Chapter 19: Winters and Morris

The Album is Released

Late October, 1976

The final month of the University year progressed; assignments were finished, reports written, lecture notes were pored over. For sailing on the Sunday after we had inspected the Crystal Ballroom and the new house, the race was the second heat of the Quartet Bowl. We did one better than we did in the first heat, a second behind ‘Fat Cat’. Jeff Carter wasn’t racing; he still needed to repair the damage ‘Ed Ake’ suffered in their wild broach the previous weekend.

On the Wednesday afternoon the three of us went across to the Alberts studios; our album and single were ready to be released. Ros joined us for the release party; George and Fifa had organized a special event for a people in the music industry. There were a number of the major buyers from the music chains, other record producers and key personalities from radio networks. They had some large poster versions of the album cover printed; and while the music was playing; Megan and I came out to be ‘presented’ to the audience. Ted Albert spoke about how he had heard us singing, and saw the potential for the next big thing in Australian popular music.

I thought it was all a bit over the top; but I guess that was just how the music industry worked. There was plenty of champagne, cocktails and savoury snacks served; I shook hands with innumerable industry people; the only two I recognized were Bob Hudson and Glenn Wheatley. Bob asked when we would be available to appear on his show; we tentatively agreed on the Tuesday night of the following week.

We were photographed by several of the magazine photographers; we were asked to pose with us kissing, holding hands, or arms around each other. Many of the attendees wanted to interview us; we probably told the same story about our first performances together maybe seven or eight times. At least I got the impression that most of the sales people felt that the album and single would be fairly successful. Ted and George also took the advantage to promote the earlier ‘Live at the Mirage’ album, even though the sales for that were reasonably healthy.

By around eight, everything was starting to wrap up; we thanked Ted, George and Fifa for all their work. George gave us a box of complementary albums to give to friends, plus a hundred copies of the album and the same of the single to sell at the next few Mirage gigs. Fifa said that sales for the Roberttones album were on track to sell over ten thousand for this month, so we would be up to twenty thousand. That would put us more than half way to achieving a gold album status.

Ros had been introduced as the photographer who took a number of the photographs and the person responsible for the graphic design of the album cover. I noticed that several of the other record producers spent the evening talking with her; I suspected she might get some offers to design some other album covers. As we drove home, she was excited, and more than a little tipsy; several producers had got her contact details and were interested in engaging her to design some albums for them. We stopped at her place, and told Wendy and Murph to come around to our place to celebrate the release of the album.

We arrived back home; Wendy and Murph arrived a few minutes later, having gone via the Erko to get some bottles of ‘Great Western’ champagne to celebrate. We were all in the kitchen, Lori got out some glasses, and we opened a bottle of champagne. The first bottle disappeared rather quickly; the second bottle took not much longer. Everyone was in a great mood, laughing and joking. The others were teasing Ros about her being in demand for designing more albums and photographing musicians.

“You lot can just fuck off,” she said, laughing. “Will and Megan might be able to play music and sing, but it takes my skills to package them so people will buy them!”

“And how much do I have to pay to buy Will?” Wendy said. “I think he’s got a damn good package as it is!”

“Get fucked, you randy slag,” Ros said. “You know what the fuck I meant; I wasn’t talking about Will’s ‘package’; I’m sure his dick isn’t for sale anyway.”

“Of course it isn’t,” I said. “Any of you can have it for free; you just have to ask nicely.”

“Scuse me,” Ros said. “This fucking champers is going right through me; I need to have a piss. Back in a minute.”

She stood up, and tried to get to the door, but stumbled slightly, and hit the wall. I stood up, and held her to steady her, and stop her falling.

“Let me help you there,” I said, and opened the door, and led her out the back.

“Fuck, my legs are all wobbly,” Ros said as we stepped out into the rear passage.

She reached forward to open the door to the bathroom, and overbalanced. Despite me holding her, she fell against the side wall onto the concrete path.

“Fuck! Can you help me up?” she asked.

As I pulled her up, she reached down between her legs.

“Oh, fuck! I’m starting to piss; I can’t hold it!”

