“You enjoy
yourself?” Karen asked, smirking slightly to herself as Mel joined them inside.
“Yes thank
you,” Mel replied shortly, “how did you get here?”
“Tube.”
“Did he
just talk endlessly the whole way down here?” Steph asked.
“No, he was
just really sweet,” Mel replied.
“Who’s got
the tickets?” Karen asked, tapping all the pockets in her trousers, desperately
hoping that she hadn’t been put in charge of them.
“3 Priority
passes,” Steph announced, pulling the tickets out of her pocket and leading
them up to the front of the queue.
Priority
passes were always a blessing at pre-records, quite often just the one stage
would be used for the show and if you could get in first it meant you were at
the front of the stage all night.
Pepsi was
always a nice show to go to, as it was filmed inside a bar there were always
video screens to watch and places to sit and drink if need be.
“How long
we stuck here for?”
“Not too
long,” Mel replied, looking down at her watch, “the studio doors should open in
about an hour.”
Karen
sighed, the bar around them was heaving with people, all relaxing at the
tables, drinking and having a good time, they however had to stay standing in
the queue to guarantee getting to the front in the studio. Sometimes she really wished that she could
join the other people and be carefree, but now she was here she just had to be
at the front for the a1 performance, it wouldn’t do to be standing at the back.
“Anyone
else here?” Steph asked, eyeing the rest of the fans who were standing just
behind them.
“Just the
usual crowd…oh and some girls that were following Westlife until last month.”
Mel rolled
her eyes, the girls who followed any band going were more annoying than
anything else, they spent their whole life chasing round London meeting anyone
that they could lay their hands on.
“Looks like
we are in for a fun packed evening.” She retorted.
“Can you
get in groups of two to get into the studio,” the large security guard on the
other side of the roped divide barked.
“Shit!”
As always,
they were in a group of three, Karen squeezed herself in between Steph and Mel
hoping that no one would notice that they had an extra person in there group.
“Right,
when I open the barrier please show me your tickets and walk calmly into the
studio.”
He pulled
the rope back and immediately the girls behind surged into them, all pushing
desperately to squeeze through the gap first.
The three girls linked arms, creating a wall and stopping anyone forcing
between them. Showing their tickets
they quickly marched through the door and made their way up the metal
stairs. The way to the studio was
rather a weird one, the programme was shot in a studio at the top of Sound,
meaning many stairs and corridors had to be tackled to reach the
destination. They began to move quicker
as they heard the rapid clanking of feet behind them on the stairs, the girls
behind them had started to run in order to reach the studio quickly.
“Great.”
Karen muttered as she pulled both her friends faster up the stairs, if running
was the only way that they were going to be guaranteed to get to the front,
then running was what she was going to do.
Taking the
twists and turns of the corridors they finally found themselves through the
door and in the studio. The room was
small, a bar positioned in the corner with a few seats positioned around it,
looking onto the stage that was located on the studio floor up a small set of
stairs. At the top of the stairs were
some security, blocking the way up to the stage. The three girls made their way up to the stairs, each placing a
foot on the bottom step.
As always
they waited until the floor behind them was full up before they were allowed
around the stage, the crowd behind them flooded up the stairs all around them,
and using all the energy they had the girls ran to the far right corner of the
stage and halted as they hit the white line at the front.
They had
done it.
Looking
around they could see that all the other followers had got front spots all around
the stage, it would be a battle for the boys attention tonight.
“Evening
everyone.” A voice echoed around the studio as Danny, the warm up man bounded
on stage, dressed in his usual outfit of blue jeans and denim jacket, with his
set list rolled up in his back pocket.
The
audience muttered back an unenthusiastic response, as always wishing that the
warm up was over and that the bands would come on.
“Can we
have some music please Mr DJ?” Danny yelled up to the sound people positioned
on a platform over looking the stage.
The floor
was filled with a fast dance beat and as usual all the girls started dancing
wildly, knowing what would happen if they didn’t.
“Come on
girls.” Danny yelled enthusiastically, jumping off the stage and dancing with a
few of the girls on the front row, “you know what happens if you can’t dance,
we get rid of you and someone from the back will come and take your place.”
Mel hated
this part of the show, she always felt like a complete idiot standing there
dancing in front of everyone, especially when Steph and Karen were such good
dancers, she was worried that one day Danny would single her out as being
rubbish and go and make her stand at the back.
