Yes, another story about our intrepid lady musicians. We've had stories about Jenny, Dianne, Carol, and more recently, Linda: these four ladies are in their mid 20's, and together form the girl-band "CJDL", and this story is about all of them, as they prepare for, and go on tour.. Currently, they are all sporting a set of metal brackets. Not only that, they are joining up with a Canadian girl-band "Northern Girls" (who are a bit 'rockier' than CJDL) for a 3-month plus European tour: the members of Northern Girls are ALSO all braced.

Recently, both bands recorded new albums and singles, which will be released soon, in the lead up to their tour.

Whilst the tour is a joint - and very equal - tour, the story is mainly about CJDL. If you need any background reading, the "Linda" story is the one that leads into this on.

As ever, there will be braces, but not all the time. Nevertheless, I'm sure you'll enjoy reading the story.

Chapter 2

So, the eight girls have been working together for a couple of weeks now, working hard getting ready for the tour. They spent a couple of days visiting places to get themselves clothes for the tour. Top of the list was, of course, stage clothes - including those black and red dresses for their version of 'Gimme Chocolate'. Then they needed to get plenty of clothes for other public appearances: whilst on tour, as well as numerous TV and radio appearances, they would need to be 'seen in public'. One big issue when on tour is getting any clothes laundered, which is part the reason for needing so many.

They now have several 'joint' songs written: they have all enjoyed working together on the songs, and despite their slightly different musical interests, they have met nicely in the middle.

Linda had suggested another 'feature' for their show. They had already decided to do what they were calling 'Crew Karaoke', and the 'Solo Spot', but Linda, being primarily CJDL's bass player, came up with something called 'Linda's Bass Riffs': take the bass line from a well known song, like Pink Floyd's 'Money' and play it. In some cases she might be alone, on others two or three of them might join in. They had just been trying out a version of 'Ghostbusters', but were now taking a quick break.

Paula and Sanjay were there too: whilst the team would have loved to have got to know them better, when they were 'taking a break' was usually a good time for them to be filming the girls! But they slowly built a good relationship, the girls trusting the two to 'give them space' when they needed it.

"Hey, guys, just had a call from a friend of a friend." said Callum, coming into the music room. "It's a 'cry for help', and I have no idea if any of you are interested..."

"What's the problem?" asked Carol.

"South London College, our Alma Mater, is supposed to be putting on a charity gig on Thursday night, with a big headlining band, but the band's had to cancel. It's a fund-raiser, and without the band, they have no gig. So...."

"Yes, absolutely!" said Jenny without a second thought.

"Well, I wasn't expecting THAT. What does everyone else think? And the other question is, of course, who?"


The bands had decided that doing the gig would be good in so many ways: for a start, it would be interesting to see how fans reacted to their music. But the big win would be that they would get some great PR for not just stepping in to do the fundraiser, but for doing it for free (as long as the college paid for the PA system hire, which they got really cheap, as it was a charity gig!).

So, three nights later, all 8 of them are at South London College to perform, and of course, Paula and Sanjay are there to film. It won't be anything as clever as what they will be doing on their tour, but it's a great chance to simply play some of their new songs to a live audience, and see their reactions.

An outside sound crew was already lined up to provide and run the PA for the evening, so whilst the CJDL ladies would be using headset mics, they wouldn't have any IEMs, just simple foldback wedges, and no fancy intercom system. To be honest, the venue was a LOT smaller than where they'd be playing on their tour, so if there was an issue, they could probably just shout across the hall! The existing support band had already warmed up the audience: whilst the crowd had been promised a suitably major replacement headline band, they had no idea who it was. Yes, there had been rumours, but apart from the sound-check, the 8 girls had kept out of the way. Also, there was only one set of instruments on stage: Erin had decided that she would be ok using Dianne's electric drums, there was Jenny's keyboard, and several on-stage amps for the piano and guitars, which they would all use.

As I said, a very different stage line-up compared to what they would be using on tour.


One of the student organisers went onto the stage. "So, as you know, our original main band had to bail on us, but we have managed to get a replacement, which I'm sure you'll enjoy. So please welcome.... actually, no, they said not to, it's a surprise!". The crowd applauded politely, assuming they were about to be entertained by some second or third rate band who had stepped in at the last minute.

All of the girls were dressed surprisingly plainly, jeans and so on, and little makeup. Linda walks onto the stage by herself, picks up her guitar, and starts to play the bassline for 'Ghostbusters'.

"Who you gonna call?" she asks, and a few of the audience reponded with 'Ghostbusters!'. "Come on guys, you can do better than that!" She does it again, and more people join in. Next, Dianne walked onto the stage, sat at her drums, and started to play along. "Who you gonna call?" they ask again, and get an even better response from the crowd. They played together for a bit, then Jenny walks on, and starts to play the main melody on piano, followed moments later by Carol coming on, and playing her guitar with them. As the song finished, the crowd shouted a final loud "Ghostbusters!", and applauded, but it was clear that a few of them hadn't actually worked out who they were.
 
"Good evening everyone, I'm Jenny, and you won't believe quite how good it feels to be up here again! It's been a while!" said Jenny. "And if you've not worked it out, we're CJDL. We got a 'call for help' 3 days ago: as you know, we're getting ready to do a big European tour, so this is actually a great chance for us to actually try out some of our new songs!". There was another big cheer.

"So, I'm Linda," said Linda, taking over. "The other day I just started playing that bass riff, and the others joined in the fun, so that's why we just played Ghostbusters for you! Dianne?"

"Right, yes, our new album come out next week, and we're going to play you a few songs from it. Don't worry, we'll also be playing you some older ones too...". They played a couple of the songs from their new album, getting reasonable feedback.

"Ok," said Linda, "this is gonna be our new single: it also gets released next week, along with the album, but let me tell you a tiny bit about it. Who knows the 'Golden Dragon' Chinese restaurant in town?". There was a big cheer. "Great restaurant! So, I went there a bit ago with a few friends... actually friends I met HERE, at college. Yes, in case you didn't realise, all four of us in CJDL came here, and did music, although these guys were actually in the year above me. Anyway, I'd not seen my friends for a while, and while we were waiting for our food to arrive, I started getting ideas for a song. That night I stayed up well into the morning writing it, although, as these guys will not tire from repeating, I did manage to fall asleep! It's called 'Friends'!"

The song went down a lot better than they thought. Whilst not yet released, the radio stations were starting to play it, so it was likely their audience had heard it. Next they played a couple of their older songs.

"So, this tour we're doing..." said Dianne, "... anyone got tickets for it?" There was quite a cheer. "Well, we're not doing it alone. Whilst there won't be a support band, we're going to be sharing the stage together for over 3 hours with Northern Girls... come on, give them a big South London College welcome....". The four Northern Girls came on stage, and CJDL left. Without an introduction, they launched into their first song, quite a rocky one, which the audience seemed to like.

"Hi everyone! You're the first audience we've ever played to in England. In Europe in fact! I'm Taylor, let me introduce the others to you...". Northern girls played a couple of their older songs as well as a couple from their new album. "You know, CJDL aren't the only one about to have a new single out, this is our new single..."