She leant back against the side wall, standing with her legs spread apart as she pissed voluminously. Her stream splashed on the concrete path; all the time she just stared down as if she couldn’t believe what she was doing.

“Oh, God, I’m so sorry. I thought I didn’t have to go that badly ... I’m pissing all over your path...”

When she had finished, I took her hand.

“That’s one advantage of the ‘Naked at Night’ rule I had never considered, if you were still fully dressed, you would have pissed your clothes,” I said.

“I don’t feel too good,” she said, pressing her hands to her stomach. “I think I’m going to chuck up.”

I led her into the bathroom, over towards the toilet. She knelt on the floor in front of the bowl, and as soon as she was in position, she vomited copiously into the toilet. I sat on the edge of the bath, brushing her hair back from her face, and holding her hand while she emptied her stomach. When she had finished; I got a glass of water and a damp washcloth. She rinsed out her mouth, and I wiped around her face. She sat on the toilet, and put her head down between her hands.

“God, I’m so sorry,” she said, crying. “Pissing all over the path in front of you, throwing up like that. You must think I’m a terrible person; a scummy drunken slag.”

“Hey; don’t get upset; it’s not a big thing. I don’t think you are terrible, that can happen to all of us if we have a bit too much to drink. Lori probably never told you, but there was this occasion, almost two years ago, she and I took their boat up the river to spend a few days up there. The first night we found a slab of beers in the fridge ... we drank all two dozen between us, and when we woke up in the morning, we were as sick as dogs. Kneeling at the back, heads over the rail, throwing up.”

“Oh, I can imagine that,” she said. “No wonder you don’t drink all that much now.”

“We weren’t just throwing up over the side, either; we were both pissing ourselves at the same time.”

“Don’t make me laugh,” she groaned. “My stomach still isn’t right. Can I have more water, just to rinse my mouth out?”

I filled the glass with some more water, and she drank a mouthful, swirled it around, and spat it out into the toilet. I sat next to her, holding her hand while she sipped more of the water.

“Thank you,” she said as she handed me the empty glass. “God, I can’t believe I still need to piss!”

“Do you want me to leave you to your privacy?” I asked her, making a move to stand up.

“No, I like you sitting here, holding my hand; unless you don’t want to hear me...”

I said there, stroking her palm as she pissed into the toilet; her stream sounded rather strong, at least from the volume of noise as it splashed into the water.

“At least you know exactly what I’m doing as I sit here,” she said. “There’s no way I could disguise that sound! This is the first time that I’ve had someone sitting with me as I’ve been pissing, too.”

“There’s a first time for everything,” I said. “At least you’re in the right place for it.”

“Fuck; don’t remind me ... I can’t believe I couldn’t hold it just a bit longer ... that was so embarrassing; if I hadn’t been on the verge of throwing up, I would have been mortified.”

“Well, what’s more embarrassing, throwing up in front of me, or pissing in front of me?”

“Definitely the throwing up,” she said. “In other situations, the pissing like that might be arousing. If I didn’t feel so rat shit, I would get you to fuck me right now; but I’m worried I would throw up again, all over you ... that would be too terrible for me to consider.”

“I don’t want our first time making love to be when we are drunk,” I said. “I’m not concerned about you throwing up, but when we wake up in the morning, I want you to have lovely memories, and not have a terrible hangover.”

“Thanks, lots of guys would use it as an excuse for a quick fuck. The crazy thing is, as sick as I feel, I am so incredibly fucking horny ... I would love to feel you sliding into me ... Damn, I have to piss again. Where has all this piss come from?”

Again, there was the loud sound of her stream hitting the water in the bowl.

“Now, never mind throwing up on me, maybe if I started fucking you right now, you might end up pissing all over my cock,” I said.

“I probably would, too. You might like that, perhaps.”

“Maybe I would ... something to think about for the future.”

She grinned, slightly wanly, but grinned all the same.

“Stop trying to make me even more fucking horny, not when I feel like throwing up,” she exclaimed. “You cock looks like you might be getting a little, um, interested, too.”

