The band.
We finished our final number with a big crescendo to a largely disinterested Friday night pub crowd, no applause to speak of and certainly no demands for an encore. The landlord approached us as we were packing up our gear, we were tired sweaty and disillusioned. He looked disappointed and somewhat rueful.
As he handed over our money to me, he cleared his throat. "Sorry Angela, I'm going to have to get another band for next month, the punters are beginning to complain and more importantly, they are not coming in." He looked really sad, "When you started you were young and fresh and I personally like your music and could listen to it all night, but I am not in the majority."
"Have you any suggestions as to how we could change the performances Ted?" Joanie, our drummer asked.
"Have you seen a group called White Star?" he asked.
"Heard they are good, but not seen them." Joanie said.
"Go to the Bull tomorrow night and see for yourselves." Ted told us, then left us to finish packing up the gear. Our band, Green Door consisted of me, Angela, on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Joanie, on drums, Betsy on keyboards and occasional flute and finally Andrew, our lead guitarist. We had all been at school together and in the school big band. We had been playing the pub circuit within about twenty miles from home town for about five years, our repertoire was many Folk Rock/R&B with a few originals thrown in.
In the van on the way home, we had a short discussion about the situation. "Ted's right you know," Andrew said, "Our music is OK, it's our presentation that is getting tired, our intro's haven't changed in twelve months, I'm as much as fault as anyone, I'm still telling the same jokes."
"Our image is OK," Betsy countered.
"Just look at us, we look as if we're going to Tesco's, we don't offer a spectacle." I said. "Shall we all meet up at The Bull as Ted suggested?" It was agreed.
The next night we pushed our way into a crowded pub and looked at the gear set up on the stage. "We've got better stuff than this lot." Andrew hissed.
When the band came on stage, they made an entrance. They were three guys and a girl singer, who was wearing a short glittery mini-dress that sparkled in the stage lights. The guys all had tight jeans and open necked shirts. Their set wasn't bad, we also twigged a few mistakes on their cover numbers, but the crowd either didn't notice or didn't care, but they lapped it up. The band went down a storm. They had to play two encores. The girl was sexy without being blatant and to my eyes the guys looked sexy too. "Mine tomorrow lunchtime, I'll rustle up something to eat." I told the others.
"Well what did you think?" I asked around when we all sat at my parent's kitchen table on Sunday.
"Their music is no better than ours, but their stage presence knocks us out of the park." Andrew said. "Just look at the girl, she was vivacious funny and most of all sexy"
"Their drummer wasn't that good," observed Jeanie, "but he looked the part. I am quite ashamed when I compare my stage clothes with his."
"We could sexy it up a bit." Betsy offered.
"And to be honest with three good looking girls in the band we should be able to beat them hands down." Andrew cut in, "We're better musicians, we just need to work on our presentation."
A lot more was said mostly in agreement, to the extent, my mother came in and asked if they were all staying to tea. During the next week there was a lot of discussion about stage outfits. We had been impressed with the girls glittery dress and decided that Betsy and I would wear similar, but not the same dresses, Joanie would have a shiny vest top and shorts, a mini dress is not really compatible with sitting at the drums. Andrew would have a pair of trousers similar to our dresses and a black vest top. Luckily Betsy's mum was a dab hand at dressmaking, so she volunteered to have a go at the costumes. We didn't have a gig booked for two weeks so we were hoping they would be ready in time. We further decided that for now it would be too much to try and change the set lists, so we would stick with what we knew and could play well.
Later that week, I went round for a fitting to Betsy's place. Mrs Bryce slipped the dress on and made some adjustment. "does that feel comfortable dear?" she asked.
I said that it felt fine. "Mum," Betsy chipped in, "Could you make it a bit shorter please?"
Mrs Bryce laughed and said "Of course, how short were you thinking?"
"Shorter than that, a little above mid thigh, like mine." Betsy said lowering her eyes.
"Perhaps Angela doesn't want to wear a very short dress, after all she only has a guitar to hide behind whereas you have a keyboard hiding your legs." Mrs Bryce retorted.
"Let me see." I said, indicating to Betsy she should put on her dress. Wow! I had not often seen Betsy in a dress, certainly not one as short as this one. There was hardly any of her thighs that were hidden. Betsy grinned and posed in a silly sexy way. I thought for a moment, gulped and said, "Mrs Bryce, do it!"
We had a mass fitting at Betsy's house on Saturday, the other band mates were astonished and supportive. "I knew we were going for the sexy look," Jeanie said, "but I never expected this!"
"I could almost fancy you both." Andrew guffawed and then added, "sorry Mrs Bryce."
"I suspect that that is the object of the exercise." Mrs Bryce said.
My dress had a front zip, whereas Betsy's had a lace up front from the waist up. both dresses had some support sewn in so that we didn't need to wear bras. Joanie tended not to wear bras much anyway, so her shiny singlet came without any support. She prevailed upon Mrs Bryce to cut it a bit lower under the arms, giving a hint of sideboob. She wanted in on the sexy look. Mrs Bryce made some bright trousers for Andrew to wear with his black singlet. Our outfits for our new look were ready.
"Do you think we should change the name of the band?" Andrew asked.
"Too late for this gig on Saturday as I've seen posters done by the pub." I told him, "Do you think we should tell the landlady?"
"Naw, let's shock her." Jeanie said drumming her fingers on the back of the settee she was standing behind.
We rolled up at the pub in the centre of town and started setting up. "All right girls?" The landlady came over to ask.
"Hi Mel," I said, "I think I should tell you that we have a new look, the music is the same or similar, but we've gone a bit sexier."
