Chapter 55
After their performance on the Wednesday evening in Antwerp, they drove through the night down to Calais, then through the tunnel again: compared to their previous trip through the tunnel, the girls were all very quiet, if not actually asleep: a 3 hours plus concert is a lot of work physically, and they were all quite tired, sleeping most of the way. Which was actually lucky, because on the Thursday afternoon, they had to be at a TV studio for rehearsals ready for an appearence on a popular chat show that evening. With their tour almost done, and them due to headline at Vixen on the Saturday, followed by their final concerts the next weekend, they were very much in demand.
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"So, we spoke to them over 3 months ago, since then they have been very busy touring around the UK then across Europe... yes, I'm talking about CJDL and Northern Girls, who have been touring together as 'Eight girls with Braces'. Well, their tour is almost over, but they returned to England today, ready to play at the Vixen Festival on Saturday, and we're lucky have them with us tonight..." the audience applauded.
"Having eight girls here at once to start with could be a bit too much, even for me, so let's start by welcoming The Northern Girls!"
Taylor, Erin, Kate & Meg walked onto the studio floor, and sat down. "Welcome to the show, ladies. Our audience may not know a lot about you, so maybe you could introduce yourselves, and tell us a bit about yourselves.?"
"Well, I'm Taylor, I'm the 'frontman' for the band, I play guitar and sing, and these guys
are...."
"Hi, I'm Kate, bassist in the band, also sing"
"I'm Meg, I'm also a guitarist, and singer"
"And I'm Erin, I play the drums, and sometimes sing too!"
"So, we're from Canada, from Toronto. We've been together for about four years now. Meg and Erin were in a band, but their other two members had left, so were looking for some other people to join them... We read about it online, and after 'trying out', Kate and I joined them."
"Four years, I guess you all get along ok then! So, you're here in Europe with CJDL on a 3 month tour, how did that all come about?"
Taylor explained that they had done several Canada & US tours, but last year had done one in Asia and Australia / New Zealand. "The last bit in Australia was fine, but we weren't very happy with the Asian part. I think a big part of it was the language issues: we were using an Asian crew, and there was a bit of a language barrier: we had been wanting to come to Europe for a while, but were a bit wary about the language issues, so started looking to see if there was another band we could tour with."
"CJDL? How did you find them?"
"Online searching. Listening to their music, and their social media. They hit us as having a lot in common with us, even though our music styles were a little bit different. So we got in touch."
"And they said yes, I'm assuming?"
"At first, it was tentative, so we came over to visit them, but more importantly play with them, get to know them. Didn't take us long to all decide we would do what was needed to make a tour a reality."
"As I understand it, you don't actually have a support band to warm up your audience, just you and CJDL. How did that come about?"
"It was the big question we all had: both of us are 'big' bands, so what should we do? We considered having a support band, but that would either have made for a very long concert, or we'd have less stage time. So we came up with the idea of a combination of playing together, and playing by ourselves.. we even play a couple of each other songs!"
"And I'm assuming the idea works, I've heard some very positive reviews."
"Yes, it does, in fact a lot better than we expected. I think God has blessed us with that."
"Which brings me to an important point: all eight of you are active Christians: how does that affect your music?"
"Well, funnily enough, we start the show with a worship song, and CJDL sometimes end the show with another worship song, but the rest is just normal music: we were all given the gift of music, so we write music, and we play it, and it seems that we're doing it right."
"I hear there are several... 'interludes' in the show shall we say? I'm thinking about the 'Crew Karaoke' for example"
"Ah, yes, that seems to be surprisingly popular. We simply get one of our stage crew to sing a song with one of the band, whilst others provide the backing music."
"We have a video here of one example, one of your crew singing 'Poker Face'...". The video played.
"Yes, that's Tim, he helps to set up the technical stuff for our performances, and like a load of the stage crew, he sings and plays in a band... in fact, they take delight in being allowed to use our kit to have jam sessions after they have set up, and some are really good!"
The host talked with Northern girls a bit more, before welcoming CJDL onto the show, at which point the Northern Girls took a back seat. In the background, someone brought on a small table, on which there was a red button.
"Hello ladies, it's lovely to have you on the show: I hear the tour is going well?"
"Yes, it is" replied Jenny. "Just got Vixen, then 3 last performances at Wembley Arena, which we're really looking forward to."
"You've played Wembley Arena a few times now, haven't you?"
"Yes, in fact, when we started the tour at the O2, that was the first time we'd played there. But especially looking forward to the Saturday performance..." as Jenny replied, Linda looked over at the red button.
"Yes, that's an afternoon performance... tell us about that..."
"Well, there's a couple of groups of fans we realised had problems coming to an evening performance. The first is younger teenagers, so we thought it would be nice to do a performance where younger kids could come along with their parents. The second group that have issue with late performances are our disabled fans, so we've set things up to make it easy for them to come along too!"
"And I believe you gave them both some discounted prices too?"
"Yeah, for example, the carers coming with a disabled fan got an almost free ticket. Plus we're organising a load of volunteer helpers for the day for them, as well as a Sign Language Interpreter. We just want to 'pay it back' to a group of fans who normally just get ignored."
"So, changing the topic: Linda, how are you now? You were involved in a car accident when you were up in Aberdeen..." A couple of pictures came up showing the badly dented taxi.