She always ended up flapping her hands wildly, putting in as much effort
as possible to make sure that she stayed at the front.
“Right.”
Danny yelled, signalling with his hands for the DJ to turn the music down,
“lets have a burst of spontaneous applause in 3, 2, 1 go.”
The crowd
immediately put their hands up clapping and cheering loudly in practice for the
real show.
“Come on
that was only 50%,” Danny roared, “I need it at 100 or its just not going to
work, lets try again, burst of spontaneous applause in 3, 2, 1 go.”
The crowd
cheered far louder than before, the noise echoing around the studio and
continuing until their ear drums felt like they were going to burst.
“That’s
better. Now lets see who’s on today’s
show.” Danny pulled the set list out of his pocket, unrolling it and reading
down the list.
“Right we have
the Stereophonics.”
A few
blokes who had been standing at the back of the studio waving their beer
bottles in the air suddenly burst into life and started cheering wildly.
“But they
pre-recorded last week, so we have to pretend we’re seeing them.” Danny
finished, smirking slightly at their disappointed faces.
“Then we
have Reef and some band called a1.”
As he said
the last name all the girls erupted into loud cheers.
“Uh oh, we
have the stalkers in.” Danny commented, laughing at the girls. “Ben!! Ben!! I love you.” He started to
imitate what he considered to be a typical a1 fan, leaping around the stage and
putting on a high-pitched screechy voice.
“You going
to behave yourselves girls?” he asked.
“Of course”
one of the slightly louder followers in the centre yelled back, Danny started
his usual banter, winding up various members of the audience and then trying to
quieten them down when they started getting a bit too rowdy.
“Right,” he
said, his tone of voice trying to call for some order, “we are going to start
off by recording some links before we can bring the bands on.”
Mel
groaned, links were always awful, really time consuming, they usually ended up
having to record the same bit about 5 times before they got it right, and each
time they’ve have to applaud and enjoy it as if it had been the first time.
Abbie
Eastwood appeared on to the stage, grinning at everyone and straightening her
skirt out before taking her place in front of the camera.
“Right
spontaneous applause in 3.” Danny instructed, standing at the side of the stage
out of camera shot.
The
beginning music started and the crowd all raised their hands cheering
enthusiastically as the crane camera swooped above their heads.
“Hello I’m
Abbie Eastwood, and welcome to the Pepsi Chart from Sound at the heart of
London’s West-End, tonight we have performances from Stereophonics, Reef and
a1, we also go behind the scenes of the new Westlife video, but first to kick
us off here’s the Stereophonics.”
She lowered
her mic down as the cameras stopped rolling and the guys above their heads
decided whether or not it was a take.
“Right
guys,” Danny shouted at the crowd, “we have to go again, this time can you
cheer louder after Abbie mentions each band.”
Fixing a
grin back on to her face Abbie stepped back into the light and started again,
“Hello I’m Abbie Eastwood…”
Mel felt
herself switching off, she found it so hard to stand there listening to the
same thing over and over, pretending she had heard it for the first time and that
she wasn’t actually bored out of her brain doing it.
“Great guys
that was better, now we are going to play you the Stereophonics and I want you
to all dance at the stage, pretending that you can see them.”
Mel hated
these even more than links, pretending to see bands that weren’t even there,
why they couldn’t use the audience shots from last week she never knew, it
seemed in TV land they had to do everything the long and hard way.
At last the
music finished, and they all breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that they
wouldn’t be forced to do it again.
“OK, that
was great, now we need to do the links for the rest of the show.”
They all
groaned, this meant at least another hour before even seeing any bands, they
always filmed all the links at the start, if they left it to the end half the
audience would probably walk out
Finally,
after 3 takes of each of the 4 links, Reef finally walked on stage, mics and
instruments in one hand and beer in the other.
Gary, the lead singer leered right over the crowd, grinning at everyone
and putting his beer down on the nearest speaker.
As the
music started up he began to sing, picking up his beer and taking a swig before
leading into the second verse.
“Cut!” a
voice yelled out behind them.
Danny leapt
up on stage, “sorry guys we need another take of that,” he turned to the band
and motioned for them to leave their beers alone as officially alcohol was
banned from the studio floor.
“Take 2.”