“Well, here I am, sitting next to an attractive, naked woman, and she’s talking about having sex with me. Of course you should expect my body to take some ... some preparatory actions. My rational brain tells me we won’t be doing anything like that tonight, but there’s still the deeper, more instinctive animal part that says, ‘hey penis, you better start to get ready, there’s this hot, horny naked woman in front of you that is talking about us fucking’.”

“Is that how the male brain works?” she said, laughing. “Does your brain really talk to your prick that way?”

“No, most of the time it’s my prick that tells my brain what to do. The little head ordering the big head around, you know.”

“God, I told you not to make me laugh, my stomach is still aching!” She reached across to hold my prick, rubbing her thumb over my knob. “I really like that little head; I think I know what he is trying to tell your big head to do. But I agree with your big head, this wouldn’t be the best time for us to do that ... even if I didn’t spew all over you, or piss over your cock ... I really don’t think I would remember much about it, I wouldn’t appreciate what we would do. Besides, I think I need to get home, and curl up in bed, and try to sleep this off. Why the fuck did I drink so much? God, I’m a real dickhead.”

I helped Ros to her feet, she was still a bit shaky, and together we headed back inside to where the others were still sitting at the table.

“I think you might want to help Ros get home,” I said to Wendy and Murph. “She’s had a little too much celebration this evening.”

Wendy helped Ros back to her seat; fussing over her and making sure she was okay. Ros was still very unsteady on her feet; the other two helped her get her clothes back on, and they thanked us for the meal, and headed back to their place. Megan, Lori and I cleaned up the kitchen, washing the glasses and dishes.

“Poor Ros; I think she’ll be feeling the worse for wear in the morning,” Megan said. “I thought at the studio reception, she was knocking back the drinks a little too quickly.”

“Well, she threw up big time into the toilet; maybe after a good night’s sleep, she’ll feel better in the morning,” I said. “I know; in fact both Lori and I know how that feels.”

Lori told Megan about our night of beer drinking on the boat at Castle Lagoon two summers ago. Megan laughed at Lori’s description of us running and fighting for a place at the rail; and how we had to clean things up afterwards.

“I have never been so drunk I’ve spewed like that,” she said. “Jillian; well, you should ask her about what happened to her at her birthday earlier this year ... I’m not saying anything, except for the fact that she now understands how quickly champagne can go through you.”

“Heh ... I think Ros understands that now too ... she didn’t quite make it into the bathroom in time,” I said. “At least the way to it was outside, and not on a carpeted hallway.”

“No the first time you’ve seen something like that,” Megan said. “Probably won’t be the last, either. Bedtime, people?”

We headed off to bed; made love before drifting off to sleep.

The next evening we had a call from Fifa, saying that Bob Hudson at Double J wanted to know if Megan and I could appear on his show next Tuesday evening; and sing a few songs live. He wanted us to talk about the album, and any future recording plans. We said that would work out, and Fifa told us to get there just before 8pm, the same location as the previous time.

Over the weekend; we sold quite a few copies of the new album and single at the Mirage, as well as more copies of the ‘Roberttones’ double album. Sunday’s racing was the second heat of the Retriever Trophy series; Jeff Carter had made the repairs to ‘Ed Ake’, and gave us a good, tough race; he crossed the finish line less than ten seconds ahead of us, with ‘Jay Walking’ not all that far behind us. We still beat Jeff on corrected time; but just as Don had predicted, he was going to be a formidable opponent.

On Monday, there was another call from Fifa; this time about a three night gig in Canberra. She asked what dates would work for us; Lori looked through her calendar, and suggested the week at the end of November and into December. Fifa would get back to us with the details; once she had heard back from the venue.

At a quarter to eight on Tuesday evening, Megan and I were at the front door to the Double J studios on William Street. Marius Webb answered the door, and led us up to Bob’s studio.

“Thanks for coming, guys,” Marius said. “It will be just like the last time you were here; Bob will ask you about your album, have you talk about some of the tracks, and then get you to talk about any upcoming plans, appearances, and maybe future recordings. He will get you to play and sing a few songs live; as soon as we break for the news, I’ll take you inside, and get you set up.”

