Playing Along (14 page)

GEORGE
21
^st
November, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

They emerge into the glare of the front foyer where the red floral carpet reminds George of London’s West End theatres and smells like an odd combination of his granny’s settee and spilt Guinness. This is mental. It’s as if instead of the main attraction he could transform into one of the punters, clutching a ticket, wondering where his seats are. He pictures himself at seventeen fumbling in his pocket after a show, searching for ten quid to buy a t-shirt, averting his eyes down. He used to be very familiar with carpet.

Gabe looks to George and nods. George returns the gesture. The bouncer mutters into his walkie-talkie and the carved wooden double doors in front of them are suddenly thrown open. The blast of excitement is palpable and warm. The audience are all seated and George can almost see the energy rising from the tops of their heads like a blurred frenzy of fireflies. The lights go down and the noise dips with them, turning instead into an anticipatory hum.

George takes one deep breath, strokes the smooth torso of his guitar, and steps fearlessly into the waves.

LEXI
November 21
^st
, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

There is a buzz in the room escalating by the second and then, suddenly—darkness. A hush settles, but not a silent one—a hush filled with murmurs and possibility. Lexi feels a shivery tingle down her spine, as somewhere behind her she hears the opening chords of an acoustic guitar.

GEORGE
21
^st
November, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

The first song is flawless. George strolls down the aisle serenading the audience with a wonderfully slow rendition of “Grapefruit Girls” almost unrecognizable from the original. He makes it to the stage without tripping (tripping is always one of his greatest fears) and when the rest of the band appear, the room erupts with rapturous applause. Just as the song is about to end, Duncan comes in on drums with Simon and Mark close behind. George lays his guitar down, sits at the piano and plays with a rhythmic passion as the song transforms back to its previous incarnation and the whole room explodes with approval.

LEXI
November 21
^st
, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

When George Bryce walks down the aisle with his guitar, there is a raw vulnerability in his voice that makes Lexi want to weep. The song is divine. She has heard it on the radio many times, but this is the one time that will forever stand out. Stripped back to the bone, she hears all the lyrics tonight and the catchy chorus becomes poignant. When the rest of the band join in, louder, faster, the song takes on a whirling force, coaxing Lexi and the entire crowd to stand up and dance. She finds herself singing along like everyone else, bouncing up and down with Meg, feeling deliciously unselfconscious. Mr. and Mrs. Saliva next to her are screaming their heads off.

GEORGE
21
^st
November, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

George is already sweating profusely by the end of the song—hazard of the job. He senses a raw energy in the room and (this will forever be the hardest part to explain) he feels elated by the love of their fans—like he’s receiving some kind of intravenous joy juice. When the clapping dies down, he whistles into the microphone.

“Forgive me for sounding so cheesy but you lot are really talented—you took that song and made it your own.”
American Idol, X Factor
, any of the reality talent show references reliably get a laugh. George likes to get a laugh. “In fact—I may just have to step aside and let each of you, one by one, come up here and do the singing.”

“I’ll come up there anytime, George!” a woman’s voice yells from the darkness.

“Well, thank you,” says George politely, “that’s an extremely generous offer. The boys and I love coming to this wonderful city of yours—you always make us feel very welcome indeed.”

LEXI
November 21
^st
, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

When the first song ends, George starts to talk in his delicious English accent. “I’d like to invite each one of you to come up here and sing,” he says with a cheeky grin that Lexi finds disturbingly attractive. He is irresistible.

“I’ll come up there anytime, George!” hollers Meg. Lexi violently elbows her best friend, not certain if she should be mortified or proud, but the crowd are all laughing and Meg is clearly thrilled by her own bravado. Mrs. Saliva leans over Lexi to give Meg a high five.

GEORGE
21
^st
November, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

“We love you, George!” booms another voice from the crowd.

“No doubt if I knew you—I would love you back,” replies George, without skipping a beat. Everyone laughs again. The banter with the crowd wasn’t always easy like this. In the early days of performing, he used to be paralyzed with fright and could barely manage a hello, but in time and with practice, he has acquired immaculate comic timing. More recently though, with mostly stadiums to perform, the audience feel miles away.