The band
started up again, this time Gary climbing up on the drum kit and swinging off
the roof railings, his feet dangling threateningly over the crowd below
him. Mel caught a glance at Danny who
was standing at the corner of the stage, she could see his face looking at the
stage in horror, any moment now he was going to jump up and call for another
take. Mel held her breath hoping he
wouldn’t. At that moment Gary leapt off
the roof and decided to join the rest of his band mates, finishing the song
without event on the stage.
“Lets hear
it for Reef.” Danny called out quickly as he leapt on stage before anything
else could go wrong.
The girls
all cheered enthusiastically, knowing that this would be the last thing they
had to endure before a1 came on.
The stage
hands began to file on stage, taking off one lot of equipment and replacing it
with another one, Mel’s heart gave a little jump as she saw that Christian’s
guitar was leaning on the speaker right near her, as usual she had picked the
right place to stand.
“Some tunes
please DJ, “Danny called up, “put track 4 on.”
The sounds
of Destiny’s Child “Bootylicious” started to beat all around them, and feeling
high on the fact that they were about to see their band the place erupted as
everyone began to groove in time to the music.
Mel
reluctantly began to shift herself to the music, despite the fact that she was
beginning to get a little too hot, her face was burning red, her feet ached and
she was damp with sweat.
Half way
through the song Ben appeared on stage, followed shortly after by Mark. Blushing slightly Mel forced herself to
continue dancing, knowing that if she stopped even for a second Danny may spy
her and make her go to the back. She
hated dancing in front of the boys, it was so embarrassing.
Ben moved
closer to the front, waving and saying hi to all the girls he knew along the
front row and jumping off the stage to join them in the dancing.
“Can we
have all band members on the stage please!!” Danny called out in horror as he
noticed Ben in the crowd.
“See you
later girls.” Ben called out as he leapt back on stage and took up his position
in the centre.
The music
died down and the room was filled with chatter as the crowd began to all try
and get the attention of the boys who had now started to file on stage.
“Has anyone
seen my tambourine?” a voice wailed as Paul appeared, looking all around the
stage in search for the missing object.
“Alright
guys?” Mark asked, as he lowered himself onto the edge of the stage, and sat
down with his long legs dangling off the edge.
“Yeah great,
“ Steph replied.
“Recovered
from your walk?” Mel teased.
“Am a bit
tired actually, need a bit of a rest.” He laughed back, stretching his legs out
and reclining slightly back onto the stage.
“You
alright darlin?” he asked Karen, turning and giving her a smile.
“MARK!” a
voice echoed from behind him.
“How’s
things?” Mark continued to talk to Karen, choosing to ignore the ever
increasingly loud voice that was echoing behind him.
“MARK!”
Danny’s voice boomed out louder.
“Mark I
think you really ought to go.” Mel commented, looking up behind him at all the
rest of the band who were all in position and ready to start playing.
“OK, I’ll
see you guys later.” And he reluctantly climbed back onto his feet to take his
place behind the keyboard.
“Right
what’s this track called?” Danny asked, looking back at the boys.
“Caught in
the Middle” Ben replied.
“And you’ve
got all your instruments and everything – fantastic” Danny commented, his voice
making it fairly evident that as always he was ever so slightly taking the
piss.
The music
started up and Mel took up her position, her eyes fixed firmly onto Christian
as he strummed on his guitar. As always
his eyes swept around the crowd, fixing on one point and just leaving his gaze
there. She had heard a lot of other
fans complaining before, saying how his fixed gaze during a performance always
made them feel uncomfortable but Mel loved it, she could quite happily stand
there for hours just staring at him.
She shot a
look at Mark who was standing on the opposite side of the stage, he was
grinning round at the cameras, his foot stamping against the stage floor and
his arms waving around at all angles.
Ben was
positioned further forward than the others, making eye contact with several
girls at the centre of the crowd and moving his mic stand around in time to the
music.
Paul was in
his own little world, shaking his tambourine with sheer content and completely
engrossed in the music that surrounded him.
She
returned her eyes to Christian, this time he was looking directly at her, his
eyes just staring, staring into hers.
He gave her a small grin as she continued to look back at him, their
eyes completely locked into each other’s.
Her insides began to glow warm, this was pure contentment at its best,
life couldn’t possibly get much better than this.
All too
soon it was over, the boys turned to say goodbye and walked off the stage.