The Band Ch. 01

The band.

We finished our final number with a big crescendo to a largely disinterested Friday night pub crowd, no applause to speak of and certainly no demands for an encore. The landlord approached us as we were packing up our gear, we were tired sweaty and disillusioned. He looked disappointed and somewhat rueful.

As he handed over our money to me, he cleared his throat. "Sorry Angela, I'm going to have to get another band for next month, the punters are beginning to complain and more importantly, they are not coming in." He looked really sad, "When you started you were young and fresh and I personally like your music and could listen to it all night, but I am not in the majority."

"Have you any suggestions as to how we could change the performances Ted?" Joanie, our drummer asked.

"Have you seen a group called White Star?" he asked.

"Heard they are good, but not seen them." Joanie said.

"Go to the Bull tomorrow night and see for yourselves." Ted told us, then left us to finish packing up the gear. Our band, Green Door consisted of me, Angela, on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Joanie, on drums, Betsy on keyboards and occasional flute and finally Andrew, our lead guitarist. We had all been at school together and in the school big band. We had been playing the pub circuit within about twenty miles from home town for about five years, our repertoire was many Folk Rock/R&B with a few originals thrown in.

In the van on the way home, we had a short discussion about the situation. "Ted's right you know," Andrew said, "Our music is OK, it's our presentation that is getting tired, our intro's haven't changed in twelve months, I'm as much as fault as anyone, I'm still telling the same jokes."

"Our image is OK," Betsy countered.

"Just look at us, we look as if we're going to Tesco's, we don't offer a spectacle." I said. "Shall we all meet up at The Bull as Ted suggested?" It was agreed.

The next night we pushed our way into a crowded pub and looked at the gear set up on the stage. "We've got better stuff than this lot." Andrew hissed.

When the band came on stage, they made an entrance. They were three guys and a girl singer, who was wearing a short glittery mini-dress that sparkled in the stage lights. The guys all had tight jeans and open necked shirts. Their set wasn't bad, we also twigged a few mistakes on their cover numbers, but the crowd either didn't notice or didn't care, but they lapped it up. The band went down a storm. They had to play two encores. The girl was sexy without being blatant and to my eyes the guys looked sexy too. "Mine tomorrow lunchtime, I'll rustle up something to eat." I told the others.

"Well what did you think?" I asked around when we all sat at my parent's kitchen table on Sunday.

"Their music is no better than ours, but their stage presence knocks us out of the park." Andrew said. "Just look at the girl, she was vivacious funny and most of all sexy"

"Their drummer wasn't that good," observed Jeanie, "but he looked the part. I am quite ashamed when I compare my stage clothes with his."

"We could sexy it up a bit." Betsy offered.

"And to be honest with three good looking girls in the band we should be able to beat them hands down." Andrew cut in, "We're better musicians, we just need to work on our presentation."

A lot more was said mostly in agreement, to the extent, my mother came in and asked if they were all staying to tea. During the next week there was a lot of discussion about stage outfits. We had been impressed with the girls glittery dress and decided that Betsy and I would wear similar, but not the same dresses, Joanie would have a shiny vest top and shorts, a mini dress is not really compatible with sitting at the drums. Andrew would have a pair of trousers similar to our dresses and a black vest top. Luckily Betsy's mum was a dab hand at dressmaking, so she volunteered to have a go at the costumes. We didn't have a gig booked for two weeks so we were hoping they would be ready in time. We further decided that for now it would be too much to try and change the set lists, so we would stick with what we knew and could play well.

Later that week, I went round for a fitting to Betsy's place. Mrs Bryce slipped the dress on and made some adjustment. "does that feel comfortable dear?" she asked.

I said that it felt fine. "Mum," Betsy chipped in, "Could you make it a bit shorter please?"

Mrs Bryce laughed and said "Of course, how short were you thinking?"

"Shorter than that, a little above mid thigh, like mine." Betsy said lowering her eyes.

"Perhaps Angela doesn't want to wear a very short dress, after all she only has a guitar to hide behind whereas you have a keyboard hiding your legs." Mrs Bryce retorted.

"Let me see." I said, indicating to Betsy she should put on her dress. Wow! I had not often seen Betsy in a dress, certainly not one as short as this one. There was hardly any of her thighs that were hidden. Betsy grinned and posed in a silly sexy way. I thought for a moment, gulped and said, "Mrs Bryce, do it!"

