The Autumn Reunion

by Terry Aspinall

  Chapter 4

  James

  James returned to his London flat and quietly settled back into his daytime job as a bar man. While waiting the evenings to arrive so he could talk to Christine on the phone in the privacy of his flat. Their conversations had progressed along well and were now focusing onto the minuet details of their past personal lives. It was not the fact that they could not see each other, that they felt safe in asking such questions. It was more a case of genuinely wanted to know more about the person they were about to spend the rest of their lives with. They felt that they should know every little detail; to them there would be no secrets.

  James told her of the part time bands that he had played in and of the good gigs that he could remember. He had recorded a few records but none of them had ever made it up the charts, mainly because of bad management and of poor recording production. The high lights so far had been the tours that he had taken part in, specially the one in Germany. Then there had been the tour in the northern part of England, leading on to the West Country and then a couple of gigs around the so called London pub circuit, specially the one at the Hammersmith Palace

  He spoke of his first marriage to Jean, a young up and coming female drummer, who during those days was a sort after commodity. Girl bands were beginning to springing up in every town and the search was on to find female musicians. As Christine should know she would have come under that very same sort of pressure in her earlier years.

  James had met Jean when she applied for the drumming vacancy in his band the 'Temporary One'. At first she was treated just like any other musician and slotted in well. She was such a good drummer she picked things up very easy, and they were back on the road within a couple of weeks. However as time went on it was a foregone conclusion that the chemistry was going to mix and that they would end up in each other’s arms.

  Within two years they were married and had a beautiful time together. They carried on playing in the band, which was no mean feat with other musicians around. Not to mention the type of publicity that follows a female band member around.

  Unfortunately there was to be no luck in this marriage and Jean was killed in a tragic accident one night while they were on a gig at a pub in Brentwood. They had finished playing and where loading up the gear into the back of the Ford Transit van. Something that Jean always wanted to do, even though James had insisted that she take a break. Jean felt that she had to carry her own weight in amplification just to stop some of the other musicians from complaining.

  She had just carried a couple of her own drum cases out to the van, and was pushing then down the middle of the van to be stacked up neatly. To be confronted by a drunken driver, who had been driving his new sports car around the pub car park, suddenly accelerated the vehicle to fast in an effort to show off in front of his friends. He lost control and drove straight into her and the van. The force at which he hit her almost cut her in half, coupled to this the weight of the amplifiers that had then fallen back and crushed her, meant that she was dead before the ambulance arrived.

  At this stage Christine wished that she could have been with him, as she could hear in his voice that he was struggling while trying to tell her all of the details. She tried to console him over the phone, but it would have been easier if she could have been by his side. It was so tragic that even she had a tear in her eye.

  James had spent weeks in a state of shock, never leaving the house. If it had not been for other members of the band he would have just curled up and died. He was also troubled by the fact that it had been a drunken driver who years earlier had killed both of his parents. Now once again it had been drink that had robbed him of the one thing he loved in the world. At first James had been pleased that they did not have any children, but later he had come to wish that he had. He would have been able to pour his love on to the child, which would now be able to fill the vacuum that Jeans passing had brought upon him.

  It had taken almost ten years for James to come around to the fact that Jean was not there, and that it was time to get on with his life and to start to live once again. So in an effort to get out and mix with people, he joined a small local country music band that played every Sunday night at the local pub the 'Three Tunns'. This had been his saviour, in getting him back on the rails once more. The first time since the accident he noticed that there were people of the opposite sex around and they were certainly different to him. Christine had listened to what James had to say until he brought her up to the present day.

  Then it was her turn to poor out the memories of her past and James became the listener. She had been born just three weeks after James in a small town of Grenodd not far from Birmingham. Her father had been a violinist and also played the local church organ for Sunday morning mass. She had started to learn the piano at the early age of four, but she had hated every minute of it. She had also been lucky to talk her father into letting her give it up. He felt that there was no good trying to make her do what she did want to. Then on her own accord at the age of eleven she had taken to the keyboard for a second attempt, only this time she took to it like a duck to water. This time she enjoyed every minute of it. She had three brothers and the older one had brought home a couple of Fats Domino records. This became the turning point in the music game for her, as she learnt each song off by heart. Once she had left school she moved to Birmingham where she found a local band who was looking for a Bass player to add to its line up. She applied for the position and to her astonishment she got the job.

  Then it was just a steady progression of other bands as she changed over to Keyboards and finally she had joined the 'Chook House' and the rest is history as they say. This had been a strange relationship as both of them had undertaken most of their talking and catching up on the phone. It would have been easier and more intermit if they could have been together, but accepted that would come later, and it would be worth the wait.

