Chapter 10


"Hello, this is Eleanor... who's that?". Eleanor Rigby is the secretary of the CJDL fan club.

"Hi there, Eleanor, it's Dianne, from your most favourite girl group!" said Dianne, with a very slight lisp. She'd had her braces now just over a week, and was getting quite used to them.. well apart from the the lip-bumper and headgear, that was going to take a bit longer. For a phone call like this, she took them both out anyway.

"Oh, hi there.." replied Eleanor, excitedly. "Sorry, I obviously didn't have your name in my contacts list, so I just saw the number! So, what can I do for you this evening?"

Whilst Eleanor had met all the girls at their 'Fans Evenings' (the first one having been in Birmingham, and was detailed in Carol's story), and had also chatted with them all on other occasions, she didn't have all their private numbers.

"You've never been to the 'CJDL Mansions' have you?"

"No, I haven't...."

"Well, you busy this weekend?" asked Dianne.

"Umm... no!". Eleanor guessed, quite correctly, that she was about to get an invitation!

"Well, we thought it would be fun for you to come and join us here: we were thinking you could come over either before or after lunch on Saturday, then we can all go out for a meal in the evening. You then stay over, and join us for Sunday lunch, going back either Sunday afternoon or evening. Interested?"

"Hell yeah! It would be nice to see you guys again. Anyone else coming?"

"No, just you. We'll all be here, and I have no doubt that Callum and Paige will be around at least part the time. I'm assuming you don't have a boyfriend?"

"No I don't... just me!"

"Ah, that makes it easier for everyone! You're out near Slough, aren't you? Do you have a car?"

"That's right, and yes, I do..."

"We're in South London, so I'll guess that's what? 45 minutes to an hour for you?"

"Probably about that."

"Ok, I'll email you the address here - I don't need to tell you that such info is NOT for public use, do I?"

"Of course not..."

"And let us know if you'd like to join us for lunch, we don't mind either way."


[3981/15]

You are such a teaser, Sparky!!! I love your stories!

Chapter 13


It was just after 3 when Jenny's mum, Lisa, came in to the music room: on seeing her, the girls stopped playing. "Just done some tea and scones, it's in the lounge." said Lisa.

"Oh, thanks, mum!"

The girls put down their guitars, and everyone went into the lounge. Jenny helped her mum pour the tea and hand out the cake.

"So, what do you think of 'CJDL Mansions' then?" Dianne asked Eleanor.

"From what I've seen, it's rather nice, I think you're lucky to live here!"

"Well, we don't ACTUALLY live here, we all have our own places, although we do live here when we're working on stuff" said Dianne, "like we are at the moment."

"Yeah, but you're right, it's a nice place to 'work' too. I'll be honest, back when we were looking for a place, when we first saw that music room we all realised this would just work for us so well. It's so much better than having to rent a rehearsal room!" added Jenny

"So who actually owns it then?" asked Eleanor.

"It's joint thing... mum and dad, Carol, Dianne and me." replied Jenny. "The thing is that, whilst it's home for mum, dad and Callum, it's an 'office' for us all too."

"I wish I worked in an office like this!" said Eleanor.

"You know, I don't know exactly what you actually do, work-wise...." said Dianne, grateful that Jenny had managed to get the topic onto 'work'.

"Oh, I work in the office at the warehouse for one of the big supermarkets, making sure the stuff we order actually arrives, and then schedule it all onto the trucks going out to the stores. And it's DEFINTELY nowhere near as nice as your office!!"

"Oh, ok. So...do you like your job?"

"It's 'ok'. Gets a bit busy at times, other times it can get a bit boring... I just feel I could do something... well, more interesting"

"Ah, so that's why you enjoy doing the fan-club stuff then? Something different, more interesting?"

"Yes, it is a bit different, not that it doesn't get a bit stressful at times. I mean, most the time it's something I can easily do what's needed in the evenings, but occasionally - like when you wanted me to dig out the longer-term members for Birmingham - I spent part of a weekend doing that. There's lots I think we ought to do, it's just that there's not enough time to do it. I mean, Paige has been a great help on a few occasions..."

