Chapter 9

On the way home, Willow got Sebastian to stop at a post office, where she bought a post pack big enough for three discs, and the stamps needed for a package of three and another of one. When she was home, she sealed the one to the ENO, and filled the package to Jill. Properly stamped, she left them on the hall table for her mother to put in a post box in the morning.

Then, she sat in front of the big screen TV and watched both DVDs critically, trying to pick the songs that may get airplay. She decided that they weren’t a bad collection of songs, most were good enough for even the most middle-ground radio, and more likely to appeal to those who bought the earlier albums. The DVDs looked as if they were shot on location, with the added club-like background sounds, and she wondered if they may end up as music for dinner parties, or even intimate evenings with a favourite person.

Then, she went to her bedroom to work on the promised anthem for her father, something that needed a lot more thought. When her parents came home, she had the dinner close to being ready to cook. They had the meal and she said that she would tidy up and that there were two, new, DVDs by the machine if they wanted to watch them. She cleaned up in the kitchen and went to get a shower, dressing in her nightie and gown. When she went down to say goodnight, the DVDs were left out of the cases and her parents were nowhere to be seen.

She turned her laptop on to check for emails. The only one was the statement from Peter and she transferred another quarter of a million into the company account. It appeared that without the constant back and forth within the band, and the loss of Wilhelm, her email traffic was now at a minimum. In the morning, she was getting breakfast when he mother came down.

“Those albums, love. They work in a different way to the hard rock ones. As we watched, all I wanted was to get your father into bed. The words made me very horny.”

“Could it have been the neon sign behind us that read ‘Sex’?”

“Whatever. What we do know is that if there’s a population jump around Christmas, we’ll know who to blame. I expect that you’ll be going to school today.”

“Yes, Mum. Orchestra this afternoon, so I’ll be late. I don’t know what we’ll be doing on Friday afternoon, seeing that we got the project to the point of performance.”

Sebastian picked her up and they went towards Coventry.

“Those songs and those album covers, Willow. They’re a bit different.”

“Do you think that it’s a problem?”

“Not to me, but you’re not likely to sell any in America, with the way they are now,”

“If I went to America, they’d probably kidnap me and send me to Gitmo. I was reading an article in the doctor’s waiting room, and it was talking about all the words and phrases you can’t use any more. There’s an old song, from the sixties, called ‘Too Young’, and it’s been banned. The reason is that the opening line is, ‘They tried to tell us we’re too young’. And the word ‘they’ can be the preferred address of a non-binary person, and they no longer exist.”

“That’s a bit silly.”

“Yeah! I don’t need that kind of silly. If I get good sales here and in Europe, I’ll be happy. Look, here’s copies of the two DVDs. Humour me with a little experiment and watch them with your wife tonight. I’ll have them back with your report tomorrow.”

That day, she got the lesson notes that she had missed, and the lunch was interesting. Garry sat with her and told her that the whole experience of the operetta had been fantastic and had allowed him to have fun while singing. That afternoon, Mister Bamborough set the orchestra a task. He wanted them to take the score of the operetta and rework it as a thirty-minute piece for future playing. With the skills in the room, they had it written out and played before they finished. It encompassed the whole orchestra, with those who hadn’t been part of the twenty adding their own music.

For Willow and Vivienne, it was almost a vindication of their own skills in writing the original album. As they were leaving, Vivienne told Willow that she had sent her album and DVD to Jill. They both wondered what the label would do with them.

On Friday morning, Sebastian gave Willow the two DVDs.

“If there’s a population boom after Christmas, we’ll know who to blame.”

“That’s what my mother said. Was it good for you, too?”

“Don’t ask.”

That afternoon, Mister Jamieson told them that the modules that had been dropped to allow them time for their project, would now be able to be worked on. They would be working on discussing the song ‘Africa’ for a couple of weeks, and then a film score. They would have the stage for the last Monday of the month, to run through the operetta, with the performances on the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the beginning of June.

Willow spent the weekend working on the campaign song for Ashley, except for time at the club on both evenings. She learned that the mid-week lunch socials were becoming popular, and that her father had funded these from his own money.

On Monday, at lunchtime, she was told about the fantastic two days that the junior orchestra had enjoyed in the studio. For many, it had been their first time there, and Petunia gave her a letter of thanks from her father, who had attended both days to see his children in another light. At the bottom of the typed letter was a hand-written note. ‘Big things happening, speak to you in a few weeks.’

Over the next couple of weeks, things were fairly normal. Vivienne invited Willow to her house to run through some additions to the long set, and they were confident that they would hold their own when they toured. On the week before the operetta performance, both girls had texts from Jill. ‘Meeting Saturday at eleven in office, imperative you attend.’ They both texted back that they would be there. Vivienne said that she would have her limo service, seeing that Willow was supplying the accommodation.

