Patsy Power Part 11

She went on to tell us that when the band was young, Ashley and Georgina were into drink but then gravitated to weed, on to cocaine and was now dabbling with heroin. She, and the rest of the band, were clean and intended to stay that way.

She was worried that the two would go and do something stupid this summer but assured us that the rest of her band would do their best to get everyone to the end. “We think that this will be the last tour of the band but we will try to put out studio tracks in the coming few years. The rest of us are tired of the grunge biker look that Ashley and Georgina insist on for our live shows, it is so yesterday. Oh! I know you have not met them yet but Georgina likes to be called George so you will see why she wears black leather jeans and a biker jacket on stage, as well as most of rest of the time.” She sat back, fully expecting us to break down crying.

I put my hand on hers and said “Riordan, what you have told us is not unexpected. We have heard rumours that this was your last tour but had no details about Ashley. Our Nina is going to be devastated as Ashley is her teenage heroine and has a poster on her wall at home. I am afraid that Ashley is going to be in for a big surprise tonight as there should be a significant number of fans of ours in the audience, seeing that our debut album is in the national top ten and our live DVD has been selling well. I think that you guys are going to have to be well on your game to follow us.”

It was her turn to look shocked. “You’re not complete unknowns from the boondocks? Oh dear, Miss Bitchy and Miss Butchy are really going to have to suck it up when they find that out! I will let our guys know to be on top form tonight if you let your guys know that there could be rough times ahead. I think that you have a much bigger stake in this tour than us.” I asked her if she had been told that we would be going to do shows at the dance festivals as well during the summer and she said that they had been only told that we would open for them.

We left it at that and I went up to our rooms and got Angela and the other girls together. I sat close to Nina when I told them what was going on and held her as she sobbed. “Dammit” she said “when I get home that poster is going to be pasted to some softwood and used as a dartboard!” I asked them to remain calm whatever happens and that we will perform at our best, both on and off the stage. Angela said that she would have to let Simon know just in case we get cancelled, so he could be ready to sue the other management. We discussed the situation calmly now and agreed that the other band members were all right. I said that it should be advantageous that our older guys hit it off with them. We got ourselves freshened up and took ourselves to the theatre.

Carl greeted me when we walked in and said “There is something going on but I have not got a handle on it yet” I asked him to get our entire crew together for a meeting and indicated that we should go and sit in the auditorium, away from the stage. When we were all together, I told them quietly what we had been told earlier and asked that they all act as if they knew nothing but keep an eye out for ructions. I told them to let me or Angela know if there was anything important that Simon or K Beat needed to know but, in the meantime, we should all act as if we would if nothing was amiss.

We did not want to precipitate an argument between the bands and we certainly should not let anything that Ashley or Georgina does get under our skin. If they want to play diva then we act as if they have earned the right. Carl commented that this was heavy stuff so early in the tour and Lucy asked if she should tell Ma. I thought we should hold it to ourselves for the moment as it may all blow over. Yeah, and pigs may fly!! I told them that sound checks would be one or two of our emergency numbers so we did not show our hand too early and we made our way up to the stage to do just that. After lunch we sat in the circle while ‘Amazon’ did their sound check. When they put their instruments down I asked our group what they thought. Nina, of course, said she was disappointed.

The consensus was that they were not too bad, the backing band was solid and Georgina played a mean guitar, if a bit sloppily, while Ashley certainly had a manic stage performance that bordered on being well over the top. We did agree that they would do OK if they stayed out of trouble. We all went down to the foyer to see the concession stands. “Amazon” had a stand selling CDs and posters. We had one selling our debut CD and the original live DVD as well as photos and posters. Our friendly music store had a stand with the guitars we used and a banner saying ‘Sponsors to Patsy and the Innocent Party’. I had noticed that our stage gear had stickers on them from the store and also the Patsy logo we picked for the plectrums. Lo and behold, there was a box of picks for sale at a dollar each. I said to the guy setting up to save me a few as I did not have my purse with me and he told me to take a handful as they only cost half a cent to make but to make sure I threw a few into the crowd as I played.