During the news break, we moved into the studio, Marcus set up our microphones, and we sat on our seats. Bob welcomed us back, and outlined how he planned to run the interview. From the control booth, Marcus counted down the end of the news break.

“G’day, it’s Bob Hudson back here. I’ve got two special guests with me for this hour; Megan Winters and Will Morris are back with me; they were here a couple of weeks ago, and they have a new album that’s just out, and we’re going to talk about it, and with luck, hear some songs from them. So, you two, tell me about this album; it’s quite different from the one with your whole band, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Megan said. “The idea with the album was to show a progression in a couple’s relationship; the first track, ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’, is one of their first dates; as you listen to the subsequent tracks, you share in the ups and downs of their relationship as it develops; and finally, you hear about their feelings to each other later in their lives.”

“The other thing about this album is the people involved,” I said. “We had George Young as the main producer again; he’s ex-Easybeats, and really knows the music scene; what works, what sounds good. But we had two other helping him, Jim Keays and Glenn Wheatley; both from the Masters Apprentices. Glenn is the manager of the Little River Band, and he got a bunch of them along as backing musicians, too.”

“That’s a pretty high powered line-up,” Bob said.

“You’re not wrong; it was great working with all of them, so much knowledge and experience to share. In fact, two of the tracks were written by the guys from LRB; we all did a bit of work to get them into shape for recording, but having the two original tracks was pretty cool.”

We talked further about each track on the album; for some of them, Bob would play a portion of the track, and we would discuss various aspects of the song; what the meaning of the lyrics were in the context of the album.

“Any future plans? When we had your full group here, you were talking about maybe a different venue in the New Year; has anything come of that?”

“Well, the details aren’t finalized; but there’s possible a three night gig in Canberra at the end of November,” Megan said. “Plus at the end of January, we will all be moving to a new venue that’s just starting at Petersham.”

“It’s called the ‘Crystal Ballroom’, on Crystal Street, surprisingly enough. It’s going to be a supper dance club; a place to go after dinner for dancing, drinks and dessert. Friday and Saturday nights,” I said.

“That all sounds pretty good; is there another album, or more singles planned?”

“We’ve been working on a few new songs; but there’s nothing concrete at the moment. I guess we will wait and see just how it works out.”

“Well, keep us informed. Now, we’ve come to the part of the show the listeners like; getting you to play live for us. What do you have for us tonight?”

We played two songs from the album; ‘Have I Told You Lately’, and followed that up with ‘Unforgettable’. There was still about ten minutes before the hour finished, so we sang ‘A Summer Song’, and a new one we had been working on, the Everly Brothers ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’.

“You played that last one well,” Bob said. “Is that likely to be on a future album?”

“Not sure,” I said. “I guess it depends on what theme and style of music we want on it, and what other songs we might have written by then. It is a nice song for us to sing together, though. We’ll probably work on it with the Roberttones, and add that to our regular sets.”

“Well, we’ve just about reached the end of our time together tonight; thank you Will, thank you Megan, it was a pleasure, as always to have you on the show. Good luck in your university exams over the next few weeks; and maybe after that, we could have you back for another evening.”

“Thanks Bob, it was fun, as usual,” I said.

“Maybe after the Canberra gig, we could come in one evening; we might have some new songs ready that we’re working on,” Megan added.

As they broke for the news, Marius got us out of the studio, and thanked us for appearing.

“Not that the ABC really gets too concerned about ratings, but whenever we have a live act on the show, more people tune in. Thanks for coming in and performing for us, it was great,” he said.

We made our way to the entrance, then back to the car and on home. Wendy, Ros and Murph were around there; Lori had invited them over for a ‘listening party’.

“I’ve got the details from Fifa about the Canberra gig, too,” Lori said. “Three nights, from Tuesday, November 30 to the Thursday, second of December, at a place called the ‘Hotel Ainslie’. They want you to play from seven to eleven each night, we have accommodation in a large room for the three of us, and they will pay us two-fifty a night; so that’s seven hundred and fifty dollars all up.”

