Patsy Power Part 17

After dinner we made our way to the theatre, entering though the back as there was a crowd at the front. When we got in Lucy came up said she had the arm bands for us all but a little surprise for Riordan and the rest of the band. We went to their dressing room and she showed us a set of stage gear for them that it was similar to the biker grunge they had been wearing but no longer grunge, or even biker.

It looked similar, of sorts, but all were in better materials and cuts. “I thought you may like to go up-market in your new guise; you don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to.” She said. Riordan was speechless but Julia said “Thank you, Lucy, we were all looking a bit dowdy before and this will help us confirm that we still mean business.” Lucy showed Nina and me our kit and then we told the other we will see them in the break and made our way to the Patsy dressing room.

Alice was in our room when we got there and she gave us both a hug and said to Nina “Congratulations girl, this is the start of a stellar career and I know you will enjoy it. Thank you for saving the tour.” We got changed and made our way up to the wings. The stagehand said that the place was packed and the rest of the nights were selling fast from what he had been told. We then put on our mics and buds, kitted up and made our way to our positions. Alice had asked if she should introduce the show and we had told her we were just going to start playing and that it would be the same for the second half.

The clock ticked around to 7.28pm and I keyed my comms button and asked if everyone was ready and when they all replied I nodded to the stagehand and the curtains started to open as we opened our set. There was a roar as we came into view and the audience was into the chorus of ‘Mall Song’ the first time round; they must have been practising. There was applause after every number and when we finished with ‘Wait’ we took our bows and after calls for more, we finished off with ‘Changing’ before taking our bows as the curtains closed to rapturous applause. As we walked off stage Riordan came up and said “it’s a good job Ashley never heard that, she would have walked out of the place. You certainly had a home advantage here.” We walked back to the changing rooms and I said “Don’t worry; they are going to love you too, tonight.”

Back at the ‘Amazon’ room, Nina and I took of our stage clothes and proceeded to put on the ‘Amazon’ kit and sat down for a drink of water. Angela came by with Roger in tow and asked us if we could pose for him so they could get working on new pictures and posters. We all went up to the wings where he had set up a green screen. Nina and Riordan had to stand in various positions while he took shots and then with the rest of us. “These will be only for this tour, we will need to do more when you get a full time lead guitarist” he said.

That done we stayed in the wings and got geared up for the second half. Riordan had a comms mic and just before 9.00pm she checked that we were ready to go and we took our positions. Riordan nodded and Kurt played the opening bass notes and we could hear the roar from the crowd. I waited a few seconds and nodded to him as the curtains started to open and he played them again with me following this time. The roar got louder as Nina walked to be alongside Riordan and started singing. Riordan turned away from the crowd a moment and touched her comms button to ask the sound guy to crank it up and so a much more refined, but louder, version of ‘Amazon’ was launched. We moved about, smiled a lot and generally had a lot of fun before getting to the last number and doing our line-up across the stage. When we finished the applause and cheering was deafening and we took our bows to the sound of cries of more. I guess we had pleased the die-hard ‘Amazon’ fans as well as our own Patsy ones.

Riordan held her hands up and called for a little quiet and the noise abated. She walked to the front of the stage and said “I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, from the bottom of my heart for your acceptance of our new look ‘Amazon’”; there was more applause at that. “On Monday morning I thought that we were finished and never considered that I would be standing here tonight with Julia, VB and Kurt,” there was more applause; “And never in my wildest dreams would I think that we would such a wonderful new lead singer as Nina!” There was more applause, cheering and whistles. “I have to give special thanks to Patsy here, as none of this would have been possible without her insight and drive and army of helpers.” I bowed and blushed. “I know you want to hear another but we simply have not had time to have another song ready, so how about we just do the last one again?” There was a roar at that and she touched her comms button and said “OK for a jam session special?” We all smiled and nodded and repeated the last song but in a way, with extended solos and repeated verses, that was almost a new song in itself. As we walked off stage after taking an extended bowing session, Riordan said to me “I always wanted to do that!”