As the crowd's applause died down, Dianne came on stage with Paige. Paige was pushing a tombola drum on a small trolley. "Ok, so you all know that tonight is a charity fundraiser, and we thought that we should help thing along as well. As you came in, you saw Paige, selling raffle tickets, promising a few prizes. Can our models please come onto the stage?" Jenny and Carol came on, wearing old CJD tour t-shirts and hoodies, whilst Linda was sporting one of the first trial batch of new 'Eight Girls with Braces - Orthodontic Tour' t-shirts. They also had a few extras in their hands. "Most of these are old CJD stuff, but Linda is wearing one of our brand new 'Orthodontic Tour' shirts: whoever wins that will have the first tour t-shirt! And if you're not into T-shirts, then we have the plectrums and drumsticks they've been playing with tonight! But when they are all gone, we will have 2 extra, rather special, prizes for you... tell you about them shortly. Oh, forgot to mention, the girls have signed all of these items for you! Ok, so Taylor is going to start to pull out tickets for the clothing: if you win, come and make your choice. When the girls are naked..." there was a big cheer. "Ok, so when the girls have run out of t-shirts and hoodies, we'll then draw the 2 tickets for those special prizes.... Taylor?"

Taylor put her hand in the box, and pulled out a ticket, passing it to Dianne. "I must admit, I've never done this before," confessed Dianne, "this is a first! This one is a GREEN ticket, number 73...." There was a shout over at the side. "Ok, come on up and choose your prize..." Over the next few minutes many happy students came up and made their clothing choices, with one guy going for the drumsticks and plectrums.

"Ok, just 2 prizes left! And maybe it's time to tell you what they actually are. We have two pairs of tickets to one of our performances on our up and coming tour. And you know how hard THEY have been to get hold of! Hey, Erin, I think we need a couple of drum-rolls for these!" As Erin did a drum-roll, Taylor pulled out another ticket. "It's a RED one, number 234!". There was a huge scream at the back, as a girl realised that she'd just won a pair of tickets. "Come on up, and have a word with Paige, to organise your tickets!". A girl with long brown hair came up on stage, smiling and waving her arms: like the 8 pop-stars, she also had braces.

"Of course, what we forgot to mention is that, not only will you be getting VIP tickets, giving you some rather nice seating, we'll organise a 'meet and greet' with you too - we'll sort out the details later on. So, one final ticket from the drum please.... drum roll? ... and Taylor?" "And the final ticket is another RED one, number 8!". Another scream, and this time a couple came up on stage, both very happy. "Ok, if you guys go with Paige, she'll get all your details, and give you the statutory 'ticket voucher' that you can use to show off to all your friends! Ok, Paige, do we know how much we actually raised tonight?"

"Well, I was amazed how rich and generous many of the students have been: we set the price of the tickets at 2 quid each, we had quite a few people buying 5 at a time, and a few even splashed out for 10: so thank you everyone, and I believe the grand total is... hey, I think we need another drum roll!". Erin did another drum roll for Paige. "We made just over three thousand pounds!"

"Wow, well done, everyone, give yourselves a big round of applause..." <applause> "Hmm, what do we think girls, rounding it up to say... four thousand between eight of us would be a bit stingy, so how about we make it up to FIVE thousand?". Another big round of applause. Two thousand quid split between them was only 250 each, so not a huge amount, and not forgetting that it was tax-deductable!

"Right... time to get back to the music. Hey, I can see some of our old CJD tops being worn in the crowd?" asked Jenny. "Ok, this is one of our earlier songs...". For this song, like they planned for their tour, Northern Girls acted as CJDL's backing band, after which Northern Girls left CJDL on stage to play several more songs.

"Ok, time for the last song, it's a version of one of the songs we'll be singing on tour together with Northern Girls, it's just that we don't have the two sets of drums and enough guitar amps, so Northern girls will play, and we'll all sing...."


Minutes later, the eight girls left the stage to cries of 'more, more...'. After a minute or two break, CJDL went back onto the stage to a huge cheer. "Anyone here know any classical music?" asked Jenny, now standing at her keyboard, with a whistle around her neck. "Back in the late 1800's, Peter Tchaikovski wrote the Nutcracker Suite.". She played some of it on her piano. "Then, in the 1960's, it was converted into a pop song, and it sounds like this!!" Jenny started to play 'Nut Rocker'.

Over the next 3 minutes, the girls played their instruments, then as Jenny blew the whistle, they moved around, although the music never actually stopped. Whilst Jenny was back on her keyboards at the end, Carol was on the drums, Linda was playing lead guitar, and Dianne was on the bass. As they played the final notes, the crowd errupted, And the four Northern Girls came onto the stage: all eight of them stood at the front of the stage, with big smiles showing their silver mouths.

"Give it up for CJDL!" shouted Taylor. As the applaused started to die down, Linda shouted out "and for Northern Girls too!".

The student who had introduced them came back on stage. "Well, what can I say? We just had CJDL, Northern Girls AND Eight Girls with Braces performing for us: ladies, thank you all SO much for tonight, which I know you just did for free. We've raised a stupid amount for our charities, and that raffle you did, definitely the icing on the cake.. very thick icing too! Yeah, thank you!"

"Hey, completely our pleasure, it's been quite amazing to come back here: as Linda said, it's not that long ago that she was down there in the mosh-pit, cheering the bands up here - of course, we three were never really 'mosh-pit girls'! And it's been good to do something nice to support your charities. And hey, I guess we'll be seeing some of you guys on our tour:  I hope you'll enjoy it!" The eight girls stood in a line, holding hands, and bowed, taking the applause.

Chapter 4

Like with Jenny, David scanned Dianne's teeth, as everyone watched, then brought up her original scans.

"You're doing very well there, How you getting on with the facebow and lip bumper: I can see from your progress that you've been wearing it well."

"Yeah, Whilst I'm not too keen on wearing them out in public - I'm not as brave as Jenny with that - I am wearing them most of the rest of the time. Having said that, the last few weeks we've been doing a lot of rehearsing, so a lot of singing, so not been wearing it quite as much. But it's not a big deal to wear it when I do, I'm pretty used to it now!"

"That's great news, all I can say is to keep on wearing it as much as you can. So, you guys are going on tour soon, so would it help if I gave you a spare of each of the facebow and headgear, along with a lipbumper, just in case it gets misplaced?"

"Sounds like a great idea. So, how are my teeth doing?"

David zoomed in the image of her teeth on the screen, and explained the movement that he could see. "You still have 6 to 12 months of treatment to go, but so far things are looking good. For the moment I think we just stay with what you have."

David took a few minutes to replace her archwire, and ligatures. "An interesting choice of colours!" said David. "So, Carol, let's take your old ligatures off first!" It didn't take at all long for David to remove Carol's ligatures. "I won't bother scanning your teeth, because I'm sure they haven't moved. Let's have a look at that naughty canine though... yeah, that's looking really good. Ok, so I'm sure you'd like to have a good clean of your teeth, so last, but by no means least, Linda, let's get your archwire off for you!" Carol vacated the chair and went to give her teeth a good brushing, while Linda got in. It didn't take David long to remove her ligatures and archwires, as well as the small bits of powerchain that connected her teeth to her TADs.

Right, Carol, just need to replace your archwires and ligatures. You had any issues at all with your 'treatment'?"

"No, I hardly notice they are there, well, apart for the never ending need to brush them. But you kinda get used to them. Having a water pic at the mansion helps a lot, we all use it!"

"Right, last but not at all least, Linda! How are you coping with those TADs?"

"Most of the time I manage to forget they are there, but I'll be honest, I won't be sorry to see them go! The great thing is that I can see they've been doing their job...."

"That's good: let's get you scanned, and have a proper look....". David scanned Linda's teeth, and when he compared the images to her previous ones, it was very clear the TADs had been working well. How long before you finish your tour?"