Friday evening, they were on their way to London, with overnight bags in the back. They were dropped off at the restaurant and told the driver to be there to take them home at four on Sunday afternoon. They went up to the apartment and settled in for the night, sitting in the downstairs sitting room for a while and talking. For Willow, Vivienne was replacing Gina as a sounding board for ideas, as well as now part of a writing duo.

In the morning, they had breakfast in the restaurant and then freshened up before getting a taxi to the label’s offices. When they arrived, they waited in the reception until Jill came out to greet them.

“Thank you for coming. We have a lot to discuss, so come up to the boardroom as there are others here to talk to you.”

When they walked into the boardroom, they were ushered to seats, flanked by the CEO and CFO. Opposite were Jill and Clive, and they also said hello to Derek and Norman, from the ENO. There were two others present, who were introduced as Helmut and his wife, Delta, from the Rainbow Alliance. The CEO led the discussion.

“We are here to discuss a future tour, and the implications of a film that was shot at the nightclub, here, in London. When that has been decided, we will talk about a certain operetta which we have seen. Now, the first thing is that you girls were booked, by the Rainbow Alliance, to play that week in London, followed by six weeks touring six nightclubs in European cities. We accepted the booking and notified your manager of the times that you would be away. He replied that he had noted the booking and queried the somewhat low figure offered for your performances.”

“That was what was offered and accepted.”

“That’s not the issue, Helmut. What we didn’t pick up on was that these venues are all gay clubs, which we thought may be a problem to your reputations. When you were so successful in London, it changed the dynamic. Helmut has now informed us that the two of you are established gay icons. This could be a problem for you in the future. What do you think, Willow?”

“It was an audience, sir, like any other, who danced and sung to our songs. In fact, I think that they knew our songs better than we do. We felt safe, we were well fed, and we had fun. We also tried out several of the songs on the albums we sent in.”

“You don’t feel ashamed at being called a gay icon?”

“Not at all. The pink pound is as good as any other, and I hope that we’ll get a good reception over summer. We have both worked on extra material for it. You’re not cancelling, are you?”

“It has been considered.”

“We enjoy entertaining people. When people have turned up, wanting to be entertained, then it’s even better. I expect that flights and accommodation are supplied while we’re away, so it will be like the summer holidays that we’ve had for two years. Probably a lot less stressful. Give it another year, and let the press see us with guys, and it will all blow over.”

“Vivienne, what do you think?”

“I’m with Willow. It’s just a gig like any other. I doubt that we’ll see anything more outlandish as the Tart’s Tuesday.”

“All right. It goes ahead. Now, that video that was shot on that Tuesday. I’ve seen it and I have to praise the two of you for continuing your set with all that flesh around you.”

“Nothing we haven’t seen when we shower.”

“Yes, that may be, but we were wondering about what it’s going to look like if it’s on general release.”

“We were told that it’s for use in the other clubs.”

“That’s what we thought, but copies have turned up on the internet as bootlegs.”

“Then why not issue it as an adult level music video. It isn’t us flashing the skin, so we can’t be held accountable.”

Clive spoke up.

“Quite right, Willow. We could package it with your new albums as a special buy. Two studio albums and six hours of live performance. We could charge a premium and see how it flies. If we undercut the bootleg price for an official issue, it may stop that trade.”

“It is a first-class video; it should have been for what it cost us.”

“I’m not criticising the quality, Helmut, just trying to find a way to protect these girls and make money.”

“I’m prepared to supply security for the girls while they’re with us. We stand to make a lot of money with their performances. Their week, here in London, broke all the records for the club. If it’s needed to swing the deal, we’ll pay them an extra ten thousand a week, each. We have already needed to change venues at one city to cater for those wanting to be there. Every person who comes along has to become a member of the club first, before they pay the extra for a special event.”

“All right, if we’re in agreement, the tour goes on. Now, another thing about the video, Helmut. Who thought of the title?”

“That was my wife, Delta. It is what the members call these two songbirds. I’ve had a look at the writing credits on the two albums, and it’s quite likely what the scribes will call their collaboration.”

Delta handed Willow a copy of the video. Willow couldn’t help but laugh as she passed it to Vivienne.

“VivWillow in Heaven! That’s almost as left field as some of my thoughts.”

“You find it amusing?”

“It’s classic, Delta. It captures our working together with writing and performing. When Gina and I started playing, we used our surnames. This is just a variation. What do you think, Viv?”

