Chapter 14
By March 1965 the single had been released by Decca, and had hit number 2 in the UK charts, but failed to even be distributed in the US. The band was booked on Ready Steady Go! And for a UK tour that month as well. Charlotte was packing her things on her 17th birthday when the doorbell started to ring. And ring, and ring with many, many gifts being delivered, since she had no time for a party. Gifts of designer handbags from model friends, a gorgeous platinum charm bracelet from the Beatles, who were busy filming Help!, with a charm from each of them, a white gold and diamonds tiara from her parents, tulips, her favorite flowers, from the Stones, and three dozen pink roses and a note from Brian, on a European tour with the band and the Hollies, expressing his deep love for her, and how sorry he was for missing her birthday. Things couldn’t have been better.
Charlotte did miss her family. Her new sister, Sydney had been born the previous year, and Charlotte had only seen her once. She was lonely, since all of her model friends were away in Milan for the Spring shows, Brian was constantly touring or recording, as were the Fab Four, and Keith’s band The Who was now on the charts, which meant more work to be done.
The Count Five mimed their new song, “Laugh, Laugh” and “Psychotic Reaction” on both Ready Steady Go! And Shindig. On both shows, Charlotte was given heavy makeup, and her hair was backcombed and flipped up. She hated it. She had been wearing very little makeup when she wasn’t working, and was wearing her now very long, blond hair straight. Her wardrobe continued to change, and was now evolving into more velvet pants, which looked fantastic on her long, thin legs, peasant tops, jeans, and mini-skirts. But the shows and tour promoters insisted on her wearing London dolly-type dresses, with very unattractive shoes. She basically looked like a flashback from 1963, but since The Count Five had been, against her will, turned into a pop band, that was the image they had to reflect.
They toured small venues all over England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales until May. A bit of money was made, but Charlotte was far from the financial status of her famous boyfriend. So she followed her instincts, and quit the band. It was back to her days gigging nights at the Marquee and the Crawdaddy, and spending days at photo shoots, but she didn’t care, she was sticking to her blues roots.
By May, after the Stones had toured Europe, and then Canada and the US, and exhausted Brian returned to London. He was relieved that Charlotte was much too busy to see what the tabloids had been writing about him the past few months. But he wasn’t relieved that some of the gossip was true…………..