"Umm, about 4 to 5 months... why?"

"I reckon I'll be able to take them out when you get back from your tour... I mean, if you're back here in about 3 months, you could pop in and I can take a look, you never know..."

"Oh, ok... I'll remember that!"

"So, Carol said you ladies were visiting form Canada, and were also in a band...".

Taylor explained the details, also about why they all had braces!

"You know, it's so good to see people being quite so supportive of each others treatments! I can see from here that you have much smaller brackets - any particular reason?"

"I think I just wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible" said Kate.

They all chatted for a while. "By the way," said David, "I know you're planning on all coming in just before you go off on tour, to have your ligatures changed: if there's any particular colours you'd like, if you can give me a bit of warning, and I'll get some extras in."

"No problems with that David," replied Jenny, "we've not decided yet, but we'll be in touch! Now, let's gather around for a group selfie...."




[3/535]

Chapter 6

"Good afternoon everyone, how's it going?" Brian asked the 8 girls, who were working on one of their new joint songs.

"Not too badly, we almost have all the songs we need." replied Taylor. They had pretty much worked out the running order for their join show now, and it was looking like the running time would be a bit over three hours. By the time they added in any guests, it would probably end up at three and a half hours. For a single performer or band, that would be too much, but because they would be having several short breaks while the other band played, they felt it should work ok. Sometime soon they would need to actually do a run-through of the full show, to REALLY check how it worked. "So, what brings you here, Brian?"

"We just had a call from the promoters. They are a bit worried about the venue up in Manchester, in as much as it's new and there STILL seem to be problems with it, so it may not actually be ready for when we get up there. We know that some other performances have moved to the smaller arena in Manchester, but they are suggesting that we move to somewhere BIGGER: one of the football stadiums. Ticket sales have been very strong, and they feel there's actually enough demand in the north-west that they could sell most, if not all, the extra tickets. And the good news is that they can get Old Trafford on the date we need."

"Oooh, never actually DONE a stadium gig yet, but maybe it's time to do it. But the capacity is something like 50,000 isn't it? That's two and a half times the capacity! Plus we're doing two nights...can they REALLY sell the tickets?" asked Carol

"They were suggesting maybe just 40,000, it seems there's been a load of issues and bad press about overcrowding, so they would like to try and avoid problems. But they reckon there won't be a problem selling the extra tickets! Anyway, what they are asking is if any of you have any problems with the move?"

"We've played a few stadiums in Canada and America, and from our perspective it's pretty much the same as most other venues, just a few more faces out there... and I guess the video screens are more important, so people can actually see us!" explained Taylor.

Several of our girls were smiling: they were clearly looking forward to taking that step towards playing much larger venues.

"You know, whilst it great that we're filling bigger and bigger places, I kinda miss the smaller places. The other week at South London College, that was such fun, so intimate!" said Carol. "I mean, you KNOW how much I love going along to the open mic nights, now THAT is what I call small! Hey, I reckon I should drag a couple of you guys.." (she pointed at the Northern Girls) ".. along with me next week."

"You know, that could be fun," replied Meg, "we have similar things back home, it would be interesting to compare."


[5/834]

Chapter 8

Over the last few months, the four girls in CJDL (and Northern Girls for that matter) have been pretty busy... maybe a quick list of some of the things might be useful:

- wrote, rehearsed then recorded, songs for a new album, now released

- wrote, recorded and released (last week) a new single: "Friends" - went into the UU chart at #7

- co-wrote several songs with Northern Girls, that they can play together on stage. A live recording of the songs will be released as an album.

- signed an advertising / sponsorship deal with a cereal brand, for their new range of 'super-healthy' cereals. Spent a day recording TV ads. Planning something for the show too.

- worked out what they would be doing in the stage show

- rehearsed with dancers

- provided input for the graphic design for all the stuff on the back-screen

- with Eleanor now working for them full-time, their fan website had been re-vamped, allowing members of the fan club to gain easy access to tickets. They had also run a few competitions, to give many of the fans 'something special'. For most, that was special seating at the venue.

- Northern Girls had organised something similar for THEIR fans too.

For a very special group of fans who would be attending the penultimate concert of the tour - a Saturday afternoon gig at Wembley Arena in London - they had been promised 'something very special' for a couple of hours after the gig. No details were given, they would discover what it was on the day, with a promise that it would be 'something to remember'.

There were actually several reasons for that performance being in the afternoon, one was to specifically allow disabled and younger fans to come along with their carers or parents: not only had they arranged special separate seating areas, they had given them some very special ticket prices to make it more affordable. But the main reason for it being in the afternoon... well, I can't tell you that yet, I've been asked to keep it a secret!

While they were doing all of the above, the team responsible for putting together the stage, lighting, PA kit etc had been setting things up in a warehouse. A week before their first concert at the O2, they moved and set up the kit at a 'venue' they had rented, so they could do a full 'dress rehearsal'. Rather than just playing to the 'staff', they had organised another 'undefined pre-tour evening event' for about 50 or so fans who lived in South London - they would be the very select audience for that dress rehearsal.

Whilst not quite everything was ready: for example, they were still working on some of the graphics, it was all good enough for a dress-rehearsal.

----

The stage lights were already on when Paige and Eleanor walked on, each holding a microphone. "Good evening everyone! I'm Paige, and this is Eleanor - she now runs the fan-club full time for us."

"Yes, it's been an exciting job change, and it's been me that's been organising getting you here for this evening. So what *IS* this evening?" said Eleanor.

"Tonight is a dress-rehearsal of the upcoming CJDL and Northern Girls joint tour." explained Paige to a large cheer. "So what does that mean? Well, for all the guys running the PA, lights and AV stuff, it's a chance to check that they have everything ready, technically, for the tour, and have their timings right for the girls. For the two bands, it's a chance to check out that what THEY will be doing will be ready. This evening will NOT be the full set-list for the tour: several of the songs that the bands will do alone will be skipped, simply because the show is most of three and a half hours long. But where they do something special, or perform together, THAT will happen!"

There was a huge cheer as the group of fans realised what they were about to see.

"Ok, I think one of the girls wants to come out and say hello to you....." said Paige, walking to the side of the stage.

"Hi everyone!" said Jenny, as she walked out onto the stage with Ben. "Say 'hi!' to Ben!". The small crowd called out. "So, yeah, we're going to do a run-through of our songs. Where we don't actually play a song, we'll just tell you, so you have an idea of what the full performance would be like. And that is important because, at the end, we want you to spend some time answering a load of questions, about what you thought, what you liked, what you didn't like, any suggestions and so on. Don't hold back, we want you to be as brutally honest as you like! We don't just want our tour to be 'good', we want it to be 'great'!"

"Of course, Jenny forgot the important thing: while you do that, there'll be pizza and drinks available to keep you going!" explained Ben. "Oh, and I suspect all the girls will want to come out and meet you all too! Talking of which, before the rehearsal starts, I think we should let everyone introduce themselves...."

Taylor, Kate, Meg and Erin walked on stage. "So, these ladies are 'Northern Girls'" said Jenny, "so maybe you should say hello to our select audience for tonight.

"Hi everyone, I'm Taylor, I am the group's lead vocalist and guitarist."

"Hey there, I'm Kate, I play bass, and sing as well."

"Hi, I'm Meg, I play guitar, and do a bit of singing too."

".. and I'm Erin, I play drums, but I'm usually too knackered to be able to sing!"

