By Kali
"Here's what we'll do. Everyone have a shower and get into some rock star looking clothes and we'll just go around London and go into every club and pub we see and just find the owner and hassle them into giving us a gig. Sound like a plan?" Red looked around.
An hour and a half later we'd all somehow morphed into rock goddesses, spewing forth good music, good drugs, and great sex. We decided we'd have more luck if we split up, so Red, Jules, and myself wandered our way onto the streets of London.
I was in awe. Not of the people or how odd everything was, because it really wasn't odd, it wasn't foreign, I was just amazed that I was actually here. I was actually in London, here to make a rock 'n' roll record with five of my best friends. The air was cool and damp, the sky cloudy. I couldn't wait for months upon months of this weather. We ducked into a popular looking place called The Arc. The outside was warehouse style, brick building with no windows and one shitty looking entrance way. The inside however was packed full of trendy sophisticates wanting to be part of the next big thing, standing around sipping rum & coke on the rocks, chatting about god knows what in their pommy accents. Red could at least almost fit in with her accent, but Jules and I cowered into a fit of mute-ness at the thought of people hearing our awful American and Canadian accents. We sat down at the bar, breathing in the thickness of the smokey air that filled the club as Red ordered us each a drink. I took a sip, made a face, and choked.
"What the hell is this?" I demanded, holding up my glass to Red and the bartender.
"It's a Shirley Temple, Kals" Red giggled. "You can't go getting inebriated yet, we need to get a gig." I scoffed and asked the bartender for a whisky and two tequila shots.
"Umm..I'll have that too." Jules slid her own non-alcoholic beverage back to the bartender as she looked around the club.
"Hey mister, we're in a band, and we need a gig...so who would we talk to?" Red asked, sipping her drink and shouting over the noise of the grunge leftover band now onstage.
The bartender pointed to a rather heavy-set man sitting at the end of the bar watching the band. "Right then."
We all sucked it up and wandered over to the corner where the guy was sitting. I reached out my hand. "I'm Kali."
The guy looked at me, looked at his companion, and resumed watching the band.
"Look, we're in a band." I gestured to Red and Jules, who were shaking their heads and remarking that the lead singer ought to get a haircut. "Yeah. And erm, we want a gig."
"Oh is that right?" the guy turned towards me, his huge gut hanging over his pants, his shirt stuck to his stomach and soaked with alcohol. "And dyou think I give a fucking gig to any stupid American that just walks through the door?"
I was getting scared. This dude was huge, and I didn't feel like being sat on. "Well, sir, if you'd just give us an audition, I'm sure you'd like us. And I'd like to inform you that the whole Seattle/Grunge thing was over and dead three years ago." I gestured towards angst-ridden stage.
He turned to his companion, chuckling. "Seattle. Where the fuck's Seattle? She's fucking fiesty, I'll give her that."
Jules stood next to me, biting her nails, as Red sipped yet another drink. "Do your little friends talk or are they just stupid Americans as well?" He raised his eyebrows and began laughing again.
"Oi, fuck off!" Red shouted in a spot-on southern accent.
"Well at least you've got one somewhat smart person in your band. What the fuck you called?"
"We're called Rukaland...and we're all aboot rock 'n' roll." Jules answered, trying her best not to sound American. Because even being Canadian beats out being American anyday.
"Right, Polkaband. And have you got any other members? Or do you expect us to sit here and watch you three morons ponce up and down the stage for a half hour set?" he asked, scratching himself while the bartender refilled his glass.
"We're called RUKALAND actually...and there's three other members, they're just not with us right now." I tried to stand my ground without bursting into tears. Thank god for alcohol.
"And you're a rock band. I need someone for the weekend...these kids are good in my book but no one's paying to see them. So I'll give you idiots one weekend to show youre not some stupid bunch of fucking girls trying to play rock music, right? You come in tommorrow at around 2 and play and if you're shit, thats it, you're out. You got that, girlies?" He looked around at the three of us, I was grinding my teeth to keep myself from blowing up. "Stupid bunch of fucking girls?" Where does this guy get off?
"Hey, mate, why don't you just settle down? I mean they just want a gig." A young guy stood up from one of the tables and walked over. "They've gotta be better than this shit."
I smiled.
"Oh and who's this? You need your man to talk for you, don't you? Thats the way it always is, a woman ain't nothing unless she's got a man around to do everything for her." He rose his glass in salute, acutally getting a few "yeahs!" as encouragement.
"Look, mate, I've never seen these girls before in my life, all I'm saying is you ought to be fair." He reasoned, using a gentler approach.
The guy ignored him, and turned back to us. "Right, two tommorrow afternoon, if you don't show up don't even think about trying to come back here and ask for another chance. You can fuck right off if you think I'm gonna cater to your every whim and fancy. Now get the fuck out of here and leave me alone for awhile, will you? I need some fucking peace, I don't need you fucking girls chattering in my ear about your shitty band for an hour." With a wave of a flabby arm, we were dismissed.
I walked back to my place at the bar and sat down. I took a deep breath. What if we had to work for this jerk? But we need the money, we need the gig, we need the exposure. I cradled my head in my hands and looked down at my reflection in the bottom of a glass. "Hey, don't listen that guy. I mean, I've never heard you guys or anything but you've gotta be better than this." the knight in shining armor nodded to the stage. Normally I'd have been annoyed that some stranger had just jumped in the way he had, but it was nice to be saved. I felt like the damsel in distress.
I smiled and looked up. "Yeah, I think we are actually, not to sound egotistical or anything." We both laughed, and he pulled up a stool beside me. Red and Jules were being treated to drink after drink by a couple of local kids who thought they just might get some tonight off the out-of-towners.
