EDGEWAYS TO FAME

By Sue

CHAPTER SIX

(George’s pov)

 

We were locked away again as if it was us that should be punished for what was happening. I really hate the way we have to sneak about to go anywhere but there is no choice in the matter. If we didn’t we’d get killed, I know they wouldn’t mean to, but we would. They loved us so much and all they want to do was touch us. Beatlemania, it was called and if you had asked me two years ago about this I’d have told you it couldn’t get this big. Yet, I always knew me and the lads had something special with our music, it showed in Hamburg and in Liverpool. We had a fan club set up already before Brian came about. It grew even more after Bri, but we was on our way. Brian was just the next step up and we’ve kept stepping up ever since. I don’t know how long this will last, maybe a few years but I ‘m here for the ride. Sometimes it’s great fun and sometimes it gets a bit sticky. We all just play the game and give them a show, just as we did in Hamburg.

 

I wasn’t keen on the suits at first just like John but I saw no choice in it. Now, it’s not so bad, we look more grown up , more professional and that’s what we had to do. Brian polished us up with a shine, showed us how things should be. Bow after every show boys, no eating, smoking or swearing on stage he’d told us. It worked too; here we are although, like I said before I never imagined it being like this. They say everything we touch turns to gold and you know that can’t go on forever.  As long as it does we figure we earned the enjoyment of it.

 

 

The long days that run into nights are the hardest to get used to. I mean we did it in Hamburg but not like this.  We have our ways around it though with our sense of humor and the fact that there are four of us. Each one knows what the other one goes through and we are there for each other. It’s not like Elvis; he had no one, must be lonely to be a king. The king; it sounds rather funny hearing it yet they call us the princes of the music world. I don’t think we’re princes, although there are times that some of us let it go to our heads and use it in our favor. I guess I’m guilty of that as well to be honest. The birds all flock around a lot more then they ever did, great fun that. 

 

 

I still don’t understand why we had to be smuggled out in a dark truck, with no seats? Makes no sense at all to me. Poor Ritch , he had quite a time of it. We came out soaked from the heat and bruised from being tossed about in there. John was yelling never again as he pounded off after Neil to the dressing room.  We echoed his feelings but were to busy helping a shaky Ringo into the dressing room. Poor sod , ran right for the loo, sick as a dog. Paul and I looked at each other , there was nothing we could do for him except back up Lennon when Eppy came in.

 

Brian came in mortified at what Alistair had told him about the truck. Didn’t help much, we were all quite cheesed off already. We stood there, towels in our hands and wiping ourselves off. We now needed a shower and had one hour to do it in!  I watched as John made his way to Eppy in seconds flat. I was right behind him, as was Paul.

 

“Boys, I’m terribly sorry for this.”

 

John, who by now was red in the face from the ride as well as his anger, cut him off.

 

“Never again Eppy !!!! You hear me?! We were like cattle in there, being tossed about, sweating our arses off.  Look what it did to Ritch he’s heaving in the toilet!!!! “

He ranted and got inches from Eppy’s face, making Eppy step back in surprise.

I decided it was my turn to back him up.

 

“Brian, I am not getting in to that one again. It was murder, for all of us and mostly Ritch. We deserve better then this!!!!” I echoed John’s sentiments.

 

I saw Paul drop his towel as he tried to add how he felt, only to be cut off by John.

 

“When you said truck I didn’t think you ment we’d be fucked! I didn’t even enjoy it!!!” John said harshly.

 

“Brian, you said you had this covered. I never in all my life thought you’d have us travel like that and then wait for God knows how long sweating and breathing that hot dusty air. We all need showers now and I only hope Ritch is ok to go on.”

Paul told him rather boisterously, with his ever- present concern for the concert and the show must go on crap.  

 

Brain turned red, I guess he felt pretty embarrassed by the whole mess. He put up his hands to quiet us down. I noticed Ritch had come out from the toilet by now and rested against the doorframe.