Taylor spent a minute or two explaining the background behind how the tour came to be. "We weren't quite sure back then what we would actually be doing.. like would we just play our own songs. In fact, we've discovered that we all enjoy playing together, so we're hoping you like what we've put together. Anyway, enough from me, how about we get the other three girls on to say hello?"

With that, Carol, Dianne and Linda came out.

"Hey everyone!" said Carol, "I'm Carol, of course, and I really hope you like what we've got planned..."

"Yeah, I'll guarantee that it's not like anything we've ever done before..." added Dianne. "Oh, yeah, I'm Dianne!"

"Hey everyone... I'm Linda, and this will be my first proper tour as 'one of the band' and I'm SOOO excited!" said Linda. "Plus I'm looking forward to chatting with you guys afterwards!" The small crowd cheered.

"So, there's a few things we won't be doing tonight, as we want to keep them as a surprise for our first night" explained Jenny. "For example, we're going to have a few special guests on the actual tour, but we don't have any for you tonight."

Paige walked back on the stage again. "Well, are you eight all ready?" asked Paige of the girls.

"Yes" was the common reply, and they left the stage to get ready.

"Ok, rules for you guys for this evening. No trying to let friends in via the emergency exits, it wont work!". There was a small giggle from the crowd. "However, take as many videos and pictures as you want of the girls performance, but do remind people when you post that this is a dress-rehearsal, and NOT the final full performance! And it's quite possible, depending on your feedback, a few things might change. Afterwards, when the girls come out and chat, please be polite and ask before you do videos or pictures of them. And FINALLY: have a GREAT evening!!"

There was a big cheer, as the lights started to dim.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The four members of CJDL came onto the stage, and started to play 'Only Jesus': as per Dianne's dream, they played it fairly gently. As they got to the end of the first verse, the 4 members of Northern Girls also came onto the stage, and joined in the playing, with the tempo going up a notch, and the song becoming noticeably 'rockier'.

As the song ended, their small audience applauded, and all 8 girls came to the front of the stage.

"Hi, I'm Carol, and we four are CJDL!" (all four girls said the 'CJDL' together, as they took a brief step forwards). There was a cheer.

"Hi, I'm Taylor, and we are Northern Girls!". Another cheer as they briefly stepped forwards.

"But we're not just two bands, we're now one band, and we need a name..." said Jenny.

"And we need to introduce ourselves properly!" added Taylor. The camera, which was being shown on the the side screens, zoomed in onto Erin.

Erin was to the left (as seen by the audience): "Hi, I'm Erin!" As Erin said her name, a large picture of her appeared behind them: she was smiling widely, her braces very visible. The picture, along with her name, then reduced in size, parking on the left of the screen.

The camera moved along to Carol. "Hi, I'm Carol!". The same happened with her picture, joining Erin's.

"I'm Kate!"

"I'm Jenny"

"I'm Meg!"

"I'm Dianne!" Dianne's picture came up: it was a bit different, because it showed her with her facebow in place. There was a small cheer from the small crowd, and - as rehearsed - Dianne turned around to see her picture. "Oy! What's with the facebow? Am I WEARING my facebow?" she said in an angry voice. The word 'oops' popped up on the back screen, followed by 'sorry!', and a different picture - without the facebow - came up on the screen. "That's better!". The small crowd were suitable amused.

The camera move over to Taylor. "I'm Taylor!"

"And I'm the new girl, Linda!"

Together they said "Together we are.... 'Eight Girls with Braces'", and that name came up on the rear display, above their eight pictures.

As the small crowd cheered, the eight girls started to walk back towards their instruments and started to play.

They played 2 songs together, then the four CJDL girls left the Northern Girls to play some of their own music. After playing a couple of their own songs, and mentioning in between them that they would be playing 4 other songs at the actual performances, they started to play one of CJDL's songs. After the first verse, our 4 girls came on stage, with 6 dancers and took over the singing. After a bit of banter, where Jenny persuaded the Northern Girls to be their backing band, they sang - plus did some simple dancing with the dancers - a couple more of their older original CJD songs.

Northern Girls then left CJDL to sing some of their newer songs, songs that the fans knew from their previous album and tour - again, they told the crowd that they would be playing a few more songs too.

"So, now we're going to have a bit of fun!" explained Carol. As she continued, the Northern Girls came back onto the stage.

"Yes" said Taylor, "We're calling this Crew Karaoke. One of us eight will sing with one of three crew members: can the 3 crew members please join us?" 2 guys and a girl came onto the stage, and Taylor went over to them with a handheld mic. "Hi, who are you, and what do you do?"

"I'm Jake, I'm stage crew, and I look after Erin's drums." As he introduced himself, his picture and name came up on the rear screen.

"Hi, I'm Sonia, I do your makeup and hair!"

"Hi, I'm Will, I'm part of the stage crew." All three names were on the rear screen.

"Hi everyone!" said Linda. "So, we need to select one of you guys... ". Taylor held up a small fabric bag, and Dianne showed everyone 3 coloured balls: one red, one green, one blue. The rear screen now showed which colour had been associated with each 'contestant'. With the 3 balls placed in the bag, Taylor did her best to mix them up.

"Come on Meg, want to choose one?" asked Taylor. Meg came over, put her hand in the bag, and pulled out the red ball. "Red is Will, so thank you Sonia and Jake, you'll get another chance next time. So, Will, what are you going to sing, and who is going to sing it with you?"

"Well, we decided to start with something simple: Elton John's 'Don't go breaking my heart'. And I'll be singing it with either you or Jenny!"

"In that case, I'll take over for the moment" explained Linda. As she took the bag from her, Taylor and Jenny's names came up on the screens: Jenny was red, Taylor was green. "Dianne, want to do the honours?". Dianne put her hand in the bag, and pulled out the red ball. "So, it looks like Will and Jenny are going to sing, and we'll be their backing band!"

Both Taylor and Jenny had actually rehearsed the song with Will several times, so the actual performance worked very well: for a non-pro singer, Will did pretty ok, and certainly didn't make a fool of himself.

"Well done there, Will" said Jenny, "Come on, give him another round of applause!"

After that, Northern Girls played a couple of their songs, missing out a few others. With CJDL joining them on stage again, they sang two more of their new joint songs. It was then CJDL's turn to sing (or not sing) another 5 songs - this time they were new songs, from the album they had just released.

The two bands played together, and played by themselves. Played their own music, and played a couple of each others songs too. They did a 'Solo Spot' where one of the girls - tonight it was Carol - sang a solo and played on acoustic guitar. Later on, they did 'Linda's Bass Riffs', where Linda started playing along on bass, and a couple of others joined her. Tonight she was joined by just Erin on the drums, and they played a version of 'Seven Nation Army' by the White Stripes.


The elapsed time so far was just over 2 hours, but if you were to add in the songs they missed out, it would be just over 3. The dancers had danced with both CJDL and Northern Girls, and added a pleasant element to the show.

For their last song alone, CJDL did their version of 'Nut Rocker', where they all played the different instruments: it was pretty much as they had done when they had played at South London College. The small crowd seemed to enjoy the fun.

"Let's welcome Northern Girls back again, for our last song together!" said Jenny. With their last, joint, song done, they walked off stage, all grinning widely. The stage lights remained on, to indicate that, if their fans shouted enough, they might come and do an encore or two.

Backstage, the girls wiped themselves down, and took a drink.

For the encore, Northern Girls started by playing their latest single, then all 8 of them sang a song together.

