Patsy Power Part 9

We were all sweaty when we walked off the stage, shedding our mics, buds and instruments. The buds really worked well as I could hear quite well straight after the show. We all gave the boys a hug and I told Jake that they were awesome.

Al came back to us and told us that everyone out on the dance floor were still buzzing and that he wished we could play there every Saturday. It was now early in the morning so we consigned all our equipment to Tom and his crew and we all went home. It had been a busy week and the success of the new band was very exciting for the festivals. Once again it showed that the higher volume worked well for our music.

Sunday we tried to have a workout but all were so tired we all pulled up short. I took the sports car and went to see my ‘Aunt Ruby’ where we had a good chat and I told her that the next Sunday would be the last for a while. She put on a brave face and smiled when I said I would try to send messages to the ‘support crew’ so they can pass them along. She could send me messages by return if she wanted. She asked me if I was having any trouble being a full Patsy now and I told her that I really did not think about it; I just carried on as me, no matter what I looked like. She told me that I was no longer ‘me’ but a whole new person with a whole new personality but she liked it.

Leaving her I took another drive in the country; stopping at a rural service station for petrol and a bar of chocolate. The young girl behind the counter looked twice at me and then, with a tremulous voice, asked “Are you Patsy?” I said I was and I was pleased to meet her and she told me she had been at the dance club last night. I joked that it was easy to see as the rings under her eyes matched mine. We chatted about the gig and the upcoming tours and she asked me not to leave while she went and got our DVD for me to sign and then to pose with her for a selfie. I drove away thinking that this had been the first real interaction with a fan and contemplated having fans that may not be as polite as this one. In the afternoon I sat with Minh and we talked about the concept of a Christmas album and then drew up a songlist with just content concepts for each track so that we had a Christmassy song followed by a teen song. We decided to work on songs during the tours when we had any quiet times. I said that one track, or maybe two, should be more adult songs that she could sing at our concerts so we decided to concentrate on those first with a view to putting them in the show.

The following week was pretty well a normal with practise of the pop concert with the old band and work on an acoustic set with our folk sound. One part of the week that was not normal on Wednesday when we were called to see Sarah in her office and arrived to see that Simon, Joey and a couple of legal types were there. They had contracts for us to sign and we were each nearly a million dollars richer! Simon said that he was heading back to New York later in the day but that Joey was going to remain in Nashville to see our set on Saturday. I asked Simon if he had seen our studio and he said he hadn’t so we took them on a full tour of the workplace. He was amazed at the practice stage and what he called a small studio. We told him that bigger premises were in the pipeline now. Joey had a good chat with Ron about ‘production values’ and Simon got pally with Carl and the old band talking about the ‘good old days’ when they were all in other bands. All in all they had a good visit. Simon did ask Ron to show him our advert and he seemed impressed by it.

Thursday Alice informed us that our money had come through so we trooped off to our bank to sit down with the financial people and put it straight to work for us. On the way back Lorraine said in a small voice “Guys, we are nearly millionaires. How unreal is that!” We had to agree and I said for them to just let it move to the back of the brain and not let it affect our careers. It was not going to be easy was the consensus. We did ease off that afternoon and Alice told us to take Friday off and go somewhere nice as a group. She suggested a spa complex outside the city and that the company would pay for it, so that filled our Friday. A full day of massage and oiling and beauty treatments was very relaxing; so much so most of us having a little snooze. When we were ready to leave the staff asked us to line up with them for a photo. There are fans everywhere!

Saturday morning we breakfasted, showered and dressed on long skirts with peasant tops and the limo arrived to take us to the dealership. When we got there it was already jumping with families looking at cars, kids on rides and the jumping castle. There were face painters, balloon artists and clowns and it looked like a lot of fun. We were shepherded into the showroom where Ron and the folk group waited for us. We sat on our stools and Minh and I hoisted our guitars. Behind us we had both Carl and Jake with Boss on a double bass and Kevin on the drums. We sang a song while Geoff stood in front of us and Ron set the mixer. That set we all went outside to mingle. Peter was resplendent in a loud shirt and his wife and daughters had very bright sun dresses on. I could see the sales staff by their bright colours and they seemed very busy. Peter said that the advert had been on local TV for the week and there had been a groundswell of positive comments from customers, if not from his fellow city business colleagues who thought he was crazy. The rep was there in a bright jacket but still with the company logo on the pocket. We mingled with the customers and signed autograph books and DVDs that mysteriously appeared from large bags.

