Page 33 of Wild Tonic
It was refreshing to wander about without people coming up to him and asking for selfies like they had at the Wilde Park Festival. In fact, the opposite seemed true here; people were stopping Clem and asking about her business or how her family were doing. Not to mention the teenage girls who squealed when they realised who she was. Clem took it all in her stride, smiling and posing for the people who wanted a snap to put all over their social media. Nate was grateful to take a backseat on that, even offering to take some of the pictures. As a result, it seemed to take them an absolute age to get anywhere.
They stopped in the Market Square to listen to one of the acoustic acts, a solo singer with a guitar. He was pretty good, although not Nate’s preferred style.
“Clementine Cameron!” A high-pitched female voice cut through the music.
The couple turned, and saw a woman in her mid-thirties, with wild, frizzy hair, clutching a collecting bucket heading in their direction. She threw her arms around Clem, capturing her in a hug.
“Gail!”
Clem’s tone was equally as shrill and Nate winced. He guessed that was how they did it down here.
“What are you doing here? No-one told me you were back this weekend.”
“It was kind of a last-minute decision and Nate didn’t know if he could come.”
Gail’s gaze raked up and down Nate and the obvious interest in him made him slightly uncomfortable. “Your new boyfriend?”
Clem nodded. “Yep. Gail, this is Nate.”
“And what does Nate do for a living?”
Clem shot a sideways glance at him before answering. “He’s in a band.”
The woman’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? You should have asked them to play here. We like to promote bands who want to make it big.”
“Gail’s on the festival committee,” said Clem. “She’s one of the music bookers, as well as sorting out the volunteers.”
“That’s right.” Gail nodded enthusiastically. “Why don’t you send us an application and maybe we can get you on the bill for next year?”
Nate decided to play along. “Really? Could you? That would be fantastic. I know the other guys in the band would be so excited to come here. Would we get paid?”
“Of course! We pay anywhere between one hundred and five thousand pounds, depending on the standing of the group.”
“Right.” Nate bit his lip. He felt Clem dig her nails into his palm. She had obviously worked out what he was doing. “I’m really sorry, Gail, I’m not sure our management company would be happy with that. I mean, even though we have a connection with the town in Clem here, we probably couldn’t go that low.”
Gail patted his arm. “Why don’t you let me speak to your management? I’m sure I’d be able to talk them round.”
It took all of Nate’s willpower not to burst out laughing. He decided to put the woman out of her misery. “Gail, I’m Nate McKenna, lead guitarist for Blood Stone Riot. Even if you could afford us, I imagine we’d scare off your festival faithful.”
As realisation dawned on Gail’s face, her jaw dropped open. “My son is a fan of yours. He’s thirteen and I hate the stuff he listens to.”
Nate shrugged. “Like I said, we’re probably not quite what you’re looking for.” He smiled. “Sorry for leading you on.”
The woman tutted and embraced Clem again. “Lovely to see you, Clem. I need to go and shake my bucket at some more people.”
“Wait.” Nate slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out a twenty pound note. He popped it into Gail’s bucket. “Events like this are how we cut our teeth, so I’m happy to support it. Even though we don’t get to play them anymore.”
Gail nodded at him and disappeared into the crowd.
Clem punched him on the arm. “That was so mean! She’s a good friend of the family.”
“I know, I just couldn’t resist. She was so…” Nate paused, searching for the right word to explain it. “Sincere?” He pulled Clem towards him and gave her a deep kiss. “Now who else can we go and see?”
They headed off to one of the cafes, that looked out onto a large expanse of field and had great views of the river. A small crowd was gathered around their makeshift stage, where another acoustic act was playing. Clem spotted Liam, Alfie and Leona and dragged Nate over to them.
“Nate’s been teasing Gail about his fame and notoriety,” she said.
“Good work, mate, she can be a bit intense at times, very sincere,” said Alfie. “Drives us mental.”