"Thank you all very much!" said Taylor. So, we're going to let these four girls sing you one last song..." and the Northern Girls left the stage. Carol, Jenny, Dianne and Linda left their instruments, and walked to the front of the stage, and held hands, with the dancers coming onto the stage behind the four girls.

"Dear lord, we'd like to sing that certain song to finish this evening, but as ever, we need to ask for your help - so please be with us as we sing it!", and they then did a perfect rendition of their acapella song (the one Jenny had written on the plane to Korea), as the 6 dancers danced gently and slowly in the background. As they bowed at the end, the Northern Girls joined them. The crowd was small, but they did their best to show that they had appreciated the performance.

"Ok, we're going to take a break now, and cool off and change. In the meantime, I believe you guys are going to be filling in some feedback forms, and eating pizza! See you all soon!"

All the way through this 'test performance' our two cameramen from BD Productions, Paula and Simon, were taking the opportunity of getting some great images of the girls as they prepared to go on-stage, and as they came off-stage, and as they chatted together... great stuff for a future documentary. The girls had got to know these two well by now, and would often do things like grab one of them, and lead them onstage when Northern Girls were playing, getting them to take some video that they'd be very unlikely to get during a proper live show.

[7/1042]

Chapter 10


"Good Evening and Welcome to the show!" said the TV host, opening the show. "Tonight we have so many guests for you....". He continued to chat for a bit, starting the show.

"So, let's meet our first guests: they are visiting from Canada, and are about to embark on a European tour with another band... please welcome Northern Girls!"

Taylor, Kate, Meg, and Erin all walked onto the set, and sat down.

"Well, hello! Maybe we should start by getting you to introduce yourselves...."

"I'm Erin Brock, and I play drums."

"I'm Kate Enders, I play bass guitar and do vocals."

"Hi, I'm Meg Griffin, I play guitar and sing..."

"And I'm Taylor Martin, lead guitar, vocals, and frontman... Maybe I should add that Kate here is also the 'core' of writing most of our songs."

"Ok. So, you're all from Canada... where specifically?"

"We're all from the Toronto area... so over to the east of Canada by the great lakes, and not all that far from the border with America." replied Taylor.

"And I believe you're very popular in Canada?"

"Yes, we've had several number one singles, three of our albums made the top five too, and one album made number one. We've played in America goodness knows how many times now, so we're pretty popular there too."

"What about here, in England?"

"We've had a certain amount of chart success here, but we're not all THAT well known: we're kinda hoping that this tour might help a bit!"

"Ok, so how would you describe your style of music to someone who doesn't know you?"

"Hmm, 'Popular Rock' maybe. Whilst a couple of our songs get close to 'metal', most is fairly 'mainstream'. Well, mainstream for Canada!" replied Taylor.

"You say you've played in Amerca a few times... have you played anywhere outside of North America?"

"Yes, our last tour was down to South America, plus we also did a small number of dates over in Australia."

"How did those go?"

"Australia was actually quite nice, but South America... we found it a lot more difficult."

"In what way?"

"I think a lot of it was the language differences, as well as the different cultures. Both made it hard for us to 'fit in', if you see what I mean. It made it hard to be relaxed." explained Taylor.

"Yes, if you wanted to have a walk somewhere, then it was hard to understand the signs, even down to the shop signs. But even at the venues, we were surrounded by people who - whilst they COULD speak English - tended to speak their own language. I'm not blaming them at all, but it wasn't good for us. It kinda isolates you, compared to when you can understand everything." added Erin.

"Talking about languages: I know that a lot of people in Canada speak French: do any of you speak French?"

"Oui, je parle Francaise!" said Kate. "I'm nowhere near fluent, but I know plenty enough to get along. Whilst Quebec - so a bit further east - is where French is the official language, we have quite a few French-speakers in Toronto too."

"I think we all know a reasonable amount of French, you come across it all the time, so you kinda just 'absorb' it!" added Meg.

"So, when your tour goes to France, you're all going to be ok?"

"Oh, definitely! We're really looking forward to going to France! We already insisted that we must have some time to enjoy at least SOME of their culture. And definitely go somewhere nice for a meal or two!"

The interview continued for a while longer, talking about various things.

"So, your album was released last week, and so was your new single, taken from the album. Any news on how it's doing?"

"Well, no surprise, there's nothing really happening in England yet, although we're hoping that might change after tonight, and once we get on tour. But back home it jumped straight into the top 10. Not heard about the US charts yet..."

"Hoping for a number one?"

"Of course!"

"So, I believe you're going to play us your latest single: what's it called?"

"It's a song inspired by our South American tour, and it's called 'Good to be home'"

The host filled in for a minute to give the four girls time to get ready, and at the end of their performance, the audience applauded enthusiastically.

Strangely, there was at least one topic that the show's host had avoided mentioning yet.

----

"So, I promised you three girl bands on the show tonight, so let's meet our second one, you've seen them here before a few times, and they too are about to embark on a European tour, but it's always good to welcome them back again! It's CJDL!". The four girls came and sat down on the settee.

"Well, hello again, it's always nice to have you on the show!"

"It's always nice to come back!" said Carol.

"So, if I remember right, the last time you were on the show was just after your last tour, you had two very big bits of news you shared with us! The first was, of course, that you, Jenny, had just proposed to Ben on stage!"

"Yes, I rather - and inadvertantly I should add - took the spotlight away from Linda's news!"

"You said last time that it wasn't pre-planned..."

"No, it was completely spur-of-the-moment! But definitely the right thing to do."

"So, that was quite a while ago now: all still ok with the two of you? And more importantly, do you have a date yet for 'the big day'?"

"Yes, Ben and I are doing really well, and as for a date: let me just say for the moment that it's a 'work in progress'. It's definitely going to happen though!"

"Oooh, I'm looking forward to it. Any hints about the sort of ceremony, or even where?"

"My lips are sealed!" said Jenny, doing a zipping action across her lips. The reality was that she, and the other 3 girls, knew exactly when it would happen, but it was something that they wished to keep secret, for so many reasons.

"So, Linda, you've been with the band for a while now: hows it going?"

"Things are really good, and very different from before too."

"In what way?"

"Well, I have discovered that I can write songs..."

"If I can just butt in a moment..." said Carol, "but that is a HUGE understatement. Linda has discovered that she is AMAZING at writing songs!"

"Yeah, absolutely!" added Dianne. Linda sat there smiling: it was one thing to get nice comments in private, but when her bandmates said something like that in public, it just felt SOOO good! "And that's not all, we've discovered that she has an amazing singing voice too...."

"Sounds like your friends here are definitely glad to have you in the band. So, your singing?"

"Yeah, so when I was a session musician, I did a load of backing singing too, but I never really learned how to 'push' my voice, so I've had quite a few singing lessons since being with the band, and have discovered that my voice is a lot more capable than I realised."

"Maybe you can give us an example?"

From rehearsals, Linda knew she would be asked to sing solo, so had made sure to have a really good warm-up session just before they came on. She stood up - after all, you can't sing properly sat down - and took a breath, and started to sing the song they planned to open the show with:

"Bless the Lord, o my soul, o my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before, o my soul
I'll worship Your holy name.... I'll worship Your holy name"

Her singing was perfect and powerful, yet very controlled, and the audience applauded loudly.

"Wow, that's quite amazing, Linda, thank you.... So we touched on song-writing: you all have a new album out."

"Yes, and Linda was a big contributor to that too!"

"So how do you write your songs? Taylor was explaining that Kate writes most of the Northern Girls songs."