Peter’s daughters sought us out and thanked us for turning their father into a real person instead of a manic stress machine. They said that life at home was much better now. Around midday it was announced that the BBQ was ready so there was a rush to the caterer’s tables and everything went quiet for a half an hour. Peter then called for everyone to go into the showroom for the official launch. We went in and found that rows of chairs had been placed there so we went and sat at our stools and Peter took the radio mic and did the official launch of the new look dealership, thanking us for our work on the advert and the car company for backing it. He cut a ceremonial ribbon to applause and the left us to entertain.

I started up strumming the guitar and the others came in before we started singing a number of well-known country standards and folk songs and then a short set of our quieter numbers followed by another group of car related songs finishing with a very odd folk version of ‘Born to be wild’ sung by Carl that had several people chuckling. We stood up and took our bows and the showroom slowly cleared. Ron told us to leave everything as a few of the road crew had volunteered to move the equipment back to the studio. We mingled again and Joey caught up with us accompanied by a very pretty girl who was introduced as his wife. She said that after hearing our music in New York she had bought a set of industrial ear plugs and was very surprised not to need them – but it was a pleasant surprise. I told her to hang on to them as she may well need them if Joey took her to one of the festivals.

When we thought it politic to leave we looked for Peter and found him talking to an elderly gent in a sports jacket. He saw me and interrupted his discussion to tell me again how happy he was at the outcome of my advert and introduced me to his companion who turned out to be his doctor. The gentleman took my hand and thanked me for bringing his patient back from a certain early demise as his blood pressure had come down to almost normal over the past week and his bloods were looking good as well.

On Sunday we all went to the nursing home to see Ruby and thank our ‘support crew’ for their input and every laughed when I told them about Peter and his health. “Wow” said one “we now have a Patsy Pill!”

Part 10

As we were leaving the nursing home Kay said, “You know that you have been dispensing the Patsy Pill here?” I asked her what she meant and she went on “Since this lot have been involved in your band they have improved out of sight. We monitor them regularly and blood pressures over the whole home have dropped and several that showed other symptoms of age or stress are showing much better results. It’s like you brought a wellbeing potion in with you.” I laughed and said that it was a pity I couldn’t bottle it as I would be rich by now. She told me I carried my riches with me everywhere I went as she gave me a hug and then wished me luck for the tour. She told me that Alice had given her twenty tickets for the Nashville Wednesday night in three weeks and that the gang will be there. The rest of Sunday was spent on the gym machines and being quiet.

Monday was taken care of by going over the details for the tours. Carl and the old band were flying to Baltimore on Tuesday to check out the set-up there in plenty of time for the first concert the following Monday. The new band was flying to Washington on Wednesday to get acquainted with the set up there. The road crews both left today; a van with our instruments, radio mics and buds plus a couple of racks of stage clothing plus a minibus with our roadies, beauticians, Lucy and a dresser and with ‘Patsy and the Innocent Party On Tour’ sign written on both sides headed to Baltimore while another minibus similarly sign written with our other beauticians, dressers and road crew left for Washington in convoy with a truck carrying our other instruments, radio mics and special buds plus four amp stacks, dance gig clothing and boxes of new posters. The boxes of photos and posters had already been freighted to the ‘Amazon’ tour organisers.

It looked like nothing was left to chance. Tuesday was spent packing our personal clothing to last a couple of weeks as we would be back at the house when playing in Nashville. We made sure we had all our personal paperwork and our tour identification lanyards for both tours (different colours thankfully) as well as a plentiful supply of headache tablets as per Carls’ advice. Wednesday was a full day in the office with a long meeting with Ma and the publicist; then one with Sarah and Alice. We were instructed to stay teetotal and make sure we did not go anywhere alone as we would be out in the big world and possible targets for ‘crazies’. Alice said “Don’t think we’re exaggerating, we have been there ourselves.”

