Chapter 15

The next morning Lucy made Gabbie pancakes for breakfast then they went for a swim so she was out of the way while Jerry prepared the band in the studio.

As Gabbie got out of the shower after her swim, she saw her outfit from last week hanging up in place of her t-shirt and jeans.

“What’s that for?” She asked

“Get dressed and you’ll see, take as long as you need, we want you looking as perfect as last week.”

“Are you going to help me?”

“Of course, I’ve stolen some of mum’s best lipstick, Kat Von D, it’s the reddest I could find, called Poison Apple. It’ll look stunning on you, I’m positive.”

Lucy fastened the basque as tightly as she dared, giving Gabbie a waistline and cleavage so dreamy she had to close her eyes to stop herself ripping it all off again.

“I don’t understand why I’m dressing like this in the morning, where are we going?”

“You’re going nowhere honey, but I know you’re going to have an amazing time going nowhere.”

Lucy stepped back, Gabbie looked perfect, she looked a bit bewildered, but also stunning. She walked around Gabbie and checked her stockings, straightening them a little so the little hearts were parallel up the back of her legs.

Gabbie stepped into the dress and Lucy zipped it up.

“And now the finishing touch,” she fished the ruby heart from her pocket and hung it around Gabbie’s neck and adjusted it so it rested once again at the top of her cleavage, “look in the mirror Gabbie, aren’t you beautiful?”

“Oh gosh, I am, aren’t I. Can I kiss you, will it smudge the lipstick?”

“According to the box it’s blow job proof, so a kiss should be fine.”

“Blow job proof, really!”

“Look, it says so on the box.”

“I have to test that claim!”

“Not today sweetie, we’re sending the boys away remember.”

“I don’t understand that either.”

“Hush honey, it’ll all become clear, now kiss me like you promised, and not a peck, I want a proper birthday kiss, then we can start your birthday proper inside.”

Gabbie kissed Lucy, one of those kisses that make your ears pop and your toes curl, and when they checked in the mirror the lipstick was still perfect, amazing.

As they left the pool house Lucy reminded Gabbie to be careful in her heels, stick to the path otherwise her heels would sink in the grass.

Inside the house Lucy walked Gabbie through the kitchen and into the hallway.

“Through the door on the left,” Lucy said.

“That’s the door to Jerry’s studio, isn’t it?”

“Yep, through you go, careful on the stairs.”

Lucy followed behind and heard Gabbie gasp when she saw there was a full 4-piece band set up in the studio.

“What’s going on?” She asked once more.

“Hey Gabbie, happy birthday,” Jerry said as the band broke into a very loud version of “Happy Birthday To You.”

“Wow, thank you guys,” Gabbie said as they finished.

“That’s not your present Gabbie,” Lucy said as she joined her in the studio.

“What’s my present then?”

“The band and the studio is your present, well, about two hours worth of the band and studio.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is my band,” Jerry said, “they work on my soundtracks, they’re a brilliant bunch of musicians and this morning we’ve practiced all the songs you sang in Glasgow, or all the ones Lucy could remember, and we’ll record you singing two of them, maybe three if we’ve got time.”

“No shit, really?”

“Yep, and while we’re at it, young Matt here will film you and take some proper posed portraits.”

“Oh my god, this is too much...”

“That’s not all, when it’s finished, Dave, that’s him on the keyboards,” Dave waved, “he’ll bang the final mixed tracks onto Spotify, Apple Music, all the rest, and the videos will go on You Tube, and he’ll do a website. Diane has said she’ll sort out a good PR person if you want one. Everything you need for proper promo, use it as you wish. That’s your birthday present.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything, this is going to be so much fun for the lads who are just used to being locked in here playing snatches of soundtrack music and advert jingles,” Jerry said and the guys all nodded.

Lucy showed Gabbie to her microphone, a professional Shure studio vocal microphone, Gabbie was very impressed.

Jerry introduced the band, she’d already heard from Dave on keyboards, Mick played lead, Pete played bass and Tom was at the back in a drum booth.

“This is so professional,” Gabbie said, awed by it all, “like you see on the telly.”

“Thank you, Gabbie, it’s taken me 15 years to put it together, and now a lot of the music you hear on the TV is recorded here by these guys. Building my own studio was expensive and hard work, but it saves a fortune on renting time in a commercial studio, and we can work whenever we want to, it’s all sound proofed, which is handy when we started rehearsing at 6 this morning.”

