Bandwagon

Richard Cobourne

Description

Life hasn't turned out how Danny Owen expected it to. Formerly an investigative journalist, today a radio reporter reluctantly covering celebrity and the music industry, focusing on glitz, glamour and the gaudy stars.Danny is offered an exclusive interview with Martha, the star of the forthcoming Martha Movin' Out tour, but when he arrives at Elstree Studios he discovers that rehearsals are not going well. Not suspicious initially, but then things take a dire turn when he learns that Martha has disappeared. With the concert tour potentially in ruins, Danny and occasional lover Daisy DeVilliers, the tour's PR, team up beyond the call of duty in an effort to find Martha and rescue the tour.Soon Danny and Daisy are unwittingly inveigled into the murky world of people smuggling, blackmail and international organised crime. They pick their way through a minefield where one wrong move could not only blow the rescue attempts but could also end their own lives. In a duplicitous world where people show only their best side, trusting the wrong person could be the last thing they ever do.

Sujets

• Political
• Politics
• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 17 février 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781838598020
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Richard Cobourne writes with a production background in the broadcast, corporate, music and global events industries. Many well-known TV, radio and music friends have helped him with deep background to ensure the tittle-tattle of real-life show-business and the law are accurately portrayed – including Spice Girl, Melanie Chisholm; broadcaster and voice-artist, Alan Dedicoat; and former Police Superintendent Andy Pullan.

He sold his business four years ago to enable him to write full-time. He lives with his wife in the Wye Valley and Fuerteventura.

Richard Cobourne
Wye Valley, March 2020






Copyright © 2020 Richard Cobourne

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

Matador
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ISBN 978 183859 802 0

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover designed by Vikki Byrne

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd



‘What’s past is prologue’
William Shakespeare, The Tempest , Act 2, Scene I


Contents
1
Thursday, Elstree Studios
2
Ten Years Ago
3
Thursday, Elstree Studios
4
The Radio Years
5
Friday, Demons At Night
6
Friday Evening - London And Cairo. What’s Past Is Prologue
7
Sunday At The Crown & Sceptre, Fitzrovia, London
8
New Scotland Yard. Thames, North Embankment, London
9
Monday
10
Soho, London
11
Monday Afternoon
12
Tuesday
13
Wednesday
14
The Wye Valley – Monmouthshire
15
Wednesday
16
Thursday Morning
17
Thursday Afternoon
18
Friday Morning
19
Friday – New Scotland Yard
20
Elstree – Friday Lunchtime
21
Meanwhile Friday
22
Friday Afternoon
23
Friday Late Afternoon
24
Saturday – Elstree
25
Saturday – The Wye Valley, Monmouthshire
26
Saturday – Elstree
27
Saturday – South Devon
28
Saturday
29
Sunday
30
Monday
31
Baka – Spain
32
Monday – Uk
33
Tuesday
34
Wednesday
35
Wednesday
36
Wednesday – Elstree
37
Wednesday Afternoon – New Scotland Yard
38
Wednesday Late Afternoon – In The Air And London
39
Thursday
40
Friday
41
The Aftermath
42
The O2

Acknowledgements


1
Thursday, Elstree Studios
The rehearsals had not been going well. They had been at it from nine o’clock each morning until six in the evening for three weeks, six days a week. In the old days, two weeks together and the show would have been reasonably tight, leaving the remaining rehearsal time to polish and sprinkle on the fairy dust.
But today, tempers were frayed. They did not have a show that the paying public would feel justified the £95 upwards a ticket, never mind the grand or more for the VIP golden circle tickets that some were bidding for on secondary market websites.
One of the lifts that was to carry the thirty dancers high above the crowd had failed, jammed under the massive stage, spraying sticky hydraulic oil across the floor of Elstree Studios’ George Lucas production space. The routine could not continue with a hole the size of an articulated trailer where the thrust stage should have been. The rigging team were on it. Everyone else waited, drinking tea, coffee, water and Coke. Some outside smoking.
Martha, the star of the show, dozed in her oversized custom trailer with the extended sides. She was bored. Stop. Start. Wait. Go again. She sipped still water directly from a glass bottle – especially imported from springs somewhere in west Wales.
The lighting designer, Andy, normally calm and who could be relied on to keep the rest of the crew together had had enough. ‘We are all wasting our time and pissing away the rehearsal budget.’
James ‘Jimmy’ Patrick, the tour manager, privately agreed with his long-time friend. But Jimmy was being paid a premium to make this enormously complicated tour deliver not only a spectacular show but also return a big profit. ‘Martha doesn’t have her old spark back yet – but she does still have a massive loyal following. We’ll make this work.’
They were joined by some of the other technical and creative crew. Andy spoke for them all: ‘Let’s have tomorrow as a day off. Today’s Thursday – let’s all start again on Monday.’
Jimmy thought about it – the idea had some appeal. It took the pressure off the hydraulics engineers and riggers, giving them three days to ensure everything was ready for the final push. The challenge would be persuading Stanislaw Nowak – who trebled as The Management and unusually also the producer and the promoter of the tour.
‘I suppose Martha can rehearse to playback with the dancers on one of the empty stages,’ mused Jimmy. ‘Yvie, her vocal coach says she is nearly ready to go – just a bit of help to hit and hold the high notes is all that is needed. She could also use some extra sessions with her personal trainer, the choreography team don’t think she is fit enough to make it to the end yet without losing her breath. There are some pretty vigorous dance moves during the encore.’
There was muted agreement. Criticising the star of the show isn’t the accepted norm, but amongst friends, Jimmy thought it pointless hiding what everyone tacitly thought.
‘I’ll get back to you.’ Jimmy went off to find a quiet spot in one of Elstree Studios’ drab backstage corridors to call his boss, Stanislaw Nowak.
Martha – real name Jenny Johnson – hadn’t had a song in the charts for over seven years. She hadn’t had a number one for ten years. Sales had fallen off a cliff. At her height she was one of the world’s biggest recording artistes. This forthcoming UK, European and North African comeback tour, announced just four months ago, had rekindled the madness, affection and emotion.
Back in the day just saying the name ‘Martha’ would have whipped up crowds into a frenzy, busied local police forces and had the media in a feeding pack that outclassed any famished piranhas. The paparazzi could sell a decent off-guard picture for several thousand. One lucky snapper had caught Martha topless on a private beach in Ibiza – the pictures made a major splash in virtually every UK and European tabloid, funding the photographer’s forthcoming retirement. Some say he was tipped off. Martha had just had a boob job.
Danny Owen, celebrity and music reporter at Starshine 98.2 FM, arrived at Elstree’s gatehouse twenty minutes early for his exclusive interview with Martha. He was shown up to the door of the studio by one of the show’s runners – he passed through the maze of alleyways and corridors; the BBC’s temporary production cabins; and avoided several stacked scenic flats and tables of props ready to take their own starring roles in the various film and TV productions in Elstree’s other studios.
The PR, Dai