That might be a good time for your folks to come.”

“OK, thanks Willow. You’re the best.”

After school, she went to the rehearsal area with her friends. The orchestra were there, along with the tenor and bass singers. Willow got them to quieten.

“Good afternoon. As you know, I’ve been given the mountain that is this project. The orchestra have already mastered the two movements where there is no singing. Today, we will start on those parts which feature the male soloists. Early in the Messiah there are two airs sung by the tenor, and two by the bass. We will all try to have these sorted before we go home. Orchestra, you will see that the first item is an Accompagnato. Please be ready to go. We will master the music before adding the vocals. The lyrics start with ‘Comfort ye, my people’.

Mister Bamborough gave her a smile after she led the tune-up, then she sat in the leader’s seat with her violin. Because they had mastered the cadence of the music before the holiday, it only needed two run-throughs before the tenor stood to sing, having followed the music. He was good on the second try, so they allowed him to sit so that they could work on the next movement, an Air, with the opening words of ‘Ev’ry valley shall be exalted.’

It went so well that Willow asked for them to work the next movement as well, which uses the choir, and has the words of ‘And the glory of the lord shall be revealed.’

After that, they mastered the music of the Accompagnato for the bass, with the words ‘Thus Saith the Lord’, followed by a later movement with him, which had the opening ‘For behold, darkness shall cover the earth’. That was followed by his next item, an Air, with the words, ‘The people that walked in darkness.’

They had used their two hours, and everyone was happy with how they had gone. Mister Bamborough suggested that they get Margaret in next week. They all packed up to go home. In the vehicle, Willow asked if Sebastian could organise the transport with the wheelchair lift for next Wednesday to pick up the choir and take them back to the club after.

When she arrived home, they had dinner and walked to the club where the choir was working with Tom. Willow played the keyboard for them and told them to be at the club around three the next week, to be taken to the school for a rehearsal with the orchestra. She assured Margaret that the proper transport will be available and that they all will be brought back to the club afterwards.

On Thursday, they had the Music Studies in the afternoon. It was a lesson in developing keyboard skills, with one of the Yamahas in the classroom. Not all of the class were pianists, so it didn’t take long for those that were to follow the hints and tips that they were given. They had a short test on notations and both Gina and Willow were given a free pass on the performance part. Some of the others played, with Mister Jamieson telling them that it would be finalised in the next session. The non-keyboard players just needed to know the technical side.

On Friday, after gym, which had the girls playing netball, Willow showered and dressed to go back to the rehearsal room to start the auditions for ‘Wicked’. There were three distinct areas. One was the make-up of the orchestra, which isn’t huge. The second was the choice of the named roles, of which there was four female and four male. Then it was volunteers for the non-speaking parts but were mostly chorus singing parts. The other thing was to get volunteers to paint the sets and man the lighting, as well as stagehands.

She found that all of the first year were keen to be part of the project, especially if it meant to be in the same room with the three members of their favourite group. Gina would be playing keyboard in rehearsals, and Jacob was now the stage manager. They had a couple of volunteers for each of the singing parts, with Willow emphasising that the two main characters carry eighty percent of the musical. She was happy that Brenda had nominated to play Glinda.

The students decided that they wanted it to be an electric presentation, so the Vines were an immediate choice for the band. With one of the first-year students an organ player, they were already on a roll. That gave Jacob some ideas for the stage set-up and backdrops, seeing that it would be the cast supplying the colour and movement. During the session, Mister Bamborough brought in a man and woman, obviously the twin’s parents. They stood for a while, as the group were in lively discussion about the look they wanted to portray. They were adamant that they couldn’t carry the flamboyant production of the stage show, and finally decided that it should be set in modern times, with OZ becoming a seedy ghetto, with the wizard now a sort of Fagin character. Glinda was a girl who had left the area and did well for herself, with Elphaba a former friend who had slipped into bad ways. Willow told them to see if they could refine the story to fit the stage show premise for next week, and the adults left the room.

The volunteers were given the lyrics for the characters and a DVD of the show, which the school had acquired, and told to come back next week with the expectation of singing their parts, with the actual performances mixing the cast so that everyone had their time on the stage.

That evening, the family sat in the sitting room and watched the DVD, with Willow taking notes. Wendy was taken with the whole show, especially the costumes. She asked Willow who was going to make the costumes and was told that it was going to be presented in modern dress.

“That will be interesting to see”.

On Saturday morning, she was by the front door when Wilhelm arrived in the new company people mover. Ashley asked if he could come along, not having seen inside the property. They went to Leicester and parked in front of the offices. Wilhelm led them into the office first, going up the stairs and showing them a totally refurbished space, with a clean open-plan and now a good kitchen and new toilet. There were two big desks, with computer screens and ergonomic chairs. There were filing cabinets, marked with the different properties. He said that he had relocated all the records here, where he could work in the quiet. One end of the floor had a huge table, with twelve chairs.

They all picked up hi-vis vests before they went out. The big roller door was gone, replaced by a wide single door that opened inwards, set in a plain wall. Wilhelm unlocked it and took one key off a ring of keys, giving it to Willow, then giving one each to Gina and Jacob. They went into a short corridor that went to the right, with the walls covered in sound absorbing tiles. Wilhelm showed them the panel of switches and turned them all on. The corridor turned left, then left again, and there was another heavy door. On the wall was a sign. It read, ‘No Smoking, no alcohol, no food or drink beyond the rest area.’

When he opened the door, the lights were on, and the space was bathed in a slightly orange glow from hidden LEDs. When they walked in and looked around, they saw comfortable chairs, coffee tables, and a kitchenette along the opposite wall with a couple of refrigerators, electric kettles and microwaves. To their left were steps leading up to a mezzanine that was over the corridor they had come through. Next to the entrance door were two other doors, with the universal silhouettes for a man and woman.

“Both are big enough to double as handicapped toilets and are plumbed to the ones in the next-door building. If you look at the two end walls, they are softwood, so you can put up your awards. The mezzanine has storage space for recordings and all the other bits needed. It doesn’t have much head height but is a useful additional space.”

There was another door on the next wall, near the kitchenette. He led them through and into the control room. It took their breath away, with the big mixing desk, secondary mixing desk, and two, big, reel to reel tapes and a bank of computers and screens, all bathed in the low light.

“The twenty-four track tapes were added as back-up. They did the business for well over fifty years, and I was told that they had got more than one studio out of a fix. The post-production is on the back wall and can take feed from the computers or the tape. All the computers are connected to a very large server for storage of work in progress. The desk at the end is to monitor the vision and there are twelve camera mounts. I’m not an expert; I was just told all this several times.”

He went to the control desk and pointed to a bank of switches and a large red one.

“This lights up the working area.”

He switched the red one and they could see the studio itself through the big window. It seemed to stretch away for ever. The walls were acoustic tile, the floor looked like a blue industrial carpet and the lights showed that the room was empty.

“Come on through. You can’t hear anything, but I turned on the air conditioning when we came in.”

There was another door to the right of the desk, which turned out to be an airlock passage with a door at both ends. In the studio they noticed a wealth of power outlets and jack plugs. He walked them through to the other end, where he slid a sound deadening door to one side to reveal heavy double doors. He used the key to unlock the deadlock holding the doors shut and swung them open.

Marianne Gregory © 2025