Chapter 17
On the short trip to the Luna Park, Gina gave Samantha a medallion that she had in her bag, and they both carefully signed her copy of the Berlin show. They did a loop around to take the road over the bridge, and then another loop on the other side to arrive at the entrance to Luna Park. There must have been about fifty teenagers waiting for them and they cheered as the three got out of the car. Barry was there, with a grinning cameraman, and a sour-looking woman, made up as if she was a teenager.
Jill went over to Evelyn and made sure of the numbers that were joining the other three and went to pay for four hours of entertainment for all of them, giving Willow, Gina, and Samantha a lanyard, and then going to the others to hand the remainder out. When she had finished, she came back to Willow.
“There you go, you have a lot of friends for being in the country for less than twenty-four hours. Me and your mothers are heading to the hills to try out the local beverage and see if we can get pissed. Have fun. Oh! You have my permission to break that lemon-faced bitch. She wasn’t very nice on the phone, but Clive will be upset if it’s me that broke her. You, you have a free pass. See you later.”
With that, she went to the car and left, with Wendy and Maisie waving as they were driven off. Barry and the woman came over.
“Willow and Gina, this is Meryn Tolberry. She is a co-presenter of the show and was looking forward to showing you the Blue Mountains.”
“Nice to meet you Meryn. If you want to join our parents and get pissed, I did see a radio in the limo, I think that the other car wouldn’t have gone far. We could always get it back for you.”
“I beg your pardon!”
“I can repeat it if you want. The longer you wait, the further that car will be away. Make up your mind. Wineries or some fun with the ones who actually watch your show, if only for the videos.”
“I’ll stay, for a little while.”
“Well, you’d better go and get a lanyard, we seem to have run out. Come on Samantha, we’ll go and meet some more fans.”
The driver said that he had a book to read, so Samantha gave him a hug and rushed after Willow and Gina, who were going over to the big crowd. Willow called out in her leaders voice.
“Now, listen up. You all have four-hour passes. We will be here all morning but have to go back to the hotel to get ready for the TV show.”
She turned to Barry.
“Do you have a live audience?”
“Not usually, what are you thinking of?”
“If you can organise a coach, we could transport a lot of teens to be a captive audience in the studio. That way, they may even listen to the two of you, as long as you don’t do the usual blather and stick to the facts.”
“I don’t know. It would be something different. We could shift studio where there’s seats. What do you think, Meryn?”
“I think that this girl has you around her little finger, Bas. I’m all for it if it means that you get thrown off the show. Don’t worry, Willow, if he’s too chicken, I’ll organise it. We’ll even give you and your pals lunch. You look good enough to go directly on the screen already, so you don’t have to go back to the hotel.”
She went off to one side and rang a friend in the studio, another one with little respect for Barry. The cameraman had all the previous talking recorded for private use, once he and his friends got together in the pub. Willow and Gina went to tell the fans that they would be taken to the studio by coach, given lunch, and would be in the studio for the interview. There was another cheer and a lot of smiles. Then, they all trooped into the funfair to test out the rides.
Over the course of the morning, Willow and Gina rode the rides with most of the group, ate things that were never designed to let one lose weight, and helped Barry and Meryn become less stressed. The cameraman was everywhere, filming the hosts and the stars as they interacted with the teens. As far as he was concerned, the arrival last night would be a great snippet in tonight’s news hour, as well as added to the countdown show. He knew that the news hosts that night would be keen to feature Barry and Meryn with actual smiles on their faces. The two of them would find it hard to live this down, and it couldn’t have happened to two more deserving people.
By the time the coach arrived, all of the teens had phoned home to tell their parents where they could be picked up, later in the day. They all crammed onto the coach, now firm friends, and the limo followed it to the studio, where they were welcomed in and shown to the canteen by Meryn’s friend who had to ask which ones were Willow and Gina. The driver sat with his daughter, Willow, Gina, and Evelyn at a table. They were all given soft drinks and then trays were brought out with plates of pies and chips.
When they were led to a studio, there was a tier of seats, which the fans went and sat on. Willow and Gina were led through to a room to be prepared for TV, something they were now used to. When they came back, there was a cheer from the fans, and then they joined Barry and Meryn, with them on one couch, and the friends on another. Barry opened the show with the welcome and introduced the two stars. The discussion was almost interesting. He had obviously made a major decision and done some quick research, and was aware of their situation at school, their involvement in the orchestra and even the extra albums they had made.