"What if we could make a bit more time for you?"

"What? How you gonna do that?"

"Ok, here's a leading question...". Dianne held up her left hand, palm up: "Working for the supermarket". Then her right hand: "and working for the fan-club". She moved her hands like a balance. "Which do you enjoy more?"

"Well, the fan-club, no question!"

"Any particular reason why?"

"Well I get to chat with you guys occasionally. And the fans too, they are a really great bunch... And I get to do stuff at my own pace most the time."

"Ok. You see, we have a few ideas for the fan-club, and that's going to mean quite a bit more work for you, so we were wondering... how would you like to change your job?"

Eleanor looked at Dianne, clearly a bit confused.

"How would you like to come and work for us, full-time, running the fan-club?"

"You kidding me?"

"No, not at all. After those special fan meetings - you must admit, they WERE fun, weren't they? - we realised that we can monetise the fan club a lot better than we have so far, and more than enough to pay for you to run it. Originally we were thinking part-time, but we quickly realised it needed someone full-time."

"Monetise it? As in charging people to join and that sort of thing?"

"No, I don't think we want to charge anyone to actually join. We want to sell 'bonus stuff'. Some can be simple: custom signed stuff for example: we came across some stuff from our old tours, I'm sure some of the fans would love that, and be willing to pay to have it. Then we could do premium fan meets. Back-stage tours. Come to the sound check.... We're pretty certain people will pay for that sort of stuff. It's not charging people for what we already do, it would be new stuff."

Eleanor had a big smile on her face. "I like it...."

"We thought you might. The thing is, you know how the fan-club already works. And I'll be honest, part the reason for getting you here was so we could interact with you in a more relaxed setting, and see how we all got on. You're a bit like Paige: once you got over that initial 'hey I'm meeting my heros' stuff, you seem pretty relaxed around us, and that's what we need. So, would you like to change your job?"

"I guess part of it would be what I get paid, but yeah, I'm definitely interested..."

"Ok, so, when we've all finished having tea, you have a chat with Brian, work out how much we need to pay you, then go away and have a think. I'll warn you now, it's not going to be a 9 to 5, Monday to Friday job, you're occasionally going to need to do stuff in the evenings and at weekends. Kinda like today. But when that happens, you just take some time off some other day to balance it. Oh yeah, how would you feel about being away from home for a bit?"

"Away from home? Staying and working here, do you mean?"

"Well, yes, that too, but if you come and work for us, we'd want you to join us on tour. There's gonna be a lot of fans to talk to! Look, speak to dad. Also speak to Paige, she understands how things work. Think about it, and only say yes if you want your life to change!"

Dianne was normally the quieter one of the four of them, but the others had managed to persuade her to take the lead with Eleanor, and she felt good about the way she had just handled it all. She just hoped that Eleanor would actually say 'yes'.



[4715/19]

Chapter 15

They all chatted as they walked around, ending up once more in the music room. "So, Eleanor, can you sing? How would you like to sing along with us to something you know?"

"Umm, well, not 100% sure on my singing, but I'd love to sing with you...".

"Ok.. Paige, want to join in too?" Often if Paige was at the house, and things were a bit quiet, she would go and listen to the girls rehearsing, and she had sung along with them on a few occasions. Ok, so she wasn't a great singer, but that didn't matter, it was still fun.

They played a couple of their already-released songs that they could both sing along with: it turned out that Eleanor was actually a slightly better singer than Paige.

"Hey, I have an idea" said Eleanor, "you could charge fans to sing karaoke with you, on stage, at your concerts..."

"Interesting idea" replied Linda, "although the big problem is that a lot of people THINK they can sing, but really can't, and that would be embarrassing - for us and them. Hard for us to say 'sorry, you're crap!' You're lucky, you're not too bad....  No, we'd need to somehow pre-select who sings with us"

"Tell you what," said Jenny, "it could be a great way to thank our tour team, let them sing something with us. That way, not only can we check them out, we could actually rehearse with them..."

"The problem with that is that you end up stirring up some resentment... 'why does he get to sing with you?' sort of thing."

"Of course, so maybe we could make a sort of competition of it..." suggested Dianne.

