Chapter 9

Glastonbury was over. The band had been feted and now there was a month before the world tour began. Ged went to see Leo.

"Have you organised a tour manager to travel with us?" he asked him.

"Glad you said that, I've been waiting for you to decided on a roadie."

Ged wondered if Leo was trying to do the tour on the cheap but said nothing. He would have thought Leo would have appointed a manager already.

"Leo, we need to find a manager, and quickly. Time is getting short. We need someone who will take care of the transport problems that are bound to arise, even though I'm sure you've done a great job. We need someone on site day and night. If you remember I made this a condition of agreeing to the world tour."

"I've organised local support at each venue," said Leo, "but I can see you'll need a tour manager travelling with you. If we can swing it our roadie could do both jobs. What d'you think?"

Now Ged knew Leo was trying to do things on the cheap.

Leo contacted Joshua. Since the band had agreed in principle to employ a roadie, it only needed the three of them to appoint someone.

"As far as a roadie is concerned, he has to be strong. Lots of lifting. He has to be intelligent. It would help if he had technical ability, because I'm not going to work alone when the electronics or the computer programmes go down. I need someone to share ideas with if things go wrong.

"Personally I can't see him doubling as tour manager. You need two people."

Ged had essentially been their electronics expert since he joined the band, and spent hours getting them out of some sticky situations. This was too big for one manager alone. Ged looked at the other two and waited.

Joshua nodded, and looked at Leo. "They'll need paying." said Leo.

"Part of the natural expenses," said Ged. Joshua agreed.

"And they'll need paying well" Ged continued, "They'll be away from home for a year. Not easy to find people prepared to do that. They'll have to be fairly young and free to take a year out, I would have thought."

The three agreed on two very generous packages and to his surprise, Leo and Joshua asked him to find and appoint a roadie, while Leo found a manager.

"After all," said Joshua, "You're the only one who can assess his electronic ability."

The search for a roadie was long, because Ged was very choosy about the qualities needed. The final choice was unexpected by everyone.

Annette Fenster had a degree in electronics, and showed a thorough knowledge of all the equipment they would be using. She was also six feet tall, very pretty in a statuesque sort of way, and very strong. She had no trouble with the heavy equipment. Ged had got the rest of the band to look after their own instruments and their amplifiers when they needed them.

The last piece of information she gave Ged was that she was a lesbian and was in a long-standing relationship. She asked him to keep the information to himself, since she didn't want the press getting hold of it, at least until the end of the tour. Her partner was in a job which could be compromised if the information came out. She wanted her long term partner to join her in Australia for the duration of that part of the tour and for the three week break in Africa.

Ged was relieved at her admission. The band would keep a safe distance once she had rebuffed them and that would save relationship problems to add to the other arguments and fights the band seemed to delight in.

Her arrival in the group caused a stir, even more so when she revealed that she played bass. Ged had not know of this, and was secretly delighted. Moreover, she was good. Ged spoke quietly to each member of the band, explaining that she was in a relationship and was not interested in their advances, should they decide to make any. They looked at her height and build, and decided to leave her alone, though they treated her as 'one of the lads' and she gave as good as she got. She became the fifth member of the band.

Ged for his part scrupulously kept his word and told no one of Annette's sexual orientation. Not even Cassie. It was a big mistake.

The band was to meet in a London hotel which was near the storage facility where their kit was. Ged and Annette met Jon Cohen who was to be their tour manager, and the three hit it off immediately. Jon had an 'assistant' he insisted on bringing with him. It turned out to be his wife, who was every bit as skilled as he was!

The week before he left, Ged spent at home. Cassie took a few days holiday time and they spent most of the time in bed making love. Then it was time for him to leave.

He gave her a warning as he left. "Cassie, my darling," he said most seriously, "For God's sake don't believe everything you read in the press. If they print anything that upsets you, let me know, and I'll tell you what really happened. Promise?"

She promised.

They agreed to use email while he was away as for as possible, with Skype or a weekly phone call. Phoning from abroad seemed too expense for Ged, whereas Skype was free where they could access it.

They hugged and kissed for the last time and he left. She went back indoors, sat down and cried. When she was cried out, she left the flat and went to see Cheryl.

The band spent four days making sure all was prepared and doing some practising, during which Annette played bass. It was clear to all she was talented and had taken time to learn all the pieces they would be playing.

The tour began well. A development they had not expected was that Leo had negotiated with the BBC to do a documentary on the world tour. They would join the band from time to time in various parts of the world. The filming and background sound track were recorded on the trip, with a few interviews if there was time, and the commentary and other interviews were to be inserted later.

The tour had its usual crop of problems – equipment which did not turn up, computerised lighting which took much coaxing to work at all, microphones that gave up half way through a performance. Annette took it all in her stride, and it delighted Ged and the film crew!

The three original members of the band behaved much as they always did, bedding girls after every gig, getting into trouble with irate boyfriends, arguing with each other, messing up hotel rooms and partying all night. Ged was relieved that the girls were all legal, but he did not join in, and instead spent his evenings with Annette. They would inspect the equipment and then repair to a quiet bar and chat over a few drinks, sometimes joined by Jon or Jessica his wife.

The effect on the press and the fans was predictable. The fans found Ged, the silent member of the band, intriguing, and he was pursued relentlessly by lust-driven girls and a few gay boys, but he was aloof, which rather fuelled their enthusiasm for him than diminished it.

It is a well known fact that bass players and keyboard players are the most invisible members of any band, and Ged's reticence when it came to the press meant that he tended to escape notice most of the time. Annette also kept herself to herself. Even the BBC crew failed to concentrate on the pair since the antics of the other three kept them busy and Joshua and Amos were more than willing to talk about their music and their excesses in the various bars.

Ged emailed Cassie when he could, usually late at night after a long day. On Skype and the phone he chatted about the places they visited, the band and what they got up to, how successful or otherwise their gigs were – and some were pretty sparsely attended. She told him about her days, and how Cheryl's baby was getting on. She had tales about some of the writers who were submitting novels.

As the tour progressed, Ged and Annette grew closer as friends. They were both 'spoken for' and would exchange news of their partners and talk of how they missed them.

Perforce they worked with each other repairing amplifiers, microphones and when not upgrading the computer programmes for the sound and light presentations, were devising new ones for the future. They took to spending time in Ged's room where he had his laptop and portable keyboards.

It was towards the end of the Scandinavian tour in Stockholm that Ged noticed that Cassie was not emailing as often, and seemed distracted when they spoke together. When he saw her on Skype she looked worried but tried to hide it and told him it was because she missed him and somehow seeing him made it worse.

Towards the end of the Eastern European tour towards the end of November that Ged found he could not reach Cassie by Skype or on the phone. On Skype she was always 'away' and the phone number he dialled was 'not recognised'. Then he received an email that frightened him. It was sarcastic and aggressive and he was at a loss to understand it.