“Shit, that’s pretty good,” I said. “Just Megan and I playing?” Lori nodded. “We can set up a backing tape; I guess I should see about getting a small covered trailer to tow behind the car with all our stuff in. How far is it to Canberra, and how long will it take to drive there?”

“It’s just on two hundred miles, three-twenty kilometres,” Murph said. “The road’s not all that fantastic, in fact it’s shite; there’s a short stretch of freeway just south of the Crossroads, out of Liverpool. Then it’s just two lane road up over Razorback to Picton, and through Bowral, Mittagong, and Goulburn. From there, you turn off the Hume, and take the Federal Highway, which is a two lane country road into Canberra. I would allow at least five hours for the trip; you’d want to stop at Goulburn to stretch your legs, and grab some food. There’s a great little restaurant / café on the highway in the centre of town there, called the Paragon.”

“Fair enough, so what’s the plan; should we drive down on the Monday, give ourselves plenty of time, and come back on the Friday? We could give Cathy a call, see if she wants to come and see the show.”

“That was my thought on the timing,” Lori said. “I didn’t know if you would want to let Cathy know, I didn’t know if you would want to see her. I can call her now if you’re okay with that.”

“Sure, I can’t see any reason why not to; it would be petty and rude not to let her know we will be down there.”

“Okay, I’ll go and give her a call now,” Lori said, and disappeared into the kitchen.

“Hey Will,” Ros said. “I want to apologise for last Thursday; I’m so sorry I got that badly pissed, and all that...”

“That’s okay, Ros; stuff like that happens, at least you didn’t spew all over me!”

“Don’t even say that! If I did that, I would never be able to look you in the face again.”

“At least that’s not like a girl we knew from high school; she was at the drive in with some guy, giving him head ... anyway, he thrust in a bit too far, caused her to gag and throw up all over his lap.”

“Oh my god ... how embarrassing for her.”

“So, don’t worry that I think worse of you because you got a little pissed, and had to throw up in the toilet.”

“I was worried that you might have changed your mind about us sleeping together, you might not want me after how I was...”

“Not in the least; I still think it would be a lovely time, as long as it’s what you really want.”

“I know I didn’t throw up over you, but I did piss all over the path as you were watching me and holding me up, and then, when I was sitting on the toilet, I had to piss with you there with me. You must think I’m a cheap slag.”

“Not at all, Ros; you were pretty sick, and needed someone to be with you. Actually, to be honest; and you probably think I’m a little strange or something; holding your hand and hearing you piss ... that sounded pretty sexy, in fact.”

“Oh, really? You thought that sounded sexy?” She looked down, and her face blushed a light shade of pink. She looked at me, and smiled. “Maybe we might be able to do something about that. Actually, if I hadn’t felt so ratshit, I would have found it very arousing, too. I kinda liked having you there, holding my hand and listening to me as I was peeing.”

Lori returned from the kitchen, and told us about the call to Cathy.

“She’s excited about us coming down; her exams start next week, too, and after they finish, she’s moving out of the residences, and moving into a house with several others. She said that when we arrive on the Monday, once we have unpacked stuff, to go around to where she will be living. She will show us around the city during the day, we can get to see some of the sights.”

“That sounds pretty good,” Megan said. “The only time I’ve been to Canberra was a school excursion back in primary school; we got to see Parliament House, and some stuff like that. I’m sure by now Cathy has found some of the more unusual places to see.”

“I’ll see about getting a trailer for us to use; the place that I rented the one from when we moved the piano over here also had some for sale; there were some covered ones, so our equipment will be safe from the weather and all that. We can work out the set lists, too, and start to put together a good backing tape that we can play and sing along with; just like I did when I played up at the Terrey Hills Tavern.”

“Does everyone want some dessert?” Ros asked. “Will, why don’t you come with me and help serve the vianetta that we bought?”

Ros led me by the hand into the kitchen, then to the back door.

“I need to have a pee first,” she said. “Come along with me.”

She led me into the bathroom, and she stood straddling the toilet.

“You can watch, as well as listen this time.”