 

 

“Boys, this has been a dreadful mistake. I can assure you this will never happen again.

Richard are you feeling better?” Brian had seen him come out too and you could see how badly he felt. His boys as he liked to call us, treated like this. Evidently, he had not a clue that the truck had no seats or no lights in the back.

 

We all looked at Ritch as he nodded his head. I could still see the green around his gills, but other then that he was fine. We just all as Paul had said , needed showers.

 

“Good, I am terribly sorry for this mess Richard. Now, I will go fix it and you boys go shower off and put on your stage suits.” Brian told us .

 

“You better fix this Eppy , I aint ridin back the way we came.” John was adamant and then grabbed his things to go shower.

 

Brian nodded and left quickly before he heard more from any of us. I watched Paul get his stuff and head towards the shower. I figured Ritch and me would be next since there were only two showers around.

 

I sat down and lit a ciggie for Ritch and one for me; he had sat down and joined me. I handed it to him with a grin to make him feel better. I knew he was embarrassed by the way he acted. He needn’t have been. After all we were close like brothers, he had never had brothers before, being an only child.

 

“Feeling better then?” I nudged him.

 

“Much ta.” He drew in deep on his cigarette and then exhaled, leaning back against the wall.

 

‘Don’t’ think we’ll have to worry about a repeat of that one again…….Hey a….. you don’t have to feel ….y know embarrassed by how you felt. Y know that right?” I asked just in case.

 

“Yeah, I know. You fellows wouldn’t hold it against me and you were all there for me so no I’m fine.” He gave me that warm smile of his.

 

“I hope Paul doesn’t use all the hot water, y know how he is with his showers and grooming habits.” I laughed getting Ritch to do the same.

 

I saw John tumble out in his stage suit, no socks, brushin out his blown dried hair. Funny, he was wearin those thick black glasses he hated. I also noticed no press or cameras had followed us in .

“Hey not one person in here, I thought the press was suppose to follow us everywhere?”

I said looking at John.

 

He was taking out his contacts from his case and getting ready to put them in

 

“No Brian wouldn’t want them in here with our moods just yet.” He busied himself putting them in.

 

“Paul still in the shower?”

 

“Just got out, you know Macca and his groomin habits now Georgie.” He chuckled.

 

“You want to go first then Ritch?” I asked him.

 

“Naw, you go. Paul will be out in a sec.”

 

So off I went to get this grim off me skin. I took my stage dress with me and hung it up. I ran the shower, as hot as I could stand it.  The water felt so good running over me. No wonder Paul didn’t want to get out. The heat of the water soaked through my sore muscles and I took a flannel with soap and washed the grim from the truck off my body.

I let the pounding of the shower water hit my back as I washed the soap from my hair. Oh it did feel to good to get out of. I thought about how in another hour in a half I’d be sweaty enough for another shower. I got out and dried off. I hated putting clothes right on after a shower. I always preferred a nice air dry before clothes, but I didn’t have time. I fought with them and then dried my hair. Done, I inspected myself in the mirror and walked out to the room. Ringo had gone in , John sat tuning his guitar and Paul, well he was fixing his hair like always.

 

“Macca you’re tying up the mirror. “ I joked with him.

 

“I’m just about done, sorry.” He finished and went to get his bass.

 

 

Ringo came out dressed and it was his turn to fix his hair. We heard a knock and all lazily looked to the door. Another knock came and Ritch went over to it , since he was the only one standing. “What’s the password?”

Christ, he loved that stuff I chuckled at him.

“I’ve been working like a dog! Now let me in my hands are full.” Mal’s voice shook the door.

 

“That’s not the password Mal.” Ringo said seriously trying to hide a laugh. We all thought this funny and snickered.

 

“If you don’t let me in I’ll be eating all this food me self!” He answered Ringo.

I heard stomachs growl at the mention of food.

