Chapter 10

When they arrived back in London, Willow told the couple to take a couple of days to absorb what had happened and to be back in the office on Monday morning for Edward to catch up with Olives’ new knowledge about the organising side of things.

The following week, Garry took Bryan and Eleanor to Los Angeles to introduce them to the existing office and leave them there for a couple of weeks to sort out how the locals were going to work with the office having a head office specialist on their side.

What he found kept him there longer than he expected. The six-person office was set up to handle the tours when they were on the western side of America, being able to contact the promoters and venues in business hours.

The girl at the counter was chirpy when they entered the office.

“Good morning, can we help you today? The manager is busy with ‘Blank Slate’, organising a short tour as far as Portland.”

Garry looked at Bryan.

“I think that this may be a good time to be here. I’ll lead and you make the decisions.”

He turned to the receptionist.

“Can you let the manager know that Garry Randall, from Red Wolf Head Office, is here with your actual manager, who may be needing to recruit some staff.”

She went pale and stood, barging through the door to the inner sanctum.

“Sorry to bother you, Miss Turner, but we have Mister Randall from London in the reception. I think we may be in a slight bother.”

“Send him in, I hope that he allows us to finish this meeting.”

Garry and the others were already at the door, and walked in. He held out his hand to the band members.

“You’re ‘Blank Slate’ are you. I’m Garry Randall, co-owner of Red Wolf Management Agency. I think I heard your name mentioned when we were touring with ‘Garreth’.”

One of the band stood up and took Garry’s hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mister Randall. We’re all in awe of that tour, as well as the ones you did with ‘Toxic Rocks’. I’m Slim Singer, the singer of the band although the Slim isn’t a good description these days. We’re working out a short tour with Miss Turner, here, along the western coastline.”

“Why aren’t you doing the rest of the country, from what I had heard, you’re good enough.”

“Miss Turner has said that there were contractual problems with that.”

“Is your contract with Red Wolf?”

“It is, sir, why wouldn’t it be?”

“Miss Turner, I suggest that you look into sending these boys east. You can co-ordinate with London. Bryan, here, will be the new oversight manager for this office, based in London and Los Angeles. From what I see, I expect that there are other bands in a similar situation. We’ll talk about that when these gentlemen are happy. The three of us will leave you and go to the fast food joint up the road for a while. When we come back, we’ll have a long talk. Things are changing with the company, and I think that this office will be happy to go along with them.”

He smiled, looking at Miss Turner, and she noted that the smile didn’t reach his eyes, then the three of them left. At the food outlet, they sat with coffees. Eleanor was the first to speak.

“I was looking around the office while you were talking, Garry. There were two, two drawer filing cabinets with a sticker saying ‘Bands – A to G’ on the top drawer, with the rest of the alphabet going to Z on the next three. We have six, bigger, cabinets with similar stickers in London. Did you know about that?”

“No. As far as we were concerned, all they did here was co-ordinate the tours that we organised, working with the contacts in their time zone. If they’ve been managing other bands, under our banner, they’ve kept it, and the profits, to themselves. This is time for an executive decision. You two are their new bosses. How do you want to play it?”

Bryan thought for a moment.

“On one hand, they’ve been involved in serious fraud, with a report to the police and taking them to court to reclaim whatever they’ve taken. That would mean that we need a new set of staff and get a lot of bad publicity. On the other hand, they’ve been very resourceful, and have a number of bands on their books that we’ve never heard. If the two of us are here for a while, we could sort it all out. Perhaps allowing them to keep what they’ve earned in return for not charging them but compiling a list of their clients to add to ours in London and getting them all more work.”

Eleanor nodded.

“We had better go back to make sure they haven’t scarpered. If we do have an equitable change, it wouldn’t help if they’ve destroyed the evidence. The band should have been sorted out by now.”

They finished their coffees and went back to the office, meeting the band as they were leaving. Slim gave Garry a man-hug.

“Wow, boss. That shook them up. She told us to come back in a week and she’ll have a revised tour. Thank, man, you’re the best, even if you are a bass player.”

Garry laughed.

“I get that a lot. I’ll get your contact details and come along to see you play. Bryan and Eleanor will be managing this office, in future, and he used to be in Summer Rose, which had several hit albums in Britain and Europe. If you’re good enough, make sure that your passports are up to date.”