Back in the dressing room, Lucy took control of the stage kit, asking if anyone wanted any alterations done. Riordan asked if we could have brighter colours for the Miami concerts and maybe brighter again by New Orleans. Lucy said it would be possible but we would just get these clean again for tomorrow night. Riordan turned to me and said “You know, I often wondered what I would do if I was in charge of this band. Now I can lighten us up and get away from that passé biker look. The new songs that I have written were for a brighter version of the band. Are you sure you won’t stay with us after the tour?” I told her that she should talk to Sarah and Simon about auditioning for a tall African-American guitarist as that would fit the line-up and band name better. I said that I expected that we would be immortalised as we are today by a ‘Live at the Athenaeum’ DVD that may well be in the shops before we hit New Orleans.

We freshened up and went out to the foyer where a large crowd greeted us with cheers and we were almost blinded by flickering flashes. We mingled with a lot of very happy people. I saw Kay and went over to her and she said we had been fantastic and the group from the nursing home were so blown away they had to leave early to catch up on their sleep. She said that she had never seen Jim in tears before we had done our second half. She said he was muttering ‘wonderful, just wonderful’ to himself over and over again as he walked to the bus. Carl and Jake caught up with me and they commented that it was going to be a huge tour from here on, something that may go down in legends.

I had just got to Riordan when I saw Peter and his family so I took her over to meet them. I introduced her to them and Peter said that he thought he would never see anything to match a Patsy show but a Patsy Plus tonight was simply amazing. His wife and daughters gave us both hugs and Riordan had to sign a couple of pictures. Peter asked if I could find time to go to the dealership sometime in the week and I told him I would try to get over on Friday morning as I hoped that things may have settled by then. He turned to Riordan and said, “I would be very happy if you could come too; there is a screen that we show Patsy’s advert for us on, it is something to behold.” She said she would love to have a visit and asked if Kurt could come as he was a motorhead. Peter told her to bring along anyone she liked and we said cheerio and moved on to catch up with Sarah and Simon.

Sarah said that she would like to see the ‘Amazon’ members in her office on Friday morning to sign some contracts so I said it would be good as we could pick them up there to visit Peter.

Part 18

Thursday morning we had our usual gym hour and the showered, got dressed and took the sedan to the hotel to have breakfast with the others. We met them in the dining room and all sat down to eat. Riordan stayed quiet until we were on our coffee and then said “It’s strange, I did the show last night and never thought, or said, anything about Ashley and Georgina. It’s as if I have wiped them from my mind after putting up with more than a few years of their bullshit.” The other all agreed that they felt the same way and Kurt said that it would be a test if Georgina makes it and comes knocking. Angela said that from what she had been told, that was unlikely. Riordan asked me “What about the Innocent Party, Patsy, what do you see for the future?”

I thought about it and said “Well, I think that the future can never be foretold, just manipulated. We have two roads we are travelling at present; the pop one is pleasant but not that exciting while the dance scene is, perhaps, too exciting. It is really a matter of what Minh and I write in the next few months. We have the debut album still selling and Sarah wants us to record a Christmas album of nice songs, but that will not take a lot of time as we have most of it written. I doubt if we would go live with that. By the same token, we have a number of songs written specifically for Nina that you can have to play with if you carry on together. I hate to say it but the five of us were put together so we could operate with as low as three so, if we are not rushed into a particular situation where we need all five, I think we could handle it. I am also considered replaceable. I have started to like the sort of music you play since I have been playing it and I wonder if we could move into a sort of medium to hard rock just a bit pulled back from the dance scene. In fact, it would not be hard to put a few peppier versions of our dance numbers into our show now, especially if we get to play any larger venues. Does anyone have any idea of where we play as we go on?”