“It’s certainly a step up from Armstrong/Rose. It’s catchy. We could even put out merchandise with it. Have you gone down that road, Helmut? By the blush, I bet that you’re way ahead of us.”

He laughed.

“You’re right. Do you object?”

Willow grinned.

“As long as we get some of everything for our friends, why should we object. It looks as if we’ll be VivWillow on tour, this summer. Jill, you may have to put on extra staff to handle the VivWillow fan mail. You can tell Peter, I’m not game enough.”

There was a general shaking of hands, a few hugs, and Helmut and Delta left. Norman laughed.

“Now, you two, there’s another video that we have to talk about, almost as drastic as the other one, if my imagination is to be believed. How many of these are there?”

“About four dozen. All the cast , the teachers, and the tech group who did the rear projection.”

“No thoughts of issuing them, say, through the school website?”

“Nothing said. If anything, it’s likely to be filmed and recorded when we perform it. We’re having a full-dress rehearsal on Monday, with the theatre left set up for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening, which are filling well, I believe.”

“We’ll be there in force to see it. The thing is, you have come up with a commercial product, worthy of a bigger audience. We would like to make an offer for the rights to perform it next year. We have spoken to this office about our video being the official one. We may want some of the cast to remain and are prepared to pay those who developed that rear projection for the rights to use it in our theatre. In some performances it’ll be far cheaper than building sets.”

Clive leaned forward.

“The other thing is that there are at least three songs on this video that are worthy of general release, perhaps on a CD of the soundtrack. A couple that you sang, Vivienne, are on par with that one from Frozen. They deserve a proper studio recording with a fuller orchestra.”

Willow looked at him.

“The operetta was a school project. The school has a stake in whatever is decided. Most of the lyrics were based on Vivienne’s original work for our Summer Rose album, with a lot of changes. The music was mainly written by members of the orchestra, especially those in our Music Studies class, who were given the project to do.”

“I spoke to your Mister Bamborough the other day. He told me that it was you that pulled it all together, even to the point of directing the stage activity while conducting. He said that the performance on the disc was the first one where nobody was wearing buds, so that they could hear your direction. That was quite an impressive bit of work.”

“So, what are you all proposing?”

“The ENO want it for their own, mainly to tour around schools and institutions where it can be shown to a lot of children. They also want to see how long it runs on their London stage. They are willing to pay the school for the intellectual property, and the rights to the projection technology. There will also be compensation for those involved in the development, which, I’m told, is about three dozen. You two will get residuals for the use of the music and lyrics, as well as Summer Rose being listed as the originators of the show. If there’s a DVD and CD, all of the cast and development team will share two pounds for every sale, with the school getting a small amount.”

“So, you’ll need the contact details for all those involved.”

“Howard Bamborough has already provided that. What is curious is that half the cast were members of Summer Rose, and one is now the bass player in one of the best bands around. You guys never fail to surprise. Are you happy with what I’ve said?”

Willow and Vivienne looked at each other and grinned.

“I think we’re with you on this, gentlemen. All you need to finish the job is to get the paperwork in order.”

They were given lunch and driven back to the apartment by Jill.

“Are you both really all right with this morning?”

“A lot of it was already running, Jill, we just had to make sure we’re still included in discussions. The clubs are what they are, and they’re a safe haven for a lot of people in a harsh world. If they like us, who are we to complain. We could see that it was only the stiff-necked morals of the upper management that was the barrier, using our reputation as an excuse for any decision that may reflect badly on them.”

“You’re right, Willow. None of the rest of us saw a problem. The amount of flesh exhibited in that video is no more than you get in the average rap video, these days. It may even add to the sales with young boys. I’ve seen the itinerary for the tour, and you won’t be upset by any of the hotels. The flights are all business class but they’re all short hops, compared to last year. I’m going to talk to Clive about your cut of a large offering. Three DVD packages are not usual, especially as one is a double DVD with six hours of entertainment. We’ll push the media with this, to get a good coverage, and there will be a TV interview before you leave for Europe.”

“Thank you, Jill. We’re grateful for your work over the last couple of years.”

“I’ve enjoyed it all and have been to places that I had never thought I’d see when I took on the job. Up until Summer Rose, all the bands I’ve looked after have either been snooty, arrogant, little shits, or high as a kite little shits. You were a breath of fresh air and I find it hard to imagine what you’ll come up with next, Willow.”

“How about a political campaign in the next election?”

“Who are you backing?”

“My father is the candidate for the Kenilworth electorate, to replace the retiring member.”

“That will certainly keep you in the public gaze, especially if you make any political statements. What about you, Vivienne?”