"In what way?"

"Well, get 3 or 4 of them on stage, and randomly choose one of them, you know, pull a bit of paper out of a hat..."

"Hey, we could play a song that's NOT one of ours, and one of us randomly does a duet with them... so select them randomly, and select one of us randomly. There's no reason that they can't pre-select a song, then we can rehearse it with them. The others that don't get chosen have another chance the next day."

"Do you think the fans would go for it?"

"No harm in trying, if it doesn't work, we could just drop the idea. But I'd like to give the idea a try, it could be great fun!" said Jenny. "But Eleanor, keep coming up with ideas like that. You probably know a lot better than us what our fans would like us to do. Same with ideas for the paid-for 'value adds' for the fans."

They had just started to play again, when the music room door opened, and Ben and Tom walked in. This weekend was a bit of a strange one: most weekends, the girls would have gone back to their own places, to spend time with Mike, Ben or Tom. Yes, some weekends would be spent at the 'Mansion', in which case the guys would have arrived on Friday and stayed the weekend. But the girls had decided to treat this Saturday as pretty much a normal 'work day', as they wanted to spend time with Eleanor, to decide if they were REALLY happy with her joining them. So they had told the guys to come along late afternoon. Tom and Ben went over to the girls, giving their respective girlfriends a hug and a quick kiss.

"Hey, Eleanor, nice to meet you again!" said Tom when he spotted her. "I heard you were coming today." He turned to Carol. "Did you?"

"Yes, we offered her the job...."

"And? Did she accept it?"

"Not yet, but she hasn't refused yet either!"


[5231/21]

Chapter 17


It's the following weekend: Eleanor got in touch during the week to say that she WOULD take on the full-time job, and that she was on 4 weeks notice, so would be joining them in a month's time.


Linda had been over to her parents for Sunday lunch, but now, mid- to late-afternoon, was back at her own flat, and she was taking the opportunity to give it a bit of a clean and tidy up. Yes, even pop starts have to do that sometimes! Although, like the others (and probably as a result of the other 3, she DID have a cleaning lady who came in once a week). Her phone buzzed, to tell her she had a WhatsApp message. It was from Dianne, asking if she was at home, and whether she could come over.

'Yes, I'm home, and you're very welcome to come over. When you gonna come?'

'Pretty much now, if that's ok?'

'Sure, see you soon!'.

Something felt odd: why would Dianne want to come over on a Sunday afternoon? Surely she'd be with Mike? Well, she'd soon find out. About 25 minutes later, Linda's doorbell rang. She pressed the button to let Dianne into the main door downstairs, then opened the front door of the flat. Normally, when they met, Dianne would be smiling, but not today.

Dianne was wearing her headgear, elastics and lip-bumper, and was not looking very happy.

"You ok? Braces getting to you?" asked Linda. Dianne said nothing, just shook her head. Were those tears that Linda saw in Dianne's eyes? "You look like you need a hot drink - or would you prefer something stronger?"

"A tea would be lovely..." replied Dianne, in a not-so enthusiastic voice.

With the tea made, they both went into the lounge. Dianne sat on the settee, so Linda sat next to her. Dianne unhooked her headgear strap, then removed the facebow, putting them both on the small table next to her, where she had put her cup of tea. She picked up the tea, and took a sip.

Linda leaned over, and put an arm around Dianne. "So, kiddo, what's going on?"

Dianne took a deep breath. "Mike and I have decided to split up...". Linda had guessed that Dianne and Mike were going through a bad patch, but this still came as a shock. She put her other arm around Dianne, and hugged her.

"I am SO sorry, Dianne...."

"Thanks... It was a pretty mutual decision..."

"Anything in particular cause it?"

"No, I think we've just fallen out of love. We've been talking about it the last couple of weeks, and decided last night to finally split up. He's around my place collecting his stuff together, which is why I wanted to get out..."

"Yeah, makes sense. Well, you can stay here as long as you need to."

"Thanks. I was actually going to go over to 'CJDL Mansions' later on, I think I could do with people around me..."

