Page 247 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

"You did," Eric said impatiently. "Now, what have you got for the B side?"

*

"Are you ready for some good news?" said Eric Chapman over the phone to Dave Williams a month later. "You're going to Birmingham."

At first Dave did not know what he meant. "Why?" he said. Birmingham was an industrial city one hundred twenty miles north of London. "What's in Birmingham?"

"The television studio where they make It's Fab!, you idiot."

"Oh!" Dave suddenly felt breathless with excitement. Eric was talking about a popular show that featured pop groups miming to their records. "Are we on it?"

"Of course you are! 'Love Is It' will be their Hot Tip for the week."

The record had been out five days. It had been played on the BBC Light Programme once, and several times on Radio Luxembourg. To Dave's surprise, Eric did not know how many copies had actually been bought: the record business was not that good at tracking sales.

Eric had released the version with Paulo on the piano. Lenny had pretended not to notice.

Eric treated Dave as the leader of the group, despite what Lenny had told him. Now he said: "Have you got decent outfits to wear?"

"We normally wear red shirts and black jeans."

"It's black-and-white television, so that'll probably look fine. Make sure you all wash your hair."

"When are we going?"

"Day after tomorrow."

"I'll have to get off school," Dave said worriedly. There might be trouble about that.

"You may have to leave school, Dave."

Dave gulped. He wondered if that was true.

Eric finished: "Meet me at Euston station at ten in the morning. I'll have your tickets."

Dave hung up the phone and stared at it. He was going to be on It's Fab!.

It was beginning to look as if he might actually make a living by singing and playing the guitar. As that prospect came to seem more real, his dread of the alternatives grew. What a comedown it would be now, if he had to get a regular job after all.

He called the rest of the group immediately, but he decided not to tell his family until afterward. There was too much risk that his father would try to stop him going.

He kept the exciting secret to himself all evening. Next day at lunchtime he asked to see the head teacher, old None Above.

Dave felt intimidated in the headmaster's study. In his early days at school he had been caned in this office several times for such offenses as running in the corridor.

He explained the situation and pretended there had not been time to get a note from his father.

"It seems to me you have to choose between getting a decent education and becoming a pop singer," said Mr. Furbelow, pronouncing the words pop singer with a grimace of distaste. He looked as if he had been asked to eat a can of cold dog food.

Dave thought of saying: Actually, my ambition is to become a prostitute's minder, but Furbelow's sense of humor was as scant as his hair. "You told my father I'm going to fail all my exams and be thrown out of the school."

"If your work does not improve rapidly, and if you consequently fail to gain any O-level qualifications, you will not be admitted to the sixth form," the head said with prissy exactness. "All the more reason why you may not take days off school to appear on trashy television programs."

Dave thought of arguing about "trashy" and decided it was a lost cause. "I thought you might regard a trip to a television studio as an educational experience," he said reasonably.

"No. There is far too much talk nowadays about educational 'experiences.' Education takes place in the classroom."

Despite Furbelow's mulish obstinacy, Dave continued to try to reason with him. "I'd like to have a career in music."

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