Chapter 17

“Oh? Something happened?”

“Let’s all sit down with hot chocolate, and I’ll tell you.”

They were sitting and relaxed.

“Now, young lady. Spill the beans.”

“OK. Yesterday we ran through the whole show and Lee suggested we change the very last few seconds from the guys singing to us girls doing the scales when ordered to sing. It really worked well, so we did the whole show in full dress this morning and then had lunch.”

“Right. That’s it?”

“When Mac and the Rocks were doing their set, the orchestra added some bits and I just had to play along with the organ. Mac pointed it out to me yesterday.”

“He told you to stop?”

“No, he told me to carry on and then asked me if I would tour America with them to bring them up to a six-piece.”

“You! From a Rose to a Toxic Rocker!”

“Yes. I said yes and we leave the day after school finishes and we’re away for ten weeks.”

“Wow! That’s some news.”

“There’s more. The Russells and the Bishop were there, and I asked them if we could get married in Stoneleigh on the Saturday before Easter. The Bishop will officiate.”

“That’s only a week next Saturday. Why the rush?”

“Some of the guests that the Head invited were the guys from the football club to see what they were getting, along with a bunch of guys from a lot of other clubs. After the show, they put together a set of nine clubs who all want the show. It starts the weekend after Easter and is on and off until the last weekend of June, two or three shows on weekends only. The man from the TV was there and has decided to show it live on a Saturday evening.”

“So, you’re going to be very busy. Does it leave time for school and revision, remembering that it’s the final exams.”

“It does. There’s one more thing.”

“What else could there be?”

“The manager of the Rocks was there, and he told me to empty my account with Peter. He will talk to him after that and make an offer for both me and Vivienne. He reckons that with my decreasing income, I may be a good buy. Peter doesn’t know about the two albums that we’re issuing soon, or that the show will be more than just in the school. I think that anything paid for me will be recouped from the American shows. I’ve made a calculation on the sizes of likely venues, which are a lot bigger than I’ve played at before. The Rocks do one big tour a year, and kick back for the rest of the time. If we’re away in class time, I can organise Zoom or notes by email, if it’s during the summer break, I can take my laptop and do the work between shows.”

“With the wedding, what are you doing about dresses?”

“Viv’s picking me up on Thursday morning. We’re going to London, meeting Zara, and heading to the shops. They will be my joint maids.”

“Do you mind if I come? I’ll need something that enhances my natural beauty without overwhelming my daughter and her friends.”

“Sure. It would be nice.”

They went off to bed, and Willow told Tiger and Shaun that good things were happening. She laid for a while thinking about her life. Yes, she had been in the charts and had made a lot of money, and yes, she would be marrying young. But she loved Garry, a love that may have started when he first hugged her, as her, and crystallised with their kisses behind the amps in the studio.

She thought back over her time at the school. Garry had always been in her background with the Gees. With her new appreciation of what real love felt like, she realised that her first boyfriend had emerged because of her thankfulness of being accepted as a girl, while her second had been purely lust and teenage experimentation. The last couple years had forced her to grow up beyond her years. Projects that had been handed out had forced her to become a responsible adult well before others around her. She may only be coming up to seventeen in years, but she was in her twenties in experience.

Next day, she checked her emails and saw one from Peter. The sales were dropping, and his costs were minimal. Her account was now a shade over two million, so, she asked him to empty the account into WR Holdings. She sent Gina an email, telling her about the impending marriage, and that she would be with Garry while his band toured. She also told her about how a school show blossomed into a nine-city extravaganza. She invited Gina, Maisie, and any companion to the wedding and reception. She also sent Evelyn an email, giving her the news and talking about the pleasures of fifth year school.

For the rest of the day, she rearranged her room, taking her desk and the other computer equipment to the annex, setting it up in the part her mother had not got around to using. She added all of her musical instruments, taking the keyboard a bit at a time, until the bedroom looked more like a bedroom. She made a list of things that would need to change, with her living in Bourton, here, and at the apartment, with Garry. They would need to be here until she had finished school.