"Would you like me to come over too?". Recently, the 4 girls would go over to 'the mansion' on a Monday morning, after spending the weekend in their own places, with their respective boyfriends. Well, except Linda that is, she's not actually had a boyfriend for a while. Most of the time she didn't mind, she was happy with her own company, and would go and see her parents, or even meet up with some of her friends from school or college - although she'd not done that recently. 

"Yes, that would be nice, thanks!"

Anyway, Dianne and Mike hadn't actually been a couple all THAT long: she remembered back to how it all started... it was shortly after Jenny had sung with Three Play, and they were having a meeting with them at Jenny's place, to see if they were interested in taking their music a bit further, going into a recording studio and stuff. She had chatted with Mike a couple of times, and she had been looking at him in the meeting. Jenny had spotted her looking at Mike - now what was it she said? Ah, yes, '... looking at Mike like a bloomin' puppy dog!', and had told her to ask him out to the pub! She smiled at the memory.

"Ok, what you smiling about?"

"I was just remembering how it all started, it was before you joined us..." While Linda had heard the story of the Three Play gig several times, and had seen the video, she hadn't heard about what happened after, so Dianne explained about how, back then, not only had all three of them jammed with Three Play a few times, they offered to help them get a record deal, but the guys eventually decided to stay as they were - probably a good decision. And how she had asked Mike out to the pub.

"You know, I'd often wondered exactly how you and Mike actually got together, I knew it was after Jenny met Ben, and she had played with Three Play. Awww, that's so sweet!"

They chatted for a while, mainly about Mike and Dianne.

"Hey, wanna help me make some scones?" asked Linda

"Scones? You bake?"

"Yeah, of course I do. I'm assuming you'd like to stay for tea: I have some bread in the freezer, but if there's two of us, it's worth making some scones."

"It's been a while since I made scones, I must have been what? Fifteen, maybe sixteen!"

"Come on then!" said Linda, and lead Dianne back to the kitchen. Before doing anything, she got 4 slices of bread out of the freezer. "There's a bag of flour in that cupboard up there" she said, as she turned on the oven, then got the butter from the fridge. "Ah, scales up there..." she said, pointing. Linda opened another cupboard, and got out a large mixing bowl.

"Ok, we're gonna just do a half-amount, so 4 ounces of flour...." She put the bowl onto the scales, zeroed it, and added the flour, then some sugar. She went to another cupboard. "Baking powder....".

"How much butter?" asked Dianne.

"An ounce, but nicer to be over than under!". Dianne cut off the butter. "Just shove it in the bowl!" Linda took the knife, and used it to chop up the butter, then started to rub it into the flour.

"Hark who's looking all domesticated! Hang on, I gotta get a picture of this!". She went and found her phone, took a picture of Linda in her apron, and posted it online.

"Ok, put the butter back in the fridge will you, then grab an egg and the milk..."

"Egg...." said Dianne, passing it to Linda.

"Thank you!". She made a well in the middle of the flour and butter mix, then broke the egg into it, followed by some milk: while she did this, Dianne took more pictures. After adding some more milk, she finally had a dough. "Right, I reckon it's time YOU did something.... third drawer down is a pastry sheet, the rolling pin and some cutters..."

Dianne put the pastry sheet flat on the worktop, then put her hand into the flour, not only putting it over her hands, but sprinkling some over the sheet and rolling pin. She took the dough from the large bowl, and put it onto the sheet, and started to roll it out.

In the meantime, Linda had quickly washed her hands, and got her phone out to take a picture of Dianne doing the rolling.

"Big ones or little ones?"

"Oh, big ones!". Dianne took the cutter, and cut out several scones, which Linda put onto the baking tray. She then gathered up the excess dough, and re-rolled it. "This brings back a few memories, mum loved baking..." said Dianne with a smile. Linda posted a few more pictures of the scones, about to go into the oven: of course, their fans were making all sorts of fun comments.

"Right, into the oven with them... and while we wait, you can wash your hands, and I'll get the kettle on..."

Just over 10 minutes later, Linda took the scones out of the oven.

"Wow, they look amazing!" said Dianne, taking a picture. The scones were well risen, and slightly brown on the top.