“6 o’clock! This morning!”

“Well, when Lucy tells me to pull the band together, I pull the band together, nobody says no to Lucy, do you lads?”

“Definitely not,” they replied.

“So, if you’re ready I’d like to take some sample levels, can you sing some lines, anything really, but I need to know your vocal range, so I know where to set all the levels on your mic.”

Gabbie felt a little self conscious at first, singing random lines, especially when Matt started roaming around with the camera, but she soon tuned everything else in the room out and pulled off a note perfect a cappella rendition of Adele’s Chasing Pavements.

“Brilliant,” Jerry said, “but not one we practised, is that a song Lucy forgot to write down?”

“Err, no, sorry, it’s just one I thought of while I was vocalising.”

“I know it,” Mick said, “I’ve played in Adele’s band a few times.”

“Seriously! You’ve played with Adele!” Gabbie cried, “Oh. My. God! What’s she like?”

“She’s just Adele, really normal, she wasn’t a super neurotic celebrity like some singers, just turned up, practiced, bought us all a coffee and would hang out round the back of the venue having a fag with the rest of the crew. Just what you want from a singer really.”

“I’m in awe of her voice.”

“You’ve got some damn voice there little lady, I wouldn’t worry too much about Adele if I were you,” Mick said.

“So guys, can we pull that off if we run through it a couple of times?” Jerry asked.

“I reckon so,” Dave said, “it’s a fairly simple beat isn’t it Tom.”

“Aye, can we bring Adele’s version up on the monitors,” Tom said, “so I can have a quick run through.”

The band listened through a couple of times, then played it a couple of times, while Matt took some photos of Gabbie, posed shots and candids of her singing along.

The band stopped playing and Jerry ran backwards and forwards through the track setting the levels on the mixing desk, Gabbie turned to Lucy, who was sitting in an old soft leather armchair in the corner of the studio my Jerry’s booth.

“This is so much fun Lucy, did you arrange all this?”

“Oh no, I just asked Jerry yesterday if he could let you have a look around the studio, and maybe he could record you singing one song, and it all kind of spiralled into this.”

“Oh wow, so this band and everything just turned up to play this morning.”

“Yeah, just for you honey. Hey Matt!”

“Hey Lucy, what’s up?”

“Put one of those photos on the big screen, I want Gabbie to see how beautiful she is.”

There was a huge LCD screen along one wall of the studio, the band use it to watch rushes of the films they’re soundtracking, Matt hooked up his laptop and displayed an image of Gabbie, bigger than life size, Gabbie’s jaw dropped.

“Is that me, I do look a bit nice don’t I.”

“Guys!” Lucy called, “Gabbie doesn’t think she’s the most beautiful creature that’s ever set foot in this room. Can you please explain how wrong she is.”

There was a general murmur, the guys too shy to say out loud just how gorgeous she looked, or perhaps afraid they’d be quoted letching over a girl on her 16^th birthday, but Gabbie grasped the general idea that they liked the way she looked.

“I think they like me,” she beamed.

Jerry stepped out of his booth and took his headphones off, “ok everyone, from the playback I reckon you’re as note perfect on the tune as we’ll get, so let’s roll, see if we can record it as live in one take., let’s do it for Gabbie, she’s had a tough few days.”

Jerry played it back through the studio monitors, to Lucy it sounded perfect, Mick wasn’t so happy, “I think I drifted a bit on the second verse, I’m ahead of Tom, is he slow or am I fast?”

Jerry wound the song back and marked the section Mick was talking about, they listened over and over, Mick and Tom playing along to themselves.

Lucy whispered to Gabbie, “this is the bit that both bores and fascinates me. They’re such perfectionists, I can’t hear anything wrong with the part they’re talking about.”

“Me neither, I’m getting a bit freaked out hearing my voice over and over, it’s well weird.”

“Hearing your own voice is so strange isn’t it, I hate mine, it’s why I don’t have a personalised voicemail message, I couldn’t face listening back to it to check it was ok.”

“Haha, you’ve got a lovely voice Lucy, it’s really soothing, and sometimes you sound really husky and sexy, you make me all funny inside when you whisper. Why won’t you sing for me?”