“Shall we get on with it then?” George asks, and the crowd respond with more cheers and whistles, as he plays the opening bars of “Under The Radar,” pressing his lips close to the microphone.

how could I have missed you

left someone else to kiss you

you slipped under the radar

I was looking away

LEXI
November 21
^st
, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

The night unfolds with a seamless magic and Lexi is captivated by every song.“Does he write all the lyrics?” she asks Meg at one point, after he has sung “I Knew It” accompanied by bongo drums.

“I think so,” says Meg. “Or maybe with Simon, the redhead on the guitar. They’re friends from school—I’ve done all my research on Wikipedia.”

Lexi wonders about the process of writing a song. She then begins to wonder about his relationships with the other band members. Are they all friends from school? The other three are cute as well, the drummer especially has enormous charisma, and George somehow manages to convey a camaraderie with all of them. He’s the leader though. There is no doubt about that.

She marvels at the massive reserves of self-confidence he must have to do what he does, and to do it apparently so effortlessly. She then begins to imagine how many women he must have available to him. How old is he? Does he have a girlfriend? And before she can stop herself, she’s picturing pressing her cheek to his sweaty chest minutes after he comes off the stage.
In fact
, she thinks,
why bother with the chest? Let’s go straight to the lips
.

GEORGE
21
^st
November, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

Despite yesterday’s friction, the show is going better than George had ever expected. The four of them are soaring and George wishes he could stop everything, just for a moment, and turn to his band mates, his three best friends and say, “See. This is why it works.
This
is why.” But he can’t, so he navigates the stage instead, going up to each of the boys at varying intervals and sharing a joke, or playfully leaning into them, or introducing a solo. When he sits back down at the piano to sing “Corners and Tables” he flubs a line, and smiles at Simon, who says to the audience, “Please accept our apologies—he doesn’t get out much.” The whole room cracks up and they start the song again from the beginning.

LEXI
November 21
^st
, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

George continues to sing and the audience, Lexi included, continue to adore him.

He stops every two or three songs and makes a funny comment or tells a story with a relaxed casualness. He even forgets some of the lyrics and laughing, starts the song from the beginning. His fallible side makes him all the more endearing.

“I hope you’re enjoying yourselves?” he asks, an hour into the show. The crowd shout and clap in appreciation.

“That’s good to know, because
we
certainly are. In fact, Gabe,” he calls to someone off stage, “Why don’t we bring up the house lights for this next song. It’s a special one and I want to see your reaction to the extra special visitor who’s going to help us out.”

The house lights come up and an ethereal looking blonde woman wafts onto the stage; a golden harp wheeled in behind her. She has long, thin, blond hair almost reaching her butt and is wearing a white cotton floaty dress.

“Please say hello to Andrea Evans, who is kindly on loan to us for the evening from none other than the Los Angeles Philharmonic.” More clapping and whistling as George greets her and takes her hand.

“Is that his girlfriend?” Lexi asks Meg, indignant at the nerve of this woman inconsiderately intruding on her fantasy.

“Not sure,” says Meg, “but she’s gorgeous, isn’t she?”

George and Andrea are positioned now together at the front of the stage. She is perched next to her harp looking like a mermaid, and he’s on a stool with his guitar. They begin to play “A Suitable Dawn.” Lexi wants to drift away on the crest of her favorite song. She loves this track so much. And of course he wrote it for Andrea—she can feel the chemistry between them on stage. It’s so obvious.
She
was the lucky girl.

GEORGE
21
^st
November, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

When it comes time for “A Suitable Dawn,” George spontaneously decides to ask for the house lights on. He wants to look at the audience and doesn’t feel too daunted at the prospect of seeing faces. He’s unusually resilient tonight. He welcomes Andrea Evans onto the stage, whose work he really admires. As recently revealed in
NME’
s Top Ten Tastes column, George listens to a huge spectrum of music and classical is an important influence. When Andrea comes on stage, he takes her hand, thinking how lovely she looks. He met her six years ago when they first recorded in LA. Her husband is a successful conductor, twenty years older than her, and George usually ends up having dinner with them when he’s in town. Andrea’s looking exceptionally well tonight, considering she’s just had a baby three months ago.

