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CJDL on tour

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Sparky:
Yes, another story about our intrepid lady musicians. We've had stories about Jenny, Dianne, Carol, and more recently, Linda: these four ladies are in their mid 20's, and together form the girl-band "CJDL", and this story is about all of them, as they prepare for, and go on tour.. Currently, they are all sporting a set of metal brackets. Not only that, they are joining up with a Canadian girl-band "Northern Girls" (who are a bit 'rockier' than CJDL) for a 3-month plus European tour: the members of Northern Girls are ALSO all braced.

Recently, both bands recorded new albums and singles, which will be released soon, in the lead up to their tour.

Whilst the tour is a joint - and very equal - tour, the story is mainly about CJDL. If you need any background reading, the "Linda" story is the one that leads into this on.

As ever, there will be braces, but not all the time. Nevertheless, I'm sure you'll enjoy reading the story.

Sparky:
Chapter 1
Jenny walked into the music room carrying a strange shaped instrument case, along with a small folding metal stand.

"What on earth is that?" asked Linda.

"My sax."

"Your Sax? You have a saxophone?"

"Yeah... ah, right, it was probably before you actually joined us. Must be about a couple of years ago now, we worked with the music students at the college, challenging them to do something a bit different. We even got Mrs Davis, Mrs Robinson and Ms Smith to dress up in some of our costumes and sing one of our songs."

"Yes, I remember hearing about that!"

"Well, I mentioned to Mrs Davis that I had recently got a saxophone, and was trying to learn it, so she challenged me to play a song on the sax at the concert."

"So you can play sax?"

"Well... yes and no. Still learning: I ought to go and have some more lessons... but I was messing around on it at the weekend, and I was starting to get some ideas for a song in my head, and I need everyone's help, especially yours, to develop it..."

"Ok, sounds fun. So CJDL or 8 Girls?"

"Good question, and I don't know. Look, we've been working hard on stuff for the tour, I thought it would do us all a bit of good to maybe work on something different for a bit. Maybe we put aside a couple of hours each day?"

"Hey, a question: does having braces make it harder to play it?"

"It was strange at first, brackets digging into my lips a bit, but like when you first get them, and they dig into your cheeks, your lips toughen up and get used to them." As she spoke, she opened up the instrument case, and put the various 'bits' into the lid, then removed the body of the sax.

"Oh, nice and shiny. You get it new?"

"No, it was actually second hand, but I don't think it was used that much before. It's not an expensive one though - I'm still learning, and deciding if I want to take it further... maybe this song will persuade me one way or another!" she picked up bag containing the mouthpiece, with it's small piece of neck, took it out, and put the mouthpiece in her mouth, to wet the reed. Then, she found the neck-strap, put it around her neck, then clipped the sax to it. Next, she checked the alignment of the reed, and carefully connected the neck to the saxophone body.

"You're supposed to take the mouthpiece off the neck when you store it, but I was lazy and just left it on last night". Jenny put the mouthpiece to her lips, and played a few notes. "Hmm, need to wet the reed a bit more!" she said. She pulled the mouthpiece off the neck, put it into her mouth again, then opened up the stand, and put the sax into it. "Come on, I need coffee!"


When all eight of them had arrived, Jenny explained about wanting to write a song with the sax. She started by playing something she had started on from her tablet, then picked up the sax, and played part of the melody. "I'm afraid that's all I have so far. So, it's an alto sax, and I'm sure you all worked out that it's B-flat, although I might be able to transpose it if I really need to! Why don't I play it through a couple more times, get it onto your brains?"

"What range does it have?" asked Erin, after Jenny had finished playing.

"B-flat3 to F6, sounds like this..." Jenny played the lowest notes and then the highest. By the way, if anyone wants a go, feel free!" Jenny put the sax to her lips again, and started to play something.

"I recognise that... what is it?" asked Erin.

"It's from WAY back, 50s or 60s, called 'The Tequila Song'" replied Jenny.

"Yeah, I remember that! You could play that in a 'solo spot'!"

