The Reunion

Chapter 8

PRESENT

'And that is how we got back together,' said Samantha.

'How is Christian now?' I asked Tony.

'As well as can be expected,' Tony replied.

'And you are a dark horse, aren't you?' I smiled. 'Nobody knew you were married and no one knew you had three children with Tracey.'

'Well, Harrison and Leia are from my first marriage,' said Tony, and looked like he instantly regretted saying anything.

'So you were married before?' I enquired. 'Yes. My first wife died and that's all I'm going to say about that.' He said it quite fiercely and I was quite taken aback. At least I knew better and decided to drop that line of questioning.

'Okay. We're going to surprise a couple of people in the audience and they will get a chance to come down and ask the group a question,' I said. 'On the back of your chair is a number. We are looking for

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numbers 53, 182, 397 And 412. Will the people sitting in those seats make your way to the steps and security will bring you down.' While the pandemonium of searching, shrieking and general mayhem occurred, stagehands brought on four stools and placed them to the left of my chair. I was handed a handheld microphone. Ladies and Gentlemen looked on, amused. Although they had agreed to this part, they obviously had no idea what was going to asked. But now it was also time to surprise the viewers. 'And not to leave out the viewing public, there is a telephone number just about to appear on your screens. Callers will be randomly picked and all we ask is that you ask your questions in English. Please get the bill payer's permission before dialling. Anyone watching this on catch up or have recorded it and are watching it later, please do not call in when you watch it as you won't get through and you still may get charged,' I read from the autocue. Security finally managed to get the first audience member to me. She was a quivering wreck as first Samantha, then Gillian, Tony and Graham all gave her a hug. I got her to sit on the first stool. The producer whispered in my ear that we had a caller.

'Okay, while we wait for the other audience members to come down, we've got a caller. Who are you? And where are you calling from?'

'Marta Pablos from Spain,' the caller introduced herself.

'You're through to the members of Ladies and Gentlemen, Marta,' I said.

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'Oh, my god, I can't believe it,' said Marta.

'Hello, Marta,' the group said in unison.

'H-h-hello,' she stammered back. 'My question is, who influenced your early careers?'

'I think you tend to listen to everything when you're starting out in this business,' Samantha began. 'Ed Sheeran was a favourite of mine. Abba and Steps.'

'I listened to reggae, jazz, garage, but the 1970s music was always a particular favourite of mine. I think it is of all of us,' said Gillian.

'I was a big Elvis Presley fan,' said Tony. 'Even though he had died forty years before we began, his music lives on and still does to this day.'

'I agree with Samantha,' said Graham. 'Being in this business you get to listen to and watch fantastic acts from every decade. I have been inspired by everything from the music of today, the acts that Tony produced through to Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and to acts that were performing before we were born such as Take That, Queen and the Rubettes right back to classical music. But the group we all listened to, because they were the only mixed group at the time, was Steps. They got criticised and knocked quite a lot but they still bounced back. We went and saw them live in Cardiff, when? 2018 or 19?'