“This is the first I’ve heard of it, but Ashley Rose is a good friend and a great guy. I’ve known him since the early days of the dance band in the Stoneleigh Club, and he’s always been straight with us. He supported the band when others thought we were just kids having fun. My family votes to the right, so we’ll help if we can.”

They were back in the apartment and discussing the improbable future of VivWillow, when Willow’s phone rang.

“Willow speaking.”

“Willow, it’s Sam Vines, how are you?”

“I’m good, Sam. What can I do for you?”

“Where are you? I rang your home and was told that you’re in London.”

“I am, Sam. Vivienne and I have just had a meeting with our label.”

“Is it possible for me, and one other, to meet with you and then have dinner? We’ve just left a lawyer’s office in London. Do you have somewhere quiet that we can talk with both of you?

“We’re at my apartment near Broadcasting House. If you want, we can talk here, and there’s a restaurant on the ground floor where I should be able to book a table for four. Is that all right?”

He said that it was, and she gave him the address, telling him to call when he arrived. Vivienne looked at her.

“That sounded intense.”

“Yes, and he sounded excited. That was Sam Vines, Petunia and Ivy’s father. He is one of our tenants at Small Heath. I wonder what he wants to talk about, and who he’s bringing with him. Either way, we probably only have a little while to make ourselves presentable.”

Vivienne dashed upstairs and Willow changed into a better dress and checked her hair and make-up. They were both back in the sitting room and looking good when the phone rang again. Willow answered and said that she’d be right down.

She went down to the street door to find Sam and Hugh waiting. Hugh smiled.

“This is perfect. Have you booked a table yet?”

“Not yet Hugh.”

“Let’s go and book for eight, if we can. Ted and Kevin can join us, with their wives, after we’ve spoken.”

They went into the restaurant and managed to get a table for eight in the cellar, as long as they started at six, as the venue was fully booked from eight. Willow led them upstairs, with a stop at the landing while Hugh knocked on Ted’s door to invite the two couples for dinner at six.

In the apartment, they sat in the sitting room and Willow offered drinks, with some of the wine still left and the two girls drinking lemonade. Sam took a sip of his wine and then spoke.

“I suppose that you’re interested why we want to talk to you. We’re here because of me sending my girls to your school. With all the things that went on, Hugh and I were able to sit in your studio and have a very private discussion It’s taken a while, but we signed all the paperwork this morning. Hugh has bought my business, with me staying on as CEO on a salary. The thing that affects you, is that he had a chance to properly look at the Small Heath property, especially the huge amount of office space that Mervyn and I don’t use. Over to you, Hugh.”

“That property was a place that I was looking at but didn’t need at the time. Sam’s business was one I’ve been after for a while, as it fits into the others in my stable. I want to utilise the office space as my headquarters, and with Vines Engineering there it makes sense. We’ve spoken to Mervyn, and his head office, and have come to an agreement to use his distribution centre as our means of our product distribution, so boosting his business.”

“That sounds extremely fortuitus, Hugh.”

“It was, Willow. It does leave me with an offer to make to you girls, for you to take to your syndicate. There’s ten of you, yes?”

“Only six now, Hugh. The others have had their shares in Small Heath paid out. They’re only still in the shopping centre we own in Manchester.”

“OK. I want you to talk to the other four. I’m making an offer to take the Small Heath property, allowing you to retain any advance lease payments that have been made.”

“Do you have a number in mind, Hugh?”

“I have, Willow, and that number is seven point two.”

“That is somewhat generous, Hugh.”

“No, it isn’t, Willow. It allows for the increase in value since you bought it, the convenience, to me, of consolidating my operations, and as a side effect of what you saved my companies last year. I gave you lunch and a framed thank-you at the time, and you were gracious and appreciative. At no time have you ever questioned me on what we gained from that report you submitted, but I can tell you that the extra I’ve added to the property is a drop in the ocean compared to the gains we made.”

“Thank you, Hugh. We’ll take it to the others tomorrow. What do you think, Viv?”

“Well, a quick one point two each would be good, and I think that Nancy and the two boys will jump at it. What will Gina think?”

“I’ll ring her in the morning and ask. She was happy to stay with us when we reorganised, but a quick sale could sway her, especially if the rest of us want to sell. Hugh, we’ll discuss it with the others and let you know as soon as we can.”

“That will be good. Sam and I will be at the school on Thursday evening, to see the first dress rehearsal of your new offering. I’m intrigued to see what it’s like.”

“You’ll be surprised. It’s good enough for the English National Opera to want it, so expect an interesting evening. Now, It’s close to six, we should rouse the others and go down for dinner.”

Marianne Gregory © 2025