One of the things that they had already decided on doing on their tour was a 'solo spot', where one of them would play something solo. Yes, it might need some backing players too, like drums, or just a tambourine, and a bit of bass guitar, but the soloist would be doing the main bit of playing and singing. Mind you, if Jenny played her Sax, she wouldn't be able to sing at the same time, would she!

Sparky:
Chapter 2

So, the eight girls have been working together for a couple of weeks now, working hard getting ready for the tour. They spent a couple of days visiting places to get themselves clothes for the tour. Top of the list was, of course, stage clothes - including those black and red dresses for their version of 'Gimme Chocolate'. Then they needed to get plenty of clothes for other public appearances: whilst on tour, as well as numerous TV and radio appearances, they would need to be 'seen in public'. One big issue when on tour is getting any clothes laundered, which is part the reason for needing so many.

They now have several 'joint' songs written: they have all enjoyed working together on the songs, and despite their slightly different musical interests, they have met nicely in the middle.

Linda had suggested another 'feature' for their show. They had already decided to do what they were calling 'Crew Karaoke', and the 'Solo Spot', but Linda, being primarily CJDL's bass player, came up with something called 'Linda's Bass Riffs': take the bass line from a well known song, like Pink Floyd's 'Money' and play it. In some cases she might be alone, on others two or three of them might join in. They had just been trying out a version of 'Ghostbusters', but were now taking a quick break.

Paula and Sanjay were there too: whilst the team would have loved to have got to know them better, when they were 'taking a break' was usually a good time for them to be filming the girls! But they slowly built a good relationship, the girls trusting the two to 'give them space' when they needed it.

"Hey, guys, just had a call from a friend of a friend." said Callum, coming into the music room. "It's a 'cry for help', and I have no idea if any of you are interested..."

"What's the problem?" asked Carol.

"South London College, our Alma Mater, is supposed to be putting on a charity gig on Thursday night, with a big headlining band, but the band's had to cancel. It's a fund-raiser, and without the band, they have no gig. So...."

"Yes, absolutely!" said Jenny without a second thought.

"Well, I wasn't expecting THAT. What does everyone else think? And the other question is, of course, who?"


The bands had decided that doing the gig would be good in so many ways: for a start, it would be interesting to see how fans reacted to their music. But the big win would be that they would get some great PR for not just stepping in to do the fundraiser, but for doing it for free (as long as the college paid for the PA system hire, which they got really cheap, as it was a charity gig!).

So, three nights later, all 8 of them are at South London College to perform, and of course, Paula and Sanjay are there to film. It won't be anything as clever as what they will be doing on their tour, but it's a great chance to simply play some of their new songs to a live audience, and see their reactions.

An outside sound crew was already lined up to provide and run the PA for the evening, so whilst the CJDL ladies would be using headset mics, they wouldn't have any IEMs, just simple foldback wedges, and no fancy intercom system. To be honest, the venue was a LOT smaller than where they'd be playing on their tour, so if there was an issue, they could probably just shout across the hall! The existing support band had already warmed up the audience: whilst the crowd had been promised a suitably major replacement headline band, they had no idea who it was. Yes, there had been rumours, but apart from the sound-check, the 8 girls had kept out of the way. Also, there was only one set of instruments on stage: Erin had decided that she would be ok using Dianne's electric drums, there was Jenny's keyboard, and several on-stage amps for the piano and guitars, which they would all use.

As I said, a very different stage line-up compared to what they would be using on tour.


One of the student organisers went onto the stage. "So, as you know, our original main band had to bail on us, but we have managed to get a replacement, which I'm sure you'll enjoy. So please welcome.... actually, no, they said not to, it's a surprise!". The crowd applauded politely, assuming they were about to be entertained by some second or third rate band who had stepped in at the last minute.

All of the girls were dressed surprisingly plainly, jeans and so on, and little makeup. Linda walks onto the stage by herself, picks up her guitar, and starts to play the bassline for 'Ghostbusters'.

"Who you gonna call?" she asks, and a few of the audience reponded with 'Ghostbusters!'. "Come on guys, you can do better than that!" She does it again, and more people join in. Next, Dianne walked onto the stage, sat at her drums, and started to play along. "Who you gonna call?" they ask again, and get an even better response from the crowd. They played together for a bit, then Jenny walks on, and starts to play the main melody on piano, followed moments later by Carol coming on, and playing her guitar with them. As the song finished, the crowd shouted a final loud "Ghostbusters!", and applauded, but it was clear that a few of them hadn't actually worked out who they were.
 