We had a mass fitting at Betsy's house on Saturday, the other band mates were astonished and supportive. "I knew we were going for the sexy look," Jeanie said, "but I never expected this!"

"I could almost fancy you both." Andrew guffawed and then added, "sorry Mrs Bryce."

"I suspect that that is the object of the exercise." Mrs Bryce said.

My dress had a front zip, whereas Betsy's had a lace up front from the waist up. both dresses had some support sewn in so that we didn't need to wear bras. Joanie tended not to wear bras much anyway, so her shiny singlet came without any support. She prevailed upon Mrs Bryce to cut it a bit lower under the arms, giving a hint of sideboob. She wanted in on the sexy look. Mrs Bryce made some bright trousers for Andrew to wear with his black singlet. Our outfits for our new look were ready.

"Do you think we should change the name of the band?" Andrew asked.

"Too late for this gig on Saturday as I've seen posters done by the pub." I told him, "Do you think we should tell the landlady?"

"Naw, let's shock her." Jeanie said drumming her fingers on the back of the settee she was standing behind.

We rolled up at the pub in the centre of town and started setting up. "All right girls?" The landlady came over to ask.

"Hi Mel," I said, "I think I should tell you that we have a new look, the music is the same or similar, but we've gone a bit sexier."

"Good." Mel replied and then asked, "er... you're not stripping off or anything... are you?"

I laughed, "no, just miniskirts."

"That's Ok then." Mel added with a smile, "have a good one." Then left us to carry on with the sound check.

As it was a Saturday night, there were a few more people about and when we appeared all legs and glitter, we got a bit of attention. We decided that we would go straight into the opening number without any introduction. Usually Andrew and I took turns to introduce the songs. Anyway Fats Domino's "The Fat Man" got the joint moving. This song gave Betsy a starring role on keyboards, while Andrew took the main vocals, I joined the Waa -Waa's in harmony with him in the middle.

After that the set went really well and what do you know? We were really enjoying ourselves and it showed in our playing It was a two set gig each an hour long with a break in the middle. The first hour flew by and before we knew it, it was time for our break. Mel came up for the drinks order and said "you're on form tonight kids!"

We were conscious of the pub filling up, apparently Mel sent a couple of her regulars out to other pubs and spread the word that there were some sexy girls on stage at "The Hind." (naughty, naughty!)

The second half went well too. For the first time, Betsy came from behind her keyboard when she played her flute and apart from showing her legs, I noticed that she had undone the leather lace that had been tied in a bow at the top of her dress. Nothing more was showing, but with the laces flying back and forth, there was a hint of something promised. I laughed and pulled down the front zip as far as the top horn of my guitar. The crowd yaroowed in approval I must admit I was taken aback at the reaction.

We finished the set as normal with one of our own numbers, (actually written by Andrew) which gives each of us 8 bars to show off our expertise on our instruments. Before we started this number I introduced each of the band members, with Andrew taking over at the end to mention me. As we finished with our explosive crescendo, the crowd bayed for more. I noticed Mel giving me the "two more songs" signal. so we finally got off stage after a rather long version of "Johnny B Good in which I sang to give Andrew to concentrate fully on the guitar parts.

We escaped the stage and into the "dressing room" (ha!) really a glorified cupboard. "What a difference a week makes!" Joanie exclaimed. "Last week they didn't want to know us, this week... well....."

"It shows that it is all in the presentation." Betsy said as we wound down with a drink.

"Yeah!" I guffawed, "we all saw your bit of 'presentation', opening your dress like that."

"What about you? You undid your more that I did!" Betsy retorted.

"What ever you did, it worked." Andrew added., "But the gig was going well even before that."

"I think the new image is a success don't you?" Joanie asked. We all agreed with that and got out of our stage gear and into T-shirts and leggings to pack up the equipment. We had to do that as we didn't have a roadie, besides there wouldn't be room in the van for another person.

We each had 'day' jobs, but that didn't stop us talking to each other during the week about many things pertaining to the band, particularly whether we needed a new name.

We would have had a gig at Ted's pub, but he had cancelled, but we still had a Friday night gig in a fortnight's time at a village pub about fifteen miles from town. We decided that this gig would be the first under a new name, upon which we had still to decide.

