Crush

Twenty-Seven

"Everyone in?" Andy asked as he pulled his seatbelt across and buckled it.

"Have we got everything?" Freya asked, turning from the front seat to look at Jo and Maddie who were in the back of Andy's van. Squished behind them were their instruments and sound equipment. As much as Andy could fit in anyway. He figured they'd be able to borrow anything else they might need from the other bands when they got up there.

"I think so," Maddie said.

"Right, let's get this show on the road," Andy said. He turned the key in the ignition and there was silence. Freya looked from Andy to Maddie and back again. Before Maddie could say anything, Andy tried again and the van spluttered to life. He laughed nervously and said, "Told you she's still good."

Though they had enough money saved to hire a van, they couldn't get one the size they needed at short notice. They decided that since they were going back to their roots, it would only be right to use Andy's van, just like they used to when they first started gigging. Andy said it was still going well enough to make the six hour trip to Chesterfield, but Maddie was starting to have her doubts.

She breathed in the old familiar scent of engine oil and cheap air fresheners and smiled. Being in the van brought back so many memories from just a few years ago when they had no idea where they were really heading with the band. She still remembered the day that Andy had turned up with Freya, their old second-hand equipment stacked in the back, and told Maddie he'd got them a gig at a country race day a few hours out of Sydney. They weren't getting paid, except in free accommodation and food, but still, it was an exciting time to actually play in front of people who had no idea who they were yet. Except for having one of their old speakers blow up right in the middle of Andy's guitar solo, the gig hadn't gone too badly. They were asked to do a weekend a month at the local pub, which was a huge flop for the first few months because they were playing to mostly old guys who kept requesting Slim Dusty songs. Even though it wasn't their type of music, Andy loved learning and playing The Pub With No Beer for them whenever they went out.

It was about six months after they started gigging that Freya hit on the idea to record themselves when they practiced and start a You Tube channel, just to see what would happen. If nothing else, they could see how they looked on camera and how they sounded together and make adjustments if they needed to. That had turned out to be what launched their name. For the first few months, they hovered around just ten followers, and had no-one following them they didn't know personally. Freya then entered one of their originals into a music competition that was held by a radio station, and though they didn't win, they picked up almost a thousand new followers within a few weeks.

They started receiving requests for covers from fans, which they played, and it was their acoustic cover of Cold Chisel's 'Forever Now' that got them the attention of a record company. On Freya's 18th birthday, they signed a deal with Cherry Studios for the record that would change their lives forever.

Maddie looked out of the van window at the traffic and trees sliding by in a blur. She couldn't pinpoint exactly where things started to change, but it had definitely become a lot harder when they agreed to her father becoming their manager. The first sign really should have been when he started booking them for shopping centre appearances and party gigs. He said they needed to take everything they could get. The more places they played, he'd said, the more people would hear their name. Though that sounded good at the time, Maddie knew they weren't connecting with the people they wanted to with their music.

The tour that Cherry had organised to promote their first record had been the best part of that first year. They played so many little music festivals all over the country it had made their heads spin. It had seemed back then that they were in a different town every day, without too much down time in between, but they'd all loved it. On reflection, Maddie couldn't help but wonder if that was because her father had stayed at home to 'take care of business'.