Through Chrissie's eyes

The show in Ealing Art College

Me and Veronica turned our attention to Brian and the boys, who in Tim's absence, became the one who gave the public good evening. He introduced John and Freddie, which caused a small protest and dislike of some.

When they said they had a new vocalist, the band made all eyes pay much more attention to Freddie. Some people's discontent, clearly because of him, made him a little sad, I could see from a distance, but he wouldn't let himself down. Roger and Brian gave the cue for him to start singing, Freddie fumbled with the microphone, breaking the pedestal, but he ignored the technical fault and continued singing. There wasn't a second in which he would stop moving and singing, all at the same time.

That was why I was fascinating about Freddie Bulsara, many things in his life (things that he didn't tell, but we noticed) made him sad, but he refused with all his might let the sadness take over. He confronted it with his exaggerated confidence and it was there that he and the boys came to understand him better and admire him, seeing that what seemed to be one of his greatest faults was a defense mechanism.

In the end, Freddie ended up surprising each of us who were there. This was the first time I had seen him performing and it was impossible not to pay attention to him all the time, his voice was incredibly skillful, modulating between the notes of the melody of each song as he wanted and felt. The boys, each on their instrument and the vocals of Roger and Brian highlighted every feeling that Freddie wanted to get through. He got so excited that he even changed the lyrics, which Brian didn't miss. I knew by far how my boyfriend was methodical when it came to music, and of course I realized that what Freddie did made Brian mildly uncomfortable. But the audience didn't notice it, and kept on cheering with each song. Even the most skeptical had to admit his talent.

"Good night, everyone!" shouted Freddie, closing the show.

Everyone applauded the boys standing, and the four of them, took a moment to get off the stage to enjoy an audience that really enjoyed the show. Me, Roger, and Brian knew there was a while this didn't happen. John, a little more restrained, and Freddie showing more clearly, was euphoric at being able to please that difficult audience.

Then I saw them coming down from the stage, Brian and John came straight to our table, while Roger and Freddie had slipped away to I don't know where.

"Oh, what a relief ..." Brian sat down with a sigh.

"You was more nervous than usual? I confess I was too, "said John.

"You know why I was nervous ..." my boyfriend added.

"Freddie," they said at the same time.

The four of us ended up laughing, which made Brian notice Veronica's presence.

"Oh, sorry for not noticing you before," he apologized, looking at her. "I've been waiting for John to introduce you."

Deaky grimaced, but understood the cue.

"Veronica, this is Brian and Chrissie you must have met" the bass player introduced "Brian, this is Veronica."

"Hi," she said, "so you're the pacifist..."

"Pacifist?" Brian didn't understand.

"You try to stay calm and keep the band from fighting," Veronica explained, "as John told me."

"Oh, I try, but it's not easy," my boyfriend laughed. "Who really gets us on the line is my sweet lady here."

Brian completed it with a kiss on my the cheek, I felt my face blushing. I thought I'd say something to deal with shame.

"So we finally have proof that Veronica is real and not an imaginary girlfriend," I teased, remembering an old joke of ours.

"I know I was absent and no matter how much John invited me to go out with you, I was kind of out of time, you know how college is, right?" she justified herself.

"Yes." The three of us answered together, three college students exhausted.

"Where did Rog and Fred go?" Deaky asked.

"Oh, I have an idea of what Roger was up to," Brian said in a half-disappointed tone, "Freddie ..."

It wasn't long before the vocalist showed up.

"Called me?" He smiled. "Sorry for the delay. I was talking to Mary about the show."

He pointed to the girl next to him, she seemed much more restrained than Freddie, but certainly not shy like me or Brian or John. There was something special about the look in her eyes, there was patience and kindness, and it was'ot just me who had noticed that. Freddie was staring at her in amazement.

I noticed that Brian exchanged a meaningful look with her.

"Hi Mary," he was the first of us to speak up, "I didn't know you knew Freddie."

"It wasn't long ago, Brian," Mary told him, "it's good to see you playing again."

"It's good to get back to business," my boyfriend smiled.

"Then guys, I hate to interrupt you two, but let me introduce the rest of the people Mary doesn't know." Freddie caught our attention to himself, which eventually worked. "These are John, Veronica." (Veronica said her name as Freddie pointed to her) "Brian you already know, by the way, and Chrissie."

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Mary, I kind of gave a stylist help to Freddie's looks at the show today," she explained to us.

"You're more than a mere helper Mary," Freddie corrected her, "you're my friend, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I guess so." There was a certain gleam in Mary's voice as she said it.

After a while Roger joined us, accompanied by a girl named Crystal. While John introduced Veronica to everyone, Roger wasn't too concerned about who Crystal was to him. The drummer had a different date at every show we were going to, and at those times I was happy that Jo wasn't dating him anymore.

So we started talking about the show, how the boys had played in harmony, that they disagreed, each one for different reasons, but at last everyone agreed that this had been one of Smile's best shows.

After a while they returned to the stage to take the instruments.

"Don't go away, please," Freddie asked Mary, "I promise I'll be right back."

"I'm not going to leave here." She laughed a little and he joined the others.

"Is Freddie always like that?" Mary asked me and Veronica.

"I've only heard of him," Veronica replied.

"And I can confirm it by convivence with him," I added, "but he's a nice guy, really."

"I realized that," she said a little delightedly, "behind so much pomp, there's someone in love and enthusiasm ... for music."

"And for you by the way ..." I thought, but said nothing. I answered her with something else.

"I'm sorry to ask, but Brian seemed to know you from somewhere ..." I had to speak of it.

"Oh, we went out once, we just talked," Mary said, "but we're not together. He used to go to the store where I work"

"Oh yes ..." I understood the situation and my jealous heart was calm, but even so I found it necessary to add " We are dating, and we have lived together for almost two years."

"Oh, that's good." Mary didn't notice why I said that, though. "Brian's a really nice guy, and you're nice too."

"Thank you, Mary." I smiled. "You too."

Veronica exchanged a look with me as if she understood what I was feeling and gave me a sympathetic smile.

It wasn't long before we left, we said goodbye to Mary and Freddie who stayed a little longer, and John and Veronica, who would take her home, Roger gave a ride to Crystal to the girl's house and finally left us in our apartment.

It wasn't long before we were asleep, and I was glad Smile was back on bussiness again.