The Come Up { Dropped } 5 Wemx Festival - Part 2

The news of TenCario and similar acts, dropping out from the festival had spread across the outside crowd and the inside into the venue.

Crowdmemeber 10121: "Hey, Evan….. and also The Diamonds have also.pulled out for the same.reasons!"

Crowdmemeber 10122: *Who cares about The Diamonds, They're s.h.i.+te anyways!"

Crowdmemeber 101:" Hey! The Diamonds are the greatest! Come say that bs to my face!"

Crowdmemeber 976: :""OMG! Is that why all those RV's were leaving! Bu0026R better still playing! Rick, check their feed!

The scattered around festival organizers, were being bombarded with questions and couldn't find a moment of peace. People had started leaving the festival in droves, clearly looking unhappy. A few choose to stay behind, as they had not seen anything from their favourite artists feeds on BlueBird.

The sounds of the angry crowds had m.u.f.fled into the waiting area; the artists watched in confusion as the last few organizers and stage hands, kept leaving and running outside.

Seamus was still sitting on his speaker box with his headphones on double checking his music set 'Harlem Shake didn't work that well, it's better to try different genres to see what sticks in this world" He had pushed hard to make more music for the 15mins set than asked, during the past two weeks ' Should I swap out Feel good for jump around?'

The sound of a item being slammed on the floor brought him out of his thoughts, he looked up and watched a guitarists kick down a speaker " Treating people's careers like a joke, f.u.c.king sacks of s.h.i.+t" The guitarists stormed out, dragging his acoustic guitar behind him leaving a tense atmosphere in the room.

'What is going on?' Seamus looked around the room to notice there was only 5 artists in the room 'Wait, there was around 20 people here before' Taking off his headphones, he could hear the kiss lookalike band, talking about the organizers. Seamus hopped off the speaker and walked up to the group "Excuse me, do you guys know what's going on?" his question was met by the turn of all of the painted three faces.

" Who you are?" The three band members were all of equal height with the same black haired wigs on, Seamus could only tell them apart due to the style of face paint. The one with triangular face paint spoke first to him.

" Seamus Moench, I'm the supporting act for TenCario"

"Hmm, well you can forget about that, their not playing anymore...they are not even here " triangular face paint guy quickly replied.

The one with a box-checked pattern cut in "Yeh, apparently one of the Chiefs ran off with the sponsors.h.i.+p money, so everyone is leaving"

" Evan and the bigger ones are boycotting, the news is exploding with the story, we are waiting to see what our manager says" The one with the panda style face painted added to the conversation. The band started arguing about the boycotted bands, completely forgetting about Seamus.

's.h.i.+t! My easy life would have been smoother with this pay!' " How do we get paid? Is the show still going on? " Seamus asked ' Ah, I knew this day would be too good to be true! It was fishy from the start! Who in their right mind emails a one track artists to play at 60,000 festival'

The band looked back to see Seamus squatting on the floor looking dejected, before they could speak. Their manager; a thin tall, tanned bald man came back " the police are chasing down the organizers but the show festival hasn't been cancelled, you can still perform, if you guys want"

The ban manager looked down to see Seamus like the rest of the group " You a newbie? Sorry but doesn't look like anyone is getting paid for a long time, I'd say hire a representative to make things easier when the court case comes"

Seamus looked back at the group and paused for a moment " Er...ye,no, I'm not a newbie, I did a few gigs and mini concerts, when I was younger" Seamus turned downcast running his hand through his hair, when he thought back to his grandparents driving him to talent shows or gigs in his old life.

The manager caught onto his facial expression " Well kid, I'm Peterson, if you need a manager, agent or anything, I'm your guy! here's my card, our label can take care of you " He smiled, looking at Seamus like he was staring at the last item in a sale rack.

Seamus snapped out of thoughts and stood up, taking the card from Peterson "Thanks...I appreciate it"

"Cheer up and look at the bright side…. Oh, btw I am Isaac, this Tom and Fredi; my brothers, we are Bishopsu0026Knights, and our manager Peterson " Isaac, the one with panda face-painting said, as pointed to the triangular faced Tom, box face painted Fredi and the suited up Peterson.

Fredi: "IT'S Bu0026K!"

"Nope! It's too close to BLT!" Tom stared at Fredi with a look of disgust

"Nice to meet you guys " Seamus chuckled and shook all their hands

" Whatever T! But yeah bright side, we've had worse than this, you guys remember that restaurant " Fredi said as looked at Isaac with a smile on his face.

Tom: "Mhmm"

Fredi conutined speaking, see that no one else was going to narrate "There were about 30 people there. I remember we were playing, what was it ... Fire? Pretty sure it was fire, anyway, we were squeezing between the diners in the restaurant… Isaac was perching on this woman's lap, looking like one of those hand puppet dolls and they even asked Tom to help serve the dinners"

" I was sure they were going to ask us to stay at their house, " Tom said as he was holding back his laughter.

" All I can say is, thank G.o.d they weren't any cameras around, It was so bizarre, this old lady kept squeezing my b.u.t.t but Lui here, was singing like he was trying to get the Grammy" Fred slapped Isaac's back, as Tom and him broke into a laughing fit .