When Viv picked them up, Juliette was driving. On the way to London, Viv rang Zara to let her know that they were coming. Zara told them to meet her at an address and they pulled up outside.

It turned out to be a small shop, with just one dress in the window, without a price tag on it. Inside, they were well looked after, measured, shown samples and drawings, and had their colourings noted. Willow wanted a dress that she could spend all evening in and be elegant enough for the reception and the ride to their love-nest. That set the tone for the others. With her age and figure, almost anything looked good, and it was a hard job to pick. It had to be white, her mother insisted, and Viv and Zara were outfitted in off-white, while Wendy was elegant in pink. Juliette chose a faintly orange dress that she wore with aplomb. She also insisted that she pay for everything, seeing how her daughter had done so well after joining the dance band.

The dresses were all packaged and put in the car. They all had photos of them in the dresses, and now they were after shoes to match, as well as visiting a high-end jeweller, with Wendy buying Willow her first tiara, seeing that she wasn’t going to wear a veil. Of course, the diamonds needed to be complemented by the perfect necklace and earrings.

In the car, going home, Willow rang Garry.

“Hi, love. There’s something we need to do before next weekend.”

“What’s that?”

“We need to visit a jeweller in our area to pick a pair of wedding rings. It may take a couple of days to get them sized.”

“Sounds good. I’ll come and pick you up Saturday morning. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

On Saturday, he arrived in time to share breakfast with the family. Willow brought up the need for her to be living here until school ended and showed him the room now, taking the opportunity for a passionate kiss. They drove into Birmingham, following Ashley and Wendy, and parked at the Bullring. They took their time at the jeweller and found a pair of rings that they both liked. They were simple gold bands, but with imprints of stars on hers, and circles on his.

The finger sizes were measured, Garry paid for the rings, and they were promised delivery in two days. They gave the design studio address to courier them to. Happy with that, they wandered the shops for a while, noting that there were new life-size cut-outs of other singers in the music store, although there was pictures of both Toxic Rocks and Summer Rose on the walls.

“I feel as if I’m one of those characters in a spooky movie, who slowly fades into nothingness.”

“You’ll be back to a solid person once we open in America.”

“I know. I wonder if Herb and the others will ever realise what they threw away by being driven by their hormones and egos. I’m sure that they didn’t like being led by girls after a while.”

“They did what they needed to do, at the time. What they never realised is that you and Gina were the true talents in the band. When we did that recording session in the club, I saw a pair of genuine world stars with a backing band. The fact that one of those stars was making goo-goo eyes at that Jacob didn’t sit well with me, but us bass players are in it for the long term, so I just had to wait until we could find ourselves.”

“What if we hadn’t?”

“That was not in my thinking. When we did that short tour, I could see him leaving the same page as everyone else. He must have scored in Paris. I saw him popping pills during those rest days in the hotels but thought he may have just had a headache.”

“He wasn’t the same boy by the time we were in Berlin. It’s sad that so much talent ends up wasted.”

“The tour with the Rocks was a steady stream of guys offering to help us party. I’m sure that the others may have gone down that road in their earlier days. They still talk fondly about the two foundation players who died, but, as the present band, they’ve become clean.”

“We didn’t have any problems as Summer Rose.”

“That’s because you were all children. The dealers were waiting for you to grow up, or for one of you to fall, as Jacob did. When we’re in the States, stay close to me and never drink anything that you haven’t poured yourself.”

“All right, my love. I’ll just let my big, strong, older husband protect me.”

They left the shops and went to the design studio, where her parents were finishing off some new paintwork, with both sides of the business now in identical colours. The new part was now fully equipped, with the half a dozen new operators starting to teach the old ones. The original side was still making money, and the staff were keen to be upgraded.