We went back to the hotel for a light dinner and I gave out picks to all of our guitar players. We then went back to the theatre to dress for our part of the show. Lucy had chosen bright red skirts with black tops that were big enough to move about easily and our beauticians then made sure our hair was good and the make-up perfect and we were ready to go. We had a 7.30pm start time so at 7.15 we went out on the stage and put on our mics and buds. When everyone was ready I keyed the comms button and asked if everyone was right. They all said OK but after that our sound mans’ voice came on asking us to hold off until he said go as the mixing desk settings were all over the place and he was having to reset from his notebook. I could hear the buzz from the audience while we waited and finally he told us we were good to go. I looked at the band and said 3, 2, 1, while nodding at the stage hand on the curtain controls. As they opened we kicked off with ‘Mall Song’. The tour had begun.

I could see that a lot of the crowd was not there especially to see us but they eventually followed the singing of the chorus and by the time we got to the end they were with us. We did our set ending in ‘Wait’ and the crowd called for more so we did ‘Changing’ as an encore then took our bows as the curtains closed. Leaving the stage to let the roadies do the change-over we walked into the wings to go back to our changing room. I did see Ashley looking daggers at us but ignored her. We quickly changed back into normal clothes and Lucy took control of the stage gear for cleaning tomorrow and we went out of the side entrance and took our bus back to the hotel.

We were sitting in the lounge when a guy came in and walked over to us. “Who is in charge here?” he asked. I nodded to Angela who said she was the distributors representative here to oversee our tour and that this would mean that probably, she was. He then told her that Ashley was not happy with the band doing an encore. Angela said that the crowd demanded it so an encore was required. He reiterated that Ashley said that we should not do any more so I said, “All right we will just take a few seconds after our penultimate song and then announce that the next was to be our last. No problem.” He firstly smiled as if he had won and then realised that we would do exactly the same as we had tonight but call it something different. “Just you wait” he said “Ashley will get her way, she always does.” And he strode off purposely. We waited until he was out of the room and broke into giggles. The battle had begun! And it was only the first city.

Next day we did much the same, performed our set, now one song longer, and went back to the hotel. Wednesday was a repeat performance and Friday morning the six of us flew to Washington.

Part 12

At Washington airport we were picked up by Alan, our driver, and taken straight out to the Festival grounds. We were dropped off near the organisers hut and Angela went in to see what they had for us. When she came out she told us the stage we were to use and that there was a preparation tent behind it where the rest of our crew were. We located the stage and the tent and found the band there. Jake told us that we had been originally scheduled for late Friday afternoon but had been moved to early Saturday evening.

This was good so we collected our whole crew and we went to the hotel. We checked in with the same room sharing as before and proceeded to settle down, happy we did not have to play today, after all. Having the afternoon free I asked the hotel if they could provide a tour driver as we had our own bus and he said he could organise one for after lunch. I went up to our rooms and told everyone who wanted that we would be driven, in our own bus, around Washington this afternoon for a sight-seeing tour. Jake said that the band had already done one the day before so it was Angela, our five and one of the dressers who collected the tour driver at the counter after lunch and led him to our bus.

We spent a happy afternoon gawking at the sights and stopping to buy trinkets to take home. Back at the hotel we paid the driver and went up to our rooms to freshen up for dinner. We were all having our meal when a hotel staffer came over to speak to Angela. She excused herself and left the table. When she came back she said “That was Joey, He wanted to know what was going on because he had received a complaint from the ‘Amazon’ management that we were overstepping the bounds of subservience by doing encores every night, and that Ashley had demanded that we stop or she would kick us off the tour.” She looked around the table and said “I told him what was really happening and he asked politely if we could do something to defuse the situation for the next city.” I smiled and said “That’s too easy; we can finish with the same songs but take one out of the middle. Let’s see if she picks it up.”

Saturday afternoon we went out to the festival site and located the new stage we had been allocated. Our roadies were there with the equipment in the truck. It seemed that there would be a band playing on that stage from 5.00pm to 6.00pm and then we had until 7.30pm to set up as another band would be playing on another stage. In fact, there was a band on that stage now. We made arrangements with our crew to assemble at 6.00pm at the tent and went out into the festival site to look around.