The longer it went on, the sourer Meryn got, and the more she showed herself up with questions about their favourite food, clothing, and even boyfriends. Willow could see Barry quietly enjoying her trying to derail the interview, as he stayed with his notes. Then he said.
“Well, this show is all about the new DVD, ‘Live in Berlin’. We’ll play it first and then come back to Willow Rose and Gina Summer.”
The director called cut. Meryn stood up.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes, and we can finish this.”
Barry looked at Willow, grinned and then called out.
“Does anyone want to actually see the show?”
There was a roar of ‘Yes’, and he turned to Willow.
“Looks like my co-host is going to have to delay her nastiness.”
They had a projector that showed the video on a plain wall of the studio, and good audio, so it was like being in a cinema. They sat and watched the show, with Barry coming to sit next to Willow, and her pointing out moments in the show that made him realise just how professional the band was, having been used to bands with small repertoires and big egos.
When the show finished, Meryn hadn’t returned, so they finished the show, with Barry able to ask questions based on the information Willow had imparted. She was able to expand on the look of Jacob, explaining that he was currently in hospital and that they would carry on as a ten-piece. With the final cut, the director came over and asked Barry if he wanted to help out for the countdown, tomorrow. When Barry said ‘yes’, the director turned to the teenage audience.
“You have been a great help today. We have room for you to be in the background of our live show tomorrow night. We will have the coach outside at seven, so any of you that are allowed to join us should be here by then, and you’ll see the fireworks from our commentary position. The coach will bring you back here for your parents to pick you up at about one in the morning. I know that there’s several cars outside, so go and see if you’re allowed. Thank you for making the show something better.”
Willow and Gina were taken off to be returned to normal look, and then they joined an excited Samantha and her father, to head out to the limo. Outside, the friends spent some time being introduced to a lot of parents, by their excited children. Samantha looked on, alongside her father, and then turned to him.
“Daddy, those two are so sure of themselves. They’re the same age as me but seem years older. I wonder if it would help if I took up an instrument. Gina told me that learning to play music without reading the score helps the brain, everyone in Summer Rose are ‘A’ students and heading for university.”
“We’ll have a look in the music shop and see what we can find. You do realise that it would be a lot of practise and some extra tuition.”
“That’s all right, Dad. I’ll stop playing video games, none of the band do much of that.”
“It’s a pity we don’t have a school here that’s as good as the one they go to.”
He had a little smile. He had been trying to wean Samantha off video games for several months. Perhaps this could be the turning of that particular corner.
He took the girls back to the hotel. The other limo was in one of the carparks, so he parked his and escorted his passengers into the hotel. The other driver was sitting with the four women when they went into the lounge. Jill stood up and came to give Willow a hug. Willow could smell a little wine on her breath.
“Welcome back. How did the show go”
“Ask Samantha, she was in the audience.”
“Audience! Barry told me that they did the show in an empty studio.”
“Not today. That Meryn ordered up a coach for the fans, and we were all taken to the station for lunch and then to a studio with seats for the fans. I thought that Barry was very different and had done some homework. Meryn got more and more pissed off and didn’t return after we saw the video. That would look great in a cinema.”
“Let me get this right. You broke her and mended him. We’ll have to ask Evelyn what she thinks, sometime.”
“You can talk to her tomorrow night. The whole group have been invited to attend the countdown at the commentary site. The station is putting on a coach to take them there and take them back.”
“That’s not what I had been told. That Meryn said that she was getting a load of trendy friends to look cool as the backdrop.”
Samantha’s father was asked if he would like to join them for dinner, so he rang home to tell his wife that he, and Samantha, would be a little late. So, it was nine of them who sat down for dinner. There was a TV in the corner, and the news came on at six. Jill gestured to the waitress to put the sound up for a few minutes, as the screen showed an Emirates plane touch down, and then a crowd of teens in the terminal. The voice-over spoke about two British teenage pop stars arriving, and then spoke about the unusual attitude of the stars as Willow went over to speak to them. It went on to say that the pop stars took time out to enjoy the delights of Sydney, with some great footage of them all having fun on the rides, with close-up pictures of Barry and Meryn smiling among a bunch of teenagers. The waitress was watching and snorted.
“That’s one reputation in the bin. That Meryn has built a persona as a sophisticated mentor of older teens. Those pictures are going to kill her.”