"Good evening everyone, I'm Jenny, and you won't believe quite how good it feels to be up here again! It's been a while!" said Jenny. "And if you've not worked it out, we're CJDL. We got a 'call for help' 3 days ago: as you know, we're getting ready to do a big European tour, so this is actually a great chance for us to actually try out some of our new songs!". There was another big cheer.

"So, I'm Linda," said Linda, taking over. "The other day I just started playing that bass riff, and the others joined in the fun, so that's why we just played Ghostbusters for you! Dianne?"

"Right, yes, our new album come out next week, and we're going to play you a few songs from it. Don't worry, we'll also be playing you some older ones too...". They played a couple of the songs from their new album, getting reasonable feedback.

"Ok," said Linda, "this is gonna be our new single: it also gets released next week, along with the album, but let me tell you a tiny bit about it. Who knows the 'Golden Dragon' Chinese restaurant in town?". There was a big cheer. "Great restaurant! So, I went there a bit ago with a few friends... actually friends I met HERE, at college. Yes, in case you didn't realise, all four of us in CJDL came here, and did music, although these guys were actually in the year above me. Anyway, I'd not seen my friends for a while, and while we were waiting for our food to arrive, I started getting ideas for a song. That night I stayed up well into the morning writing it, although, as these guys will not tire from repeating, I did manage to fall asleep! It's called 'Friends'!"

The song went down a lot better than they thought. Whilst not yet released, the radio stations were starting to play it, so it was likely their audience had heard it. Next they played a couple of their older songs.

"So, this tour we're doing..." said Dianne, "... anyone got tickets for it?" There was quite a cheer. "Well, we're not doing it alone. Whilst there won't be a support band, we're going to be sharing the stage together for over 3 hours with Northern Girls... come on, give them a big South London College welcome....". The four Northern Girls came on stage, and CJDL left. Without an introduction, they launched into their first song, quite a rocky one, which the audience seemed to like.

"Hi everyone! You're the first audience we've ever played to in England. In Europe in fact! I'm Taylor, let me introduce the others to you...". Northern girls played a couple of their older songs as well as a couple from their new album. "You know, CJDL aren't the only one about to have a new single out, this is our new single..."

As the crowd's applause died down, Dianne came on stage with Paige. Paige was pushing a tombola drum on a small trolley. "Ok, so you all know that tonight is a charity fundraiser, and we thought that we should help thing along as well. As you came in, you saw Paige, selling raffle tickets, promising a few prizes. Can our models please come onto the stage?" Jenny and Carol came on, wearing old CJD tour t-shirts and hoodies, whilst Linda was sporting one of the first trial batch of new 'Eight Girls with Braces - Orthodontic Tour' t-shirts. They also had a few extras in their hands. "Most of these are old CJD stuff, but Linda is wearing one of our brand new 'Orthodontic Tour' shirts: whoever wins that will have the first tour t-shirt! And if you're not into T-shirts, then we have the plectrums and drumsticks they've been playing with tonight! But when they are all gone, we will have 2 extra, rather special, prizes for you... tell you about them shortly. Oh, forgot to mention, the girls have signed all of these items for you! Ok, so Taylor is going to start to pull out tickets for the clothing: if you win, come and make your choice. When the girls are naked..." there was a big cheer. "Ok, so when the girls have run out of t-shirts and hoodies, we'll then draw the 2 tickets for those special prizes.... Taylor?"

Taylor put her hand in the box, and pulled out a ticket, passing it to Dianne. "I must admit, I've never done this before," confessed Dianne, "this is a first! This one is a GREEN ticket, number 73...." There was a shout over at the side. "Ok, come on up and choose your prize..." Over the next few minutes many happy students came up and made their clothing choices, with one guy going for the drumsticks and plectrums.