They went inside, closing the door and snibbing the catch. Bryan looked at the receptionist.

“Gather everyone together and put the phone on auto-answer, we’re going to have a conference.”

An hour later, they had come to a decision. The six girls were relieved that they weren’t being charged with fraud, for now, and willingly accepted that the twenty-six bands they had been managing, locally, were now part of the official Red Wolf list, and that they were allowed to send them east. Bryan told them that if the bands were good enough, they may get a tour overseas. Garry sat back, looking appropriately stern as Bryan took control, now seeing what Willow had said about him.

Eleanor had been going through the files while the conference was happening, with several glances from the girls. She found the financial files of the bands, in folders with all the contact details. In a lull in the talk, she turned to the others.

“Which one of you is handling the finances for these bands?”

One of the girls put her hand up a few inches.

“How many are waiting for their payments, and how many are on tour?”

“Six completed and waiting for us to get the income, and ten are playing.”

“You and I, young lady, will be working together to make sure that nobody gets a whiff of what’s been going on. From today, all the accounts get sent to London. I’ll get Thomasina to set up a West Coast account for commissions. When we come back, tomorrow, we’ll need a full list of bands, with contact details of individual members, along with their earnings over the last twelve months. When I’ve looked at it, I’ll email it to London with a full account and the reasons why you’re not in jail. Bryan and I will spend quite a lot of time with you until we’re satisfied that this office is working properly. Who knows, if Garry and Willow agree, they may even allow you to join the shareholding. What you’ve been carving off here is a tiny part of the overall company earnings. But don’t expect that for a year or two.”

Garry spoke, at last.

“The ten who are playing. Give me a list and I’ll go and listen to them before I go back to London. I’ll go and call Willow, now. I’ll see the two of you back at the hotel for dinner.”

He stood and left them, knowing that both Bryan and Eleanor were in charge, now. It was just that he couldn’t figure out which one was the dominant partner.

He went out, taking the receptionist to her desk and opening the door. He left her to do her job and went back to his hotel room to call Willow on her mobile to report the situation and what they had done. That evening, at dinner, Bryan had a list of the bands and the venues that they were playing at. Some could be reached by car, so Garry organised a rental before going to bed.

For the next few weeks, he went to see new bands, and, when he thought they may be good enough, introduced himself and spoke to them about their wider futures. There were some that were further north, so he needed to fly and taxi to his hotel, but, in the end, he was satisfied with what he had achieved. He kept Willow in the loop, while Eleanor was keeping Thomasina supplied with financial numbers as she had them finalised.

All the bands currently playing would be paid by the London Office, with them added to the client list. Others would be added as they were booked for shows. Bryan spent a lot of his days on the phone, with the bands and venues, organising future shows and tours, co-ordinating with the American desk in London.

Garry was able to be home in time for Willows’ birthday, which they celebrated with her family at the Punchbowl. John was now growing fast and had already almost mastered the piano that Willow had bought for him and was quite competent on the guitar that Garry had given him. Wendy was now almost full time with him, as the nanny had been sent back to the agency. She attended the design office whenever needed but was now happy with her youngest to look after. This time, she was determined that John would be listened to when he came home from school.

Willow had tried to spend time with her brother. He had watched all the DVDs that his sister was in and was determined to go on the stage. She tried to enforce the need for a good education, as well. At times, she would play the upright and he would sing along, with Wendy looking on in wonder of her two children.

The new office was in the final fit out, and Nancy and Edward were overseeing the new desks and computer servers. They had a huge solar panel array on the roof, with battery back-up. The ground floor entry was finished first, with the old ‘Falling Rocks’ display now in a glass display case, better set out, and with stands to hold copies of the book, open to various photographs. There was a board which had a picture of the young Rufus and his history in setting up the agency. Also, on the ground floor, were two large offices, with interconnecting doors, for Willow and Garry, as well as a large one for Thomasina and her two assistants. The entry from the parking side had a room for the bike rack and the lockers.

Upstairs, there was a very large floor for desks, now with a few steps up to the additional section over the parking area. Above that was the floor where the three extra regions were managed, along with a large rest area and a games room with table tennis, a fully equipped gym, and a fully fitted kitchen. There was the original lift between the floors. It was light, inside, now with extra windows installed.

