Chapter 18

 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, debuting tonight here at the Twisted Wheel, lets hear it for Cream!

 

She entered the stage, behind the security Eric, Jack and Ginger. She breathed deep, and sang the gig of her life, with hard-hitting blues tunes enough to make her wear out her voice after just one song. Cream’s music was like nothing that was on the charts at the time. It was hard smashing drums, forceful guitar played by a man already known as a god in his field, and a slamming bass. Charlotte’s vocals, strong, beautiful, and not at all that of a tiny 18-year-old girl, almost screamed with the intensity of each songs, not one a ballad.

 

After the 3-hour set, they finished to mad applause, with the audience demanding an encore. But the club had to close, under the watchful eyes of Manchester Bobbies. She returned to the dressing room, soaked with sweet, to the cheering of Mick, Keith Richards, Brian (wearing the proud grin of a man peering at his newborn in the hospital nursery), Keith Moon, Pete Townshend, and her new best girlfriend,(must to Paul’s dismay), Jane Asher. John, George and Paul were noticeably, but understandably absent.

 

“Oh gosh, you did unbelievable. I could only imagine being so talented!” Jane hugged Char, and presented her with a dozen tulips, her favorite. She excused herself, saying she had a casting call the next morning, and she needed her rest. She kissed Char on the cheek and said she’d ring her the next night. Charlotte took a breather in the parking lot by herself while everyone had drinks at the bar. She heard a faint voice behind her.

 

            “You were wonderful tonight.” It was Paul, in a big black coat.

 

            “Paul, you were there?”

 

            “Of course, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

 

            “But Jane was there too. I didn’t see you.”

 

            “She doesn’t know I was there.” His large eyes were pools of chocolate that Charlotte thought she would drown in. She knew then that Paul would always be her addiction, one she could never quit.

 

            “Paul, you can’t keep doing this.”

 

            “I know. I know about you and Brian too.” He said as he glanced at her diamond.

 

            “I didn’t want to tell you.”

 

            “I’ve known for a while. I thought it just couldn’t be true. I hoped anyways.”

 

            “I have to get back, to the party, and to my fiancé.”

 

            “I know.” He leaned close to her, kissed on the cheek, and whispered in her ear.

 

            “Even fifty years from now, I will always be waiting for you, no matter who I’m with.” And with that, he vanished, a phantom in the night.

 

 

Brian was in England recording the Stones new album “Aftermath”, which reflected the band’s new interest in psychedelia, (as Brian had taken up the sitar, even before George had, playing it until his fingers bled. Charlotte could have been a nurse by now she was so used to bandaging his precious career-making hands) until September, but Charlotte had found out through Cream’s manager, Robert Stigwood, that their record label Reaction was demanding the band tour nonstop until they had built up a name. They weren’t big enough for more than club gigs, and so, almost every single night, they played at various clubs throughout Britain. Many nights were spent sleeping in the van, but most she would get back to her flat by 4 or 5am, only to have to get up again in a few hours to journey to the next gig. There was little time for Brian, but being the experienced musician himself, he completely understood. He wanted Charlotte to be happy, so he never expected her to be a stay at home wife. It she wanted to, then fine, he was basically a millionaire at this point and could support them both comfortably. But that’s not what she wanted. Charlotte and Brian had enough time to visit the Beatles while they  recorded Sgt. Pepper. Many fellow rock musicians were known to be hanging out there, especially while they recorded “A Day In the Life”, and Charlotte was even shown in the promo video. She and Patti sipped wine, and smoked pot while watching the masters at work.

 

Despite their hectic new lives, the band recorded their first single, and “Wrapping Paper” hit the charts in October. It hit #34 in the UK, not what they had expected.

 

Touring was hell, especially during November and December, when the tour schedule read as more of a torture schedule. Their first album, Fresh Cream was released in December, with the first single N.S.U, an acronym for a venereal disease that one of the boys suffered from while on tour. Charlotte found it funny and prayed her parents wouldn’t find out the meaning of the song. The album failed to ignite a response in the US, but hit #6 in the UK. Charlotte began making wedding plans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On December 24, 1966, Charlotte Aisling Quinn became Charlotte Quinn-Jones. (However, she kept Charlotte Quinn for her stage name) They married in a quiet, but lavish ceremony in her birthplace of Kinvara, County Galway, Ireland, in an ancient castle right on the ocean. It was cold, and the waves crashed down on the shore as they exchanged vows in the castle (they could not get married in a Catholic church as she wanted, since Brian was Protestant), surrounded by candles and flowers. Keith Moon, all of the Stones, Charlotte’s whole family, Brian’s family, Cream, Jane Asher, sans Paul, who claimed he was very ill, George and Patti, and John and Cyn all sat beaming as Charlotte, dressed in a white silk dress, very sleek, reaching the floor, with no straps,  with just the tiara her parents had given her for a previous birthday on her head, her grandmother’s pearls, and a baby blue garter Jane had lent her, floated down the isle with her father, to the slow tunes of an Irish band seated to the left of the alter. Brian stood with the minister, looking handsome wearing a white tuxedo with a black tie, his light blond hair shiny, with a fringe almost covering his eyes, and a huge smile on his fair face. They exchanged special vows they had written for each other, and preceded to the reception, where Charlotte made Moonie promise to behave. Brian presented Charlotte with a wedding present, an antique platinum locket with their birthstones on the front, a picture of them inside, and on the back, engraved Brian and Charlotte12/24/66 until Eternity.