Patsy Power Part 13

Monday morning found us being asked by the publicist to front up to a local radio station in the morning, an afternoon TV chat show and an evening TV chat show with another channel so we had to get our flight altered to Tuesday. The Tuesday flight got us to Cincinnati in the afternoon and Billy picked us up.

The promoters had changed our hotel so that Ashley didn’t have to see us, how nice of them; so we made ourselves comfortable in our rooms and then hit the hotel gym to work out the stress. We intended to spend the week chilling out and doing the shops. We were not playing until Saturday and Sunday so we had a bit of break time.

Wednesday morning we were having our breakfast when Julia from ‘Amazon’ came into our dining room and asked if there was somewhere we could talk. I called a waiter over and asked him if there was a meeting room that we could use when we had finished eating. He went to see someone and came back to tell us there was a meeting room on the first floor that we could use and gave us the directions to find it. I told Julia to meet us there in half an hour and she left us to finish our meal. Angela said “This gets stranger and stranger.” We all agreed. When we had finished our coffee we went and found the room and sat down to wait.

It was not long before there was a knock on the door and when I opened it I saw Julia had Riordan, Kurt and VB with her. They came in and sat down and Riordan said “I have to apologise on our behalf for you being shifted from our hotel. It is not right or even decent. You did upset Ashley and Georgina on the first night in Baltimore by firstly overcoming her little bit of vandalism with the mixing board and then having ‘her’ crowd asking for an encore. She does not like to be upstaged. We are able to be here now because the two of them are so far out of it from last nights’ drinking they will not be surfacing for a couple of more hours.”

“We took advantage of another of their binges on Sunday and flew to Washington to see your dance act as a friend had rung me to tell me that you were closing the show. I have to say that we were all blown away with your talents and with that other backing band you used there. On top of that we saw about five or six thousand fans dancing themselves into exhaustion; it was a very heady experience. We flew back Monday morning and we have spent all day Monday talking about things.” I thanked her for her comments and asked her how we could help them.

Julia answered then “We have got a tip from a friend in our management office that they are trying to sell the rights to the future output of ‘Amazon’. We have no idea what that would mean to us, whether it would include us as we stand now or just Ashley and Georgina. It would all depend on what the new owners will want and it has us all really worried that, if things get out of hand on the tour, our whole future may be shot.” I looked at Angela and said “This may be an opportune time to call Simon”. She took out her phone and rang him. When he answered she gave a brief outline of what had been said at the table and asked him if he had any news from New York. He obviously asked her to put him on speakerphone as she did just that and put the phone in the middle of the table.

Simon said “I am Simon Longford, general manager of our music division. Can all members of ‘Amazon’ please identify themselves?” The band said their names and hello in turn. Simon then said “Riordan, Kurt, VB and Julia, I can welcome you to our company as of 11.00am this morning when I meet with the representative of your management company to take over future distribution and management of ‘Amazon’ but have named the four of you only. You will be part of K Beat once the tour is finished and colleagues of the rabble in the room with you.”

They all yelped and Riordan cried “Thank you Mister Longford, you have taken a crushing weight from our shoulders. We have been worried for months.” Simon said “I will be in Nashville on the weekend to see you play there and will arrange to meet you all. We do have to keep this from Ashley and Georgina, though. They may try to destroy your group before the end of the tour if they find out. I will get your old management to sign a non-disclosure agreement to be in place until the tour finishes in New York where we will have an official announcement to the industry press. You do not have to worry about your future any more. If there is anything that comes up between now and the end of the tour, just call on Angela as she will be your link to me.”

“Now, Patsy, I have heard from Joeys wife that your performance in Washington was a great experience and she thanks you for suggesting that she hang on to her hearing protection.” He then said he was looking forward to Nashville and rang off. There was much chatter and group hugs and a bit of a tear from Riordan and Julia. “Look” I said, “this stays in this room for the moment. We will carry on as if none of this has happened and you must all act as if you are still worried about your future as anything else may alert Ashley”.

Riordan said “I have known Ashley from school days and she will stop at nothing to get her own way. I hope she is not thinking about ways to sabotage your set but you must be alert for the next few weeks. Do not handle anything which looks like it has dust on it and make sure you keep all of your purses secure when you are on stage as I have seen her get rid of a rival years ago by planting drugs and calling the police. I am sure she has something planned for the Nashville concerts as she has that smirk on her face whenever that city is mentioned.” We said that we would be doubly alert and Angela said she would get our security service to put men on to be with us twenty four seven.

