Bass

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Boys that sing

“Charlie Golden? Are you serious?” Niall laughed crossed his arms.

Simon put his hand on my shoulder and patted me strongly, nearly causing me to buckle.

“It’s just a stage name. We wanted it to be memorable, right Charlie?” Simon said before turning to me.

“Yeah.” I said awkwardly. Niall raised his eyebrows with amusement and took a step back, about to walk away.

“Well, see you on stage.” He said. He turned and continued down the way he had come.

Simon grabbed both my shoulders and spun me around to face him.

“We’re going on in five minutes. Most of the songs are just are just a classic rock drum beat. ‘What makes you beautiful’ has a bass 17 and ‘I wish’ has a bass 13. Adjust the bass when the boys are doing twitter questions.” Simon explained a bit more about the logistics of the song and the order they were going in. I understood and tried to remember each word as I knew I would need it on stage. At the time, it didn’t really sink in what I was about to do and I was still a bit shocked from meeting Niall, so my head was like a big washing machine, trying to sort through information.

“You got it?” Simon didn’t really give me the chance to answer before pushing me down the hall with the flow of people while stuffing a cord down my back. The cord connected to a small black box with flashing lights. He then put an earpiece in each of my ears while explaining what they were.

“I’ll be in contact with you the whole time you’re on stage. You can’t talk to me but I can talk to you so don’t try and speak to me through the box like a walkie-talkie because it won’t work.”

The hall seemed to go on forever as we kept twisting and turning with white doors sometimes appearing which looked to be dressing rooms.

The corridor suddenly opened out to a wide area with black floors and large black boxes of equipment. To my left were more people in headphones and a large room with lots of televisions, obviously so Simon and rest of his crew could keep an eye on what was going on onstage. To my right were two huge walls of black material next to each other but far enough apart so there was a gap that could fit around 3 people. I realized these were the wings and I would probably be entering the stage from there. The only thing I could hear were screaming fans, calling and shouting names I couldn’t grasp. Flashing lights shone through the curtains as they changed colour and strength.  

My curiosity beat me and I went over to the curtains and looked onto the stage. I could see the drum kit centre stage but at the back on a raised platform. For some reason I felt at home looking at the drum kit. It was like the link that bonded me and all this craziness together. Leaning against the raised platform was a sky blue electric guitar and a hot red bass guitar, which matched the red hues of the drums.

But the most peculiar thing was right in the middle of the stage: a couch. It looked to fit around five people and was covered in a check pattern. It was the most random thing I’d ever seen.

All of a sudden I felt Simon next to me who just smiled and handed me a pair of light wood drum sticks. Clutching them I realized how sweaty my hands really were. I felt a rush of nervousness and wondered why I was there and if I should really be doing this. Swallowing down these questions I held my head up and touched my wig (which was starting to get pretty itchy) to make sure it was in place.

The lights on stage changed and a glare which was once in my eyes disappeared so I could see all the way across the stage to the other wings.

My mouth fell open.

No way. How could it be him? It couldn’t be him, I thought.

But it was. I could recognise those green eyes anywhere. The boy that I ran into at the Syco offices was here.

And he was about to go on stage.