LEXI
November 21
^st
, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

Lexi is reeled in by George’s mesmerizing voice and the heavenly harp, and something deep inside of her is shimmering. She’s singing along to the words and imagining he is singing just for her. And then the strangest thing happens. She could swear he makes eye contact with her. He’s singing “A Suitable Dawn” and he’s looking directly at her. Or at least she feels like he’s looking directly at her. She holds his gaze for a number of seconds, feeling, bizarrely, like she is the only person in the room.
He can’t possibly have noticed me
, Lexi scolds herself, cursing her mother for raising her with such an overinflated ego. Especially when he’s up there with his super model harpist who probably isn’t wearing any underwear.

As quickly as it arrived, the moment disappears. The house lights go down, sinking the audience back into darkness. Lexi feels intoxicated by it all. By how very real the connection felt—as if she’s been harboring a secret for the longest time, only to discover that it’s his secret too.

GEORGE
21
^st
November, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

Halfway through “A Suitable Dawn,” something happens. George catches the eye of a woman in the crowd. She’s almost dead centre in the third row. There are other women around her, but she’s wearing orange and it’s as if she’s three dimensional, a technicolour figure on a flat grey backdrop. He recognizes her, maybe. From where? He meets so many new faces every day. Record company? Radio station? He’s actually locked eyes with her and realizes it might be for too long and looks away to the women beside her, and around the rest of the room. But he doesn’t lose sight of her. She’s shining. She’s beautiful. And she’s singing his words back to him.

So many people singing his song. So many people who don’t really know him. The words are flowing out of his mouth without thought, just feeling. He must have sung this song of longing a thousand times. Andrea is elegantly strumming the harp. And then it comes to him, like a flash from a dream you don’t remember having. Running. She was the woman who ran by him three days ago. He’s sure of it. She was the woman who was crying.

As he sings the final note, the audience are plunged back into darkness but not before his eyes rest on her for one last moment.

He’s intrigued. She’s still beautiful.

He wasn’t imagining it. But there’s more.

George unexplainably feels like he knows something of this woman.

Something that nobody else does.

LEXI
November 21
^st
, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

The house lights don’t come on again until the end of the show, and by then the band have left the stage. They’ve already played three encores and the audience have screamed and clapped until their throats are hoarse and their palms slapped pink.

Meg hugs Lexi and squeals, “That was out of this world good. Best, best night.”

“I’ve seen them in concert six times,” announces Mrs. Saliva, “but tonight was the bomb. They were amaaa—zzing! By the way, babe,” she says turning to her boyfriend, “Did you see George checking me out?”

“No way, I’ll kill the dude,” says Mr. Saliva, pulling her towards him, his hands wrapping around her waist.

“That’s so funny,” says Meg to Lexi, “I thought he was checking me out too. I’m positive he was staring right at me when the lights came up.”

“Oh Meggy—he probably was,” says Lexi, trying hard to hide her disappointment. “You look so rock chick in your leather jacket.”

“Wait till I tell Tim!” says Meg excitedly.

Idiot, idiot, idiot,
repeats Lexi to herself, as she is pulled along with the throng of fans, all gushing about Thesis, all reluctantly making their way to the exit.

GEORGE
21
^st
November, 2009
The Avid Theatre, Hollywood

The remainder of the concert goes perfectly. He doesn’t ask for the house lights on again. What’s he going to do? Say,
excuse me, I hope you don’t mind, but can I just stop and get the phone number of the woman wearing orange in the third row? I think I’ve had a glimpse into her soul.
She’s better off left in the dark anyway. After the final encore. After the precision bow, linking arms with the boys. After the applause has long died down. After the record execs have obediently licked their arses. Before all the schmoozing at the post party begins, George slips back onto the stage and looks out over the red velour seats. He’s not entirely sure what he’s hoping to find. Everyone’s gone home. The third row is empty.