"Well, it used to be that I wrote most of the music, then passed it over to Carol and Dianne, telling them something like 'it's a song about 2 kids falling in love, walking down by the river'," explained Jenny, "and they would work on the lyrics. I'm terrible at words! But I'm really glad that Linda is with us now, because - first of all - she has taken quite a workload from me, which is really good, but - also - it's great to have someone like her that I can really work with when developing a song."

"Absolutely!" added Carol, "it's the same when we're working on the lyrics, it's great to have another mind contributing. Yes, we obviously worked with Jenny on the music, but Linda has a better 'music and words together' mind, if you know what I mean."

"Sounds like your band-mates appreciate your abilities, Linda. So what sort of things have inspired you recently? I believe you wrote the new CJDL single?"

"Yes, I did. It kinda came out of one of those serendipitous moments when you least expect it...." and Linda explained the story of how she wrote 'Friends'. "I never wrote it to be a single, it was just a song, but our record company liked it. Not bad for a song that got thought about one Thursday evening, and was recorded the following Monday!"

As with Northern Girls, they all talked a bit further, but didn't actually mention the upcoming tour. Or that OTHER topic. They would happen in the NEXT interview.

"So, you told us about your new single, 'Friends', let's hear you sing it!"

----

Next on the show was a well known writer, who had a new book out.

"So, I promised you THREE girl bands on the show tonight, and we've only had two so far... so let's give then a big hand...". It goes without saying that the third band was '8 girls with braces'... all eight of them came out and sat down.

"Erm, you guys have already been on the show... what you doing here?"

"We're your third girl band... maybe we need to introduce ourselves?" Each girl briefly introduced themselves. "So, separately, we are..." "'CJDL'" "and 'Northern Girls', but when  we're all together, we are 'Eight Girls with Braces'!"

"Ok, and do you have a new album or single out?"

"Not yet, but we ARE about to go on a 3-month long European Tour..." The audience applauded.

"Ah, yes... so you're going on tour together... so I'm guessing one of you is the support band, the other the headliner?"

"Not at all!" replied Carol. "We don't have a support band, it's just us. We'll be playing some CJDL stuff... "

"... and we'll be playing some Northern Girls stuff..." added Erin.

"... plus we'll be playing a bit of each others music too... I'm looking forward to that!" said Dianne.

"... and then we've written a load of songs that all eight of us will play together, as 'Eight Girls with Braces'!" said Meg.

"Ok, let's go back a bit... how did this all come about?"

"Well, we had just done that tour of South America, that didn't feel so good." explained Taylor.

"Ok, so you decided you needed to do thing differently to tour Europe?"

"Yes, we had always wanted to come and tour Europe, but were a bit apprehensive after our experiences in South America. So we talked about it and decided we could do with the help of a more local band, you know, someone who 'knew the ropes'. So we looked around, and discovered CJDL... well, actually, Kate already knew about them. So we reached out to them: we had decided that if there was ANY interest, then we'd just come over and meet them."

"And there was? Jenny, what happened from your perspective?"

"Well, I wasn't there that first night, I was out with Ben..."

"Ok, anyone else?"

"Well, we had all been hanging out at the CJDL house together... except Jenny that is... and our manager, Brian said he'd been contacted by a Canadian band, asking if we had any interest in doing a tour with them." explained Dianne. "So we had a video call with them, and quickly discovered that we liked them. A week later they came over and we got together!"

"Got together?"

"Yeah, talked, but more importantly played together. And we discovered that, although our music was a bit different, we got on well, we like playing together, and even wrote a joint song."

They talked about the new joint music they had written since, plus the plans for the tour.

"So, there's one thing we haven't even mentioned yet: the name of your band! And the name of your tour."

"Ah, yes, 'Eight Girls with Braces'!", and as rehearsed, they all got close together, and smiled widely, letting a camera get a good closeup shot of their mouths, and their braces!

"I'm assuming there's a story here?"

"I guess so," said Jenny. "So, I was first to get my braces... actually got them the same week I started going out with Ben..."

"Ah, yes, I remember seeing pictures of you like this...." A picture of Jenny in her headgear came up on the screen: the audience both laughed and clapped.

"Yes, I decided that 'if I had them, then I should flaunt them!'. But I don't need that headgear any more. It's odd, but in a way I actually enjoyed wearing it in public. And I know for a fact that a lot of our fans were grateful for my 'demystifying' headgear, and actually making it a lot more acceptable."

In the background, Dianne had taken her headgear from her small bag, and was putting it on. "I actually have headgear too, but I'm not quite as brave as Jenny!" she said, as a camera zoomed in, and the audience applauded.

"So," continued Jenny, "When Northern Girls visited, we discovered that THEY all had braces... I guess it's over to them for the next bit of the story..."

"So Meg had said she needed braces, but was a bit worried, what with being in a band and so on..."

"Yeah, it was a bit of a scary idea, being seen so much. I mean, I always think of braces as being a kids thing.. But these guys were great: they all offered to get braces too, to support me!"

"I'm assuming that they don't ACTUALLY need braces?"

"Well, almost" explained Erin. "Whilst my teeth were pretty ok, my braces have slightly improved my teeth. But Taylor and Erin had braces as kids, and their teeth are just fine... so yeah, their braces aren't doing anything... well, apart from showing support for Meg!"

"Ok, so that explains you guys, what about CJDL?"

"I used to have braces as a teen, but I'd stopped wearing my retainer." explained Carol. "However, one of my teeth had moved a bit, so I'd been to see Jenny's orthodontist, and got myself a removable retainer which moved that tooth back into place. Maybe Dianne should explain about her teeth..."

"Yeah, so I had braces as a kid, hated them! Then in my twenties, my wisdom teeth came in, and started to cause problems with my teeth... making them crooked and so on. Like Meg, I wasn't happy with the idea of having braces again..." By now, Dianne had removed her headgear. "So, when Northern Girls visited us, and we found out about Meg's story, these two girls offered to get braces for me!"

"But they didn't ACTUALLY need them?"

Linda smiled. "In fact, I knew I did. Long story, but when we were over in Korea, Jenny needed to briefly visit an orthodontist there, and she had a quick look at us all. My teeth were pretty good, but she said that if I wanted to, I could get my teeth made even better. One of my issues was that I had a couple of teeth that were rotated, so whilst I didn't need any headgear or expanders, I DO have THIS in my mouth.." and she showed the powerchains on her two molars. "In fact, the only one of us NOT having actual treatment is Carol..."

"Yeah, right, so these braces are just acting as retainers, keeping this pesky tooth up here in place!" Carol pointed at her upper canine.

"Ok, so I now understand how you all came to have braces, but I hear there's a story about how the name was 'invented'".

"Yes, so one evening we all decided to go out for dinner: rather than going out as a massive group, we split up." explained Taylor. "My boyfriend Phil was here then, then there was Jenny and Ben, plus Linda, and her new boyfriend Zac. So six of us."

"Yes, Linda, I heard about that: how's it going?"

"It's going really well. But that was the night we introduced Zac to the paparazzi... One of the photographers... Bill wasn't it?"

"Yeah, Bill... Lovely guy!" confirmed Jenny.

"So as Bill took a picture of Taylor, Jenny and me, he commented something like 'That's a lot of metal you have there!', and Jenny said something like 'wait till you see the others, they have braces too!'". The audience laughed slightly "... to which Bill replied 'Eight girls with braces: that's gonna be quite some sight!'. So thank you Bill for coming up with a name for the band!" A picture of the 3 girls with Bill came up on the screen.