The names kept coming and being rejected until finally we settled on "Noah's Girls." (We presumed Andrew could be 'Noah'). Now decided, we had a lot to do, new publicity material, business cards, flyers etc., We also had to tell the pub where we were booked. Joanie knew the landlord there pretty well so she was detailed to impart the news to him. "How was he?" we asked.

"He was fine after I told him the girls would be getting their legs out." Joanie remarked. "Already he has put on the pub's Facebook page that there is a new sexy band in town and he had got our 'debut'."

We dashed round to a local photographer's studio to have some new publicity shots taken, dresses slightly awry, lots of leg on display, with us girls draped over Joanie's drum kit with other instruments in shot etc and Andrew standing with his arm around Joanie pushing the strap of her shiny vest off her shoulder. It was one exactly like this that we chose for our roll up display which would stand at the side of the stage. It was touch and go whether it would arrive in time for the gig.

"I hope it all works!" Joanie muttered at one of our meetings, "it's been a lot of expense up front." Betsy had said that she liked the bit in the picture where Andrew was pushing her strap off Joanie's shoulder and wondered if that could slide off during the gig. "It's too tight for that to happen by itself." Joanie told her. "but I guess it would be sexy if it did."

"Let me have mum look at it." Betsy suggested.

Joanie got it back the evening of the gig. Mrs Bryce had cut a big Vee down the centre of the back and laced it up. "That way you can control how tight or loose you need it to be." Betsy told her.

Joanie needn't have worried about the gig. Due to pretty much only the landlord's efforts, as our publicity hadn't been out there, the pub was packed. The whole gig was a repeat of the one in town. Halfway through, Betsy once again undid the bow in the lace at the front of her dress. as before it didn't actually reveal anything that couldn't

be seen before. There was a slight difference in that she removed the leather lace from the top two holes. You still couldn't see anything other than the tiniest bit of cleavage. (In a later gig she took out the whole lace, which gave a bit more to see.)

Afterwards when Andrew wasn't present, Betsy offered the suggestion, "I think we need more revealing outfits." This prompted reactions ranging from a laugh to wonderment. "Let's face it, more people have seen us at our recent gigs than at any time before. We have to keep them coming."

"She's got a point." Joanie conceded. "We can't keep wearing the same outfits at every gig, we need some variety."

"Would you be prepared to wear a skirt at the drums?" I asked.

"I might." Joanie replied, "It wouldn't have to be too tight."

"Like a skater skirt?" Betsy asked

Joanie laughed, "How short?"

"Too short!" Betsy giggled.

"Would you be prepared to ask you mum to make sexier, more revealing outfits?" I asked Betsy.

She nodded, "we've already discussed it. In fact she suggested it. I don't mean that we should go out there in bra and panties, but there is a lot more scope, but anyway, we need more stage clothes...."

".....Don't you mean fewer stage clothes?" I interrupted her.

"Yes that's exactly what I mean." Betsy replied, "as you know I spent a few days in Camden last week and there are several bands there where the female singer ends up almost naked. There is one called 'The Soapgirls' who come on to the stage topless at the start of their sets. They have a big following."

"I'm not sure how that would go down at the Dog and Duck!" I remarked.

"We could go for club bookings, they pay a lot better than the local pub." Betsy countered.

"Are you going to show your tits at the next gig then?" Joanie asked her.

"I'm not going to get them out, but I might let them be seen."

"How is that going to work then?"

"I could be wearing a loose top and be so engrossed in the music that I don't 'notice' when it slips. How much it slips depends on the crowd and the atmosphere." Betsy had clearly thought this through. "Joanie you could do the same when you are doing your drum solo. Angela you too, or you could get the hem of your dress caught on the body of your guitar or something."

"Are we going to turn into the sex cats from hell then?" I asked.

"Hell yes!" Joanie exploded. "I'm getting turned on at the thought of the possibilities."

"OK, we can try it. But I don't want my mother coming to the gigs!" I giggled.

"She doesn't anyway." Joanie observed.

A good place to start is that rugby club do we have in a month. Now all we had to do was get organised, oh, and tell Andrew. I'll come back to the 'tell Andrew' part, but in the meantime it was perhaps not so surprising how enthusiastic Mrs Bryce was to help her daughter and the rest of us to show off our bodies on stage. We found out that she used to be a stripper!