After they had left Angela said to me, “Before he was put on speaker, Simon told me to thank you for the heads-up as he thinks that he got the best bargain for years.” We went about the rest of the day doing as we had in Washington by getting the hotel to find us a tour bus driver and take us about the best places in town. Wednesday was another rest day and I took some time to work through some new and old songs. Thursday we went to the theatre to do a sound check with the mixer tech not only writing down the settings but also taking a photo on his phone. Friday we did various interviews for the media and Saturday morning we were in a local salon for a full work-over. Saturday evening we were taken to the theatre in the bus with a security man joining us.

When we got there we were not allowed off the bus until the security guy had searched our dressing room, coming out with a couple of plastic bags. He said, “These were in a couple of drawers at the make-up station. I am going to call a colleague to take them from me for testing and once he gets here we can go in.” His colleague was only a few minutes away and, once he had left with the bags, we went to the dressing room, passing Ashley on the way and she had a big grin on her face. We went about our business and got dressed and ready for the opening. We were a little early so were just sitting there when the door opened and a couple of policemen walked in. One held up his badge and said in a firm voice “No-one move. We are going to check you all for drugs as we have been given a tip that you are users and would have some here.”

Angela said it was OK, go ahead as we had nothing to hide so they proceeded to frisk everyone and then, finding nothing, looked in our purses and all the drawers. Finding nothing the one in charge said “I am sorry for bothering you and I thank you for your co-operation. It was obviously a hoax as, by just looking at you all, none of you are users.” After he left I said “I think we have a show to put on”. We trooped up to the stage and put on our instruments, buds and mics. As usual, I checked that everyone was good and our mixer tech came on saying that he needed to reset again but had done so. The stage hand gave us the sign and we stepped forward as the curtains opened to do our set; admittedly with one song less but finishing on a quasi-encore for a very enthusiastic audience. We took our bows and went back to the dressing room where the security man said that one from the other band had come by wanting to go in our dressing room but he had stopped her. We got changed and I said “Why don’t we get ourselves up at the back of the auditorium and watch ‘Amazon’ so that is what we did.

Part 14

We found ourselves a row of empty seats at the back of the circle and sat to watch. They were quite good and Ashley was obviously agitated but it tended to give her performance a bit of an edge. I watched Georgina, who tended to play as if she was a zombie, and I also noted Nina quietly singing along with the set; maybe she has forgiven the rest of the band but I am sure that there was still a dartboard in the making. We made our way out during their last song and went back to the hotel. Billy, our driver, told us that there had been someone lurking by the bus but had seen him and left. Our security guy immediately told him to pull over and stop so that he could check things. He took a flashlight and looked around all the wheel arches and behind the bumpers standing up with another bag in his hand. Angela said that this was getting beyond a joke as we waited for the other security man to come and take this bag away as well. When we arrived at the hotel, a police car pulled into the driveway as we were going inside, and we all surmised that Billy was not going to put the bus away for some minutes.

He confirmed that at breakfast, telling us that a couple of beat police had been in a diner having their break when a guy, who looked like a hobo, gave them a note that ‘some broad’ had told him to give them. The note said a band bus will pull into the hotel tonight and that they may find something interesting in it. We all silently thanked Riordan for her warning and told Billy to be extra careful, checking the bus before starting in the morning and staying with it while we were not in it ourselves. Angela rang the security company and asked for our detail to double. She put her phone down and said that they were not surprised after hearing the report from their man last night. I suggested that they come into the hotel and check all our rooms considering the lengths that Ashley seemed to going to. She got back on the phone and ten minutes later four guys came into the dining room and took all of our room keys; coming back ten minutes later saying that there were no drugs but there was some very risqué magazines in one of the rooms – did anyone know about it. One of the beauticians put her hand half up while blushing like a traffic light.

The Sunday concert was approached like a military operation, everything checked and searched. We had the security company send a couple of guys to the theatre early in the morning to make sure that nothing happened and when we got there in the evening they reported that the only thing odd was seeing an odd looking chap in biker gear carrying a pair of shears near the main power switches but he had run off when approached. Beyond that we went in, searched, got ready and did our set and, again, watched ‘Amazon’ from the back of the circle. Ashley and Georgina looked like hell and I was worried that one or the other would not be able to finish. They did, however, get to the last number and we made our way, after checking the bus again, back to the hotel.