"Shame I don't have any clotted cream, but I do have some nice jam...."


[5656/23]

Chapter 19


"Yes, you must! Look, why don't I start?". Linda turned to the camera. "So, my teeth weren't actually all that bad, apart from these two premolars on the left: they are a little bit twisted." She got up, and was going to try and show people on the phone's camera while it was in the tripod, but instead removed the phone, and passed it to Dianne. "Ok, Dianne, start by getting close to my mouth."

Linda smiled, letting everyone see her teeth with braces on. "Unlike Dianne, I don't have any bands on my back teeth, just brackets." She pulled back her cheek to show her molars. "Now, these top molars here...." Dianne tooke a close-up of where she was pointing. "... they aren't quite straight, so inside my mouth I have a couple of tiny screws with some elastic stuff between them and the teeth... wanna see if you can show them?"

Linda tilted her head back, to allow light into her mouth, and Dianne managed to show the screws and pieces of powerchain. "So they are there to help rotate those two teeth."

"Doesn't it feel a bit weird having those in your mouth?" asked Dianne. By now she was just holding the camera, and pointing it at Linda.

"For the first couple of weeks I couldn't stop playing with them, with my tongue. But my mouth seems to have pretty much accepted them now. It's still a bit odd when I eat, and yes, food does get stuck in them."

"It doesn't seem to have affected your speech..."

"I think I had issues for a few days, nothing major, and I'm pretty much used to them now."

"How did you find the brackets when you first got them?" Dianne asked Linda.

"Yeah, you were lucky there, you knew what to expect. In my first week I used a ton of Bonjella to kill the pain, where I cut my cheeks and lips with the brackets. But it's not so bad now... Ok, must be your turn now! Why don't you start by explaining what happened to you as a teen."

"Oh, ok.... so I had braces when I was about 12: I had bad buck teeth back then, and I ended up having removable plates for a bit. And, yes, with a headgear to go with it! Then I got metal brackets, like we both have now, then the dreaded retainers."

"Removable plates? I'm guessing something like the retainer that Carol had?"

"Sort of, but a lot more plastic, It wasn't all that nice to wear, and made me sound like a complete dork! The retainers I had weren't great, but were a lot nicer."

"So you ended up with nice straight teeth... so what's happened that you need braces again?"

"Our ortho said it was partly general facial growth, but mainly the effect of my wisdom teeth coming in."

"So you had to have your wisdom teeth out? How was that?"

"Not as bad as I feared... they're pretty much healed now."

"Was it painful?"

"Not really, just 'discomfort', which painkillers seemed to fix. Then a couple of weeks later, I got those tiny separator things, so she could fit my molar bands, they were actually worse than having the teeth out! You and Carol are so lucky, not having molar bands!"

"So your braces - anything special about them?"

"No, not really, take a look...". As she smiled, Carol took some close-ups.

"Molar bands?"

"Oh, ok...". She pulled back her lips, letting Linda see the metal bands on her front molars.

"Of course, you also have something else. In fact two something elses..."

"Must I?"

"Yes, you must!!! Come on, everyone already knows that you have it. Just be brave!"

Dianne leaned forward, and picked up several bits from the table. "So, first of all, I have this thing: it's called a 'lip bumper', and goes in the bottom...." As Carol filmed her, she put the lip bumper into the two tubes on her lower molars.

"So, what does that do then?"

"My lip pushes on it, and it is pushing back on my bottom molars, to try and make some more space at the front for my front teeth." Dianne's voice had changed a bit as a result of her having something in the bottom front of her mouth.

"Does it hurt?"

"No, it doesn't. It felt really weird to start with, but it DOES have the advantage of keeping my lip away from the braces. Ok, I guess you want me to show them all the next bit now, don't you?"

"Of course! Don't be shy!"

"Ok, so this is my facebow, it goes in like this..." Dianne had put the facebow in enough times now that she no longer needed a mirror. "And this is my headgear, it has a load of straps on it, doesn't it!"

"Yeah, why one like that, most of the pictures I've seen are just a neck strap?"