It took a week to move the desks, computers, filing cabinets and lockers. The desks were moved, four at a time, and all the connections made in a morning. That way, any section was only off-line for a maximum of four hours. Willows’ office was the last to be moved. When she walked around the empty office, with Garry, she hoped that what they were doing would work. The week after they had left, the builders moved in to convert the office back to two homes for sale.

They settled into the new site and got used to where everything was. The grand opening was set for the end of July, when most of their tours had been sorted out and under way. They had tables of nibbles, plenty of drink, made sure that the whole building looked bright and shiny. It was held on a Saturday, with the PM doing the opening, and a plaque in reception to record the fact. There were a lot of invited guests, reporters, and a TV crew filming. Wendy and Ashley were there, proud of their child and her husband, with John running up to Willow to hold her hand throughout the event. Rufus was feted and had his picture taken next to the band display. He gave all the girls a hug and a kiss, telling them that the new place was magnificent.

When the office settled down, Willow, Garry, Thomasina, and Sue joined Edward and Olive to fly to Japan for the opening of the Tokyo Office, with their three staff having found a reasonable place in one of the skyscrapers, with a fantastic view from the windows. There, they had a Japanese TV star to do the opening, with all the proper ceremony, and a TV station filming. They already had six bands signed up, mainly on the promise of tours outside Japan. Edward and Olive stayed behind as the others went south to Sydney.

There, they joined Nancy and Nathan to open the Australian Office, with the opening done live, on Barrys’ TV show, with him and Samantha sharing the spotlight. Red Wolf had brought ‘Enlightened’ from their previous manager and was in the process of signing several bands who had played with Samantha and her band. There were three staff in the office, all previous members of the old fan club, and all ex-members of Barrys’ Band of Babes from the TV show. That morning at Luna Park had echoes that still reverberated years after.

The coverage, in the two countries, led to a lot more entertainers, of all kinds, wanting to talk to the agency. The offices found themselves with singers, bands, actors and classical players. In Australia, Nancy had enough to put together a dance band, which began rehearsals in the property that Samantha had been using. They also had some actors placed in locally made films.

In Britain, the success of Vivienne and Zara in the movie had also led to more actors asking about management. Before September, they had set up a new desk with a retired actress who had lots of contacts in the film industry. Zara and Viv were cast in another film before the end of the year, and they had seven others that had been cast in films or TV shows. Thomasina had been pessimistic; they reached the two billion turnover with two months to spare.

The pop-up shows to promote British wares had been popping up in various places that summer, and it had been decided to send two or three containers to Australia the next year, with two weeks in every state capital. Red Wolf would organise the venues and the entertainment, with Nancy and Nathan managing the whole thing, with the industry heads flying in.

The instant addition of bands from the West Coast Office was a sudden increase in work for everyone. The office now co-ordinated tours that covered all of America, and even into Canada. The odd thing was, as the turnover and work increased, Willow and Garry became quieter. They were replaced by the various managers and organisers, who now interacted with the clients more than ever before.

After two years of constant work, the Randalls found more time for themselves. They spent more time with Wendy and John, visited Ashley in Whitehall to talk about the pop-up shows, attended the various board meetings that they had seats on, and found time to write music again.

That Christmas, they attended a lot of parties, some put on by grateful clients, one big one in the Head Office, the usual political affairs, and the one at Chequers. The Dorchester award party was even bigger than before, with almost all of the recipients being their clients. The New Year fireworks were viewed from their favourite window in Parliament, and then they started to think about the following year.

As they stood, kissing, at midnight, they both knew that their life was about to take yet another turn, with two letters sitting on their home office desks that they weren’t allowed to talk about yet. The next morning, the phones didn’t stop ringing, with congratulations on both of them being awarded OBEs for services to British Entertainment and also to Industry.

Some left-wing commentators thought that having a father in the Cabinet was part of the reason, but everyone else listed the huge body of work in bands, with them both already given the keys of the City of Coventry for the two charity shows, the international growth of Red Wolf Management, and the success of the pop-up promotions bringing in business for British Industry.

They stayed in Marlow for a week, answering the phone and replying to texts and emails. It would have helped if they had brought Helen in, but that would have meant telling her why beforehand. The first people they did visit were her parents and brother, staying for a few days and relaxing with their mobiles switched off. They ate at the Punchbowl, played the piano and sang a lot. John would be going to the Blue Coat after summer but was already following in Willows’ footsteps with his excellent memory.

