Chapter 6

Jack

We spoke on the phone quite regularly. When she left Derby she had a two-night show in Bristol and then she was back home. There was nothing in her diary for the next three weeks so she contacted Steve Brackley, the guy she knew who had organised the Swing orchestra. They met and discussed her plans. Steve was just as excited as she. Evidently whilst they got regular bookings, they tended to be for corporate events, and they were asked to play a mixed programme of music, not just swing. Steve thought that the opportunity to collaborate with a 'name' such as Kat Lacey would give them a real chance of becoming not exactly headliners but certainly a much higher profile. He discussed the idea with the other members of the orchestra and they were quite happy to give the idea a chance, especially as Kat was looking to put together an album, funding it herself. They offered their services on the basis of taking a percentage of sales. All of this was related to me over a series of phone calls. Then came the day when Cate told me they had got a date for the recording studio. "Jack, we're recording on the eighteenth and nineteenth. The guys are going to lay down the tracks first and then I shall dub in the vocals. Steve's reinforced the Saxes and brought in a very good Clarinettist. He reckons it's the closest to Glenn Miller he's ever heard."

"Sounds great, Cate. I can't wait to hear the final version."

"I'm so excited about it. I'm sorry we had to drop 'Stardust', I just couldn't get it right, but Steve re-arranged 'I Follow' to a swing version and that is fantastic."

"Don't worry about 'Stardust'. You'll get there one day."

"I'm sure. Steve says that if the disk sells and we get some tour dates, he suggests that we tour as 'Kat Lacey and the Stela Swing band'. What do you think?"

"It's different. Where does Stela come from?"

"It's a combination of Steve and Lacey."

"Hmm, that should work. You know that the vocalist travelling with a band normally didn't get a mention."

"Yes, Steve mentioned that. He reckons that my name is essential to bring the audience in."

"Well, from my perspective he's right. But you could say I am not impartial."

She giggled. "I'm not impartial either, in fact I am quite partial to you. When this is put to bed, can I come up and see you and perhaps you could put me to bed?"

I caught my breath and stuttered. "I ... I th ... th ... think I would find that a pleasure."

Her voice was very soft as she replied. "I am sure that I will."

Cate

The rehearsals were done. It's not often that I looked forward to rehearsing, but this was special. First of all I had a band behind me of really good professional musicians many of whom I knew from sessions in the studio. I was not too surprised to see three females in the band. One played keyboards, another blew both alto and tenor sax, the last, a girl who could not have been older than twenty-one who played both clarinet and tenor sax. I found it easy to keep my lyrics in time, as I was so close to the band that the swing beat literally throbbed in my body. Steve was smiling all the time, running out of superlatives to describe the sound we were producing. Now we were in the studio. I sat with the technicians with headphones on as Steve and the band laid down the tracks. I said they were all professionals and they were. None of them were strangers to the recording studio as most of them worked as session musicians anyway, now coming together to play the music that they liked. They went about their job and laid down fifteen tracks easily within the first day. Each track was close to eight minutes in length, although my lyrics would only last for four. A CD would allow for the extra length.

Steve came in the next day when I had to record the lyrics. He actually conducted me, bringing me in when he wanted me to sing and giving me the timing, although I had sung these songs so frequently in rehearsal that I was pretty well spot on, but having him there was an encouragement. It would be good to say that I got it down right first time, I didn't. A couple of times I sang the wrong words, the other times it was because of a technical hitch. My microphone was not balanced to the band's recording on a couple of occasions and the other was when the microphone gave up the ghost half way through. No one jumped up and down screaming angrily, this was par for the course in recording studios. I was completely wiped out when we finished. I was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. The sweatshirt had a deep vee of perspiration down the front and the back and my bra felt like my breasts were sitting in pools of rapidly cooling water. Despite the discomfort I was hyper when we finished. We had got something good in the bag.

Steve had listened to some of the completed tracks and was jumping with joy. We had laid down fifteen tracks believing that we would have to drop one or maybe two. When I joined Steve and the sound engineer in his booth they were talking about it. The engineer turned to me and said. "I would not like to suggest what track should be shelved, they're all great. If it was me, I would press them all." Steve agreed and that was it, decision made. In the following days the engineer played all the tracks and balanced them for tone and volume, only when he was satisfied with that would he make the master and that again was thoroughly checked for imperfections. There actually were two masters, one was kept safely and the other was sent off to a company that specialized in disk production. I had ordered a first run of five thousand, so a glass master was made from the studio master and it was the glass master that was used in the imprinting. Their in-house graphic designer produced the sleeve and with Steve and my agreement they were printed.

Three weeks later the CD's were ready. Nearly five hundred of the first pressing was sent off to broadcasters all over the country. Apart from the national broadcasters there were many small local stations and all received a copy of the disk. We couldn't keep track if they were played or when, however when the phone rang and I was asked to do a phone interview, I knew that interest had stirred. I was listening to Radio 2 one morning when the presenter announced.

"Here we have one of our favourite Rock Stars singing golden oldies that our grandparents listened to. The album is called 'Kat Lacey Swings' and wow! This is Kat in a very different mood and how well she does it. Here's a track that everybody will know." The strains of 'Moonlight Serenade' filled my room. I phoned Jack and held the phone close to the speaker. When it finished I spoke to him.

"As far as I know that the first airing on Radio two. If they play it is almost bound to start selling. Jack! I am so excited. I have already done a phone interview with a station in the Midlands so they must have played it."

"That sounded great, Cate."

"I am bubbling, Jack and it's all down to you."

"I don't think that you can say that, Cate."

"Yes I do. You got me hooked and I can see a whole new career opening in front of me. I've got to phone Steve he may have had some feedback by now."

"I'll let you go. Talk soon, I really want to see you again."

My heartbeat quickened with those words. "I want to see you again, Jack. I would like to experience the peace and quiet of your home again." There were other things I wanted to experience as well, however I didn't say that.

"Let me know when you want to come up. I'll take a few days off."

"I promise Jack. Soon."

'Soon' was put on the back burner as interest in our CD grew. The music papers started asking for interviews, I did more phone interviews on air with stations all over the country. However what was more important the company handling the production of the disk was getting orders. Ok, they were orders for ten or twenty to start, but they were orders. They asked if I would want another pressing. So far I had invested quite a lot of money in this, and I would have liked to see bigger orders before committing to another pressing. I stalled on that and told them I would get back to them. The next day I almost phoned and told them to press another five thousand after I got a call from a booking agent for me to do three nights in Leeds. It hit the buffers when he told me he had a good group lined up who could back me with my new sound.