"Everyone was very nice. And we got a free enchilada, followed by some chorizo – we got paid in chorizo and beer…. After that we met Peterson, and we will never go back there, to that dark, dark time. Though I think about it quite a lot – when we are on the stage or at I am at the company, I think at least we are not singing in a restaurant for chorizo."

" Why didn't you guys just leave " Seamus asked looking at the group

"I dunno, but I wouldn't leave if I was sent back in time, " Tom said as he wiped away his tears.

" It's experiences like that that have made us stronger " Isaac jabbed Tom and Fredi's stomachs " whether there are four or 400,000 people, once we step out there, we give it our all, especially since this is our last year together,r" Isaac said with a sad expression on his face.

" Pffft 400,000, that would be the day! " Fredi recovered quickly from the jab.

"Okay, guys, get prepped, I'll let the label know of the situation and please check the performer play-list and see when your coming out and work around the lack of acts around…. Last thing, I don't want a repeat of Ibiza, do you hear me?" Peterson walked away from the group whilst making a phone call.

"Yes, Mr Peterson " Isaac / Tom / Fredi said at the same time before laughing.

Listening to the crowd getting louder and louder, Seamus clenched his fists 'The guys are right! nothing has changed, I'm not back out of stuff, like my last life...there's nothing to lose! I will just need to explore the system more, find other ways to make money and I'll be set for life!...Alright! Alright! Let's play!" He could feel his heartbeat speeding up, as the noise around him drowned out and his vision narrowed in on the floor.

The band members watched Seamus grabbing a bag and a stack of paper " I know I'm asking a lot, but I wrote a song, would you guys like to perform it with me" He handed out sheets of paper to the brothers " btw how much do we have till the show starts?" Seamus asked, as the group read the music sheets.

" It's 13:20, we have about an hour and 10 minutes to go …. don't you have a watch?" Peterson answered after returning from his phone call.

Seamus pulled out his phone waving it in the air " the phone died on my way here" ' Wait, I could have looked at my laptop and the print out' He could hold the bridge of his nose as he lightly sighed.

" What is that! You need to get an iPear 4, there the rage these days, our label gives them out to " the manager replied whilst looking at his phone.

" Hey, you really write this?" Isaac suddenly looked up, staring at Seamus with scrunched eyebrows.

"Yeah I did, I was inspired by you guys?, Why?" …. 'mental note: I'll really need to build a shrine to all these artists and one for Steve..iPear, it just sounds so wrong '

" It's good...it's really good, our label mainly pushes the pop genre so we barely get any songs like this?" Isaac said whilst he started humming the lyrics from the sheet.

Fredi: " I'm with I'y, we can make this work, what you think Tom?"

Tom: "Mhmm"

" Wait, wait, you guys are pop group?" Seamus relooked at the attire the band was wearing and their face paint.

Fredi " I wis.h.!.+ Rock/Indie but the scene is dead! If it wasn't for I'y pus.h.i.+ng us to perform around the world, we would have broken up ages ago"

Tom: "Mhmm"

Seamus turned to look at Isaac.

" It's a super long story, but I keep pestering these guys to come with to festivals and gigs like this, basically as the eldest I will be taking over my dad's company when I turn 20, so I want to enjoy my freedom with my bros " Isaac shrugged his shoulders as he finished explaining.

Seamus merely nodded his head " So you guys think you can learn the song in one hours?"

" Little Sea, we are professional musicians of the highest order, this is nothing " Fredi spoke whilst making waving hand gestures ,causing everyone to look at him and break out into laughter.

____________________________________________________________________________

Only a crowd of around 12,000 people had remained in the gra.s.sy spectator area under the growing heat of the rising sun and the drying sloppy muddy ground.

The words "SOMEONE PLAY OR SOMEONE PAYS" had begun being chanted amongst the crowd with a few people had begun throwing items at the stage. The surrounding food stalls had left earlier, along with a large portion of the security crew and organizers.

Cm 234: " You think someone will still play?"

Cm 235: " Don't know, ...oh! s.h.i.+t! Bishopsu0026Knights said they are playing! Yes! I'll get to see my Isaac !"

As the crowd was talking and more becoming restless, A charcoal haired guy appeared on the stage wearing a white s.h.i.+rt and army green chinos.

Cm 234: " Who's that, you know him?"

Cm: 235: " No Idea, probably a supporting act, let me check BlueBird to see if I can find him, He looks cute though"

The crowd roared upon seeing someone take to the stage. As the guy was setting up, a plastic bottle was thrown at him resulting in yellow fluid spraying all over his s.h.i.+rt. The guy took off his s.h.i.+rt revealing a well built body, earning jeers and fox whistles from the crowd. The crowd immediately broke into a chant.

Cm 234/235: " TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFFF!"

The guy looked like he had finished setting up and looked back to the crowd, then his pants, then the crowd, only to hold up the mic and shout " LEEDS! ARE YOU READY TO BREAK SOME STUFF"

The crowd roared into a frenzy, as a aggressive beat shook the stage and invaded their bodies.