"Ok, just 2 prizes left! And maybe it's time to tell you what they actually are. We have two pairs of tickets to one of our performances on our up and coming tour. And you know how hard THEY have been to get hold of! Hey, Erin, I think we need a couple of drum-rolls for these!" As Erin did a drum-roll, Taylor pulled out another ticket. "It's a RED one, number 234!". There was a huge scream at the back, as a girl realised that she'd just won a pair of tickets. "Come on up, and have a word with Paige, to organise your tickets!". A girl with long brown hair came up on stage, smiling and waving her arms: like the 8 pop-stars, she also had braces.

"Of course, what we forgot to mention is that, not only will you be getting VIP tickets, giving you some rather nice seating, we'll organise a 'meet and greet' with you too - we'll sort out the details later on. So, one final ticket from the drum please.... drum roll? ... and Taylor?" "And the final ticket is another RED one, number 8!". Another scream, and this time a couple came up on stage, both very happy. "Ok, if you guys go with Paige, she'll get all your details, and give you the statutory 'ticket voucher' that you can use to show off to all your friends! Ok, Paige, do we know how much we actually raised tonight?"

"Well, I was amazed how rich and generous many of the students have been: we set the price of the tickets at 2 quid each, we had quite a few people buying 5 at a time, and a few even splashed out for 10: so thank you everyone, and I believe the grand total is... hey, I think we need another drum roll!". Erin did another drum roll for Paige. "We made just over three thousand pounds!"

"Wow, well done, everyone, give yourselves a big round of applause..." <applause> "Hmm, what do we think girls, rounding it up to say... four thousand between eight of us would be a bit stingy, so how about we make it up to FIVE thousand?". Another big round of applause. Two thousand quid split between them was only 250 each, so not a huge amount, and not forgetting that it was tax-deductable!

"Right... time to get back to the music. Hey, I can see some of our old CJD tops being worn in the crowd?" asked Jenny. "Ok, this is one of our earlier songs...". For this song, like they planned for their tour, Northern Girls acted as CJDL's backing band, after which Northern Girls left CJDL on stage to play several more songs.

"Ok, time for the last song, it's a version of one of the songs we'll be singing on tour together with Northern Girls, it's just that we don't have the two sets of drums and enough guitar amps, so Northern girls will play, and we'll all sing...."


Minutes later, the eight girls left the stage to cries of 'more, more...'. After a minute or two break, CJDL went back onto the stage to a huge cheer. "Anyone here know any classical music?" asked Jenny, now standing at her keyboard, with a whistle around her neck. "Back in the late 1800's, Peter Tchaikovski wrote the Nutcracker Suite.". She played some of it on her piano. "Then, in the 1960's, it was converted into a pop song, and it sounds like this!!" Jenny started to play 'Nut Rocker'.

Over the next 3 minutes, the girls played their instruments, then as Jenny blew the whistle, they moved around, although the music never actually stopped. Whilst Jenny was back on her keyboards at the end, Carol was on the drums, Linda was playing lead guitar, and Dianne was on the bass. As they played the final notes, the crowd errupted, And the four Northern Girls came onto the stage: all eight of them stood at the front of the stage, with big smiles showing their silver mouths.

"Give it up for CJDL!" shouted Taylor. As the applaused started to die down, Linda shouted out "and for Northern Girls too!".

The student who had introduced them came back on stage. "Well, what can I say? We just had CJDL, Northern Girls AND Eight Girls with Braces performing for us: ladies, thank you all SO much for tonight, which I know you just did for free. We've raised a stupid amount for our charities, and that raffle you did, definitely the icing on the cake.. very thick icing too! Yeah, thank you!"

"Hey, completely our pleasure, it's been quite amazing to come back here: as Linda said, it's not that long ago that she was down there in the mosh-pit, cheering the bands up here - of course, we three were never really 'mosh-pit girls'! And it's been good to do something nice to support your charities. And hey, I guess we'll be seeing some of you guys on our tour:  I hope you'll enjoy it!" The eight girls stood in a line, holding hands, and bowed, taking the applause.

Sparky:
Chapter 3


Whilst you might have thought that doing that gig was a bit of a 'diversion', it didn't really waste a lot of their time: probably 95% of the rehearsal time for that gig was also rehearsal time for the tour.