“Wow”, said Angela, “That is some deep thinking. They have told me never to take you at face value, Patsy, as there is always thinking happening. To answer your question, the original plan the promotors of this tour had was to provisionally book more than one theatre in each city and just announce ticket sales with a venue to be notified. I can tell you that they booked on the premise that the numbers buying tickets would drop along the west coast but probably pick up a bit as you approached New York. I know that sounds harsh, but that is the reality of tour planning. Simon has rung me this morning and told me that as soon as he read the papers this morning he ordered his staffers to see about booking larger venues for all of the future cities. We sold out here in Nashville last night after your concert, mainly from customers wanting to come back for a second look and there is a real possibility we will have to do a matinee on Saturday to cover the demand. I know you have a session booked at the record store in the morning but we cannot do anything Sunday as Patsy and the band are closing the dance festival in Atlanta on Sunday evening.” Riordan said “We’re in the papers?” so Angela went out to the reception and came back with a bundle. “Tuesday’ she said “they were full of ‘famous singer in drug tragedy’; Wednesday it was ‘what will the ‘Amazon’ band do, are they finished?'; today you can see for yourself.” She opened up a paper at page three and there was a picture of the band, on stage last night with big headlines ‘Amazon not only flows on, but floods the senses in Nashville’. The article went on to say ‘that the band was better than it had ever been and the new singer, Nina, was one of the greatest voices around. The show was brilliant and the final encore a knock-out blow to the minds of all who attended.’ “Wow”, said Nina, I wasn’t dreaming as it is in the paper!” We all giggled and Julia said “For once, Nina, it isn’t fake news.”

In good moods we finished in the dining room and went to the theatre. Riordan said she want to do something with the finale and wondered if we could work on a new song that she, and the others, had only practised in secret. The entire ‘Party’ group said it was ok with them so Riordan pulled some lyrics out of her bag and gave them to Nina, apologising for her writing. Then Nina and I looked at the lyrics while she and the band played the basic song acoustically. At the end we asked her to do it again and I tried some notes and riffs while Nina sang the words as written. At the end, Nina made a request for a couple of changes for easier word-flow and we did it again with me a bit more into the music. We then got up on stage and went electric and played it again. It did sound better a bit louder.

We stopped and discussed things and I suggested that as it was a finale it should have a more dramatic end so we tried a few things out. By the end of the morning we had it pretty well sorted, Nina had remembered the words and it sounded good to my ears; and obviously good to Riordans’ ears as well by the big grin on her face. We stopped for lunch and, in the afternoon we did the full set with a less modified version of last nights’ finale (but still somewhat longer than the original) and the new song as a finale. Riordan said she would thank everyone for coming and announce this as one of the new songs on their forthcoming album. Carl and Jake commented that they were privileged to be present at the birth of the next ‘Amazon’ number one.

We wound up at that and made our way back to the hotel. They did have an in-house salon so all of us girls took our turns to get new hairstyles and a make-up upgrade. We all had a light dinner and took our time so that we got to the theatre at about 6.30pm; entering from the back, as usual. I went up to the foyer and peeked through the door to see a mass of fans around the stands. It looked like the picks were still selling well. Back at the dressing rooms we separated and got ourselves ready. Lucy had put together a different colour outfit for us tonight and we looked quite smart. We went up to the wings and kitted up for the show. Right on time the curtains opened and we were off and running again. The set went well and we did our finale, bowed and the curtains closed again with a roar of the crowd echoing in our ears.

While the others went to the ‘Party’ room, Nina and I went to the ‘Amazon’ room where the band was close to being ready. We changed and Lucy took our outfits away while we became ‘Amazons’ again. Riordan led us up to the wings and we kitted up and took our places for the start. I was, once again, waiting to open the set in a different band but we could hear the buzz of the crowd and then the curtains started to open and we were off again. At the last song of the set we did the upgraded version, much to the delight of the diehards, and after Riordan had called for quiet she thanked them for their attendance and for being such a good audience. She then announced that last night we did not have an encore number but tonight they would hear, for the very first time, one of the tracks from the next album. The crowd roared at that and was still jumping when we finished and took our bows. Walking off, Riordan turned to me and said “That went well!”

Friday morning we went into the office to meet up with ‘Amazon’ when they signed their new contracts. We then took the bus to see Peter. He had done some paintwork on the outside of the dealership and it looked more cheerful. He took us all into the showroom where the Thunderbird that had been used in the advert sat gleaming with a big poster, taken from the advert, of the Innocent girls driving off in it, waving and smiling. A big screen was alongside the car with a video of us doing our folk gig. Riordan gave a double take at this and asked to have the sound up a bit. We stood and watched for about five minutes as the set ended and the advert was played then the gig restarted from the opening chords. Riordan looked at me and said, “Did you write that advert?” and when I nodded she indicated the folk group playing and said “Is there anything you don’t do?” I said “I have not done opera yet, but I am still quite young” with a giggle.

Marianne G 2020