For the Love of Music (Sixty Minute Romance) by Naomi Davies Page A

They wanted short, quick laughs and
lots of them. But even so, Darrell had seen a recent upsurge in his bookings.
This was mainly due to the fact that he kept his act clean and suitable for all
ages. He was a safe bet who would offend almost no one, and in particular on
this day, would not offend Colonel Hatch. Colonel Hatch was the MC and was an army
officer of many years’ service. He had come dressed in his full military
uniform and wore a long strip of medals. He stood tall and upright. His hair
was extremely short and closely trimmed. All his movements were deliberate and
precise. Nothing in his life happened spontaneously, or by accident. Everything
was planned meticulously, he was obviously used to running a tight schedule.
    The old run down hall, just
to the side of their changing room, was getting very noisy. It was supposed to
be full of war veterans, along with helpers and families. But there was too
much life and noise coming from the hall for that to be the case. Anne hoped
that whoever they were, they liked their mix of hits from bands like The
Bangles, Sister Sledge, Girls Aloud and The Spice Girls. They also had a few
well-chosen rock classics in their repertoire.
     “You are due on in three
minutes. I’ll announce you and you must run on straightaway as I walk off.”
Colonel Hatch reminded the comedian Darrell.
    “Yes Sir!” replied the
comedian, thinking that it would be funny. It was not funny as far as the Colonel
was concerned.
    Darrell ran on as ordered
and started his set which was about thirty five minutes long. The raucous,
enthusiastic audience could be heard laughing, in all the right places. At the
end there was a huge cheer as Darrell delivered his last punch line. Darrell
came off stage to a huge roar of appreciation and passed the microphone to the
Colonel.
    “Good crowd in today.” He
said with a wide sweaty grin on his face. Colonel Hatch was forgiven for not
having a sense of humour.
    Gail and Naze were putting
the finishing touches to their make-up and generally preening themselves in
front of the mirror. Narinder and Kate didn’t care how they looked, and Anne
knew she looked good already. They were ready to face an audience who were
shouting and chanting, in anticipation of the Kovergirls.
    The five girls ran onstage
as they were announced by the Colonel. Actually, Anne glided onto the stage, as
was her style. She never ran anywhere. The room filled with cheering and wolf
whistles. This felt like a set up. To the girls’ surprise, the room was full of
young men. The oldest must have been about forty, but the majority of the guys
were much younger. Some of them had wives, girlfriends and children with them. The
girls smiled and laughed at each other, Gail gave a count of one, two, three,
four and they let rip with “Wannabe” .
    Narinder and Gail were on
top form, egging on the audience and jumping around like any girl band should. Naze,
who was usually quite reserved on stage, started walking around her section of
the stage, eyeing up some of the men in the crowd and blowing them kisses. Anne
stood quietly and demurely at the side playing her keyboard, singing the
harmonies when needed, and holding the band together. Even she couldn’t help
laughing at the way the crowd was reacting to them. The audience was totally
into the band’s repertoire and cheered and jumped around as if they were a top
line act. Only a few people in the audience sat quietly at the back.
    The set of quiet songs in
the middle could barely be heard due to the noise. But the former pandemonium
did eventually calm down a little. Carlos ran on to say to Anne.
    “No interval, Keep going.”
    Gail and Anne looked at
each other and thrashed out the intro to “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” This
got the loudest cheer of the evening so far. Some of the guys started playing
air guitar to the power chords. Anne’s big moment was the keyboard solo. The
other girls left the stage for this part of the gig and Anne