The Reunion

Chapter 2

THE REUNION SHOW

I was called to Graham Longmuir's home on the morning of the reunion show. They were going to have a quick run through of their set list for the show before making their way to the studio.

By now their new management team – Family Entertainment Group – which actually consisted members of their close families, had agreed venues for a world tour. To be fair, all the venues said yes immediately as they wanted to be part of this historymaking venture. It was agreed that they would make the announcement on the show that evening.

The set list was to be as follows:

Teenage Dream

Tongue-Tied

Close Your Eyes

Revolution of Fun

But they started talking about songs they used to cover. This led to them listening to other songs and "Substitute" by Clout

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came on. 'That's the one,' said Samantha eagerly. 'It could be Graham singing it about me.'

'Let's give it a go,' said Graham. They started playing the song with Graham on lead vocals, changing the lyrics slightly so it felt like a guy was singing the song. He stopped it halfway through.

'It's not right, is it?' Gill said.

'It's terrible,' agreed Graham. 'It was always a song from a female perspective.'

'So Gill's going to have to do it,' Samantha suggested.

'Come on, Sam,' Gillian argued. 'You can hear that it's not going to suit my vocal.'

'I guess we drop it then,' said Samantha.

'Unless you sing it,' said Tony.

'I don't sing lead,' Samantha said.

'That's a great idea, Tony,' said Graham. 'It will be a pun, a play on words, Samantha singing about a guy called Sam.'

'I don't sing lead,' Samantha reiterated.

'We're just asking for you to give it a go, Sam,' said Tony. 'It won't kill you.'

'But I don't sing lead,' she said for a third time but very quietly. Graham started playing the opening melody. Tony and Gillian joined in. Sam realised that she was not going to get away with not doing it so she started singing.

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When they completed the song there was silence. 'Wow!' Graham exclaimed. 'That worked.'

'I don't know why you don't sing lead more often,' said Gillian.

'I don't sing lead,' Samantha said yet again but was smiling to herself. She quite enjoyed the singing. And, admittedly, it did sound quite good. 'But, okay, I'll perform the song tonight.'

The car picked them up a little while later. I had already decided to make my own way there. I probably would not have gotten anything out of them, anyway, because they were starting to become very nervous. The chatting was becoming less and less.

I managed to get to the studio before the group. To say there was an air of nervous excitement around the place was an understatement. Everyone seemed to be talking about the show that night. I could hear whispers coming from every direction. It didn't matter what age the person was: there were young secretaries, old stage crew, middle-aged production assistants. I'm sure that I heard one person say that their watch must have stopped because she was sure that it was two o'clock three hours ago. It had even gripped the nation (and probably the world). I don't think that anyone believed that this day would arrive. No one thought that Ladies and Gentlemen would ever get back together again. I include myself in that.