"So, have you decided, you coming with us or not?" Dianne asked Taylor, Kate, Meg, and Erin. Carol, Jenny, Diane and Linda had organised another joint appointment at the orthodontists: it might seem weird, but they decided it would be better use of their time to just have one shared appointment, than each of them going at different times.

"Why not? It could be interesting to meet an English orthodontist!" replied Meg. "Besides, we're probably gonna need to get them to change our ligs before we start the tour!"

"Which reminds me," said Jenny, "need to check with Paige to see if she's found a couple of orthos to do lig changes while we're on tour!"

The appointment was for 2:30pm, so after lunch they all made sure to clean their teeth well. Paige drove them all in the 'minibus' they had on rental over to the orthodontist's office, Archway Orthodontics, just over 30 minutes away.


"Wow, I wasn't expecting QUITE so many of you today!" said Angela as she went into the waiting room to discover 9 people waiting. Archway Orthodontics was a private practice, so getting the occasional celeb visiting was no big deal. Besides, Jenny had been coming for treatment for ages now, with the other three joining in more recently, Angela had got to know them all. But EIGHT of them? That must be a first!

"Hi Angela!" said Jenny. "These four ladies are Northern Girls, the group we're going on tour with!"

"Oh, cool! Nice to meet you all!".

"At some point before we all go on tour, they're going to need to get their ligs changed, so they decided to come and see what a British Ortho's place looked like."

"No problem with that. So, come on through, David is ready for you."

Once in the surgery, introductions were made. "Ok, then, Jenny, let's start with you...". Jenny got into the treatment chair, as the others crowded around to watch. With Jenny reclined back in the chair, David fitted a lip-spreader, then quickly and deftly removed the many colourful ligatures, then the archwires. "Ok, why don't you go and have a good floss and brush... while you do that, why don't I get Dianne into the chair, and take off her ligatures too..."

Jenny went over to the sink, where there were disposable toothbrushes, floss, and toothpaste. "It is SOOO nice to be able to use floss so easily!" commented Jenny as she cleaned her teeth. As she finished, Dianne took her place to brush her teeth, and Jenny got back into the chair, allowing David to take a good look at her teeth.

"Your teeth are looking really good, Jenny, I don't think there's a huge amount more to be done. Anyway, let's take a scan, and then we can take a closer look." David used the 'camera wand' to build up images of Jenny's top and bottom teeth. "Ok... so this is what they looked like when you first came to me... and this is now... quite an improvement. So, before I comment, anything you've noticed, Jenny?"

"Yeah, that is quite a change isn't it. I was taking a look at them last night, and this tooth here..." she pointed to one of her upper pre-molars.. "seems like it need to still come down a very tiny bit."

"Funny, I spotted that too... let's take a look on the screen...". He rotated the image, then zoomed in, taking some measurements. "Let's see what would happen if we pulled it down a bit, I need to check that it doesn't hit the tooth below." He manipulated the controls, making the tooth descend a tiny bit, then got the computer to 'close Jenny's teeth together'. "No, I think that's all looking good..."

"So, how do you pull the tooth down then?" asked Linda.

"A combination: first of all, I'm going to move the bracket on the tooth up a bit, to let the archwire apply a bit of downwards pressure, plus I'm going to give you an elastic to wear for a few weeks, which will also gently pull down on the tooth."

"Oooh, Ben will like that!" thought Jenny. "So, we'll be done with the tour in a bit over 4 months, think I'll be done by then? I'm not in a rush to get them off, just wondering."

"Possible, but if there's any other small tweaks needed, you're not going to be around for me to do them, so might be a bit longer than that. I'm guessing you'll want to drop in just before the tour, so we can take another close look then... Ok, if you're ready, I'll move that bracket, then we'll get you into some nice fresh ligatures... in the meantime, you need to decide on the colours..."

"That's THEIR job!" said Jenny, pointing at the other 8 people in the room.