I sat on the edge of the bathtub, and leant forward, so I could get a good view between her thighs. She had her hands on her hips; she closed her eyes, and appeared to be concentrating.

“Here it goes; my God, I can’t believe I’m actually doing this in front of you.”

I peered closer, and a thin stream of her pee started to flow. The stream increased to a strong flow, and it splashed rather loudly into the water of the bowl. She was able to keep it well under control; she didn’t spray everywhere. I could see how her lips were spread open under the pressure of her peeing; she looked damned sexy as she was standing there, putting on quite a show for me.

When she finished, she dabbed herself dry with some toilet paper, flushed the toilet, and walked to the hand basin to wash her hands. I moved in behind her, hugged her, and my prick slid in between her thighs. I felt my knob slide along her wet slit; and Ros pushed back against me. My knob pushed all the way forward, rubbing against her swollen clit, while my hands cupped her breasts.

“That feels so good, your prick there,” she said softly. “If you had done that earlier, before I had my pee, I would have ended up soaking your prick.”

She rocked back and forward slowly, causing my prick to slide and rub along her pussy, but after a little while, she pulled away from me.

“I have to stop, or I’ll push you down on the floor, mount you, and fuck you like a wild animal. Besides, the others are waiting for their dessert.”

We went back to the kitchen, and she pulled the ice cream cake from the freezer. While I cut it into portions, Ros got some small plates and forks.

“That was pretty sexy, watching you then,” I said.

“It felt so good; like I was doing something really naughty. Seeing your reaction; and feeling you sliding along my pussy; that was such a turn on, Will. I want us to do more stuff like that. Maybe next time, you can have your prick between my thighs, against my pussy as I pee?”

“That would be fun; I would like that.”

“I should get you a copy of some of the little newsletters that we send out; there are some pretty hot stories in them. It might give us some ideas for things we could try together.

We carried the dessert plates into the living room; and passed them around to the others. When everyone had finished their desserts, Ros and I took the plates back to the kitchen.

“I hope we can find a day and a night, right after the exams are over,” she said. “I will think about some things that we can do; maybe similar to the times on the train you had with Lori and Wendy; doing something like that would be a real turn on.”

“Sounds good, Ros, I’m looking forward to that too.”

The Exams Arrive

Early November, 1976

The computer programming lab session on Friday afternoon was cut short since it was the last lecture before the exams. The Computer Science School had put on a wine and cheese afternoon for all of us in the main conference room adjacent to Professor Allen’s office. Most of the professors, lecturers and tutors were there to give us some last minute advice and encouragement.

I was chatting with some of the others in a group with Doctor McCrea and Doctor Baker; they were asking me what plans I had for the long summer vacation.

“Well, most of the time I’ll be doing session work in the studio; there are several albums I’ve been asked to help out on. First up we are going to Canberra for a couple of days, we’ve been booked for a three night gig there. Just after Christmas, I’m flying to Hobart with Lori’s mother to meet her and her father when they arrive at the finish of the Sydney to Hobart. Then we are moving to a new house, plus starting a new regular gig at a supper dance venue in Petersham at the end of January.”

“Sounds pretty full on; I’m surprised you aren’t doing the Hobart race yourself,” Phil said.

“No, that race is much too hard core for me,” I said. “I would just be a liability to whatever boat I was on. I’m just as happy to cheer Lori on at the start, and to be there at the finish.”

Other people talked about their plans for the summer; some had jobs lined up as part of the work experience requirement for their engineering degree; others were heading to vacation places, or just taking the time to do nothing and relax. As the afternoon was winding up, Professor Allen addressed all of us; wishing us the best of luck in the exams, and reminding us to get plenty of rest before the actual exams, to take the time to read each question carefully, and to make sure we completed all parts to each exam.

I guess I made good use of the week’s study break; not only did I go over all my notes, worked through various examples from previous exam papers, and read (and re-read) my textbooks; but both Lori and Megan had their periods that week. Lori’s was at the beginning of the week, with Megan’s starting just as Lori’s finished. Both girls were extra-horny all week; being home during the day provided lots of opportunities for two and three way sex.