https://dereferer.me/?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YAh2T6AKQs     male hawley
https://dereferer.me/?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMcLFKZPA60     teenie hawley
https://dereferer.me/?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcfA1BHVde0     adult hawley

Chapter 8

Over the last few months, the four girls in CJDL (and Northern Girls for that matter) have been pretty busy... maybe a quick list of some of the things might be useful:

- wrote, rehearsed then recorded, songs for a new album, now released

- wrote, recorded and released (last week) a new single: "Friends" - went into the UU chart at #7

- co-wrote several songs with Northern Girls, that they can play together on stage. A live recording of the songs will be released as an album.

- signed an advertising / sponsorship deal with a cereal brand, for their new range of 'super-healthy' cereals. Spent a day recording TV ads. Planning something for the show too.

- worked out what they would be doing in the stage show

- rehearsed with dancers

- provided input for the graphic design for all the stuff on the back-screen

- with Eleanor now working for them full-time, their fan website had been re-vamped, allowing members of the fan club to gain easy access to tickets. They had also run a few competitions, to give many of the fans 'something special'. For most, that was special seating at the venue.

- Northern Girls had organised something similar for THEIR fans too.

For a very special group of fans who would be attending the penultimate concert of the tour - a Saturday afternoon gig at Wembley Arena in London - they had been promised 'something very special' for a couple of hours after the gig. No details were given, they would discover what it was on the day, with a promise that it would be 'something to remember'.

There were actually several reasons for that performance being in the afternoon, one was to specifically allow disabled and younger fans to come along with their carers or parents: not only had they arranged special separate seating areas, they had given them some very special ticket prices to make it more affordable. But the main reason for it being in the afternoon... well, I can't tell you that yet, I've been asked to keep it a secret!

While they were doing all of the above, the team responsible for putting together the stage, lighting, PA kit etc had been setting things up in a warehouse. A week before their first concert at the O2, they moved and set up the kit at a 'venue' they had rented, so they could do a full 'dress rehearsal'. Rather than just playing to the 'staff', they had organised another 'undefined pre-tour evening event' for about 50 or so fans who lived in South London - they would be the very select audience for that dress rehearsal.

Whilst not quite everything was ready: for example, they were still working on some of the graphics, it was all good enough for a dress-rehearsal.

----

The stage lights were already on when Paige and Eleanor walked on, each holding a microphone. "Good evening everyone! I'm Paige, and this is Eleanor - she now runs the fan-club full time for us."

"Yes, it's been an exciting job change, and it's been me that's been organising getting you here for this evening. So what *IS* this evening?" said Eleanor.

"Tonight is a dress-rehearsal of the upcoming CJDL and Northern Girls joint tour." explained Paige to a large cheer. "So what does that mean? Well, for all the guys running the PA, lights and AV stuff, it's a chance to check that they have everything ready, technically, for the tour, and have their timings right for the girls. For the two bands, it's a chance to check out that what THEY will be doing will be ready. This evening will NOT be the full set-list for the tour: several of the songs that the bands will do alone will be skipped, simply because the show is most of three and a half hours long. But where they do something special, or perform together, THAT will happen!"

There was a huge cheer as the group of fans realised what they were about to see.

"Ok, I think one of the girls wants to come out and say hello to you....." said Paige, walking to the side of the stage.

"Hi everyone!" said Jenny, as she walked out onto the stage with Ben. "Say 'hi!' to Ben!". The small crowd called out. "So, yeah, we're going to do a run-through of our songs. Where we don't actually play a song, we'll just tell you, so you have an idea of what the full performance would be like. And that is important because, at the end, we want you to spend some time answering a load of questions, about what you thought, what you liked, what you didn't like, any suggestions and so on. Don't hold back, we want you to be as brutally honest as you like! We don't just want our tour to be 'good', we want it to be 'great'!"

"Of course, Jenny forgot the important thing: while you do that, there'll be pizza and drinks available to keep you going!" explained Ben. "Oh, and I suspect all the girls will want to come out and meet you all too! Talking of which, before the rehearsal starts, I think we should let everyone introduce themselves...."

Taylor, Kate, Meg and Erin walked on stage. "So, these ladies are 'Northern Girls'" said Jenny, "so maybe you should say hello to our select audience for tonight.

"Hi everyone, I'm Taylor, I am the group's lead vocalist and guitarist."

"Hey there, I'm Kate, I play bass, and sing as well."

"Hi, I'm Meg, I play guitar, and do a bit of singing too."