"Where you from? I mean I guess you're from America, but..." he drew rings in the condensation on the bar top with his index finger and looked down, shyly. "Yeah, I'm from America." I laughed. "Is it that obvious?"
"Nah" He shook his head, smiling. "Just yer accent. But I like it."
I blushed a little. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was trying to hit on me. I recovered my compsure quickly, and he couldn't tell in the dim lighting anyway.
"So you've got a band then eh?"
My eyes lit up at the opportunity to discuss music. "Yeah, there's five of us..well six, only one is more our photographer than a band member. But she goes everywhere with us and plays with us when we've got enough amps and she's feeling up to it. She's the one over there." I pointed to the rowdy table of young locals in the corner and my two best friends surrounded by it. "The other one with the red hair..well her name is Red actually" I giggled, "She plays rhythm guitar, and a shitload of indian instruments I forgot the names of."
He nodded, looking over and then back at me. "And you are...?" He asked, smirking.
"I'm Kali" I smiled, putting out my hand.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Paul." He shook my hand, lingering for a moment before letting go. "What part dyou play in um....what're you called? Rukaland?" he asked, looking as if he was trying hard to remember.
"Oh I'm lead guitar and backing vocals." I replied. "Wow, big job. I've always fancied lead guitarists..." he trailed off, looking at a glass.
"What lead guitarists have you fancied? There arent that many female lead guitarists....unless your gate swings the other way" I giggled.
"Oi...okay well I think I fancy you, so that counts." he smiled, holding my gaze.
I blushed again, this time heat swelling to my cheeks rapidly.
"So..." I looked down, trying to keep a smile from spreading across my face. "Where are you from?" "Oh, around, sort of. Knebworth, you heard of it?" he looked at me expectantly.
"Isn't that some kind of concert field?" I asked, jogging my memory of English geography.
"Yeah, but I don't live in the middle of a field..." he laughed.
"Yo, Kals! We gotta go, man!" Red yelled, as she stumbled out the door.
"Oh god, theyre gonna bring those kids back to our hotel....I just know it." I shook my head.
"What are you, like the mother of the group?" Paul grinned.
"Well....well no...I'm actually not..." I giggled.
"Well then come out with me. C'mon, I'll show you around a bit, the night is young..." Paul looked at me, his eyes begging for companionship.
I hesitated. I didn't want to get lost with a stranger on my first night in London, and what if Jules and Red got worried and sent out a police search for me or something? I looked up at the commotion still going on in the doorway as Jules hopped on someone's back and was carried out the door.
"Alright, let's go" I smiled, throwing down some money on the bar.
"Here, they're on me" Paul handed me back my money and threw his own down.
We walked outside, the damp air feeling refreshing as it covered my bare legs and blew softly against my face.
"As you can see, this is the sidewalk....and that there is a street lamp..." Paul joked, going into tour guide mode.
The sky was dark grey as the sun finished disappearing into the earth for the night.
"So what do you do, Paul?" I asked, trying to make conversation.
"What do I do? I'm at university right now, doing philosophy and stuff. It's boring shit really but can be interesting if you like that kind of stuff...its not like I sit around studying it all the time. It's kind of more fun to make up your own philosophies, yknow?"
I nodded.
"I had to write a paper a few days ago and just write about what my own philosophy was about something...sounds easy, right? Well it took me fucking hours, man" I laughed, watching his facial expressions as he talked.
"First I had to think of something to write about....and then I had to actually write it out and organise it. And my thoughts are so far from organised....by the end I just wanted to say fuck off, my philosophy is that university is bullshit!" he grinned like a little boy who'd just done something rebellious.
"Thats what its like when LC and I write songs..it's like I know what I wanna say, but now I have to figure out how to say it in a way so that other people will get what I'm trying to say and so that LC can work with it...cause if she can't, we're fucked and have to start all over again." I explained, lost in my own thoughts.
"You write? I've got some poetry and shit at home...I don't think its all that good but maybe you could read it sometime." Paul replied, looking at me hopefully.
"Oh yeah, I'd love to...so what was your philosophy, in the end?" I asked, trying to get things back on track.
"Oh, it was about love, about how people fall in love. I think we do it because we're afraid to be alone...we hate being alone. I mean, yknow that hollow feeling you get when you're alone? And I don't mean alone without friends, I mean alone without someone who's like, your romantic interest or whatever you wanna call them. You just feel...."
"like you want to have someone's arms around you." I finished his sentence.
We locked eyes for a moment, and continued on walking. "Right, exactly. Love is when you want someone around you because they fill that space up. That was my philosophy." Paul concluded, leading me into a park and onto a grass covered hill.
"It makes a lot of sense..I'd say we share the same philosophy. Because you're right, when you've got someone by your side you don't feel hollow anymore."
"But it can't be just anyone. They have to really be a part of you, it can't be just some person you met and decided was good looking or something and started dating them." Paul added.
We both settled into the grass, staring up at the yellow stars in the sky.
"I've got another philosophy..." he said, quietly. I laid back in the grass, closing my eyes. "What's that?" I asked.
"It's that...." I heard him breaking blades of grass with his hand, pulling pieces up out of the ground. "it's that I think...I think you're a very pretty girl, and that you're very nice, and I'd like you to come to see Oasis with me in Knebworth on the 10th." He spit out, as I sat up and looked at him. "You don't want to waste a ticket on me...I mean it sounds really cool and I actually wanted to go to the gig but...we just met....I don't even know your phone number." I stuttered, trying to keep myself from falling into something too soon.
"Well....here" He reached out, pen in hand, and scribbled his number on my palm. "Now you've got it. Please, I want to see you again. Think of it as me asking you out on a date....you don't always know the guys you go out with really well, do you?"
"Well, no..." I was giving in, I could feel myself giving in. I groaned. "I'd love to go with you."
He smiled. "Good."