After tidying up and washing out the brushes, the four of them made sure that everything was good before leaving. Garry followed Ashley to a place to eat and meet, the Merry Maid Bar and Grill. It certainly wasn’t the sort of place where Willow expected to meet Hugh and Sam, but they were there, saving a table, and not looking out of place.

Over a meal of chops and chips, Garry was brought into the conversation regarding the upcoming election campaign. Both men were sure that things would come to a head in the spring. Garry and Willow let them know that they would be in America for ten weeks, and Willow decided that it was time to record her father’s advert, should he want to use it.

The couple left the others to more secretive talks, and drove back to Rising Lane, where they checked out the rearranged bedroom again, along with her bed. They laid in each other’s arms and spoke about the future. They would live here during the week until school finished, and then they left for the tour. Then, they planned to live in Bourton and London, although Garry was keen to sell Bourton and buy something north of London.

After they had showered and redressed, she took him through to the annex, where her computer was, and they looked at online maps to see where would be nice to live, with access to the apartment or back north. They looked for properties around Henley-on-Thames and came across one in Marlow. It was red-brick Georgian in style, with a fantastic kitchen, five bedrooms, and more. It was set back off of Marlow Road and was priced at four million. The odd thing was that it was only about ten to fifteen miles to Royal Holloway, mainly on motorways.

Garry called the agent and arranged a viewing on Sunday afternoon, so they printed off all the details and went back to the house, just as her parents arrived home. That evening, they all sat in the lounge, two cuddling couples, as they watched a new movie that Wendy wanted to see, having bought a copy. After that, they went to bed.

In the morning, they went to Stoneleigh, arriving just as the church was emptying. They had Willow’s BMW, to give it a run, and parked by the vicarage. Reverend Russell took them through the process of the wedding, mainly for Garry’s information, and then they all went over to the club, where Garry paid for the reception, asking for the amps, drums and a keyboard to be set up for that evening. They had lunch with their friends from the village, invited everyone to the reception, and then drove south, with Willow behind the wheel and the magnetic plates on.

The agent was waiting for them and showed them through the house. Willow particularly liked the big kitchen and the outside space at the back, with lots of room for sun loungers and tables with the southern aspect.

“The vendors will be clearing the furniture, so it will be a blank canvas if you buy. They have requested a thirty-day settlement, without any allowance for the offers rigmarole.”

Garry looked at Willow and she nodded.

“Look, sir. That’s perfectly all right with us. I have a place down at Bourton which will go on the market once we’ve moved in here, and we have the funds to pay for this. Being empty, it will give us the chance to buy the things we want.”

They shook on the deal, there and then. Garry gave him his contact details and the agent said that he would email the contract.

“What name will I submit for the title?”

“It will be Mister Garreth Jackson Randall, that’s Garreth with two r’s, and Mrs. Willow Jean Randall.”

As Willow drove along Henley Road, heading for Henley, she giggled.

“Garreth, with two r’s I can understand, but how did the Jackson come about?”

“It was my father. He was keen on the Jackson Five. I’m lucky I didn’t get Jermaine or Marlon. The Garreth was an old family name on my mother’s side. What about your names?”

“Mine evolved from Billie-Jean, that Tony Horton, god rest his soul, gave me. Mum was quick to produce a new birth certificate and she was able to cover over the ‘iam’ and the ‘oh’ in William John. Willow Jean fitted nicely. She did make IDs for her friends at uni. I have an official one now.”

“How did you get out of the country for your tours? How did you get a passport?”

“The label organised a bulk order of them for any of the band that didn’t have one for our first tour. Mine was probably not scrutinised as much as it should have been. I was already in the charts by that time, so the application may have been rubber stamped by a fan eager to finish work on a Friday night.”

She drove them to Henley, and they parked near the rowing museum. They walked along the riverside, hand in hand and happy.

“It’s going to be fun furnishing that house. I suppose that we agree that nothing comes in unless we both are all right with it.”

“A really big bed is number one.”

“What! So, you can scamper over one side and snore. Besides, getting bedlinen for unusual sizes is a pain in the butt.”