The year started with the office organising a tour of a trio of Japanese bands, opening in Hawaii and spending ten weeks in America, starting in June, with two weeks in Watford to record new albums and a show DVD first. They were also organising a big tour for ‘Blank Slate’ and two other American bands to tour the UK and Europe, also visiting Watford to record.

‘Enlightened’ and two new Australian bands were going to tour America, starting in the south and working north as the Japanese worked south. Add the other clients and the office was a hive of activity.

Willow and Garry stayed out of their way, just making sure that they were on the end of a phone call if needed. The did go and see new acts to see if they were good enough for the stable, but they had both been bitten by the writing bug once more. By April, they had an albums’ worth of tracks. Instead of doing the expected, they called ‘Third Rating’ and set them up in a hotel in Leicester, taking them into the practise studio first, and then two days in the recording studio.

The resulting album and DVD was couriered to the label, with all tracks shown as being written by ‘The Randalls’. For both of them, it was good to be involved in creating music again. It made them wonder about actually playing, but they resisted that to continue writing.

As the summer went on, they were more immersed in the writing, this time working on an album that they thought would suit ‘Cauldron’, with a load of girl empowerment, and another for the Vines, which was more middle eastern, should they want it. They dropped into the office every week, just to keep up with things, an important task, as things were constantly changing. They were given the message that ‘Blank Slate’ wanted them to write something along the lines of their Country Rock days of ‘Garreth’. It was lucky that they still had about twenty numbers that hadn’t been considered before the big tour.

In the beginning of August, Willow had an email from Business Weekly, wanting her to be available for a photo shoot. They attached a draft of the story that went with the pictures for her to authorise. When she read the opening lines, her heart sank.

‘From her very early days at school in Clifton, this idol of the business world has been different.’

Luckily, they had gone to her old school and had interviewed Harvey Horton, who told them that her results, when she moved to Coventry, were the best he had ever seen with a twelve-year-old, and that he had predicted that she would do well. He didn’t mention the Billie Jean nickname. Nor did he tell them that he had never met her at that time. Seeing that he was the Headmaster, they had taken that as gospel. The article moved on to her days at the Blue Coat and the additional course she had taken which allowed her to take a degree course without needing the ‘A’ Levels.

In all, it was quite a reasoned article, and laid to rest any notion that her OBE was by grace and favour. She replied that she would be happy to attend the shoot, as long as there were pictures taken with Garry in them. The shoot was set up for ten days in the future, so she spent one day in a spa to bring her exterior up to scratch, also sending Garry off for a workover.

The shoot was to start at the Red Wolf Office, with her, and Garry, photographed in her office, beside the ‘Boulders’ display, in the upper office with all the girls behind her, and down in the parking area in front of a blue screen. All the time, she was being given different high-end fashion outfits to wear, seeing that the article was being teamed with another that was commemorating the fashion label.

When they were happy with those pictures, they all went to Watford, where she was photographed in the control room, in the studio with a keyboard, sitting at the baby grand now installed, and with her team at the mixing board, taken at an angle that highlighted the sliders stretching out past them.

Two days later, she had another shoot. This time, it was in the studio of the fashion label, with the founder and main designer, in a sidebar to the actual articles to announce that the label was going to be supplying high-end fashions to clients of Red Wolf, with a signed contract. It was mainly hype, as the clients would be buying the outfits at a good discount but gave both brands a new way to promote themselves. The aim was for the clients to be asked to get their clothing from the label, when possible, and the first to take that up was the ten girls from ‘Cauldron’, which created a big article in the fashion magazines on its own.

One of the strangest occurrences of the year was when a journalist wrote a piece for Vogue, taking some of the pictures already in the public domain, getting some from the fashion label, adding photos of the bands, and creating a long story about the ‘Willow Effect’. It followed her from school, outlining the addition of band members, then the addition of other bands, then the addition of the orchestra, to create the, now iconic, charity show. Then, he went on to relate how she took her earnings to create the design studio, and the two recording studios, and, finally buying Red Wolf to take it from a total staff of twenty-three to the fifty or more that it now supported, and from sixty clients to a globally estimated hundred and fifty. She may have decried it when Peter had talked about ‘Brand Willow’, but it was now undisputed fact.

Marianne Gregory © 2025