".. and I'm Erin, I play drums, but I'm usually too knackered to be able to sing!"

Taylor spent a minute or two explaining the background behind how the tour came to be. "We weren't quite sure back then what we would actually be doing.. like would we just play our own songs. In fact, we've discovered that we all enjoy playing together, so we're hoping you like what we've put together. Anyway, enough from me, how about we get the other three girls on to say hello?"

With that, Carol, Dianne and Linda came out.

"Hey everyone!" said Carol, "I'm Carol, of course, and I really hope you like what we've got planned..."

"Yeah, I'll guarantee that it's not like anything we've ever done before..." added Dianne. "Oh, yeah, I'm Dianne!"

"Hey everyone... I'm Linda, and this will be my first proper tour as 'one of the band' and I'm SOOO excited!" said Linda. "Plus I'm looking forward to chatting with you guys afterwards!" The small crowd cheered.

"So, there's a few things we won't be doing tonight, as we want to keep them as a surprise for our first night" explained Jenny. "For example, we're going to have a few special guests on the actual tour, but we don't have any for you tonight."

Paige walked back on the stage again. "Well, are you eight all ready?" asked Paige of the girls.

"Yes" was the common reply, and they left the stage to get ready.

"Ok, rules for you guys for this evening. No trying to let friends in via the emergency exits, it wont work!". There was a small giggle from the crowd. "However, take as many videos and pictures as you want of the girls performance, but do remind people when you post that this is a dress-rehearsal, and NOT the final full performance! And it's quite possible, depending on your feedback, a few things might change. Afterwards, when the girls come out and chat, please be polite and ask before you do videos or pictures of them. And FINALLY: have a GREAT evening!!"

There was a big cheer, as the lights started to dim.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The four members of CJDL came onto the stage, and started to play 'Only Jesus': as per Dianne's dream, they played it fairly gently. As they got to the end of the first verse, the 4 members of Northern Girls also came onto the stage, and joined in the playing, with the tempo going up a notch, and the song becoming noticeably 'rockier'.

As the song ended, their small audience applauded, and all 8 girls came to the front of the stage.

"Hi, I'm Carol, and we four are CJDL!" (all four girls said the 'CJDL' together, as they took a brief step forwards). There was a cheer.

"Hi, I'm Taylor, and we are Northern Girls!". Another cheer as they briefly stepped forwards.

"But we're not just two bands, we're now one band, and we need a name..." said Jenny.

"And we need to introduce ourselves properly!" added Taylor. The camera, which was being shown on the the side screens, zoomed in onto Erin.

Erin was to the left (as seen by the audience): "Hi, I'm Erin!" As Erin said her name, a large picture of her appeared behind them: she was smiling widely, her braces very visible. The picture, along with her name, then reduced in size, parking on the left of the screen.

The camera moved along to Carol. "Hi, I'm Carol!". The same happened with her picture, joining Erin's.

"I'm Kate!"

"I'm Jenny"

"I'm Meg!"

"I'm Dianne!" Dianne's picture came up: it was a bit different, because it showed her with her facebow in place. There was a small cheer from the small crowd, and - as rehearsed - Dianne turned around to see her picture. "Oy! What's with the facebow? Am I WEARING my facebow?" she said in an angry voice. The word 'oops' popped up on the back screen, followed by 'sorry!', and a different picture - without the facebow - came up on the screen. "That's better!". The small crowd were suitable amused.

The camera move over to Taylor. "I'm Taylor!"

"And I'm the new girl, Linda!"

Together they said "Together we are.... 'Eight Girls with Braces'", and that name came up on the rear display, above their eight pictures.

As the small crowd cheered, the eight girls started to walk back towards their instruments and started to play.

They played 2 songs together, then the four CJDL girls left the Northern Girls to play some of their own music. After playing a couple of their own songs, and mentioning in between them that they would be playing 4 other songs at the actual performances, they started to play one of CJDL's songs. After the first verse, our 4 girls came on stage, with 6 dancers and took over the singing. After a bit of banter, where Jenny persuaded the Northern Girls to be their backing band, they sang - plus did some simple dancing with the dancers - a couple more of their older original CJD songs.

Northern Girls then left CJDL to sing some of their newer songs, songs that the fans knew from their previous album and tour - again, they told the crowd that they would be playing a few more songs too.

"So, now we're going to have a bit of fun!" explained Carol. As she continued, the Northern Girls came back onto the stage.