“We’ll need to set up one room as our joint office. I need a place where I can communicate with the rest of the band and swap song ideas.”

“That big bedroom in the eaves can do for that. You can have one side and I can have the other. If I have any input with the band, we’ll need to work together. I can put my keyboard up there, so we can play around with tunes.”

“I liked the home cinema. A really big screen and all the action pictures from my collection will be great!”

“We could look at old DVDs of us and ask ourselves if we’d been crazy as teenagers. If we adopt, we can indoctrinate them to be pop stars and look after us in our old age.”

They had dinner at the Angel on the Bridge and strolled back to the car.

“I love you, Garreth with two arses.”

“I love you too, Will.”

They stopped and kissed.

“This time next week, we’ll be man and wife.”

“How about we go home and practise? We do have the studio in the morning.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re wicked?”

“Too many times, my love, and every time was deserved.”

On Monday morning, after breakfast, one couple was heading for Birmingham while the other was on the way to Leicester, with Willow driving.

“Have you got any idea of the songs that you’ll be recording?”

“That we’ll be recording, my love. Mac did mention something about looking at some of your back catalogue and giving it the Toxic Treatment.”

When they arrived at the studio, there was a minibus parked, with Sebastian waiting for them.

“Good morning, you two. That show that you put on is the best so far. The Rocks are inside and waiting for you. I’ve been told that Howard Bamborough will have the orchestra here on Friday. I’ll be bringing them with the coach. While you’re recording, I’ll be taking all the band’s wives on a tour of the countryside.”

“Please let them know that they’re invited to our wedding on Saturday, at Stoneleigh. So are you and Sebastian, Max, and your wives. Reception is in the club.”

“Thank you. I’ll see you later.”

They went inside and found the Rocks, sitting in the rest area with bits of paper strewn around. Garry laughed.

“Welcome to the ‘Rocks Institute of Songwriting.”

Willow looked at the piles of paper, took some and sat looking at them, creating sub-piles. She went and got some more and added to the sub-piles. The others stopped and watched her. Mac was the first to speak.

“What are you doing, Willow? Those are all thought bubbles.”

She took five of the piles.

“Come on through to where we make music and I’ll show you how brilliant you all are.”

In the studio, she sat at the keyboard, tried out a couple of tunes, and sang the words from one pile with a twelve-bar beat.

“It just needs some rearranging and editing of the words, and you’ve got the basis of a song. It will need adding to before you record it.”

“Right, Missy. From now on you can earn your keep. We’ll get set up and you can play that again, so we create the Rocks sound around it. Then we’ll sit down and edit the words. While we’re doing that, you can show us how brilliant we are by doing the same to another set of bubbles.”

Through the morning, that’s how it happened. Willow could see that the guys were good wordsmiths but were jumping from one idea to another. Her experience in adding to a basic set of lyrics or tune stood her in good stead. By the end of the day, they had created five new songs and recorded them.

When they went home, Garry was smiling.

“What you did today showed all of that learning from the school. You sorted, you arranged, and you just recorded four more songs than they’d have done in the first day. Be prepared to do the same tomorrow and the lads will love you as much as I do.”

“I only need one of you, my darling.”

“And that’s what you’re getting on Saturday.”

Tuesday was, indeed, more of the same, but with Willow making editing suggestions as they went along. By the end of that day, they had enough recorded for an album. That evening, Wendy gave Garry the package that the jeweller had sent to the office. On Wednesday, they recorded it all, in the album order, with the amps turned up and Willow told to let loose on the organ. When that was finished, they sat in the rest area and listened to it played back to them.

Mac smiled.

“Now, that’s what I call a Toxic Rocks album. Willow, we listened to some of your material in the hotel, last night, and watched the ‘Live in Berlin’ DVD. Would you allow us to do a make-over on a few songs? Just the ones you wrote. It would fill out our stage show without having to play the old stuff. If we’re going to present ourselves as a new look band, we should give the punters something new to listen to. Summer Rose never took off in the US, did it?”

