Chapter 73
The Gig
It's the next day, late-afternoon on the Sunday of the CJD concert. Amanda and I decided to go up to Wembley Arena a bit early and do a bit of shopping at the shopping centre close by, then it was off to Wembley Arena itself: as instructed by Jenny, we went to the box office with our tickets and our photo-ID: the guy there took photos of us, and printed out our "VIP-Passes": these would give us access to the back-stage party after the concert. We also took the opportunity to look at the seating-map, and discovered our seats were fairly close to the front, with a clear section in front of us, so no legroom or access issues!
So, having got our passes, we then went off to get some dinner: as we were no longer needing to be as 'discrete' as we had been yesterday, with Jenny, so we went to a pretty normal Italian place, where the food was surprisingly good. We got back to the Arena at about 7pm, where we discovered another perk of the VIP tickets: we had our own, very short, queue to get in... plus we discovered a bar for just the VIPs! Thank you, Jenny! We were not, at that point, wearing our headgear: just before going into the arena itself, we each went to the loo, and put our headgear on: in both cases it was just a single facebow with a cervical strap: it was bad enough wearing headgear itself, so there was no reason to make it over-obvious by wearing a high-pull or even an Interlandi!
It was clear that, when Amanda came out of the ladies, she was quite nervous. Yes, we have both worn our headgear in public before, but I've done it a lot more, and in more crowed places. Plus, I think that as I've actually worn fake braces for quite a while, I'm just more used to it. When Amanda has worn her out and about, it's been in relatively quiet places (like the park) although she HAS worn it in a shopping centre once - but that turned out to be a fairly quiet evening. So I took Amanda's hand, to try and calm her. We must have looked a strange couple: Amanda is 29, I'm 25, and I can't imagine anyone there would have ever seen adults in headgear before, let alone TWO adults in headgear.
Finally, we were in our rather comfortable VIP seats, wearing our headgear. The support band came on, and played their set. Whilst they weren't a big band, I had heard of them, and they were actually pretty good. Finally, it was time for the main act. The crowd were cheering as the four girls came on stage: "Hi, I'm Carol... I'm Jenny.... and I'm Dianne... and we are CJD!" (Linda not being actually part of the band at the moment, just took her place over at the side of the stage. Oh, yeah, and as agreed, Jenny was indeed wearing her headgear!). The crowd all screamed, and they started playing: their first few songs were their older 'girl-band' style, then they started playing something noticeably different, something quite a bit 'rockier'. I actually much preferred the newer style, but some of the audience were a bit undecided.
Jenny came to the front of the stage. "So, our next song has a bit of a story behind it.." she explained. "A few months ago, we had a slight copyright problem, so I had to go and see a lawyer: she was VERY helpful, her name was Amanda... and she should be sitting just over THERE...". Not only did she point straight at us, but a spotlight swung around to highlight us. I could see her smile as she spotted that we too were wearing our headgear. That in itself wouldn't have been so bad, but I could now see that a camera was pointing straight at us, and Amanda's face - and headgear - was being shown on the back-stage display: her headgear was very visible! Amanda reached over and held my hand firmly.
"Now, while I was in her office, I started thinking about a new song, and started singing a bit: it was a bit odd, because I couldn't really work out the style of the song. Anyway, I went and saw her again the following morning - yes, some of us pop-stars DO do mornings! - and she sorted out our copyright problem, and took me out to lunch.... and that's where I met her boyfriend - now her fiancé - Danny.... and he's sat down there next to Amanda!" - once again, she pointed straight at us! And that's when MY face appeared on the large screen, and MY headgear was now clear for everyone there to see! It was my turn to press firmly on Amanda's hand! I think that one thing that heled us feel a little bit better was that, of course, Jenny was also wearing her cervical headgear, and had been throughout the show!
"Anyway, Amanda and I explained to Danny how I'd started to write a song in her office, and he said to me 'hey, you should call it...' and suggested a name to me. I thought the title was quite amusing, and told him I'd buy them both a drink if I used the name."
"And you know what.... we did use that name for the song" continued Jenny, "but... when I met Amanda and Danny for lunch yesterday, I realised that I'd never fulfilled my part of the contract, I'd never bought them the drinks as payment - and you all know that you should never mess with lawyers!!!"
It was then I spotted Ben walking over to us: he had a towel over his arm, just like a waiter, and in his hands he had a tray, on which there were two huge cocktail glasses, full of bits of fruit as well as the drink, with a couple of straws, and one of those tiny paper umbrellas on the top! We took them from the tray, and took a quick sip.... mmm, yes, tasty, and plenty of alcohol too! I could also see the whole thing being shown on the back-stage screen.
"So, Amanda, Danny, I hope you'll accept this as payment for the use of the song title you suggested!". To say we were embarrassed - at several levels - was an understatement: we had clearly been set up by Jenny! Needless to say, the crowd loved it, and were shouting and cheering.