"Yes" said Taylor, "We're calling this Crew Karaoke. One of us eight will sing with one of three crew members: can the 3 crew members please join us?" 2 guys and a girl came onto the stage, and Taylor went over to them with a handheld mic. "Hi, who are you, and what do you do?"

"I'm Jake, I'm stage crew, and I look after Erin's drums." As he introduced himself, his picture and name came up on the rear screen.

"Hi, I'm Sonia, I do your makeup and hair!"

"Hi, I'm Will, I'm part of the stage crew." All three names were on the rear screen.

"Hi everyone!" said Linda. "So, we need to select one of you guys... ". Taylor held up a small fabric bag, and Dianne showed everyone 3 coloured balls: one red, one green, one blue. The rear screen now showed which colour had been associated with each 'contestant'. With the 3 balls placed in the bag, Taylor did her best to mix them up.

"Come on Meg, want to choose one?" asked Taylor. Meg came over, put her hand in the bag, and pulled out the red ball. "Red is Will, so thank you Sonia and Jake, you'll get another chance next time. So, Will, what are you going to sing, and who is going to sing it with you?"

"Well, we decided to start with something simple: Elton John's 'Don't go breaking my heart'. And I'll be singing it with either you or Jenny!"

"In that case, I'll take over for the moment" explained Linda. As she took the bag from her, Taylor and Jenny's names came up on the screens: Jenny was red, Taylor was green. "Dianne, want to do the honours?". Dianne put her hand in the bag, and pulled out the red ball. "So, it looks like Will and Jenny are going to sing, and we'll be their backing band!"

Both Taylor and Jenny had actually rehearsed the song with Will several times, so the actual performance worked very well: for a non-pro singer, Will did pretty ok, and certainly didn't make a fool of himself.

"Well done there, Will" said Jenny, "Come on, give him another round of applause!"

After that, Northern Girls played a couple of their songs, missing out a few others. With CJDL joining them on stage again, they sang two more of their new joint songs. It was then CJDL's turn to sing (or not sing) another 5 songs - this time they were new songs, from the album they had just released.

The two bands played together, and played by themselves. Played their own music, and played a couple of each others songs too. They did a 'Solo Spot' where one of the girls - tonight it was Carol - sang a solo and played on acoustic guitar. Later on, they did 'Linda's Bass Riffs', where Linda started playing along on bass, and a couple of others joined her. Tonight she was joined by just Erin on the drums, and they played a version of 'Seven Nation Army' by the White Stripes.


The elapsed time so far was just over 2 hours, but if you were to add in the songs they missed out, it would be just over 3. The dancers had danced with both CJDL and Northern Girls, and added a pleasant element to the show.

For their last song alone, CJDL did their version of 'Nut Rocker', where they all played the different instruments: it was pretty much as they had done when they had played at South London College. The small crowd seemed to enjoy the fun.

"Let's welcome Northern Girls back again, for our last song together!" said Jenny. With their last, joint, song done, they walked off stage, all grinning widely. The stage lights remained on, to indicate that, if their fans shouted enough, they might come and do an encore or two.

Backstage, the girls wiped themselves down, and took a drink.

For the encore, Northern Girls started by playing their latest single, then all 8 of them sang a song together.

"Thank you all very much!" said Taylor. So, we're going to let these four girls sing you one last song..." and the Northern Girls left the stage. Carol, Jenny, Dianne and Linda left their instruments, and walked to the front of the stage, and held hands, with the dancers coming onto the stage behind the four girls.

"Dear lord, we'd like to sing that certain song to finish this evening, but as ever, we need to ask for your help - so please be with us as we sing it!", and they then did a perfect rendition of their acapella song (the one Jenny had written on the plane to Korea), as the 6 dancers danced gently and slowly in the background. As they bowed at the end, the Northern Girls joined them. The crowd was small, but they did their best to show that they had appreciated the performance.

"Ok, we're going to take a break now, and cool off and change. In the meantime, I believe you guys are going to be filling in some feedback forms, and eating pizza! See you all soon!"

All the way through this 'test performance' our two cameramen from BD Productions, Paula and Simon, were taking the opportunity of getting some great images of the girls as they prepared to go on-stage, and as they came off-stage, and as they chatted together... great stuff for a future documentary. The girls had got to know these two well by now, and would often do things like grab one of them, and lead them onstage when Northern Girls were playing, getting them to take some video that they'd be very unlikely to get during a proper live show.

[7/1042]

This is great!