“I don’t think the label tried very hard, seeing that you need to be seen to make it work there. It was hard enough fitting tours into Europe. I suppose that Clive may have made the push, probably around this summer, had we stayed together. You won’t want me singing, as that wouldn’t sound like the Rocks.”

“Correct, but we could do them as duets.”

They went back into the studio and the band improvised around her organ sound, turning some of the Summer Rose material into something else. She was particularly happy with what they did with ‘Dummy Spitter’.

On Thursday, because they could, they took her next album and turned it on its head. Willow was getting used to what was needed, as it wasn’t far from the stadium rock she had played before. In the lunch time, she asked Sarah if she could record her thirty-second advert for her father’s campaign. It was just her and the piano, and she worked to a clock.

‘The party it chose’
‘It chose Ashley Rose’
‘A man of ethics and reason’
‘When you make your pick’
‘He stands as tall as a steeple’
‘So, vote Ashley Rose and give him your tick’
‘For he’s a man for the people.’

Mac was in the control room as she did it and was waiting when she came out.

“Is that for your father, with his political campaign?”

“Yes. I don’t know if he’ll use it. I thought it would be good background to pictures of him in various places, with the voters.”

“You know that he’ll be attacked when they play that, don’t you. Using your famous daughter isn’t the way to do it. How about we get the band in, and make it sound like the Rocks supporting his run?”

“You’d do that for me?”

“Lass, you just saved us two weeks in a studio, trying to lay down an album. Thirty seconds with this is nothing.”

He got the boys in, and they listened to what she had done. Within half an hour, they had re-recorded it with wailing guitar and manic organ, and Mac singing the words. Willow had to laugh, as it sounded a lot like what they were doing with her other songs, but a lot shorter. Sarah gave her six CDs of her original, and six of the new version.

Before they left, they rearranged the studio for the orchestra, but kept the amps set up. Friday, after the orchestra had arrived and all its bigger things brought in, Willow and Vivienne recorded the album again, but not exactly as it had been envisioned. This time it had the Rocks playing along to give it a bit of bite. Howard Bamborough had a big grin as it was happening. For him, this would add to the album’s credibility, and would be doubly listened to once the show was being performed.

On Friday afternoon, as the orchestra was being packed for travelling, Sarah and the team produced a lot of CDs. There were some for the orchestra and the school as well as to be couriered to Clive. There were some for Vivienne and Willow, with a few for the Rocks, and also those to be couriered to Clive. There were three Rocks CDs for Mac; one of the album, and another of an album’s worth of Willow Rose material, reworked, and another of the new VivWillow album. Willow was given a couple each of these but asked not to spread them around, until they were released during the tour.

Garry was going to the Britannia with the band, to have his stag party. Vivienne was taking Willow home, to be with her in the morning when they had an appointment in the salon, with Zara coming to Coventry tonight, and meeting them there in the morning. That evening she gave Ashley the two versions of the soundtrack to use as he wished, and they sat and listened to the next VivWillow album.

“That’s not what I expected, love.”

“That’s the result of being in a studio with Toxic Rocks. I think that there may be one of their own albums, sometime in the future, with them playing along with an orchestra. It will also lessen the shock when they appear on the show.”

“It’s your show, tomorrow. It’s a big day in any girls life.”

“I know, Mum. It’s not as if we’ll be rushing off soon. We’re having a week at Bourton and then coming back here so I can go to school. I don’t know what Garry has in mind, probably getting his finances in order before the tour.”

That night, as she laid in bed, feeling lonely without Garry beside her, she considered what had happened so far, this year, and what things would be like as a married woman. She knew, already, that the charity shows would be big, and then there was the final exams before she was heading for her introduction to the Rock’s fans as the new addition to the line-up. It was to be the start of a new phase in her life, and she was excited by it all.

Marianne Gregory © 2025