With her and Betsy's encouragement, Joanie and I were sort of carried along with the sexy dress with a good chance of an 'Oops' happening. Well, I say a chance, more like a certainty. Betsy was always the keenest on showing off and was pushing the limits. Mrs Bryce, of course had our measurements and when we girls were summoned to see some of the garments she had made, we were all astounded by the daring nature of them and the quality, never mind the sheer number of them for each of us.

Betsy had one dress that was almost completely see-through that was crotch level. When she modelled it for us she wore only a sparkly g string. It had slits up there sides to her waist. this proved to be a theme all of the dresses she made for me had the same. Joanie had several skirts and dresses, some short, others longer, but they were all quite full. All of her dresses were split up the sides too. we were all excited at the possibilities and not a little aroused.

On the way home, I was driving Joanie in my little car. "What are your thoughts then?" I asked.

"I can't wait Angela," Joanie said, "I was getting quite turned on at the thought, weren't you?" When I admitted I was, Joanie suddenly said, "Stop the car Angela."

We were in a quiet suburban street which was lit, but the trees on the grass verge, shaded some areas. I stopped as it happened, in one of the shadier parts. Joanie took my hands in hers and said, "You're either going to get grossed out by this or like it, but I have to do it." She leant forward and kissed me on the lips. When I say kissed, I mean KISSED! I was taken completely by surprise. "I have wanted to do that ever since I first saw you naked in the school showers," she confessed.

"Joanie, that was years ago!" I was astounded.

"I know, but did you like it?"

I held her hands and whispered, "I don't know.... try it again." We tried it again, and again.

"I've watched your bum moving to the music all these years and never quite knew how to tell you." I found myself letting her undo my coat and then my blouse. As she cupped my bra covered breast in her hand, we kissed again. "Come back to mine tonight Angela."

"Hm Hmm." I heard my self murmuring in agreement. A quick call home followed. leaving a message for mum I was staying with Joanie tonight. This wasn't completely out of order as each of us had stayed overnight with the other girls from time to time, often after a gig, but in nothing like way I felt this night was going to end up. Good job it was a Friday night, so no work in the morning.

Joanie's flat had one bedroom in use, the other was full of drums and accessories. I was divested of my coat as soon as the front door was closed. However after that we slowly undressed each other. As usual, she was not wearing a bra, so after her tight top was off, she was naked from the waist up. my blouse ended up on her bedroom floor as did my bra. we were both wearing joggers and trainers, so we had to separate to take care of their removal. I lay back naked on her bed and said, "there you are Joanie, now's your chance to do everything you've been dreaming about."

She lay on top of me and we kissed wetly, so wetly in fact that soon our faces were smothered in a mixture of our different saliva(s). "I want to make you wet." she murmured.

"Too late." I whispered, "have a feel."

"We have all night." she breathed. She cupped my vagina in one hand and took one of my breasts into her mouth. "I love your tits." I smiled. I had often been complimented on my breasts, not too big and nicely formed. True, these remarks had hitherto come from men, not women.

"Suck them if you like." I offered. Her fingers were not idle, and as any woman knows exactly where to touch, it wasn't long before I was moving in concert with her. My hand was in her hair, a shortish pixie cut. She left my breast and was kissing her way down to my belly and beyond.

"I want to kiss your pussy." Joanie told me and looked at my face. I airily waved my free hand.

"My body is yours for tonight." I breathed. She slid over the thin hairs of my mound and licked daintily at my sweetness before positioning herself between my legs, my thighs over her shoulders. It was not the first time I had had my pussy licked, but this was unique as I was being made love to by another woman. It was so different.

We did all sorts of things I had never done before, including some rather messy scissoring. I had always thought that penetration was the key to a good orgasm, how wrong that can be.

Afterwards, we lay exhausted, but delighted. I gasped, "Joanie, I don't know where that came from."

"I know exactly where it came from," She replied, just as out of breath as I was. "It came from years of pent up desire of me wanting you. It has been agony not being brave enough to try to broach the subject, but tonight after all that talk of being scantily dressed on stage and the recent opportunities I have had to ogle your beautiful long legs, I had to go for it."