Chapter 10

The Curse's second official CD was to be recorded at the Phoenix Studios with a producer imported from the States. It proved how far their star had risen since the days of Flyblown's basic facilities. Flyblown, itself, had been signed up by Sony Music as an 'associated label, ' a means of picking up The Curse without having to buy out their contract. The next album seemed destined for an international release if Sony thought it was 'marketable.'

Mick and Freddie now had to deal with Sony's honchos at their production meetings. They wanted a fuller, more refined sound with higher production values. Sony wanted at least two hits from the CD - appropriate for mainstream rock radio formats. Like it or not, they were confronted with 'the industry' now and its demand for profit.

It was tough finding a balance between the creative and the commercial. Although not necessarily mutually exclusive, the band felt loath to compromise their sound for the sake of record company demands.

The scratchy guitar sound had to stay, the band insisted. Simple is better, insisted Mick, and he talked long and hard with the American producer to find some agreement. He was under as much pressure, too, to produce a saleable product, both because of his reputation and his percentage of the gross.

Sony's A and R man would sit in with them during the initial sessions and Mick hoped he'd be able to please him enough to get rid of him as soon as possible.

Phoenix had a 95 channel mixer, sequencers, loopers and all the latest gadgetry to play with. The green room featured sofa's, a plasma TV and a bar with sea views. Cocaine could be had by simply asking but Freddie insisted drugs be kept well away. He'd be a dominating presence throughout the sessions to make sure it was so.

A trickle of visitors came and went as they worked, including Roger the Dodger. Michelle grabbed him for some cameo backing vocals and he went away chuffed with himself. It'd been a good while since anyone had asked him to sing.

Mick wanted to get Sony's 'hit' out of the way so their people would leave them alone. The band endeavoured to give them a hook laden love song of Anna's called 'Bondage' - and evocative and ambiguous title, which Sony thought, contained the edginess they thought commercial. No matter that the song had nothing to do with fringe sexual practices but the enslavement of the heart. It was bound to be interpreted as a song about B and D and that suited the recording company fine.

It took them three days to nail the song with two dozen takes and three final cuts from which to make a selection. The producer put on strings for one of the cuts over Mick's objections. A rush was sent off to Sony post haste and the word came back they were satisfied. The band could now relax and get on with the real work.

For the next song, they plugged Anna's voice straight into the sound desk a' la punk music. The song was a rapid, full tilt, punk song with a thundering bass and distorted guitars. Anna's vocals were aggressive and uncompromising. Compared to their 'hit, ' it was fun to record and left the band in high spirits.

The following number the band felt was their tour de force for the album. Titled, 'You Burn Me' the words had been written by Michelle with she and Mick putting together the tune in their little studio. The lyric had blown everyone away and the tune had a haunting beauty. It was slow, rolling to a faintly Blues style, with a scorching solo from Mick in the bridge. The sound was sparse and reminded everyone of a rocky cliff overlooking the sea.

For the first time, either on stage or in the studio, Michelle duetted with Anna on the chorus. They sang together, side by side, on one mike in the vocal booth with their arms around each other. It was all too much for Mick and Freddie took him out and down to the pub after the session.

"When's she due, Mick?" he asked, "you coping?"

"Uh, ah, another month. Maybe the 10th? Something like that."

"Boy or girl, y'know?"

"You sound like Terry," he grinned, "all clucky, cribs, baby clothes and advice about four hourly feeds."

"Hey! I don't want to know about feeds," he laughed, "she breastfeeding?"

"Fuck you!" Mick smiled.

"That song," Freddie said, suddenly serious, "not about you, is it?"

"How'd you guess?"

"'Soft and languid like a rose?' Oh yeah, 'a rose' Mick? Since when did you become a rose?"

"Yeah, well. Thorny issue."

"Oh, funny! Bothering you is it?"

"Not quite what I thought 'settling down' was going to be like. 'Here's the missus and the missus's missus.' I get half, I suppose, and I should be grateful..."

"But?"

"Hell, what would you do if Terry..."

"I'd be happy for the piece and quiet," he laughed, "give me a break from her nattering. Other cultures can have multiple wives. Except, I guess, the shoe's on the other foot. Multiple husbands, er, I mean, a wife and a husband, er... what the Hell is Anna, wife or husband?"

"Um, beats me. The roles seem all mixed up with me slotting somewhere in the middle."

"Don't tell me you and Anna..."

"Nah!" he laughed, "she's all Michelle's."

"Right, so we have, lesbian, bisexual and hetero," he counted on his fingers, "seems kind of a tidy set up to me? Very United Nations! Hey, do you get to play in the middle of that?"

"Fat chance!" Mick laughed, "I think if I grabbed a piece of Anna I'd wake up with a steak knife in my ribs."

"Ah, so you think Mal..."

"I dunno," he shrugged, "Michelle doesn't think she'd do such a thing but I'm not so sure. I reckon there's sides of Anna we haven't seen, nor do we want to."

"Yeah? You buy this Russian mafia thing?"

"Hell, no! That's the editor of The Echo trying to create copy. If there'd been any criminal connection Immigration would've bundled them all out of the country for sure. Nah, Anna's just haunted in ways we can only imagine. Imagine blowing away your own brother?"