The Monday morning we flew to Nashville for four days of performances starting on Wednesday evening in the Athenaeum. We were picked up by limos and everyone was taken to their various homes. We arrived at the house to find two security guards there; I was starting to think that this fame and fortune had some downsides to it. Minh rang her parents to tell them she was in town and well; Nina rang hers to ask them to buy some softwood sheet the size of the poster in her room; I rang the nursing home to speak to my mother first and then got their switchboard to patch me to Jim, telling him the highlights of the efforts to discredit us. He was almost beside himself and said he would talk to some of his contacts to see if there were recorded events around previous tours with Ashley.

We did our laundry, had some time on the gym machines and generally de-stressed. We had a bit of a conference around the kitchen table during lunch and agreed that we had done well so far, playing all concert dates so far despite things put in our way. About 2.00pm the phone rang and it was Angela saying that she needed to come to the house and speak to us urgently.

She arrived about a half an hour later with Simon with her. He said that he had decided to spend most of the week in Nashville and it was a good job he had. We pricked up our ears and he went on to say “This morning, when the hotel staff where ‘Amazon’ was staying, went to clean the rooms, they found Ashley and Georgina on the floor of their room. They were not dead but it seems that they had drunk themselves into a stupor and then OD’ed sometime in the night. From what I have been told it is unlikely they will be out of hospital for some time to come, if ever.” He said the other band members had already left the hotel and had arrived in Nashville when they were told. He suggested that we all go and see them to commiserate and try to cheer them up.

We agreed so Angela called up a limo while we freshened up and we piled in to follow their car to the hotel. When we got there we found the other four band members red-eyed and obviously upset. The two may have been evil but they had worked with them for over ten years. We hugged them while they cried themselves out and they finally settled down and Riordan said “What are we going to do now? We have a tour to finish and one third of the group is no longer going to be on stage. We are ruined!” Simon looked at me and said “I seem to remember a certain karaoke session in New York.” Angela started to grin and said “It won’t work, will it?” I knew what they were talking about and said “Riordan, we have a person in our group who, not only looks the part, but sings as well as Ashley.” Nina looked startled at this but stayed quiet. I said “If we can get access to the theatre this afternoon do you think that your band would be able to run through your set with her?” Kurt asked “What about lead guitar?” I told him that I could stand in for the trial as I thought that I had heard and seen enough to look the part; “it doesn’t need a lot of acting to look like a zombie” I joked.

Angela got on to the theatre to see if we could have access and I got onto the music store and spoke to Pierre Roland, asking him if he could get a complete set of equipment to the theatre urgently as we needed to play today but everything was still in transit. When he said he could and asked what was needed I passed the phone to Kurt who listed the gear that they usually used. I asked Simon what the legal position was and that he said that he had called the ‘Amazon’ management who had agreed that the tour was effectively over as of today and that he now had full control of the band. Riordan just looked amazed while Julia said “I have never seen something move with this speed before, it’s like watching a whirlwind.” Simon laughed and said “You haven’t seen Patsy in action before, have you?”

We took them over to their new home base at K Beat to meet Sarah and Alice. Riordan was over the moon to meet Alice as she had loved her songs years ago when she was young. Sarah said she would be allocating a new office suite for them for the future and told them that the whole company was behind them. They were getting more cheerful as time passed and we all then went to the theatre where the music store truck was unloading some amps and instruments. I had picked up my SG from the office so was OK already. Nina took me aside and said in a small voice “I used to sing their songs to my hairbrush when I was young and now you have got me to a point where I will be auditioning for Ashley’s’ spot. I could never have imagined this in my wildest dreams.” I told her that she was perfectly able to take Ashley’s place and even do it better; just to relax and close her eyes and imagine that it was that hair brush in front of her. While everything was being set up the roadies and support staff from ‘Amazon’ turned up to see what was going on, as did some of the staff from K Beat. I saw Lucy and asked her how long it would take, should everything go all right, to outfit Nina in something closely approximating Ashley’s look but, hopefully, more fashionable. “She said that she could put something together for Wednesday evening so I said “That’s good, see if you can do something in black leather for me, but not obviously biker looking.”

Everything got set up, we each said or played something to set the mixer, and Riordan asked Nina what she wanted to sing. Nina looked at me and said “Why don’t we start at the beginning of your set and stop if we mess it up?” So that is what we did; and we didn’t have to stop until we finished the last song.

Marianne G 2020