  There was another phone call that James received that upset him greatly and he had no idea how to respond to it. Richard had rung asking him not to call Christine so often because it was upsetting her shows. He even went as far as to tell him that if he thought anything of her and her career then he would stop seeing her all together. At one time the conversation got a little over heated as James struggled to find the words to express himself. He knew that Christine was unaware that Richard had made the call. Now he had to come to grips with himself, did he tell her and if he did then there might be one almighty breakup of the tour and that was the last thing he wanted. She had deserved the accolades that were now being showered on to her after a lifetime on the road. The finale in London was the one show she was looking forward to. So James decided to hang back and not to say anything until he thought the moment was right. It had also occurred to him that Richard fancied his own chances with Christine. The only thing he could do about that was to hope that Christine read the signs and did whatever she thought was right. His big worry was that being so far away he could not be there to speak up for himself if a situation developed about their relationship. Deep inside he felt he had read the signs right between them and that once the tour was over they would be able to be together.

  It occurred to him that in the past couple of weeks somebody out there was doing his or her best to stop him from succeeding when it came to the opposite sex. First there had been Janice and now there was Richard. Both had tried to stab him in the back as they say, and he wondered from which direction the next dagger was going to come from. Which brought him back to Richard how had he got hold of his mobile phone number. When the time was right it would be a good question to ask him, if he got the opportunity.

  With great anticipation for James, the day of Christine’s last show arrived and it was to be held at the Albert Hall in London. As arranged James made his way to a reunion with her. It had been a long time coming but now it was here, both of them could not hide their love for one another. During the day time as the show was being set up they took the time to visit the
local area while they caught up on the couple of weeks that they had been apart. It was while they were having a coffee that James told her of the phone call that Richard had made. She had realised that he was up to something, she knew that he had been into her personal belongings a couple of times and that more than likely he had seen her diary that she kept. James laughed what do you keep one of those things for; they are likely to hang you one day. She went on to tell him that one day in the not too distant future she was going to write her memoirs and that if he was not careful he would be on the first page. They both had a laugh about it, and James was thankful that she saw it that way. He did not want to be the one who upset her on this, the best day of her life. They had to return by late afternoon while Christine under took sound checks for the evening show.

  As a tribute to her and the public it had been decided that this being her last show of the tour, her old band 'Spencer Greene; would be the backing band. So it took a while to sort out what songs she would be playing and that they would have to run through a few of them. James sat out in the auditorium and took it all in; it did not take much imagination to see that it was going to be one hell of a show. After everything had been sorted out, most of them made their way back to the very large dressing room.

  Inside Christine introduced him to everybody especially to her ex husband John, who she left till almost last. James was about to mention their earlier meeting years ago, but Christine had already refreshed her husband’s memory and they all laughed together about the incident. To James’s amazement John was very friendly towards him, which allowed him to give a sigh of relief. At least he was not going to be the third one to stick a knife between his shoulder blades.

  Then it was Richard’s turn to be introduced to him as the ex tour manager. With that Richard looked straight at her and asked what was going on. She then repeated her words to him that he was sacked and that after the show he could pack his bags. He turned and walked away in a fit of rage not even asking for an explanation. Christine told James not to worry, he’ll get over it and anyway the tour winds up tonight. Technically after tonight everybody if out of work, and with that they all laughed. She then confided to James that he had been trying to have an affair with her throughout the whole tour. If it hadn’t been for the fact that he was a damn good tour manager, he would have been sacked months ago.

  The show started to a rapturous applause from the thousands of fans that had packed the Albert hall that night. Tradition has it that the last show is always the best and that there is always a big surprise for the audience towards the end of the show. Christine had been on the road with this tour for almost four months, so with all the many performances she was note for note perfect and knew each song inside out.

  As she walked out on to that large stage she was dwarfed by what surrounded her in amplification and props. There was then the briefest of a count in, and the show was under way. James was allowed to stand in the wings and watch, not the best spot to hear but at least he was close to Christine. From this vantage spot he could see that she had a terrific following of fans that could not get enough of their idol. The last thing he wanted was to come between her and her fans.

  The show progressed and before he realised it they were already an hour into her repertoire of songs. Unbeknown to James he had been spotted standing by the curtain by Adriana and Janice who were in the audience, it had been Janice who first spotted him and tugged at Adriana’s arm and pointed towards him. Adriana could see that there was love in his eyes and that she had finally lost him, but she bore him no grudge. First she looked at James and then Christine, she knew deep in her heart that they would make a good couple and were meant for each other.

