“Where should I begin Mr. Reporter?” Julia said with a sly look upon her face. “I mean I’ve been through so many interviews with people about my music but never found a reporter who wanted to really get into my life...” Julia who originally said that the luck of getting into the business was her secret was giving a very unusual interview about her entire life not just on the sole focus of her music that has been around for only a few short years, if you consider nearly 40 years short.
She didn’t look a day over 24 but she never told anybody her real age or what year she was born. She just thought that it might ruin the secret that she hasn’t told anyone but the only 4 men who had the trust in her since they first met one night at a London nightclub she and a friend owned. She was about to tell this secret to a simple looking interviewer. She had a nagging feeling that it would come out so that’s why it had been agreed by her to grant this very personal interview.
Julia who had striking appeal with her beauty and tough yet sensitive personality made her a favorite with her fans. Not many close to her knew much about her. They only knew that she’s a soulful singer {the press pegged her as ‘a black woman trapped in a white woman’s body’}, an outstanding guitar and piano player considering the time frame of the mid 60’s without Woman’s Liberation. She was both Spanish and English making her features both alluring and unusual. She was married to a Beatle and hung out with them like one of the guys. Everyone knew that she was a practicing witch and she made clear of that in the media, which nearly had a huge backlash from many religious groups. But she knew and believed that all this turmoil was just something that people who believe what they believed didn’t understand.
The interviewer looked rather nervously at Julia who was compared to Joan Crawford in attitude and temper and a mouth that a sailor could never top with her “colorful” language. If you either crossed her path on a bad day or said something she didn’t like, you would hear it from her mouth and mind personally.
Andrew the reporter, who had a tape player on the coffee table in front her fumbled through his notebook looking for the right question.
“Ms. Mendoza, I want to know how did you end up with the Beatles and who coaxed you into recording?” he stuttered.
“Please call me Julia, I’m not my mother here. The ever-popular question! It happened one cold night in London at a night spot I was part owner of...”
The famed nightspot Aradia was the toast of the London club circuit in April 1966. It had the most illustrious people pass through its trademark black and red doors-the Rolling Stones (which by the way got the line “I see a red door and I want to paint it black” from these doors), Marianne Faithful, Cilla Black, the Kinks, and the most frequent attendees-the Beatles. The whole decor was totally was mostly red and with the theme of being in a relaxed Indian/Asian decor lounge with a huge dance floor, which was frequently full every night.
Brigid Warren was her flatmate, best friend for six years, business partner and complete opposite. They connected like meat and potatoes after going for the same pair of shoes at a store on Carnaby Street. Julia and Brigid were there every night and met most of THE celebrities. They were fun to hang out with but the thought of the Beatles entering those doors just drove them crazy! They were the guys that were on the album sleeves that they imagined kissing nearly every night before they went to sleep and the subject of many a late night conversation when they couldn’t go to sleep. But there was some element of fear for they thought that they couldn’t be the personable group the media portrayed them to. Eventually they knew that they had to meet them as their duty as owners.
Both Brigid and Julia got out their finest and most flattering outfits for tonight for they vowed to meet the Beatles and not become giggly fans. They both thought and agreed that they had to be strictly professional.
“Who are we kidding Julie, I’m not going to be a straight laced business woman around them! I know that I’m going to be speechless!” yelled Brigid from the bathroom. Julia knew that she had snap some sense into her while putting on her black mini skirt.
"Brigid luv, you know perfectly well that I’ll be introducing both myself and you to them. I have more guts than you do!”
Brigid came in to the bedroom in her low cut blue and black dress that was screaming looks can be deceiving. “You know you’re right, as always, you’re right.” Julia was putting on her black knee length go-go boots when she heard the phone ring. “Could you go see who is that please? I have my thumb stuck in the boot.” Brigid nearly slipped as she tried running to answer the phone before the ringing stopped.
“Hello?”
“How’s the love of my life doing?”
“Robert! Where are you? How you’re doing? When you’re coming home?” Brigid said giving rapid-fire questions to her long time boyfriend Robert Campbell who served in the Royal Air Force as a pilot. He was nearly 2 years away from completing his formal training. By the looks of things and a gut feeling, Julia knew something was up and it was finally for something good. After a seemingly long silence, a very loud squeal echoed throughout their modest flat.
“Yes, I’ll go over and pick you up! Where?”
Brigid wrote down something quickly and hung up with a quick “ ‘Bye!”
“Let me guess, Robert was on the phone and he’s coming home for 2 weeks just for you right?”
Brigid had the look of shock on her face and finally said after a lingering silence,” How did you know that?”
“You know I have the gift of looking into the future!” Julia said putting on the last touches of her fire engine red lipstick.
"Don’t remind me luv, I know you could use that against me so I won’t go any further.” Brigid said with a sad puppy dog look on her face.
After a quick laugh from each other, Julia knew that she would have to go to the club alone tonight but after some coaxing told Brigid to bring him down to the club.
“He’s my friend too! If I didn’t introduced him to you...”
But she couldn’t even finish her sentence before Brigid ran out the door.
“Oh well, so much for love or saying good bye. C’est la vie!”
She took her black leather jacket, beret and red scarf and ran to her car due to how unseasonably cold it was.
Julia had her obsession for red and black as long as she could remember but never knew it could be to this extent. Her main piece was a 1965 Mustang in Cherry Red with a black leather interior. It took a lot of will power for her not to buy anything for a year and a half, but she treated it like a child and drove it everywhere. Julia drove to the club to set up everything and noticed that Brigid was there before her with a very good-looking man standing next to her.
“Julia? Is that you?”
She nearly did a double take to recognize Robert and he certainly looked different since the last time she saw him, which was 4 years ago.
“My word, you have definitely grown into a fine young man!” Julia said in a posh accent breaking out in laughter. After giving Robert a huge bear hug, both Brigid and Julia had to get ready for tonight.