Thursday 7th April

Brian awoke at an unsuitably early time after a fitful sleep. He padded quietly into the kitchen so as not to wake Stef, but was surprised to see him sitting in there already with a coffee. If Brian had been a bit more awake and attentive he would have noticed his friends red-rimmed eyes. But as it was, he just continued to the kettle and noticed not much except that he had no cigarettes. He settled himself next to Stefan at the table and gratefully accepted the cigarette that was offered to him. They sat in silence for a while as Brian allowed himself time to wake up, both sipping tentatively at their coffees.

“Thanks for listening to me last night Stef. I really needed to get it all out.” Brian said gratefully after a while.

“That’s ok. I’m sure you’d do the same for me.” Stef replied with a small smile. “Do you still want to go into the studio today though? I’m sure I could phone Alex, explain the circumstances and get you a few more days.”

“No, I’ll go today. I have something I would like to record anyway.” Brian insisted.

“Ok.” Stef agreed, still feeling slightly concerned.

They arrived at the studio at 9am, both freshly dressed and ready for a day of creativity. As usual there was no-one else there yet, so the two of them went into the studio and started to set up their equipment. After about half an hour of playing around with their instruments, Steve and their technician showed up.

“Hey Stef, Brian.” Steve smiled broadly as he entered the studio to see his band mates already getting into the creative spirit.

“So Bri, has your french lover inspired you to write some cracking music? Are you gonna wear a beret when recording?” He joked, “No seriously, how’s Ben enjoying sunny London?”

The singer and bassist both fell silent as Steve talked mindlessly, unaware of the mistakes he was making. Stef’s face twisted into a grimace as he realised he had forgotten to inform Steve of Brian’s situation. Brian just stayed silent, his hands frozen in place on his guitar fret board.

“What? What did I say?” Steve asked in a confused manner as Stef quickly led him out of the studio.

“Bri and Ben.. ah I’ll explain later. Basically they broke up and Brian came home alone.” Stef explained in a hushed voice.

“Oh… shit.” Steve replied as he realised his previous comments weren’t exactly tactful.

“So it would be good if you kept the French jokes to yourself.” Stef continued.

“Oh yeh sure. God I’m sorry. If I would have known-” Steve was interrupted by Brian opening the door behind them.

“Um, guys. Would it be ok if I had the studio for half an hour to myself? I just wanna get some guitar parts sorted.” He asked in a quiet voice, looking between the two.

“That’s fine, I need to explain some things to Steve anyway.” Stef replied, giving Brian a meaningful glance. Brian nodded knowingly and closed to door again, leaving the pair to talk in peace.

Stef and Steve took a long tour of the recording studio buildings, with Stef explaining the occurrences in France on the way. He was pretty sure that Brian didn’t want to repeat the story anymore, so he felt it was his duty to fill Steve in on the details. At the end Steve let out a long sigh.

“Wow.. I bet he’s kicking himself for that one. They seemed so right for each other, from what I heard.” He said bluntly as they arrived back at the studio door.

“Mm so understandably he’s upset. He just needs to take it easy for a while and get back into his normal routine.” Stef said as he opened the door.

Brian was sat in the middle of the room with an acoustic guitar balanced on his lap, hastily scribbling some chords on a piece of paper.

“Are you done yet Bri?” Steve asked as Brian looked up at them.

“Oh yeh, nearly done. I’d like to record it now if that’s ok with you guys?” he asked.

Stef and Steve looked at him in surprise.

“Uhm yeh, yeh that’s fine. We’ll just go into the mixing room.” Stef replied after a few seconds.

They went into the adjacent room silently, watching through the glass panel as Brian adjusted his guitar.

“Ready when you are.” The technician said over the speakers, pressing the record button.

Brian took a deep breath and started to strum two simple chords. He started to sing, quietly, in a haunting voice. The chorus kicked in and he changed the chords, singing a bit louder and more desperately, before coming to a quiet climax. He repeated this again, with a gradually building crescendo at the end, his voice raising as he strained his vocal chords.

“One more time for me.”

All was quiet for a few moments before he ploughed on with the verse, the chorus changing right at the end as he seemed to push his voice to its limits. Stef and Steve watched in quiet awe. The combination of a simple acoustic guitar and the emotion-filled voice sounded incredible. They both understood why he had wanted to get it recorded straight away; it didn’t need anything else. The song ended with the same two simple chords it had started with, and Brian stayed silent for a few moments after he had finished.

“That.. was perfect, first time.” The technician said over the speaker, sounding a bit overwhelmed. Brian just looked up and smiled at his band mates through the glass.