"From what David explained, the neck straps pull down a bit. And the other ones, the ones that go over the top of your head, they pull up a bit. But this one is set up to just pull straight back... let me show you."

Dianne put the interlandi headgear over hear head, with the two plastic 'c-clips' just in front of her ears. She found the two elastics with her fingers, and stretched then, fitting them over the hooks at the end of the facebow.

"And don't you have some other elastics to go with that?"

"Ah, yes, half a moment..." Dianne stood up, and went over to get her bag, out of which she pulled a small plastic bag, filled with tiny elastic bands. "So my headgear does two things: not only does it move my top teeth back a bit, but it pulls againsy these, which in turn help to pull back my lower teeth, but a couple of teeth forward from where the lip-bumper is plugged in. With Linda continuing to film, Dianne pulled out two fresh elastics, and fitted them.

"So what's wrong with the ones you took out earlier then?"

"Oh, they tend to stretch, so don't pull as well. These things cost nothing, so whenever I take them out, I just throw them away, and put new ones in. And I only wear the elastics if I have my headgear in...".

Linda panned back, showing Linda with her headgear on. "Smile, so they can see your elastics!". After that, Linda put the phone back on the tripod.

"Question from online: 'we could hear the lip bumper affects your speech a little, what about the headgear and elastics?' Well, from what I'm hearing, no, almost not at all - Dianne?"

"Yeah, I think you're right. The lip bumper gets in the way a bit, and whilst the facebow is kinda between my braces and cheeks, it doesn't seem to have the same sort of effect. As for the elastics, they seem to make no real difference... although you could argue that I can't open my mouth so easily, and that has a slight effect."

"Another question: 'how do you keep your braces clean?'. That's easy, we both have water-pics, don't we? Jenny told us about them, they make it so easy!"

"Yeah, I remember as a kid always needing to floss, but the water-pics make is so much easier! Any more braces questions there?"

"Yeah, 'how long will you need them?' Well, mine should be under a year, then retainers. What did he say for you, Dianne?"

"Oh, about six or eight years, wasn't it?" They both laughed. "No, luckily not THAT long. He said about 18 months or so, depending on how cooperative my teeth were!"

"'What about Jenny and Carol?' asks someone else. From what I remember, Jenny's treatment is almost done, and Carol only has her braces acting as retainers, so I'm rather assuming they'll both get them off after our tour. To be honest, I wouldn't have got braces, and Carol would have just kept her retainers, except for the fact that we wanted to all support Dianne!"

"'Eight of you on stage in braces - that's gonna be quite a sight' says someone. Yeah, that's gonna be fun, and I'm sure we'll get plenty of publicity out of it too. Ok, I think we've talked about braces enough. Now, can you all slow down there on the chat, so I can actually read your questions!". The chat quietened down a bit.

"Ah, someone here asking if we're working on some new music yet, and another asking if we're looking forward to working with Northern Girls. Yes, we've been writing some new stuff, some for us, and some for us to play with Northern Girls..." said Linda.

"What Linda hasn't told you is that SHE has written several of the songs herself. From my perspective it actually feels a bit strange..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, historically, Jenny tended to come up with the music, leaving Carol and me to sort out the lyrics. But you, you're doing both. Ok, yeah, sometimes we also work on the lyrics with you, but with Jenny, we're having to pretty much do the whole job. Your lyrics are pretty much there, just need a tiny bit of polishing. You know, when you started with us, you'd hardly written anything, but now you seem to have found your 'writing voice'!"

"Yeah, I know I wrote a few bits at college, but I went on to be a session musician, so I just played stuff that other people wrote. But recently, I've discovered that I actually enjoy the writing. I guess it kinda started when we were over in Korea, with Braces Buddies."

"So, to answer the first question: yes, we've been busy writing and practising a load of new stuff. And yes, I'm very much looking forward to playing with Taylor, Erin, Kate and Meg. It's a bit of a challenge, because their music is a bit 'rockier' than ours, but I think that's half the fun of it, it's making us think a bit different" answered Dianne.

"Oh, yeah, but as some of you know, my *personal* music choice is more their stuff than ours."

"Of course, you're an anime and a BabyMetal fan, aren't you?"