"Yeah, I ended up with my leg in a cast!" Another picture came up. "Hey, what's the red button for?" asked Linda.
"Red button?" He looked around at the button, which had an 'Emergency Use Only' sign on it. "Ah, that one... no idea!" He turned back to Linda: "But you only missed the one performance..."
"Well, technically I was there, although only for the last 10 minutes. But no, that evening our team - and by that I mean the technical team as well as the other 7 girls - pulled out all the stops to make sure our fans still had a great evening." As she spoke, she openly looked at the red button.
"So you were performing for what? Six Weeks? With your leg in a cast..."
"Yes, we had to drop a couple of bits - I clearly couldn't dance or get around too easily - and rejig several more, and I had my own 'tour sofa' to laze on... and I HAVE to say a big thanks to our dancers, they did a load of stuff to help me continue to perform... ah, yes, that's me on my sofa!" she said as a picture came up. Again, she looked at the red button.
"So how long ago did you get the cast removed?". That's when Linda stood up.
"No Linda, don't....." said Dianne.
Linda sat down again. "That was in Helsinki, so almost two weeks ago. I had 4 sessions of intensive physio over 4 days, and kept it up for a bit longer over in Sweden and Norway, but after a week, I was starting to feel good enough to perform without a stick."
"And how is it today?"
"Amazingly good: I'll be dancing at Vixen!" She paused a moment. "It no good...." said Linda, standing up again.
"No, Linda, don't! It says 'emergency use only!" said Carol. They had played this game many times now, and knew what to do.
"But what do they mean?"
"Well... emergencies..." Linda walked over to the button, and hovered her hand over the button, and looked at the audience.
"Should I?" she asked. The audience shouted out a combination of 'No!' and 'Do it!' and other things. "What's the worst that could happen?" and she pressed the button. The RPG song started to play, and the four Northern Girls got up and started dancing. When the music stopped, Erin walked over, and pressed the button, saying "you guys should dance too!".
However, it was the chat show host who got up and danced, to a big round of applause. He then pressed the button, making CJDL do the dance. The audience loved it!
"Ok, let's settle down again... now where was I?" he asked, shuffling his question cards. "ah, yes.... So, not content with being on tour, you guys also made a flying visit back to London to present an award last week..." A short video played.
"That was a great night" explained Jenny, "being able to tell The Debs how good they were! Then we took them back with us, and they performed with us in Oslo. They will be at Vixen too, so if anyone is there, do go and watch them!"
"So, Vixen.... how you feel about that? Looking forward to it?"
"Absolutely!" replied Carol. "We did a couple of festivals over in Germany and Poland, but this is back on home ground."
"Originally you were due to play earlier on, but you got 'promoted' I believe?
"Yes, 'Cold Turkey' had to pull out, so we were asked if we would headline: we were hardly going to refuse, were we?"
"But you'll be playing a shorter set than you are used to..."
"Yes, although we did get a bit more by headlining! So we've had to remove a load of songs, but the 'red button' you just saw is still in!"
"So, you planning to see any other groups performing at Vixen then?"
"Well, *I* am. Whilst these guys aren't turning up until Saturday morning, Zac and I are going there tomorrow morning, and we'll be trying to mix in with the crowds... so, if you manage to recognise me, yes, do say hello: all I ask is that you're polite, and understand that I might be on my way somewhere... in which case, just walk with me! So, we're all around on Saturday, and in the afternoon you will probably see us hanging around the stage where The Debs will be performing."
"So, it sounds like there's at least two bands that people need to see then, The Debs, and you. Now, before we ask you to sing for us, I have a question to ask: how's the braces treatment doing?" They briefly explained the background.
"Well, my teeth are doing very well!" said Linda. "And I think Jenny's are probably all done too, she's had her braces since forever. Dianne?"
"Still a load more to do, but a load better than they used to be. And I'm used to the braces now, so it's no big deal."
"Carol?"
"Mine are really just retainers, so no change...". He also asked the Northern Girls about their treatment.
"So, I'm not sure how you're planning on performing, because all your kit is on it's way to the festival..."
"No problem! We don't need music to sing to!"
"Ok, so what are you going to sing for us then?"
"This is the song we open the show with," explained Linda, "I start it off by myself..."
"You walk all by yourself onto the stage to open your show? Sounds scary!"
"It would be if I was alone, but I know God is there with me: when I briefly close my eyes, I feel his arms around me, and he gives me an encouraging few words. When I open my eyes again, any worries I had are gone, and I'm ready to sing! So, the song we open with is a worship song by a guy called Matt Redman called 10,000 reasons. But.... before we start our shows, we always start with a quick prayer, is that a problem tonight?"
"No, go for it!" replied the host.
The Northern Girls came behind CJDL, putting their hands on their shoulders, and Carol, Jenny, Dianne and Linda held hands. "Dear Lord, thank you for the gifts of music that you have given us: it has been amazing to use your them to entertain so many people across Europe: please be with us as we entertain the audience here. And give Linda a special big hug tonight! Amen!" said Dianne.
"Thank you... so 8 Girls with Braces, and 10,000 reasons!"
Linda walked over to the small stage area by herself. As she got to the correct position, she closed her eyes a moment. When she opened them she just said "Thank you Lord, that felt nice!", then she started to sing. After the first couple of lines, Taylor got up, and walked over to join Linda. Slowly they all got up and joined in the singing, kneeling at the end of the song.
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