"So once I told the girls what the song title was, we all had great fun writing the lyrics: the song is, of course, 'Barrister Rap'!!". Instantly they started playing, and they sang this quite amusing rap song, that described the experience of visiting a lawyer, singing in her office, meeting her boyfriend, and then going on and writing the song!
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The performance continued... the girls were giving their all, there seemed to be an extra bit of excitement in the air, as this was their last concert in the tour. Finally the girls walked off stage, to take a quick break, before coming back to do a customary encore. Finally, they came back onto the stage (I spotted that Jenny had removed her headgear by this point).... and so did the support band.
"We thought we'd do this last bit rather differently tonight, what with it being our last night. It's been an absolute pleasure having these guys as our support band for this tour, and over the last week, we've been working together on this song for you....". The two bands played a song together, maybe not perfect, but it was pretty good.
"Before we continue, can you all put your hands together for our stage crew... these are the guys that mix the audio, drive the lights and AV, fix our broken guitar strings and so on. They also build this stage and lighting rig every time we move, and then take it down afterwards... we would not be here if it wasn't for these guys!". We all clapped loudly for the tech crew: as a technical person myself, I understood what she had said, as well as understanding the fact that the tech crew will have really appreciated her gesture.
"So, we have absolutely no idea what our next song will be!" said Carol. "During our sound-check earlier, we asked the stage crew to go away and chose a song for us to play, one that we've not played today."
"Yeah, this should be fun" continued Dianne, ".... and I'm rather hoping that one of the crew is about to join us, to tell us what we're doing!". At that point a fairly young guy, dressed in jeans and a dark top (so, standard roadie dress then!), walked out onto the stage, clearly a bit nervous.
"Hey, it's Matt, isn't it?" said Jenny. "Come on over, don't be scared. It's just the three of us and you.... you can ignore that lot out there....." she said, pointing at all of us in the capacity 10,000 plus crowd. The girls huddled around Matt, and the whole thing was being displayed on the big screen.
"So, what we playing then?" asked Carol.
"Well, once someone suggested it, the decision became quite unanimous" said Matt. "Carol: you and Dianne aren't playing this one.... We would like Jenny to play that lovely song that she played up in Birmingham, the one she did as an encore, with just her and her boyfriend.... speaking of which, I'm guessing you're going to need a boyfriend to sing it to.....". Ben started to walk across the stage, a stool in his hand.
"Wow!" said Jenny, "I would never have guessed that one...."
"You ok with that, Jenny?" asked Carol. Jenny nodded.
Ben came almost centre stage, put the stool down, and continued over to Jenny, who put her arms around him, pulled him close, and making sure we could all see the on the screen at the back, gave Ben a nice kiss on his lips, then lead him back to his stool. Of course, the crowd loved it, cheering loudly.
As she went to get her acoustic guitar, Jenny explained to us: "So.... this lovely guy is Ben, my boyfriend." There was another big cheer from the crowd. "I wrote this song 4 days after we first met - so several months ago now - it was the day he called me his girlfriend for the first time... I mean, how many girls will write a love song for their new boyfriend only 4 days after meeting them?... that's the effect he had on me. The first time I actually played it to him was about a week and a half later"
"The second time I played this song was on-stage when we were in Birmingham, a little over a week ago: I was having a bit of a bad time, and my 'knight in shining armour'..." she pointed to Ben... "drove up to Birmingham early, and saved me: I sang it to him again, as an encore that night."
"So this is only the third time I've ever played this song to anyone other than myself. And I'm thinking that I may need to add a third verse at the end, to bring it up to date... I've no idea what the words for that verse are yet, I guess I'll sort that bit out when I get there!"
"Now, you're all probably aware that I am having my teeth fixed, and wear braces....". She smiled widely at the camera that was pointed at her, and was currently being shown on the display at the back of the stage. Everyone could clearly see her teeth, and the metal brackets that she had on her teeth, as well as her cervical headgear. "I got them a couple of days after meeting Ben, and a couple of days before I wrote this song. So, the song is called something along the lines of 'The girl with the cute metal mouth hath jutht fallen in love with a thexthy guy called Ben'...." said Jenny, in a girly voice with a very exaggerated lisp. The crowd cheered loudly, and Jenny waited for them to quieten down, before she started strumming, and then singing the song.
When she got to the end of the second verse, she kept strumming the guitar. "Ok, a new verse...... how about this?.... 'the girl with the metal mouth.... she is still madly in love with her Ben.... we've had lots of ups, and a few downs, but he has always been there for me. He makes my life so amazing, I feel that I don't ever want to lose him....'". She stopped singing for a moment, and just strummed while she thought, whilst looking straight at Ben. The crowd was almost silent as she continued: "'So that just leaves one question I think I must ask him.....'". Jenny stopped playing, took the guitar off, put it on the ground, then walked over to Ben, and took his hands in hers. The whole place was now almost silent, we all wanted to see what would happen next....
With her face just inches from Ben's, she sang out loudly the final line of her song: "My darling Ben, will you marry me?".