"I would LOVE to play with BabyMetal! That would be so cool! Although, pedantically, I'd be playing with the 'Kami Band'! Not 100% sure I could keep up with the girl's dancing!"

"Please explain...."

"Well, the guys playing the music are known as the 'Kami Band'... there's actually TWO Kami Bands, one for when they play in Asia, another for when they play in Europe and over in the US, although I believe that the members are session musicians, and seem to come and go over time."

"Session musicians? You'd fit in well! Ok, so who's BabyMetal?"

"Some places seem to call the 3 girls and the Kami band together as BabyMetal, others seem to think of just the girls as being BabyMetal, with the Kami Band being their backing band. But who really cares, I love their Kawaii music."

"I read yesterday that they are playing at Donnington Park later in the year: got your tickets yet?"

"Really? Hadn't picked up on that yet. I need tickets!!! Gimme tickets!! We just missed out on their last visit, it was when we were in Korea. Tell you what though, I'd love to have a stage costume something like what they have!" They both smiled at the idea. "Hey, any idea if they are planning on doing Glasto? If so, maybe we could persuade them to let me play with them? But I guess I need to answer the question: yes, I'm very much looking forward to playing with the Northern Girls girls!"

"Ok" said Dianne, "I reckon it's time to wrap things up. Maybe we can do one more question... here, let me take a look!". Linda passed the tablet over to Dianne. "Ok, guys, cut out the noise for a moment, just want to see one last question from you!". Several questions flew up the screen. "Ah, here's one: 'any idea when Jenny and Ben are getting married?' You heard anything Linda?"

"No, nothing. Knowing Jenny, it wouldn't surprise me if they got married at Glasto, that would be so her, wouldn't it?"

"It would, but I think I read somewhere that you can't ACTUALLY get married at Glasto."

"Really? Oh, that's a shame, that could have been fun! So apart from that, sorry guys, we have absolutely no idea when those two will finally tie the knot, although I have no doubt that they WILL! Ok, so on that note, I think we need to say goodbye!!!".

The tablet's screen went mad with 'goodbye's' and hearts etc.


[6275/25]

Chapter 21

In preparation for their upcoming tour with Northern Girls, as well as their new album, the girls had been busy writing some new songs... some just for them, some they were working on jointly (currently online, but soon in person) with Northern Girls.

The four girls had been rehearsing for about an hour, Callum and Paige were both there too, Callum looking after the tech, plus both of them giving bits of advice on the songs. Dianne had noticed that Brian had walked in, and had gone and sat down on one of the settees. This was a normal thing: Brian didn't like interrupting the girls when they were rehearsing, so was happy to sit and listen to them until they either finished the runthrough of the song, or simply decided to stop. Besides, he liked hearing the progress they made as they developed their songs.

"Hi dad!..." said Jenny a few minutes later when they finished playing, "want us to come over?"

"Please! Paige and Callum too..."

Dianne could see that Brian had what seemed to be 'official papers' in his hand. "So, what's up?" she asked, once they had all sat down.

"It's a solicitor's letter, claiming copyright breach."

"Ah, right, serious stuff. So, what have we allegedly done?". Dianne had seen this before, and knew that copyright issues were never a 'done thing'.

"They claim that CJDL have used words from their client's song..."

"Ah, so lyrics for a change, rather than the music. Which song?"

"That's the problem, it's your current single, 'Get working'"

"Oh crap, I did most of the lyrics for that" said Dianne. "So, what have I copied then?"

"Fiona Lewis, 'Escape the city'... they claim you pretty much copied the whole of the third verse..."

Carol got her phone out, searched for, then played, 'Escape the city'... While it was playing, Jenny was using her phone to find out about Fiona Lewis. As they listened to the song, Dianne's jaw dropped, and she put a hand in front of her mouth. She was silent for a few seconds as she realised what she had done."Oh f***... in fact double f***". Everyone looked at her.

"Dianne!!!" said Carol.

"I'm sorry, but yeah, now I hear that again, I realise where I got the words from..."

"What do you mean?" asked Linda.