She went and turned the sound down again, and Jill smiled at Willow.
“The smiling assassin strikes. All done with a minimum of violence.”
They had the dinner and said goodnight to the drivers and a sleepy Samantha, then went up to their rooms. Willow sat and looked out of her window, across Darling Harbour, to the Opera House, looking exactly like it did in pictures she had seen. It had been a good day, with a lot of fun at Luna Park. It was an experience that had evaded her in her younger days, and the joy of being on the rides with a load of friends was something she had often wondered about. She watched a little TV and went to bed early, after a shower. The travel had caught up with her.
Next morning, they walked around the Harbour to the City and wandered through the shops. It was so much similar to what you see in Britain, and it felt, at times, as if they hadn’t left home. What was different, was one shop that sold a lot of New Zealand products, and she bought a few pure merino sleeveless tops for when she got home.
They had dinner in the hotel, and then went to change for the show. It was going to still be hot, but they needed to look like pop stars, so had brought light shifts that were all right with open sandals, but flashy enough to stand out. The two limos picked them up and took them to a place closer to the mouth of the harbour, where they had a good view towards the bridge. It was an iconic view that they had seen on TV before. They met the other presenters.
Barry was there and hugged the two friends.
“Thank you for yesterday. I’ve been trying to live up to Meryn and her ‘cool’ for some time, never realising how hard she’s been working to prise me out of the show. The director has told me that he was appalled at her attitude in the first part of the interview, and is being moved to commentating on sport, something she hates with a passion.”
He introduced them to Bluey Jones, a gruff New Zealander who was on another music quiz show, and his co-host Maddie Parker, a vivacious late twenties with a sparkle of fun in her eyes.
“The news is racing around the business about Meryn. Three studio friends have already rung me to tell me the news, as well as how good Barry is now. Who would have thought that he had it in him.”
The duo from ‘Funbase’ was everything that had been described. Vacuous, totally gay, and with egos as big as the bridge. Willow decided that she was going to stay well away from them during the night. The coachload of fans turned up and the atmosphere became party-like. There were several monitors, which showed what was going to air, and it was getting towards the end of the news, with a picture of this part of the country with several numbers in the high thirties and low forties for tomorrow. Following was the two-hour show which was timed to finish for the nine ‘o’ clock fireworks. There were plenty of seats, so everyone just relaxed and talked.
The director gave Jill a DVD of the edited show for her records and told her that the money they had spent had been well worth it, if not in ways that they had thought. Some of the fans sat at the monitors and watched the show, squealing whenever they thought that they saw themselves. When it finished, the hosts were ready to go live, introducing themselves and the guests. The half an hour before the first fireworks was made up of chat, and some prerecorded music from local singers.
They all laughed and clapped with the first session of fireworks, a brighter effect to counter that it wasn’t fully dark. Willow suspected that it was aimed and those watching the show at home, because there didn’t seem to be many leaving the vantage places when it had finished.
After that it was work for the next two and a half hours, some of it trying to stop ‘Funbase’ making silly remarks and giggling. By eleven, the two of them were stretched out on the grass and snoring, which forced the director to get some help to take them away. He apologised to Jill and wondered if it had upset any of the fan club. Jill told him that the fan club had told them, soon after they had arrived, that ‘Funbase’ would be forgotten or in rehab in a very short time.
Willow and Gina were sitting with Evelyn and Samantha when the cameraman came over with Bluey and set up to film them from their level. Bluey sat on the grass, and, when they went live, started to talk to them as if they were friends at a picnic. They compared the English school life with the Sydney version, with Evelyn and Samantha being quite open with him. Gina had to tell him that they had been transported to and from school with security, and they spoke about the summer tour, laughing about getting the Liverpool audience singing the club song.
Bluey suddenly face-palmed.
“I remember that. It was six months ago. I saw it on Liverpool TV. I thought that it had to have been part of the set. You’re telling me that it was a spur of the moment thing?”
“We had talked about it during the day, while standing beside the Mersey, after visiting the British Music Experience. The next night, we repeated it and had the entire first team on stage with us, wearing their jerseys.”
“What about this other band that toured Europe with you, G-Force?”
“They are all fifth formers at our school, and Zara, the singer, plays cello in the orchestra. We did the Monday night of the last week of the Proms, in the Albert Hall, and we needed an encore but didn’t have one. She went out and played the ‘Swan’ and it was beautiful.”