"Over the years, we've got to know many of the photographers and reporters. It turns out that Bill has a daughter with braces, so he understood about braces. We ended up doing a special message for his daughter, that was fun to do!"

"So, the tour name...?"

"Well, as we had decided to call ourselves 'Eight Girls with Braces', the tour name was obvious: it just had to be 'The Orthodontic Tour'!". The audience laughed and applauded.


They all chatted about different things for several more minutes. "So, you've each sung sings for us as Northern Girls and CJDL: can I persuade you to play one as 'Eight Girls with Braces'?"

"Absolutely, try and stop us!"

"Excellent! So what's it called?"

"It's called 'Eight girls with braces'! It's a silly one that we wrote together, but its such fun to sing!"


[9/1252]

Chapter 12

Northern Girls were just finishing one of their songs, when Carol, Dianne and Linda walked on to the stage. Carol was dragging on a small table, the other two brought on three chairs. They then went back off-stage, and returned with several dishes, spoons and a packet of cereals: yes, the ones they were promoting! With the dishes on the table, Carol opened the packet of cereals, filled up her dish, then passed them to Linda, making sure the front of the packet was clearly visible to the crowd. And the cameras...

Jenny rushed onto the stage. "Carol, Linda, Dianne! What on EARTH are you all up to?"

"We're having our cereals!"

"You WHAT???"

"We're having our cereals, like it says in our contracts...."

"What ARE you on about?"

"Didn't you read the small print on your contract for this tour?"

"No, that's what I have a lawyer for..."

"Well, the contract says we are all allowed to have a cereal break sometime between 8:30 and 9 o'clock... and by my reckoning, it's almost a quarter to 9!"

"No, no, that's AM, not PM. It's nearly 8:45 PM!!"

"Hmmm, your lawyer's not as clever as you thought..."

"What you mean?"

"There's a mis-print... look....". As she said that, not only did she pull out a multi-page 'contract' which she showed to Jenny, the relevant bit of the 'contract' was shown on the screen at the back. "Last page, I highlighted it..."

"Hmmm, interesting, it DOES say PM, doesn't it! Half a second...." Jenny disappeared off the stage for a moment, and re-appeared with a dish, spoon, and her own chair. "So, what's the cereals then?"

"Oh, some new ones. You not seen the adverts on TV for them? Some very dodgy girl-band saying how good and healthy they are for you!". There was a laugh from many in the crowd.

"And ARE they any good?"

"Try some...." Jenny poured some cereals into her dish, and tried a spoonful.

"Mmm, not bad.... actually quite tasty. What they called?"

"Well, THESE are 'Nostle's Extra Eco-Healthy Oat Flakes', but they do a load of others too!" replied Carol, holding up the packet, and smiling towards the audience.

A few moments later, after putting the packet down again, the four of them got up, and bowed, while the audience applauded and cheered.

"Thank you everyone for putting up with us doing that, it was the 'product placement' we mentioned earlier. If you watch TV tomorrow morning, you may see it as a new advert! On the backdrop a message had come up: 'The payments for recording this 'advert' and any other product placement during the tour are being 100% donated to CJDL's charity fund'.


----


The stage was empty for a moment, and one of the stage crew brought on a small table, leaving it in the middle of the stage, but not too much in the way. On the table there was a big red button, with a sign attached saying 'Emergency use only: do not press!'.

Erin walked on, and took a look at it, but did nothing. Then Taylor walked on. "Hey, what's this about?" she asked.

"No idea, it was there when I came on. Hey, Meg, you know anything about this?" asked Erin.

"About what?" replied Meg who had also just come onto the stage.

"Oooh! A big red button, that's just ASKING to be pressed!" said Kate as she came on.

"NOOO!" shouted the other three.

"Any idea what it's for?" asked Kate. Everyone mumbled negatively, shaking their heads. "Ok, then I guess we just ignore it... what we playing next?". Erin started to lay down a rhythm on the drums, and the others joined in. As they started to play, the dancers came onto the stage and started dancing. As they went past the red button, they also looked at it, apparently perplexed.

At the end of the song, the dancers gathered around the red button, joined by Kate. "Don't you just want to see what it actually does?" suggested Kate. The dancers backed away, leaving Kate alone. "Ok...". The band sang another song, and again the dancers danced.

"No... sorry guys, I REALLY have to see what it does!" said Kate

"No, you can't, it's for emergency use only..." said Meg.

Kate looked at it more closely. "I'm not seeing any wires..."

"Maybe it's wireless?" suggested Taylor, starting to play another song. Another song, another dance.

"You know, you're making ME want to see what it does now..." said Taylor.

"Kate DOES have a point!" added in Erin. "I mean, what's it doing there if it's not to be actually pressed? If they don't want it to be pressed, they should be more specific about WHAT sort of emergency it's for."

"I don't care, I'm pressing it!" said Kate. Suddenly, red and blue lights started to flash, and then the 'RPG music' played out, and the dancers started to do the 'RPG dance' (just Google it!). Kate giggled, as did the audience. "You are kidding me, it plays the 'RPG music'? Oh, we can have some fun with this!". The dancers looked at Kate, waving their hands to say 'No!', but with the music having stopped, she pressed the button again, and the 'RPG music' played again, making the dancers have to do the 'RPG dance' again. They got a brief round of applause from the crowd.

As the music stopped, one of the dancers went over and pressed the button: this time as the music played, Erin, Taylor, Meg and Kate started to do the RPG dance. The dancers clearly found it to be funny, and punched the air. As the music stopped, the crowd cheered and clapped louder. Just then, Carol walked onto the stage, but at an angle such that she wouldn't see the sign, just the button.

"What a strange place to leave a big red button!" said Carol, and without a second thought, pressed it. This time all four girls and all the dancers did the RPG dance together! "Ah, right, makes sense now!"
 
Meg walked over, and picked up the button and the table. "I think we've maybe had enough of this for now..." she said as she took it to the side of the stage... and pressed the button one last time just as she went out of view: Carol did the RPG dance!

"Ok, enough fun for the moment, we just fancied a bit of silliness. Anyway, time to hand over to CJDL again!" said Taylor, as she, Kate and Erin also walked off, and the other three CJDL girls came on.

----

Northern Girls finished their song to applause. "So, next we have something called the 'Solo Spot': it's where one of us... well, does a solo! Although they may need a couple of use to act as their backing. To start the tour off, please welcome Jenny to the stage!". Having introduced Jenny, the Northern Girls left the stage.

Jenny was stood centre stage: she had what seemed to be a lanyard around her neck. "Hi, yes, the Solo Spot. Umm, I could do with a couple of people to accompany me..." Carol walked on with a drink in her hand, a tall glass with a small umbrella in the top. She put it onto a small table, and picked up her acoustic guitar. Next, Dianne came on, with a similar glass and a tambourine: she took a sip, then also put the glass down.

"Oh, yeah, where's MY instrument?" asked Jenny. One of the stage crew walked on with a shiny saxophone, passing it to Jenny, who clipped it to her neck strap. While she did that, the stage crew guy clipped a small box to Jenny's belt, then plugged a cable into it. Jenny played a few notes, and got a message in her ears: "Thanks Jenny, working nicely!".