"So, that song's from what, 5 years ago? I listened to it when it was in the charts... ok, it didn't get especially high, but I liked it. So when I was working on 'Get Working', I felt the words I used in the third verse felt good... but I never made the connection. I can't deny it, I lifted pretty much the whole of the third verse from her song...

"So, sounds like we need to pass it over to Amanda, get her to negotiate?" said Jenny. "Look, Dianne, don't worry, it's a worst nightmare for all of us, it happens..."

"Yes, I'll call Amanda. Any background stuff you can dig out might be useful..." replied Brian. They talked for a moment.

"Guys, would it help us if we just had a word with Fiona Lewis herself?" suggested Linda.

"I like the idea, but how on earth we going to get in touch with her? As soon as her manager knows it's us, he'll do everything to stop us speaking to her. Unless you 'just happen to have' her private phone number?"

"Actually, I do!"

"What?"

"I have Fiona's personal mobile number...". The others looked puzzled.

"How on EARTH do you 'happen to have' her private number?"

"Well, about 18 months ago, so a bit before I started working with you guys, I toured with her for about 3 or 4 weeks, I played bass and did some backing vocals."

"And you're now gonna tell me that you propped up the bar with her too?"

"Yup, I did. Whilst she's a little older than us, we just seemed to get on pretty well, so we socialised a bit during those 3 weeks."

"Ok... think she'll remember you?"

"Depends if she saw the news when I joined CJD, and made the connection. Look, what's the worst that happens? She tells me to speak to her lawyer and hangs up? Anything else is a possible win for us. And I know you Jenny, it's not just about not paying, or paying the minimum possible, it's about getting a better outcome, where both sides actually gain from it. That was the idea behind your copyright agreement with 'Young and Easy' wasn't it?"

Jenny smiled, remembering what had happened the year before last: yes, THAT sort of solution was a much better one. "You know, Linda, I'm so glad you joined the band, in SO many ways! Yeah, call her...."


Linda got her phone out, found the number, then dialled it. With her phone on speaker, they all waited for a reply.

"Hello? Linda?" answered Fiona.

"Hey, Fiona, hello there, long time no chat!" replied Linda.

"Yeah, must be getting on for 2 years, when you toured with us! Hey, I hear your life has changed a bit - how's it going?"

"Yeah, I'm part of CJDL now, it's a bit different from when I was doing backing guitars and vocals! And I've also started writing some stuff of my own now!"

"Oh nice! So, something tells me this isn't just a social call..."

"Umm... no.... Fiona, do you have 5 minutes?"

"Yes, sure, go on..."

"We - that's CJDL - just got a letter from your lawyers."

"Oh, don't know anything about that yet, what's it about?"

"Ah, ok... Fiona, I'm gonna let Dianne explain... Dianne?"

"Hi I'm Dianne..."

"Hello there, Dianne, what's the issue then?"

"Well, remember your song 'Escape the city' from about five years ago. It seems that, when I was writing the words for our current single, 'Get Working', I managed to steal some words from your song."

"Oh... how many words?"

"About a verse's worth. And I am so sorry, and it goes without saying that we'll settle up with you...."

"Oh, right.". There was a slight pause. "As I said, I actually don't know anything about this yet, I assume my manager must have done it."

"Hello, Fiona, it's Jenny here! Look, whilst we could simply just 'pay you off', I'm thinking we could get a much better outcome for ALL of us..."

"What do you mean?"

"Ok, let me ask a very blunt question: how's your music career doing right now? Would it help if we could give it a bit of a 'boost'?"

"Ok..." replied Fiona, "I'm starting to see where you might be going with this, do go on..."

"Well, I can think of a few ideas, depends on what you're up for. Joint TV appearance? Sing with us? Do a guest appearance on our tour.... To be honest, I think we just need to get together and work things out."

"Hmmm, yes... Look, let me call my manager, and find out what's going on, and I'll call you back, definitely within the hour."

"Thanks, Fiona!". Linda pressed the red button to end the call.

"Well, that went pretty ok!" commented Paige.

"Yes, it did, all things considering." replied Brian. "I just hope she's as positive after speaking with her manager.



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