 

“Well why didn’t you say that in the first place. After all that is the password.” Ringo laughed as he opened the door for him.

 

 Mal came in with some burgers, chips and sodas for us, God love him I was starved. I hadn’t even noticed until I smelt the food and then saw Mal.

 

‘Here, suck this up fast …..Show time in 20 minutes. “ He handed out our food and sat down to eat along with us.

 

 

Soon the door opened again and in stepped Neil.

 

We all looked up to see what he wanted. No doubt he was there to rush us along, being sent by Brian until we cooled off enough for him to show his face again.

 

“Right, 5 minutes so get everything together.” Neil ordered.

 

“Nel , quite the whip snapper are we?” John snickered as he put on his boots.

 

“Oh, stop Lennon, Brian sent me in. Seems you all gave him a hard time and he’s got Al fixing everything up.”

 

“Good Ole Mr. Fix it, at it again. Well if anyone can fix it it’s Al.” I heard Paul say as he got his bass.

 

“I’m glad he had the good sense not to let the press in here today.” I shared, picking up my guitar and ready to go off to the war zone.

 

“No , he wouldn’t subject them to you lot in that mood, only Mal and me.” Neil said hurrying us along.

 

Ringo picked up his drumsticks, John his guitar and off we went in line formation; just like soldiers to war we marched. The chanting got louder as we drew closer to the stage.

“We Want The Beatles, We Want The Beatles.” Rang out in a loud boom that we were used too. Sometimes I wish I wore earplugs, so as I wouldn’t have to hear it so loudly.

 

We ran up to the stage and the screams of the audience rose to a thunderous pitch. Fans surged towards the stage, knocking each other over to get closer to us. We plugged in and when Paul spoke the audience became louder, if that was at all possible. John and I looked at each other, making that connection we needed. Like I said before, there were four of us to support each other and that’s just what John and I were doing. I then stole a quick look at Ringo and then back at our Paul who was more comfortable being the announcer then either John or me.

 

“Thank You!” He yelled into the mic.

“Could you tone it down a bit…..Yeah, Thank you Chicago, It’s good to be here with all of you…….We’d like to start the show off with a number I’m sure you all know. It’s from A Hard Days Night…..called All my Lovin.”

 

As he quickly said the last part; he counted off using his guitar handle. It was to loud for Ringo to count off so we all agreed seeing it would help not only Ringo but us as well. So Paul got into using the arm of his guitar, moving it to count us off.

 

We sang that number and then it started. I had made the mistake in an interview by saying my fav sweet was Jelly babies. The Americans quickly figured it out to be Jellybeans, as they called it. Now we were constantly pelted with them during our shows. The blasted things hurt as they hit you. I don’t think they understood that, I think they thought they were giving us something we liked. Bloody Hell, they hurt and bruised. Not only that but with the siege of them coming to the stage you could really slip and fall, breaking something. I can’t tell you how often I looked down before I stepped up to the mic with Paul so I didn’t fall on them. Paul almost slipped pulling away from the mic so I could sing a song. I tried not to laugh and had to turn away as he gave me a funny look. It wasn’t only the jelly babies they threw but other things as well in order to get our attention. Poor Ritch up on high got some of this.  We would duck so we didn’t get, shoes, under clothes and anything that would get our attention hitting us and it just didn’t stop.  We could hardly hear each other. We would joke around amongst ourselves. Sometimes we’d go through the numbers as fast as we could, as a lark, to see how much time we could shave off. The thing I also hated was we sounded bloody awful at times up there, out of tune or off beat because we couldn’t hear to well.  Although, the crowd didn’t notice one way or another, they just kept screaming to us. John told me once he could probably just get up there and move his mouth with out singing and they would think he was. We laughed when he tried a few sentences like that and proved his point too!

 

Well, our 25 minutes of getting pelted, screamed at and not heard were over and off we went to the dressing room until the next concert at 7pm. That gave us a whole two hours of sitting in the small room and this time with the press.