"So, as you all know, I love playing piano, as well as my guitar. At school I learnt to play the trumpet...." she paused a moment. "No, no, I know that this isn't a trumpet, it's a sax, don't worry. Tell you what though, I'm still trying to work out how to include a trumpet in our music! So, must be about 3 years ago, I bought this, and started to play it. Then, getting on for about two years ago, we were helping the students at South London College do a concert, and I was challenged to play it on stage... my first ever time in front of an audience! Since then, I've had a few more lessons, and practised a bit more, so this will be the SECOND time I've played it in front of an audience!". The crowd cheered.

"Ok, Carol, take it away!". Carol started to strum her guitar, then a few bars later, Jenny started to play. On the back screen, there were images of a beach bar, umbrellas, and drinks. As Jenny played, various other band members came on, with what were clearly cocktails, with fruit in and tiny umbrellas in the top. That was the point when Jenny paused playing for a moment, and everyone shouted out "Tequila!". (Google 'The Tequila Song' to understand!). After a couple more verses, and one final "Tequila", the song ended, and the crowd cheered and applauded, as did all the girls on stage. Jenny took a final bow. "Not bad for a 65 year old song, eh? I hope you all enjoyed it!"

----

So, there were a few other "extras" on the show: for a start, Fiona Lewis sang with CJDL, and Ginger played with Northern Girls, both of which seemed to work well. 'Linda's Bass Riffs' was a duet with Erin on the drums, playing a White Stripes song.

Then, about three quarters the way through, they performed 'Gimme Cereals': it went fine, but clearly not that many people understood what the song was, and it didn't go down as well as much of their other stuff.

For an encore they performed 3 songs: CJDL did their 'Nut Rocker', which went down well, Northern girls did a song called 'Thank You', and they ended by playing 'Only Jesus' together: the song that Dianne had dreamed about.

It goes without saying that the crowd was delighted with the evening's performance.

So were the three bands!




[11/1450]

Chapter 14

"Ok, so Dev and his team have arrived!" announced Paige. Dev - the producer / director - and his team was going to be filming a video for their single: they hadn't had time to do one yet, so the plan was to use the O2 stage, and film them playing there.

"Hey, Dev, good to see you again. We got time to give you a couple of ideas?... at the end of the day, you can just ignore them if you don't like them!" said Jenny.

"Sure, what you thinking?" In the background some of the tour stage crew were helping the video crew to get set up.

"Well, a couple of ideas... so, as you know, we're touring with Northern Girls... so while we're playing, they could be using the cameras on their phones to film us, get right up in our faces. Or maybe have them gathering around us individually, taking selfies... could be fun!"

"Hmm, yes, that could be worth trying. I assume your fans would know who they were?"

"I would hope so!"

"And your other idea?"

"Well, depends how late you're willing to be here. You see, six of Linda's friends - who inspired the song - are coming along later on. We're hoping to persuade them to be involved when we perform the song tonight. So I see two possibilities... get them involved in your filming too, or you stay and record the performance. Or both... You'll have access to anything our cameras record as well, but no reason you can't put your own cameras up on stage. Plus we have other cameras and Go Pro's you could use, if you want to..."

Dev was smiling. "All great ideas. I think we try and film as many options, then make decisions in the edit. Question for you guys: are you wanting us to use the audio from the song, or do it all live? I assume you guys perform to a 'click track', so your timings will be good, and we can use the desk recording..."

"Well, we are used to doing it live, so I guess that would work better. But chat with the sound guys, they can do whatever you need..." Jenny turned to Paige. "Paige, wanna get Wendy to bring the girls up?"

Wendy is the Northern Girls PA, so Paige went and found her, and got her to bring up the other four.

"You know, it's gonna make a change to be involved in someone else's video!" said Kate.

The stage crew had tidied up the stage a bit: they moved Erin's drum kit - which was on its own platform with wheels -  to the side, plus removed extra guitars, and Taylors pedals. CJDL ran through the song a couple of times, which allowed everyone to check the kit out.

They started with a couple of simple runs through the song which were recorded, then a couple more when they did close-ups.

Next, they played while Northern Girls 'buzzed' around them, taking stupidly close videos on their phones. Next take, they went around doing selfies. "Hey, Paige, fancy being in the video?" asked Jenny, "you could take pics of the four girls with us as we play!"...  so that was another take.

Around 4pm, Zac walked up onto the stage, waiting till the girls had stopped playing. "Hello gorgeous!" said Zac as he gave Linda a quick kiss. "How's it going?"

"Very well, and I'm glad you're here. Anyone else with you?" asked Linda. She turned to Dev: "Mind if we have a short break, let us talk with my friends, see if they want to be involved?" Dev nodded.

"Yeah, Mary and Vivian came with me, the others should be here soon..."

"Paige, can you bring them up here?" asked Linda. "Hey guys, nice to see you! Welcome to my 'office'. You aready know Dianne, this is Jenny... and Carol." She also introduced everyone else.

"Wow, your office is HUGE!" said Mary, looking out at the large - and currently empty - auditorium.

"Yeah, one of the bigger ones! So, we have a question for you all, and if you say no, we'll understand, it's a bit of an ask. Would you like to be part of the show tonight? And would you like to be part of the video for 'Friends'?". Linda explained that whilst they would be onstage, they wouldn't need to actually say anything: she would introduce them, and sing part of the song to them. However, they would be very visible, and there would be 20,000 fans watching!

Linda and the others were chatting with them, when Samantha, Terry and Rob arrived, and Linda brought them up to speed. They decided to do some filming with them for the single, then decide about the show. This worked well for Linda: they made 4 takes, each a bit different, and it allowed Linda to try out ideas that she could use in the show later on.

"Thank you all for what you've done!" said Dev. "We're going to set up three small cameras, to capture some closeups of Linda's interactions with her friends later on."

The stage crew brought back Northern Girl's kit, and Linda's friends all watched as both bands did a final soundcheck.

"So, you guys ready for dinner?" asked Linda.

"What is it tonight? Curled-up cheese sarnies?" asked Rob sarcastically.

"It's actually pretty good... we have a nice canteen here... you have to bear in mind how many people are involved with putting on the show, they all need feeding..."


====

The show was actually very similar to the first night, with both Fiona Lewis and Ginger doing guest appearances again.

Linda put down her guitar, and walked over to the side of the stage, beckoning Mary, Vivian, Samantha, Terry, Rob and Zac to come onto the stage. "You know," said Linda talking to the audience, "it doesn't matter who you are, royalty, pop star, or one of you guys out there... having friends is so important! So I'd like to introduce you to some of MY friends. I've known Mary and Vivian here since I was 11. I met Samantha, Terry and Rob at college. As for this one..." Linda went to Zac, "I only met him a few weeks ago, but he's a friend too...". Linda leaned over and kissed him. "He's Zac, my boyfriend, so he's a special friend!".

The audience cheered as they kissed.

"A few weeks ago, I joined these guys for a meal one evening, and they inspired me to write a song."

Another big cheer. While she had been speaking, some of the stage crew had brought two large settees onto the side of the stage.

"So, guys, we have some special VIP seats for you, so sit back as we sing our new single, 'Friends'!". Once again, the crowd cheered. Linda, who by now had picked up her guitar, waited to hear the 'click track' in her ear. Usually it was Dianne, as drummer, who got this, to help her sync the drumming so it matched the videos at the back, but as Linda would be starting this song, she also got it. She started singing, with the others joining in a few seconds later. When it got to the bit where they sang her friends names, Linda was in front of them, and pointing to them. Not only did this come up on the screens, it was recorded for possible use in their video.

"Come on guys, come and take a bow: being a friend is an important job!" said Linda at the end of the song.



[13/1982]