  Looking at James, Janice also had a twinge of conscious and pulled Adriana close to her and tried shouting in her ear. That nothing had happened at her house on the night of the reunion. She had tried to keep up the pretence in the hope that she might be in with a chance with James. She kept repeating sorry to Adriana who just nodded to her and looked back at the stage, now that everything was out in the open she felt relieved and just wanted to enjoy the show.

  Then to every body’s amazement as Christine finished one of her songs she suddenly started talking to the audience thanking them for being loyal fans over the years and for buying her records. She then introduced James as the guest guitar celebrity of the evening. One of the workers back stage had been told earlier what to do, he thrust a guitar into James’s hand and shouted to him that it was in tune and that he should go out on to the stage and slay them. It only took a couple of seconds for James to realise what was happening, and being the true showman come musician that he was, he grabbed the guitar and walked out on to the stage to a rapturous applause, almost running he made his way across the stage to stand next to John.

  The funny thing was he thought, their cheering me but I bet that nobody know who I am. He was wrong there were at least two people in the audience who knew him well. John told him the name of the song and what key it was to be played in, then Christine counted everybody in and the song proceeded. James had no problem getting in to it, as he knew all of her songs off by heart. Since their meeting he had bought every song that she had ever recorded. Anyway John was doing a good job calling to him any awkward chords changes that were to come. Then before he knew it the song reached the point of the lead break, and Christine called out on the microphone that was to take it away. With that James was suddenly thrust into a world all on his own, as he became the star of the evening. After a few licks that fitted in with the song he suddenly changed and played a different style of lick and looked over at Christine. Being the professional that he was, she answered the lick on her keyboard like an echo. They then played along in this way for several minutes. It was like a match made in heaven to all who heard it that night. Something that would never be repeated again, because there would be no way that the atmosphere of the venue, combined with the chemistry between the players, could ever be captured again. The audience were spell bound as they took it all in, and wondering what would come next, how could this be bettered.

  For those few minutes he had finally made it to the top of the music world, he was playing a lead break at the Albert hall and was being cheered on by thousands of fans. With this fantastic feeling he could now hang up his guitar knowing that it had taken several years but in the end he had finally made it.

  Then all too quickly his golden moment was over, but it had been long enough to last him for the rest of his life. The song progressed he savoured every minute until the end. After the applause had died Christine pointed to his microphone asking him to say a few words to the audience. He then dedicated the solo he had just played to the memory of his old friend and guitar tutor Maurice who had passed away tragically that day after a long fight with cancer. To you Maurice I finally made it mate and all thanks to you. Christine announced to the audience the last song of the night was to be her favourite 'Songbird'. She would be singing it to a very dear friend and that he knew who he was. She then counted in the song and proceeded to sing.

  The Song Birds are singing my love for you

  I love you, I love you, I love you, I do

  As we walk down the aisle with love in our hearts

  To stand before each other to say I do.

  It continued

  Upon ending she turned to the audience and said 'Thank you and god bless everybody'

  Then all too quickly the song and indeed the show was over. As all of the musicians joined her at the front of the stage to take their bow and thank the audience once again. She then shocked them all by announcing that she was now officially retired, and that for her the show was well and truly over. With that she took hold of James hand and together they walked off stage, as the crowd shouted for more. She whispered to James that you should always leave an audience wanting.

  THE END

  Other Titles

  From This Author

  'Almost Total Recall' an Autobiography of
the author Terry Aspinall. This book is part one that covers his early years from May 1943 until he leaves New Zealand to head for Australia in March 1988. Volume 2 is under way but will be couple of years down the track.

  'The Fabulous Spawlszoff Brothers' a fictitious story, that is based on actual funny events that the author has experienced during his 50 years in the music industry.

  'Johnny Morris and the Convertibles' is a fictitious story that is based on actual events that the author has experienced during his 50 years in the music industry.

  'The British Hang Gliding History' is an updated history of how the hang glider was invented in Australia during 1963, and of how it arrived in the UK to be manufactured and flown for the first time during 1972. This book is a shortened version of the successful website it is based on at www.british-hang-gliding-history.com there are working hyperlinks to the websites BHGA early Hang Gliding magazine 'Wings' and also the BMAA early Microlighting magazine 'Front Line'.

  'The Adventures of Henri and Charlie' is a very young children's short story about the authors pet Peach Face Parrot and Canary that escape from their cages and are taken on a wild ride, with no hope of returning to the