Thursday dawned early for us as we showered, dressed in casual clothing, breakfasted and waited for the limo. It turned up with a small van for our cases and we were off to the airport to fly to Baltimore. Ma and Alice were there to see us off and we all hugged before boarding the plane. It was an uneventful flight and when we came out of the arrival lounge our bus driver for this part of the tours, Billy, was there with one of the lady staffers from Simon’s office. She introduced herself as Angela and pronounced that she would be our company rep for the entire tour season and would be coming with us to the festivals so, if there were any problems, she could handle them.

We piled our cases into the minibus and got ourselves seated and were off into the city. Angela explained that we had a number of rooms on one floor and ‘Amazon’ were on the floor above while the promotors were above them “Such is the pecking order” she said. We had twin rooms so would share, three rooms for us with her sharing with one of us and two rooms each for the band, beauticians and dressers. We quickly decided that it would be Joanne and I in a room and Minh and Nina said they would share so Angela got to share with Lorraine. It made it easy when we checked in to send the bags to the right rooms.

After we had freshened up we gathered in the dining room for lunch. The rest of our party were there and Carl brought us up to speed on the venue. It was quite a large theatre, seating about two thousand and he said that he was told we were about three quarters booked. He said that ‘Amazon’ would fly in on Saturday morning but their road crew were already in town and had set up the equipment if we wanted to do a sound check today or tomorrow. “Amazon’ had ordered us to stay away Saturday and Sunday so they could practise alone. Nina was a bit upset as she was jumping out of her skin to meet Ashley (“I have her poster on my bedroom wall”) so I told her that there would be lots of time to meet her. In the afternoon we went to the theatre and got onto the stage and did a couple of numbers to get the sound check.

Our mix guy took a note of all of our final settings in his book as we were sharing the mixing board, then we went off for a walk in the city. We had a look in a couple of shops (much to the disgust of the guys) and then went back to the hotel for dinner and a quiet evening. Well, it was meant to be but Angela got a message from our publicist that we had an appointment to be interviewed on a late TV chat show that night and gave the instructions of time and place. So, it was dinner, dress up and get ourselves to the TV station where we found that our publicist was spot on about superannuated twits hosting chat shows but we smiled sweetly and chatted with the host for our allotted ten minutes. He ended by saying “Tune in at the same time tomorrow night when we will be talking to ‘Amazon’”. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he would be left whistling Dixie.

Friday we worked in the theatre doing our show in the morning, breaking for lunch, and doing it again in the afternoon as well as a few of our emergency numbers. It all sounded good so we went back to the hotel for dinner. At dinner, Angela surprised us by telling us that our album was in the top ten and that both ‘Mall Song’ and ‘Changing had hit the top five in downloads and requests in a number of states so we should expect a good reception from the audiences next week. She also said that a double DVD of our Nashville concert will be released next week with one disc being the first half of the first show and the other, the second half of the second show. It would have multi camera images rather than the single camera raw footage on the discs I had been given. She gave us an itinerary of interviews and visits we were to attend over the weekend and we had an early night. I did not bother watching the chat show. The weekend went as had been planned; we dressed nicely, smiled a lot and spoke well when we met the media and other dignitaries on both days.

Monday was a different kettle of fish. At breakfast in the dining room we were joined by the ‘Amazon’ band minus Ashley and Georgina. We all introduced ourselves and when asked where the other two were we got the answer that they did not get out of bed before midday, if they could then. Anyway we got on quite well with the rest of the band. Riordan was the rhythm guitarist and, she said, the main song writer (“But I never get any credit for it!”). She was the same age as Ashley and Georgina and went to school with them. Together they had formed a singing trio which grew into the band as it was today. The three of them were about ten years older than us girls. The rest of the band included Kurt on bass, ‘VB’ on drums and Julia on the keyboard. All three were about another ten years older still and they hit it off immediately with our older guys. They all left to go to the theatre to check out the situation there and left the five of us with Riordan. Angela excused herself to go and do some ‘business stuff’ and Nina, Minh and Lorraine went up to their rooms to call their folks. Riordan, Joanne and I retired to a terrace lounge and chatted about the upcoming tour.

“Look” she said, “I know that this may be a big deal for you but I have to tell you that Ashley chose you because you are unknown and would not take the gloss off us. However, the way she has been lately I do not know if we can keep her under control. We may have to abandon the tour at some stage!”

Marianne G 2020