There were lots of food and product stalls and we found the one selling our merchandise in conjunction with the music store. The guys on the stall were happy to see us and we were told that there was a sense of disappointment when it was announced that we had been rescheduled but a cheer when it was announced that we were to play tonight. They said that sales had been good, especially the dance DVD and posters of us girls. The music store guy said that he had quoted lots of guitars and amps and had nearly sold out of the picks. He had ordered more to be air freighted to him and should have more for Sunday. We thanked them for their work and stood with them while Angela took several photos on their phones for them.

We stood and listened to the band on our stage for a while and then made our way to the tent. At the tent we were met by Barry, one of the brothers. He told us that the success of our album and DVD had created a huge swell of interest and asked us if we could also play Sunday evening at the same time. I looked at Angela and asked if it was allowed in the contract and she said it was if they paid for it. He agreed and we said we would be back on Sunday.

We had not played yet but were already bumped to Saturday night and now playing at the final night. When the band now on stage finished we waited until they came off and their roadies cleared the stage and our crew got stuck in with setting us up. By 7.00pm we had changed and had been beautified and we then listened to the band on the other stage for a few minutes before putting on our mics and plugging our ears with the super buds. I keyed my comms and asked the mixer tech if he was good. He came back telling me that he had followed the settings from Baltimore that had been emailed to him but trebled the volume. He said he would make small adjustments as needed for this open environment and save the settings.

I thanked him and asked if everyone else was ready and they all came back with a yes. I took one bud out and listened for the other band to finish and, when they did, gave them a short time to get off the stage, said “Let’s go” and we all went up on our stage. There was already a crowd in front of us and more were streaming from the other stage so I turned to the band and tapped my guitar three times and turned back to the crowd as the first bars of ‘Bounce’ nearly blew me off the stage. As we were to play until 9.00pm we did the longer versions of our songs and I could see a writhing mass of dancers in front of us. We finished ‘Dancefloor’ at just 8.45pm so, as the crowd was screaming for more, we did a fifteen minute version of ‘Maximum Dance’ to finish on time. I waved at the screaming horde and we walked off stage to allow the roadies to do their job. I told everyone that they had done a good job and that we can do it all over again tomorrow night. Angela said that she thought the Baltimore concert was good but that this was from another planet altogether.

We got changed into normal clothing and Alan drove us back to the hotel where it was a good shower and bed. At breakfast Angela told us that she had got a call from Simon who wanted me to ring him back, so I left the table and went up to my room and called him. He congratulated me on our Baltimore concerts and told me that our double Live DVD would hit the shops Monday. He then said that the debut album had hit number two in the charts and our singles from it were both joint number one in the download charts. The Live at the Place DVD was also into the top twenty in general charts and in the top five in the dance charts. He then told me that the management of ‘Amazon’ had approached him to buy the rights for their future output.

I told him that it was unlikely there would be any output at all from the current line-up but that Riordan had told me that the rest of the band wanted to make more discs themselves should Ashley and Georgina leave so it was a viable purchase at the right price. I said I thought that the management had been pressured by Ashley to make a last bit of money as I did not think she had much more singing in her. I also told him that, no matter what the sleeve notes say, Riordan was the song writer and there was certainly money to be made if he bought exclusive rights to the name. He thanked me for the information and said he would let me know what happened. Back at the table I told everyone about the chart placings but nothing else.

We spent the morning in the hotel gym and swimming pool. I had my first experience of being seen in a bikini, somewhat un-nerving. At lunch Barry Jackson came up to our table and congratulated us on our performance last night and told us that, because of the success of our Live DVD we presently outranked the other bands so he wondered if we could close tonight starting at 10.30pm and going as long as the crowd demanded. We took a quick show of hands and told him we would be delighted to. Jake said “wow, first big gig and we’re closing the festival; I’m not sure my heart can stand it!” We all laughed and told him welcome to the big time. We discussed plans and decided that we would do extended versions of our best songs which would take us up to about a two hour set so we made a list of those. We then took it easy again in the afternoon before having a good dinner and went up to our rooms to shower and prepare ourselves for a late night.

So we made our way to the festival site for 9.00pm and almost immediately had the stage to set up. There was a large crowd in front of us even then. Come 10.25 the other band finished and there was a rush to be in front of us and we went up onto stage and gave them what they wanted until nearly 1.00am in the morning, leaving the stage after a five minute ovation. Another one put to bed!!!

Marianne G 2020