“We discussed this before, it’s not going to happen, especially if there’s a chance it’ll be recorded.”

“One day...”

“Never...”

“Ok Gabbie,” Jerry broke in, “your vocal track is perfect, but Mick was a bit too fast, so what we’ll do is run through once more and we’ll keep the best bits of both takes. And Matt, shut the screen down, it’s a bit distracting having that huge photo of Gabbie’s chest on the wall.”

Lucy looked up and laughed, more from shock than humour, as they talked they’d not noticed Matt had zoomed in on Gabbie’s cleavage.

“Oh my god!” Gabbie cried, “definitely take that down and don’t do it again.”

“Sorry, I was looking at the ruby, it’s nice.”

“Sure you were,” Lucy said, “if you do that again I’m smashing your camera.”

“Ok Lucy, it won’t happen again.”

The second take was spot on, and Jerry decided the second vocal was clearer than the first, so it was fortunate Mick had fluffed the first take.

Diane brought some drinks down and they took a quick break as a couple of the band popped out for a smoke.

Lucy walked over to Matt, he was Steve’s age, studying film production at the local college, Jerry had worked with him a few times on TV pilots.

“Matt, I’m sorry I shouted at you before, it’s just Gabbie’s not had a good time in the past and she’s hyper-sensitive about her body image. Look at her face all you like, but don’t do that again please.”

“But she was showing her cleavage to the room.”

“She’s showing it for her benefit, you moron, I’m trying to make her feel good about herself, helping her build up her body confidence and you go and ruin it with your perving.”

“I’m sorry Lucy, I didn’t realise.”

“It’s not me you should be apologising to.”

“I’ll apologise to Gabbie when she’s finished.”

“See that you do.”

“Oh by the way, have you done any modelling at all Lucy? I’ve got a studio set up at home.”

“I’m 15 Matt, please remember that.”

“Ahh, ok, maybe later.”

“Maybe never.”

The band came back and resumed their positions.

“Right I’ve had a word with Gabbie,” Jerry said, “and because that went so well we’ll do two more songs, but as another spanner in the works, one is another we’ve not practiced, but we all love a challenge don’t we.”

“We do,” said Dave, “so what are we leaning in one take this time?”

“I’ll tell you after we’ve done the song we know, the John Lewis arrangement of Somewhere Only We Know.”

“I did this one on my own last week, can we try with and without the band?”

“Of course we can, Matt, make yourself useful and wheel that Nord keyboard onto the floor, do we have a spare stool anywhere? If not, can one of you grab a chair from the dining room while I get the keyboard patched in.”

There was a flurry of activity around Gabbie as everyone moved equipment and plugged things in.

Five minutes later Gabbie was sitting behind a red digital piano and was practicing the song.

“I like this keyboard, it’s a lot better than the digital pianos at school.”

“They cost the best part of £3,000, I imagine they’re a bit out of the price range of a school music department.”

Gabbie ran through the song once for levels then Jerry signalled her to start the first take. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room as Gabbie sang her most heartfelt version of Keane’s most famous song.

The room was silent for a minute after she’d finished, then Jerry took off his headphones.

“I think we’ll keep that one.”

“Shall we even bother with a full band version?” Dave asked, “we won’t improve that by adding instruments.”

“I’d like to, if that’s ok,” Gabbie said, “we could do it more like Keane’s original, with drums and Dave on keys.”

“I’m ok with that if you are Tom,” Dave said.

“We’ve got plenty of time left,” Jerry said, “I wish every singer I’ve worked with got songs right in a single take.”

Dave and Tom had a run through as Jerry played out Keane’s song over the speakers then Gabbie came in with a much louder vocal than the Lily Allen version, less emotional but more powerful.

“Wow,” Lucy said as the room fell silent, “where does your voice come from.”

“From my heart.”

Jerry came out of his booth, “I think it’s safe to say that’s a keeper too. We’ve got an hour left and just one song to fill it, so there’s plenty of time to practice the new song, although I doubt you’ll need it, I had a listen and it’s pretty simple and I’ve downloaded the tabs for you Mick.”

Gabbie turned to Lucy, “can you do me a massive favour and disappear for a bit while we practice this, I want it to be a surprise. I’ll send Matt to fetch you when we record it.”