Part 31

We left Bristol very early the morning after our last night there. At Slough we unloaded all of our kit, stock and costumes at the venue. On the way Anu was deep in conversation with the band, working on a Hindi version of one of the songs.

I found out that he intended to add a new Hindi version every day we played in Slough because it was Sikh Central and the London shows would be full as well. He said that he wanted the audience to remember him as an Indian entertainer. He had sung some of his early album tracks in Hindi and some of his Bollywood films songs were in it as well. We went to a hotel for an early dinner / late lunch before going back to the venue. It was intended that we would be going to our homes after the show tonight.

We set up and the band ran through his new Hindi song as a sound check. I realised that he was breaking them in slowly as much of the set would be in Hindi if we played India. The Four Winds and I set up and did a quick sound check and then we waited for the audience that we were told had booked for this extra night. At six they started arriving and, by seven, we had a full house. Once again the curtains rose to the refrain of ‘So nice to be here’ and we were off again. It was a very receptive audience as they knew that we were pretty much local and we needed to do an encore.

The break was hectic and I was glad that we had my husband and my father-in-law moving stuff on stage as we were inundated with requests for autographs on our Four Winds albums. I managed to slide away just before the second half and got changed and made up just in time for my entrance. I could hear the approval of the crowd as Anu worked through the set and I got some applause as I walked on singing my duet lines. Anu did not need to ask if there were Hindi speakers here and just nodded to the band and they started the tune. When he started singing in Hindi I could see some of the audience crying and it wasn’t just the women. We did our love duet in Hindi afterwards and that brought the house down. The rest of the set was almost an anticlimax but we got a standing ovation when we finished.

Guptar, Gaurav and Bill had to act as bodyguards afterward. It was absolute mayhem. There were so many of the audience that wanted to touch or kiss Anu it wasn’t funny. We were able to finally clear the building after midnight and had to sneak out the back door with Janet and picking us up in the Four Winds coach while her husband sat outside the front of the doors as if waiting for Anu. It was a bit of a squeeze but we made it into the city and dropped everyone off at their homes with a warning that they would be picked up at three the next day. Gaurav and I were happy to see the apartment and our own bed. We were so shattered we just fell into bed and slept until after ten the next day.

We had no food in the place so needed to go out for breakfast. James doffed his hat as we got out the lift and said “Good morning. I have been following your rise in the world of fame while you have been away. Have you kept up with the papers?” When we said that we hadn’t he told us he will lend us his scrapbook. We went and got some breakfast at a local café where the owner asked if I would pose with him next to his shop sign. At the local mini-mart it was much the same and we left after just getting a few staples. Back at the block we took the proffered scrapbook and went up to our apartment to get a cuppa and read it.

I could see why we had been picked out this morning as the scrap book was mainly clipped from the local paper which showed us at various venues. It seemed that they had asked anyone who went to see us to send in pictures and I gathered they had received hundreds. So much for fading into the background now! He did ask me to sign it for him when I took it back downstairs. He had been the doorman for a number of years and when I asked him about home delivery meals he gave me a number of business cards that we could call for anything from pizza to a silver service dinner. “I do have cards for other types of services but I am sure that you don’t need them at this point in your life” he said, giving me a wink and a grin. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and took my booty back to the lift.

We ate light and had a good home shower and hair wash. We then unpacked our cases and dressed to go back to Slough. As we waited for the coach, James said “Excuse me for saying so, sir, but you do look a lot happier today as well as looking a lot fitter.” Gaurav told him it was from being a stage hand for the last five weeks and thoroughly enjoying the life away from responsibility. He then said that it would be nice to be away from his parents twenty-four / seven. James said that he had heard it that the senior Hidjeet couple had not been seen lately and it was wondered if they were away or ill. Gaurav laughed and said “My father has been a stage hand as well. You could say that they both ran away to join a pop show but I do think they may be over it now.”

We were picked up and went off for our second show in Slough. On the way Janet told us that she had hired a security team for tonight as she had been a bit overwhelmed last night. Gaurav told her that he was glad she had as he had been worried that someone would have been hurt. He asked how her husband got on and she laughed and said that he had waited ten minutes and then just started the coach and drove away.

As we picked up the Four Winds and the salon girls we discovered that Guptar and Birgitta would not be joining us but Aganee would be. When we picked her up we had Anu and Anna as well. We got to the venue where we entered a back alley and into a rear gate that was manned by a uniformed security guy and the parked next to the other coach. Inside, Anu got together with the band and started working through another Hindi song. I sat with my band and we talked about life after the tour. All of my guys told me that they wanted to stay close to home for a while and apologised, in advance, for not wanting to go to India if that tour occurred. I told them not to worry as I could see any India tour would be purely an Anudeep tour and that Lajpal was working on that as we spoke.

Janet told me that she had ordered some more merchandise to be delivered directly to the London venue as we would probably run out here on, or by, the last night. She said that the mark-up from the sales had paid for all of our fuel and hotel bills so the takings from the shows would be almost pure profit to be shared out to all those involved. She laughed and told me that she had offered Guptar some money but he had said that he would have happily paid us for the experience. Bill and Gaurav would be classed as part-time employees, as would the salon girls. I asked her what we had charged for the seats and, when she told me, I revised my estimate of the takings by a factor of three.

We did the show with another Hindi song which again brought the house down. The signing went a lot better with Anu surrounded by heavies. We were able to get away out the back in much better time and were dropped off before midnight. During the evening I had chatted to Tavleen who had reported that they had all been asked for selfies during the day and that it seemed so weird. The third and fourth show went well and we loaded all of our kit into the coaches, as well as our left-over merchandise that fitted into just two boxes. Just the six shows in London to go and we were through with it. It had been hard work but fun and very satisfying.

The rest of the tour went as we expected. Anudeep and the Dhawanees were expected to deliver the goods when we played back in our home town and we didn’t disappoint. Gayle and the Four Winds were also well received and I think we sold as many of our albums here as we had for the rest of the tour. We got a standing ovation every night and it was strange for me to start feeling as if I was made for this. One thing about the London venue was that Lajpal had asked that we get it on video so Janet had contacted a company that recorded pop shows and we ended up with enough material for a Four Winds Live DVD as well as a double disc of Anudeep and the Dhawanees. All six shows were so well accepted we went to midnight every night and, with us putting in extra songs on the fly, we had sung an awful lot of songs.

On the last night we loaded up the coaches with our kit and were taken home. Next morning was very strange as there wasn’t anywhere we had to be. James knocked on our door at eleven and told us that there were reporters down in the lobby that wanted to talk to us. Gaurav told him to say we would meet them in the café around the corner for lunch and not a second before. When we did get to the café we found about a dozen guys who all wanted to ask their questions at once. Gaurav held his hands up and said “We are going to order lunch. Why don’t you guys do the same? We will answer your questions – one at a time – as long as you make them all different and wait for us to answer fully.”

We got the owner to get a few tables together and we ordered our meal. After some hesitation the media did the same. I guess they were not used to someone being so co-operative. Some of the questions were personal; some were too personal and not answered. Some were about the band and the tour and the ones I couldn’t answer fully were the ones about the future. I explained that we could, and made sure they understood the word ‘could’, be doing a tour of India with Anudeep but I did not have any details at this point. And yes, I had been in a movie scene with him that we filmed in Bollywood but I didn’t know when or where it would be filmed or even if I would any further part in it. By the time we had finished eating we had almost made some new friends and ones that would be good to know.

Marianne G 2021