David removed the existing bracket, and cleaned the old cement from the tooth, replacing the bracket with one that had a 'spike' on the top, which the elastic could use. After a bit of UV light to cure the cement, he installed a new archwire at the top, and fit the new ligs in place. "Interesting colour choice!" commented David. "So, the elastic needs to be fitted like this..." It was a triangle, from lower front premolar to upper rear premolar to rear molar. "Like this, the load is spread across two teeth, and a total of 5 roots. I'm sure you all know about Newton's law, that for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction: in this case pulling on the top teeth also pulls on the lowers. However, we have 5 roots against 2 roots, so no prizes for guessing who wins! Plus the archwire is doing a lot of the work too, so any effect on your lowers should be quite minimal."

Jenny tried opening her mouth, and realised that it wasn't quite as easy as before. "I guess I'll need to remove it when I'm singing?"

"Yes, also when you eat. But like when you had the headgear, it's not going to be a big deal if you don't wear it 24/7, but 12 hours plus would work well. To be honest, we could probably skip the elastic, and let the archwire do all the work, but it would just take a lot longer. Ok, why don't you go over to the mirror with Angela, and practice removing it and putting it back on. She'll also give you a load of elastics. Right, Dianne, your turn...."



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Sparky:
Chapter 4

Like with Jenny, David scanned Dianne's teeth, as everyone watched, then brought up her original scans.

"You're doing very well there, How you getting on with the facebow and lip bumper: I can see from your progress that you've been wearing it well."

"Yeah, Whilst I'm not too keen on wearing them out in public - I'm not as brave as Jenny with that - I am wearing them most of the rest of the time. Having said that, the last few weeks we've been doing a lot of rehearsing, so a lot of singing, so not been wearing it quite as much. But it's not a big deal to wear it when I do, I'm pretty used to it now!"

"That's great news, all I can say is to keep on wearing it as much as you can. So, you guys are going on tour soon, so would it help if I gave you a spare of each of the facebow and headgear, along with a lipbumper, just in case it gets misplaced?"

"Sounds like a great idea. So, how are my teeth doing?"

David zoomed in the image of her teeth on the screen, and explained the movement that he could see. "You still have 6 to 12 months of treatment to go, but so far things are looking good. For the moment I think we just stay with what you have."

David took a few minutes to replace her archwire, and ligatures. "An interesting choice of colours!" said David. "So, Carol, let's take your old ligatures off first!" It didn't take at all long for David to remove Carol's ligatures. "I won't bother scanning your teeth, because I'm sure they haven't moved. Let's have a look at that naughty canine though... yeah, that's looking really good. Ok, so I'm sure you'd like to have a good clean of your teeth, so last, but by no means least, Linda, let's get your archwire off for you!" Carol vacated the chair and went to give her teeth a good brushing, while Linda got in. It didn't take David long to remove her ligatures and archwires, as well as the small bits of powerchain that connected her teeth to her TADs.

Right, Carol, just need to replace your archwires and ligatures. You had any issues at all with your 'treatment'?"

"No, I hardly notice they are there, well, apart for the never ending need to brush them. But you kinda get used to them. Having a water pic at the mansion helps a lot, we all use it!"

"Right, last but not at all least, Linda! How are you coping with those TADs?"

"Most of the time I manage to forget they are there, but I'll be honest, I won't be sorry to see them go! The great thing is that I can see they've been doing their job...."

"That's good: let's get you scanned, and have a proper look....". David scanned Linda's teeth, and when he compared the images to her previous ones, it was very clear the TADs had been working well. How long before you finish your tour?"

"Umm, about 4 to 5 months... why?"

"I reckon I'll be able to take them out when you get back from your tour... I mean, if you're back here in about 3 months, you could pop in and I can take a look, you never know..."

"Oh, ok... I'll remember that!"

"So, Carol said you ladies were visiting form Canada, and were also in a band...".

Taylor explained the details, also about why they all had braces!

"You know, it's so good to see people being quite so supportive of each others treatments! I can see from here that you have much smaller brackets - any particular reason?"

"I think I just wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible" said Kate.

They all chatted for a while. "By the way," said David, "I know you're planning on all coming in just before you go off on tour, to have your ligatures changed: if there's any particular colours you'd like, if you can give me a bit of warning, and I'll get some extras in."

"No problems with that David," replied Jenny, "we've not decided yet, but we'll be in touch! Now, let's gather around for a group selfie...."




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