"Many times, he's an arsehole!"

"For real? You live with that?"

"She's got this fantasy about him being killed by the Chechens. Don't sound like she's ready to deal with it. Kids do stupid things, tragedies happen, no-one's fault."

"What if she flipped out and shot him on purpose? Thought of that? What if she always was a little psycho? They had an argument, Anna grabs her old man's gun... blam!"

"Y'reckon?"

"Possible!"

"Then maybe she stitched up Mal, huh? Made it seem like someone else? She wasn't as wasted as she appeared. Someone texted the address and called home. Had to've been Anna, and she must've known what she was doing."

"Flipped into her catatonia afterwards? She's good at the drama."

"Sure is. She had the cops believing she was off her face."

"So maybe Mal had her bailed and she jabbed him? How'd she do that without leaving a trace of blood on her clothing? How'd she make the knife disappear, with, presumably, her fingerprints all over it?"

"Accomplice? Someone's covering for her and got rid of the evidence?"

"Could be," agreed Mick, "she's persuasive with men. I wouldn't be surprised if she got someone to take the rap for her as well. Maybe that Rumanian dude she hangs with, Dimitru?"

"That's fucking cunning, Mick. D'you suppose she's that cool and calculating? She'd really think nothing of dropping her pals in the shit?"

"Maybe, to protect her own arse. She controls everyone around her. Mal was beyond her control, so..."

"She control you as well?" Freddie asked, "maybe through Michelle?"

"Yeah, probably, and through The Curse. She's knows how important the band is to me and Michelle."

"And she stumbles and you're there to pick her up, cover her arse, smooch up the press so they'll go easy? You know your way around the entertainment scene, you mentor her, refine the music and give her the vehicle she needs to stand on stage. It seems to me she'll outgrow you and then what?"

"I always thought it likely and some stage. I'm more worried about Michelle. She doesn't see what she's got herself into."

"Terry reckons Michelle grounds her - that without her she'd spin off past the planets."

"Shit, no pressure, right? And Michelle's so bedazzled by her, I'm not sure she wouldn't join her on Jupiter."

"Maybe the baby'll make the difference, eh, Mick? Bring her down to Earth?"

"Hope so, Freddie, hope so," Mick replied, shaking his head.

The drum booth at Phoenix was as big as Flyblown's whole studio. Karen not only had her Ludwig kit set up but had a variety of other percussion, including a large hanging gong. During the breaks she played around, with Junior always in attendance, smashing bottles and things to see how they sounded. It felt like they were a couple of kids and this was an ideal playroom.

Through the glass she could see Anna at the keyboard with Michelle on bass cooking something up together. They were waiting for Mick to get back from the pub so they could start the next session. Karen envied the girl's partnership. It was something she felt she couldn't quite be a part of. They communicated with each other like a couple of twin sisters - seeming to voice each other's thoughts.

Mick came into the studio looking happy and ready to begin. She felt reassured by his presence - he was the rudder that made everything come together. He took up his Gibson and strolled over to the girls listening to what they were doing.

The drum booth effectively put a wall between Karen and the rest of the band. Unlike the other instruments, the drum was an organic instrument and bled into the microphones the pick-ups on the guitars - hence the booth. The booth allowed the producer to control the sound better - deadening the drums' natural reverb.

But for Karen, the booth also isolated and protected her from the bickering and haggling that always took place during the creative process. Fatigue caused tempers to wear thin, especially Anna's, who was frustrated easily.

Nothing could move fast enough for Anna. Karen could see her grow more prickly with each take they did of a song. Mick could be something of a perfectionist, always insisting they ought to do another take just to see if they could do something better.

Michelle invariably supported Mick and generally managed to calm Anna down. When things got too heated, Anna would stump off to the green room and Mick and Michelle would work alone till she returned.

The American producer, however, told her that The Curse was a cinch to work with and he'd encountered much more difficult dynamics with other bands. At least they still talked to each other. Metalica, he claimed, fell out so badly once he had to bring them in one at a time to record their parts. None of them were on speaking terms with each other.

They worked well into the night with Anna sometimes napping in the green room. She felt fine, playing around in the booth with Junior when not needed to play. Catering ensured there was plenty of snacks on hand and cases of beer, which Mick and Freddie mostly drunk themselves.

In all Karen loved the studio, its equipment and facilities, and it was a comfortable place to work. After a few days, Sony's men didn't hang around and they were free to have fun.

Karen even contributed another song. It was a novelty, a filler, consisting mostly of the results of her experimenting in the drum booth. Mick, Freddie and Michelle laid on some impromptu rap, over clanks, gongs and bottles smashing, while Karen grounded it with a 4 beat on the bass and tom. Anna didn't take part, branding it 'silly, ' and retreated to the green room during recording.

Last, and the least as far as the band was concerned, was their second 'hit' for the boys at Sony. It was pretty much a ripoff of U2's 'Vertigo' although changed around a little with new vocals written by Mick. It jangled along with a well-worked riff and text book hooks. There was little original about it and they did it to please their sponsors, not themselves. Tons of reverb on Anna's voice put Bono to shame with their diva rarely sounding better. In all, one day saw the number come together and another day for callbacks. With that, it was in the can and they could go have a party.