QUEEN // Roger Taylor

First performance... (5)

London 1969, Saturday, 7:45 am

This is it, the big day, we were finally going to perform in the pub in front of 60 people, they're not so many but I was still really nervous. I laid in bed just thinking about the song. Andrea, there's nothing to worry about, you know the song by heart, there's no way this performance will get screwed up. I thought to my self.

10:00 am
After practicing the song for almost two hours I decided to take a break. I went into my kitchen and made myself some coffee. Even though I live in England, I've never been a fan of tea, in my opinion coffee is way better. I ate and headed upstairs to do my homework. My career was architecture and since it was my first year at college the professors were really hard on us with homework, but I don't mind, I love designing and maths. This career was my passion; but there was one thing that I loved the most, piano. If I could only make a living just by playing and composing; but I still play the piano on a daily basis and compose just for fun, and now that I'm in a band, well, I can play the piano more and that's great.

01:00 pm
I decided to take a shower and practice again, I even managed to sign the background voices that me and Briana would do, and then it hit me...
WHAT WAS I GOING TO WEAR?

I looked at my closer, nothing, I looked in my drawers, nothing. I didn't find anything to wear that made me look cute but also like a rockstar, how was I supposed to achieve that look!?
I was going to call Freddie and ask for help but I remembered that he overdresses sometimes so I didn't. Sometimes I wish I had a girl best friend, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for having Freddie in my life since we were little but still, I couldn't talk to him about this kind of stuff.

4:00 pm
After looking for an outfit for three hours I finally found one. A light brown skirt and a white sweater with a rainbow on it, not my best masterpiece but at least I tried.

I started getting ready, I dressed up and did my make up. I let my hair down, not doing anything to it.
I went downstairs and practice again. The nerves were killing me.

8:30 pm
I arrived to the pub not knowing where the guys were. I tried to look around but it was impossible to see, there were at least 120 people walking around and considering that my height is short it certainly didn't help at all. I kept walking through the crowd not knowing what to do when I suddenly bumped into someone.
"Sorry I didn't see you there" I said, the person I bumped into turned around.
It was Roger. I exhaled, I finally found one of the guys. "Oh hey, coming to greet me?" He said raising an eyebrow with a smirk on his face. I laughed and rolled my eyes. "Where are the others?" I asked almost yelling because of the amount of people who were talking. "Over there, let's go, we are starting in 10 minutes." He took my hand unexpectedly and pulled me through the crowd of people, we got to a part were the people were all squashed together making it impossible to go through.
"Okay, don't leave my side" Roger told me and put his hand around my waist pulling me closer to him which caused me to get chills, he dragged me across the group of people who were looking at him, probably because they knew he was part of the band, girls were basically drooling over him but he ignored them, I earned a few dirty looks from them maybe because of they way Roger was holding me but I just ignored them.
Roger pushed a few people and we arrived to the table were the guys were sitting, it was less crowded here.

"I found her" Roger said. "Hi guys" I said to them they all smiled and greeted me. "We thought you wouldn't make it" Brian said to me. "Sorry, I got lost." I simply reply to him. I looked at Freddie who was looking at Rogers arm which was still around my waist, Freddie looked at me an raised both eyebrows. I scoot to my right and Roger let go of my waist looking at me with a questioning face, as if him holding me like that was the most natural thing in the universe, I didn't say anything to him, instead I looked down at my feet.

OBVIOUSLY Freddie wasn't jealous of me and Roger, we have always seen each other as siblings, he was just trying to keep the band together and the only way of doing that was that I couldn't date ANY of the band mates, which was reasonable.

"I thought there were going to be fewer people" I told the guys. "The rumor of us having new band members spread and now it looks like the pub is going to be packed." Brian answered me and I nodded. "Are you ready darling?" Freddie asked me. "Um, I guess so." I replied fidgeting with a strand of my hair
"Good, because it is time to shine" Freddie stood up and walked over to the stage and we all followed. Before climbing up the stage, Roger put his hands at my sides and whispered to me. "You'll do great" He winked at me and kept walking.

The audience started clapping and we all took our places, I sat down in front of the piano, my hands were sweating, I looked around the audience and spotted at least 10 people from my class. Great. I turned to my left and looked at Freddie while trying to catch his eye but he was busy trying to make an impression. I turned again and looked at John, again, trying to catch his eye, but he was in awe looking at the audience. I was freaking out, I couldn't do it. Then I turned my body to look at Roger who was behind the drums, already looking at me. He noticed my anxious look and mouthed "It is ok"
He gave me a warm smile and I smiled back. I breathed in and out a couple of times.

"How is everyone doing tonight?" Brian asked through the microphone.
The audience started screaming and clapping in response. "Good! As you know I'm Brian" The crowd screamed again. "This is Roger, the most popular one" Brian said pointing at Roger who smiled at the audience. The girls went crazy and started screaming all sorts of things. "We also have some new faces, this is John Deacon our bassist, Freddie Bulsara our lead singer and Andrea Wood our pianist" The crowd clapped and some screamed but that was it.
"How are you doing beautiful people?" Freddie said to the audience who didn't respond creating an awkward silence.

"This is, Keep Yourself Alive" Brian said and started playing his part, and so did Roger. After 5 seconds, me and John started playing, I relaxed and did what my fingers told me to.

I looked around and see that Freddie was struggling to get the microphone in place so he grabbed it awkwardly between his hands but then he started singing.

"I was told a million times
of all the troubles in my way"

SHIT. Not the lyrics.

"Mind you grow a little wiser,
little better everyday"

What was he doing!?!?
I stopped looking at the piano and turned to look at Freddie. He seemed so confident, I also noticed Brian telling him that that wasn't the lyrics, I looked at John who was just playing along ignoring the fact that Freddie was doing a disaster, I looked at Roger who rolled his eyes at Freddie.

"Now they say your folks are telling you
be a super star
but I tell you just be satisfied
stay right were you are"

I ignored Freddie and sang the chores just as everyone did.

"Keep yourself alive,
keep yourself alive
it'll take you all your time and money
honey you'll survive"

Then Roger did his drum solo and of course everyone went wild, he was so good playing the drums, you could see his passion and his talent just by listening to that solo, I truly admired him.

When the song finished we stood up and went to the centre of the stage. "Thank you so much for being here today, we'll see you next weekend" Roger said and everyone applauded. We got off the stage and Freddie literally ran for his life, we lost sight of him, probably the smartest thing to do since we were all a little upset.
"I swear to God I'm going to kill Freddie" Brian barked.
Well, ones more than the others.