He then said that it was time to see a clip of G-Force, and they went to part of the Paris show. As it was playing, he wondered if the two bands would come down and play for them. Gina just said that if it’s organised, it would be nice, as long as it was at a time when it wasn’t so hot, but still nice enough for them to play big venues. He smiled.
“Leave that with me, I have friends.”
At midnight, they saw the main fireworks, and it had been worth waiting for. When it finished, the hosts signed off with a thanks to all their guests, and people started to leave. Willow glanced at the monitor, to see the clip from the BBC interview playing, with the credits rolling. She looked over to the bridge and decided that ‘Smoke on the Water’ fitted quite nicely.
The fans were all teary at saying farewell, and Willow promised Evelyn that she would be in touch, with Evelyn hugging her hard enough to make breathing difficult. They were taken back to the hotel in the limos, with Samantha very sorry to see them go. Gina took her details and promised to be in touch. She hugged them both, with tears in her eyes, at the hotel, and her father thanked them both for such an uplifting couple of days as her made sure his daughter was strapped in.
They slept in, as the flight out wasn’t until a quarter to ten that night, to arrive in Dubai a bit after five the following morning, after fourteen and a half hours in the air. They remembered what they had been told. It was going to be a long night. They were having breakfast and talking about what they could do on a very hot day. The hotel was part of a long row, so they could walk quite a way, and look at lots of shops, while still inside. They came to a shop, on the ground floor, that sold boat tours of the harbour, with a tour starting in five minutes and the boat moored ten yards away.
They bought tickets and walked across to the boat, going inside where the air was much cooler. There was a small crowd of sightseers when the boat cast off, with the speakers immediately coming to life with the captain telling them about the Opera House as they edged out into the harbour. From a side window, they could see the bridge looming over them, so Willow and Gina went to a little shop that sold expensive souvenirs, buying big hats with a picture of the bridge on them, and going up on deck to look up as the boat passed underneath. Willow also had bought a small boomerang with a picture of the Opera House on it for Howard Bamborough.
The breeze across the water was almost refreshing, so they stayed on the deck as they went past Luna Park and a little way further, before the boat made a wide turn, to head back. As they went under the bridge again, they thought that it might be a very short trip, but they carried on towards the mouth of the harbour, reaching the open sea before turning back and heading for the dock once more.
All the way, they were talking about the events of their short stay, and the effect that having a fan club around them had on the way they thought. Both had lived almost solitary childhoods, and being among so many of their own age, just having a good time, had been cathartic for them. As they went back up the harbour, they went and joined the others inside.
“Jill, do we have a fan club in England?”
“We do get a sackful of mail for you every couple of days, Willow. They are usually gushing praise and a request for freebies. We have a stock of photos, done at the Abbey Road session, which have been overprinted with your autographs. We generally send back the band picture, with an individual picture if asked for. As for actual fan clubs, there have been a few that have sprung up, and these are listed on the label website, in a list of all the fan clubs which our other artists have. I am aware that there have been a few that have sprung up in Europe, but this was the first I had heard of anywhere else. What do you want to do about it?”
“I promised Evelyn that I would send her some medallions to replace those tacky plastic ones, and I thought I would get Peter to send her a bunch of posters as well. I have her email address, so I’ll send her a message when I get home, to tell her I’ve arrived, and I’ll ask her if she knows of any other clubs in Australia. That Bluey, last night, asked us if we’d play a tour and told us that he had friends, so you may have somewhere for us to go next summer.”
“It would have to be worth it because of the logistics. Getting ten of you here, with the extras, can be expensive. It would have to be a multi-city tour to make it worthwhile. Ticket prices here are a bit cheaper for new bands, so we’ll have to be playing big venues to make it work. We’ll wait and see what happens. Last night was a blast, in more ways than one.”
When they got back to the hotel, there was a message for them at reception. The director of yesterday’s show wanted to talk to them, and asked if they could call. Jill rang him, and he told her that he would send a minibus to pick them up and take them to lunch. They had time to go and freshen up and were in the reception when a minibus, with the station logo on the side, pulled up. Barry got out and came into them.
“Good morning to you, my friends. It is a good morning, as it’s the first day of the year and the first day of my new contract. I have a music show to host, with a mainly teenage audience, and have been instructed that if I carry on like I did with you, the contract has no limit. I, and the station, am pleased to take you for lunch before you go home.”
Marianne Gregory © 2025