Chapter 4 #6
Pea: I don’t know whether AJ snuck out or what.
All I know is that when I woke up the next morning, I could hear this buzz.
It was coming from outside. I opened my bedroom window and it got louder.
It was girls, I realised. Teenage girls.
I pulled some clothes on and went outside.
Mum and Dad were a step ahead of me, and I caught them up, asked them what was happening.
Mum shrugged and Dad didn’t bother responding at all.
The noise got louder and louder as we approached the locked gates.
I’d never seen a crowd like it. Some of them were shouting AJ’s name and others were just talking in groups and all of them were standing there as if they were going to be given access.
Where had they come from? And how long had they been here?
When we reached the gates, the sound died down.
Did they think we were going to let them in?
Dad made a sort of megaphone with his hands and asked what they were doing here.
They started up a chant. AJ Silver, AJ Silver, AJ Silver, AJ Silver.
Dad waved his arms around until they stopped.
Then he did the megaphone again and said, ‘The park is closed for the next six weeks. Please go home.’
Sebastian: I woke up and there was no one in the house.
I remember thinking that everything was weird, and I just wanted it to go back to normal.
I was eating cereal when they all came back in, dressed in pyjamas and flip flops.
Dad was muttering about how they’d found out, and Mum was saying that people weren’t stupid and could put two and two together after seeing that the park was closed. Pea was quiet. I asked what was up.
Cathy: Sebastian’s always been in his own little world.
He didn’t seem bothered by the crowd the way the rest of us were.
I was unsettled. Maggie had told us this would happen, but I’d sort of imagined a dozen or so pre-teen girls, and this was something quite different.
There were hundreds of them. They must have come from all over the place.
And they didn’t look like they were going anywhere.
We’d walked away after John’s announcement but it was clear no one was getting ready to leave.
Sebastian: It was a bit later that I realised we couldn’t use the car without opening the gates, and we clearly couldn’t open the gates.
Cathy: We all felt trapped, and it struck me for the first time that we lived in a kind of cage. That we’d voluntarily set up our family inside these gates. It hadn’t felt restrictive until we couldn’t open them.
Pea: Once I was dressed, I went over to Zak and AJ’s bus, asked them if they knew.
They’d heard the buzz, of course. They didn’t seem surprised, just weary.
I remember Zak saying, ‘I thought we might get a couple of days.’ AJ said he was going to go to the gates and sign a few autographs, try to get them onside.
Zak thought that was a terrible idea and that he should stay hidden.
But AJ wasn’t the kind to take advice. He went over there, to the gates.
His bodyguard, Lucian, went with him. Zak and I followed.
The way the noise rose when he came into view was inexplicable.
The screaming, my God. He held up his hands, as if to say I am but a man, and I saw the showman in him for the first time.
Suddenly he wasn’t a teenager I’d been hanging out with but this thing, this star.
I could see that the crowd was surging forward and it was so clear someone was going to get hurt.
I turned to Zak, asked him what we should do.
AJ was turning to go, as if he could just appear and rile everyone up and then disappear.
Which I suppose he could. But the girls were in a frenzy, pushing and shoving.
I saw this one girl with her face pressed up against the gates, and then I saw her fall.
Cathy: Pea came running into the house, saying we had to call 999.
That people were getting hurt at the gates.
I didn’t find out until later that AJ had appeared there and caused a stampede of sorts where the people at the front couldn’t move and ended up being trampled.
Three girls were treated by paramedics in the end.
None of them had serious injuries but it was a bit of a wakeup call.
Zak: AJ couldn’t help himself. He was like two people, in a way.
The one who hated all the attention, who wanted to play Pac-Man and listen to music and all of that, and then the other one, the famous one, who couldn’t stop himself going to see the furore his very presence caused.
Did he care that three girls got hurt? I mean, he said he did.
But what’s three girls in a crowd of several hundred?
You start to think of them as numbers rather than people.
Pea: I didn’t know AJ well, of course, but it was like he was on this path to self-destruction. It was too much, I suppose. All of it. The fame, the money, the isolation. He loved and hated it. Any dream come true is a nightmare when looked at from a different angle, right?
Maggie: It was Zak who came to tell me what had happened.
I went straight to AJ and told him to stay away from the gates, from the crowd.
Injured young girls were not a good look.
I had flowers sent to the hospital for them, signed the cards from AJ.
The showers still hadn’t arrived so we had another morning of all going in and out of the Hunters’ place.
What with that and the issue with staff and the girls being hurt, it felt like everything was going wrong.
But I was convinced it would get better when the tour started. The lead-up was always weird.
Pea: It was that same day, in the afternoon.
We were all just hanging out again, and Zak and Alex wanted to go on Canyon for a third time.
AJ and I stood back and watched them. It was strange to see the almost empty carriage going round, just the front two seats occupied.
I was looking at Zak, thinking about being alone with him, when AJ spoke.
He said, ‘You know you’re just his British girl, right?
’ I went cold. Couldn’t look at him. I asked what he was talking about.
‘When we get back home, you’ll be this anecdote he brings out.
“Yeah, I had a thing with this British girl.” He won’t even use your name.
’ I was shocked. It was so wilfully cruel.
And I didn’t know what to say. What could I say?
The others were bounding over to us at that point and Zak put his arms around me and kissed my forehead and I wanted to turn to AJ and say, ‘See? See?’ But what did it prove, really?
I spent the rest of that afternoon feeling sad, but in the evening, as I turned it over and over, the sadness turned to anger. How dare he?
Zak: I didn’t know anything about what AJ had said to Pea until much later.
Until after he was gone. So I never got to ask him.
I have no idea why he did it. Just for something to do, would be my guess.
It was all one big game to him, and he’d test out what might happen if he pushed this button, or that one.
It was just like going to the gates to see the screaming fans.
He wanted to see what would happen. When Pea eventually told me about that exchange, I was furious with him.
And being furious with your dead brother is the worst.
Danny: Just before we leave them for today, let’s have one last word from Sebastian. You’re curious about that visit from AJ, right? I certainly was.
Sebastian: It became a bit of a thing, having tea with AJ.
It happened most days while he was there.
I don’t think anyone else knew, because they were all out of the house.
I think, looking back, that he liked the fact that I didn’t treat him any differently to anyone else.
I didn’t care one iota about his fame. He was surrounded by people who treated him like he was some kind of God, and I think that wears thin after a while.
Danny: So that’s it for today. Thanks for listening, and be sure to keep sharing your thoughts on your socials at @WhatHappenedThatSummer. Next week we’ll be putting the spotlight on AJ’s messy and complicated love life. Believe me, you won’t want to miss it.
LeahLou
I was in that crush outside the gates! AJ Silver forever! #WhatHappenedThatSummer
MichelleOdin
Oh my god, me too. I was right at the front and saw the girls who went down. It was scary. But you don’t think about getting hurt when you’re a teenager, do you? #WhatHappenedThatSummer
Steve_O
I can’t believe what AJ said to Pea – what a dick! #WhatHappenedThatSummer
56349Baz
Is anyone else thinking what I’m thinking? Pea and John both have a reason to dislike AJ now, right? #WhatHappenedThatSummer
BecksWilson
I don’t care what anyone says, Ice Cream is a tune. #WhatHappenedThatSummer
FreyatheFox
Imagine what he might have gone on to do, in later years, if he’d had the opportunity. #WhatHappenedThatSummer
DantheMan
Yeah, imagine. We might have had another three albums of mediocre pop music before he sunk without trace. #WhatHappenedThatSummer