Chapter Nineteen
Saturday 18th September
The first outing for the new numbers tonight and I’m bloody nervous.
“The crowd will love them,” said Luke. “The lyrics and music are great. Besides anyone who comes to the pub on Saturday night is there to see us. They’re our fans.”
I hope he’s right.
Sunday 19th September
I headed over to Hamilton early. Jess didn’t come. Her mum couldn’t look after Isabelle for the whole weekend and my mum couldn’t either. We tried to figure out a way to make it work but it just got too hard. So I went on my own.
She gave me a hug. “Make us rich,” she said.
“Yeah.” I picked up Isabelle. Her arms wound around my neck in a hug.
“Me come too, Daddy?”
“Not this time kid. Daddy has to work.” I handed her back to Jess. “I should be home around two.”
“Okay.” Jess settled Izzy on her hip. “Wake me up when you get in. Tell me how it went.”
“Yeah. Fingers crossed.” I put the violin and guitar on the back seat. The laptop, interface and any cords I thought we might need were in the car already.
I got over to Hamilton well before lunchtime. Adam, Noah, Luke and Cole were already there.
“Where’s Jess?” asked Adam when they came out to help me unload.
“We couldn’t swing it. Both Mum’s have got something on this weekend.”
“Pity.” Adam hauled the guitar out.
Luke opened the door on the other side of the car. He stared at the mass of leads and gear there. “Did you bring everything you have?” He handed an armload of leads to Noah, then got the laptop out. “We were only playing here four weeks ago.”
I locked the car. “You can never tell what might have walked in that time.”
We headed for the side door to the back room.
“Do you want to change anything about how we set the stage up?” Luke asked me once we were in the main bar.
He’d never asked a question like that before. I had to think about it.
“Nah,” I said in the end. “It worked fine the way we had it. And we’ll know where everything is. That bloody violin can be elusive.”
Luke grinned and nodded. “Keep it all the same,” he said to the others then turned back to me. “There’s going to be a party at Tessa’s afterwards. A bit of a debrief. Are you coming?”
I shrugged. I liked those after parties. “I might drop in for a while before I go home.” Usually I only go if Jess is with me and we make a weekend of it.
It took us the rest of the morning to set up the stage again. Luke leapt off the stage and stood hands on hips looking at it.
“Have we got everything?”
“Yeah.” Cole gave a bit of a flourish on the drums. “Let’s try it out. See how these new numbers sound.” I wouldn’t be on the stage much. Adam and I are going to take turns on the laptop at the back of the bar and keep the balance right. We’re getting more professional, but the first time Adam suggested it, Luke objected.
“If we’re going to do that, why don’t we just use the recording, you lot play can air guitar and I’ll lip sync?”
“Remember when Noah recorded Temptation on his phone the first time we played it?” asked Adam.
That swung it. Even Luke could see we needed someone controlling the sound.
We ran through Temptation. Luke lowered the microphone as the last notes died away.
“Yeah, good.” I said. It was pretty bloody fantastic. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. But we’d played in this bar often enough to know how a crowd affects the acoustics and even allowing for that, Stadium was going to sound brilliant. I couldn’t decide whether I wished I was going to be up there with Luke and the others, or whether making sure the crowd would hear what I wanted them to was better.
“Right let’s run through the rest, then go and get something to eat,” said Luke. “Four hours until kick-off.”
And the night went like a dream. Every number sounded the way it should have. We kicked off with “Stardust” then moved onto the new stuff. The crowd was electrified. They listened, they cheered, they danced in the gloom. With the lights and sound coming from the stage, and the smell of sweat and alcohol in the pub, it was another world.
Even Harry came out of his office to see what was going on. He stood there by the door, hands on hips watching the stage. Luke was a wild man. He sung those lyrics like he wrote them. Like they were about his life.
About half way through I rang Jess.
“Listen to this,” I yelled into the phone and held it up to the sound.
After a couple of moments, I put it against my ear again.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“Oh Isaac,” I could hear the tears in her voice. “It’s wonderful.”
We got to the end of the night and we knew we had something people wanted.
At Tessa’s place kids roamed everywhere. They filled the house and spilled out onto the street. I think half the pub followed us there.
Luke was on the couch holding court. He had Tessa tucked under one arm and a couple of other girls cuddling up to him on the other side. He was already half pissed.
“To the new Stadium,” he toasted. And that’s what it felt like. We’d been reborn.
One of the girls with Luke pushed herself off the couch and latched onto me. “Why weren’t you playing tonight, Isaac?” I’d seen her at the pub a fair bit over the last year. She was one of the ones that stand near the stage and sway, watching us play like she’s mesmerised. It’s weird.
“He wanted to make sure we didn’t mess up his masterpieces,” said Luke. I’m pretty sure he still doesn’t think we needed anyone at the controls.
“Did you write them?” She looked at me like I was a god.
“Our genius,” said Luke, and waved his beer bottle at me. Drunks are hard to take when you haven’t had anything to drink yourself. Especially when it’s Luke that’s drunk.
“I need to get home.” I fished my keys out of my pocket.
“See you Monday, genius,” said Luke from the couch. He can be an arsehole sometimes.
“See you, Luke.” I pushed my way through the crowd and went to find my car. It was sitting where I parked it, but some bastard had thrown a rubbish bin through the windscreen. Before I left the pub, I put the laptop and the rest of cords and things in the boot, so I checked the boot. They were still there. But how do you drive for an hour in the middle of the night with no windscreen? I headed back to Tessa’s.
“Let Jess know you’re staying. Party with us. We’re celebrating what you wrote. We’ll get it fixed in the morning,” said Adam.
“I don’t know.” Jess wanted to be here for this, but I left her at home with Isabelle. “I should get back,” I said.
“I’ll make it worth your while,” said the girl from before and slithered around me. My first groupie.
“Get off him, Lilly,” said Luke from the couch. “He’s married.”
So, I texted Jess and told her what had happened. Then took the bottle of whiskey Adam handed me. I guessed when everyone left I’d be on the couch for the rest of the night but right then I was the centre of attention.
The party revved up and I went with it. It was the best night of my life.