The crowd remained completely silent: yeah, we all wanted to hear his answer!
Ben was obviously not expecting that. "Are you for real, Jennifer?" he asked quietly. However, he was close enough to Jenny that we could all hear him quite clearly him over the PA system. Jenny put her hands onto the sides of Ben's face, then moved her face closer to his, and once again kissed his lips....
Softly she said "Yes, I'm very much for real! Marry me?"
"Yes..... Jennifer.... I'd LOVE to marry you!" was his reply. Needless to say, the Arena erupted! Carol and Dianne rushed onto the stage, and hugged them both. It took a couple of minutes for the crowd to quieten down.
"Well, I don't think any of us were expecting THAT to happen! I'm not really sure how we can top that!" said Carol, who was still hugging Jenny and Ben.
"Me neither" said Dianne, "But let's have a go.... this is our final song for tonight... in fact the final song for this tour! Thank you all for coming along tonight!! This was our first ever number one......". A backing track started and all three girls, who were at the front of the stage, started to sing. Ben was there too: he had no option, as Jenny didn't seem to want to let go of his hand!
"Wow, what an amazing end there" I said to Amanda as the main 'house-lights' came on a little while later. "I don't think Ben was expecting that!"
"True, and I'm not really sure Jenny was either"
"Really? I guess we can ask them shortly... yeah, the after-show party suddenly got a lot more interesting...."
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As the crowd started leaving, we went over to one of the security guards, asking what we needed to do to get to wherever the party was. After speaking with a couple of colleagues, and checking our badge, he took us over to a door which went to the backstage area, and pointed us in the right direction. "There should be some other security guys down there, they can tell you exactly where to go."
We were soon shown to a large room, where there was loads of drinks and snacks. Already there were a few people there, probably a few liggers, and although we didn't recognise any of them, we could clearly hear what they were talking about: Jenny and Ben! Slowly, more people came in. Then we saw Ben, albeit without Jenny, so we went over to him.
"Hey, Ben... congratulations man! I mean, that was one heck of a proposal!" I said to him.
"It was, wasn't it, although....."
"Although???"
"Well, the thing is that I have been thinking recently about proposing to her, and now I can't".
I thought for a moment or two. "Actually, maybe you can... I have an idea, if you're up for it." I turned to Amanda... "Amanda, my darling, can Ben borrow your engagement ring?". One of the things that a good barrister needs is a quick mind, and tonight Amanda was on form: she instantly realised what I was suggesting, took off the engagement ring I'd given her, and passed it over to Ben.
"It's yours for the evening!" Amanda said to him, smiling widely.
"Thank you so much, Amanda, don't worry, you'll get it back" and he took the ring, holding it carefully in his hand. I could tell he was a bit nervous. "Come on Ben, let's get you a drink, something tells me you could use one....".
As we waited, more and more people came in... but Carol, Jenny, Dianne and Linda hadn't yet arrived. Then Callum came in, so I went over to him. "Hi Callum, just a quick heads up: get your phone out and be be ready to video what happens...."
"Oh, what's going on?"
"You'll see, but you definitely need to record it - Jenny will kill you if you don't!"
Finally, several minutes later, the four girls all walked in to big cheers. As things quietened down, Amanda took control (she's good at that!): she banged loudly on one of the tables, saying "Excuse me everyone, can we have some quiet: I think Ben has something that he'd like to say.....". I could see Callum starting to record things.
Ben walked over to where Jenny was, and went down on one knee in front of her. "Jennifer, my darling, just because YOU've already asked ME isn't going to stop ME from asking YOU.... " He took her left hand, and held out her fingers. Then he opened his hand to reveal the ring, which he put onto her ring finger (and luckily it did fit!). "It's on loan for the evening" he said with a big smile, "Jennifer, my darling, will you marry me?"
"Hey, Amanda, thanks for lending Ben the ring!" said Jenny, looking over at us with a smile (yes, that lovely metal smile of hers.... oh, stop it Danny!). "And you >know< I'll marry you!" she said, looking at Ben lovingly, then kissing him once more. Once again, there was much clapping, and Ben and Jenny came over to where Amanda and I were.
"So, Jenny, you set us up earlier... this is your payback!" I said.
"Well, a rather nice payback, I must say! Hey, Danny, can you give Ben the details of where you got this ring, I'm sure they can do something equally as nice for me. But thank you for playing along, and wearing your headgear earlier on, it did make the moment so much better! Anyway, I think we'd better mix, I need to show off my fiance! See you later...".
The rest of the evening was, by comparison, pretty uninteresting. We chatted a bit with Carol, Dianne and Linda, plus Jenny's parents, and her brother Callum: it was nice that we didn't need to introduce ourselves to them, having met them all briefly the day before. They also introduced us to a few of the other people there. It would have been nice to have been able to spend a bit more time chatting with Jenny and Ben again, but they were, of course, 'stars of the show', and thus rather tied up.
