Chapter 4 #2
‘No, I’m sure. I just mean we all had to go through it at some stage – Oh Boy! being over. And it was always going to be an adjustment. At least you got to do it before things went sour.’ He drained his Coke and stood. ‘Anyway, the chilli should be done. Let’s eat.’
* * *
‘So, do you see much of the guys now?’ Roly asked. They’d moved to the kitchen/diner and sat on high stools at a marble-topped counter.
‘No. I used to see Liam a good bit, but not for ages now. We’re still in touch pretty regularly, though. The others, not so much… well, until recently.’
Roly raised his eyebrows.
‘That’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. Zack rang the other day. He’s going to be in Dublin in the next couple of months. We’re meeting up… all of us.’
‘What? Everyone?’
‘Yeah.’ Charlie looked down at his bowl, concentrating on crunching a handful of tortilla chips into his chilli, then adding a dollop of sour cream, a sprinkling of cheese and a spoonful of guacamole. ‘I thought he might have rung you,’ he said finally.
‘Uh… no. Why would Zack ring me?’
‘I just thought—’ He broke off and sighed, stirring his chilli thoughtfully. Leaning back in his chair, he put down his fork and eyeballed Roly. ‘The thing is, he’s talking about a reunion.’
‘A reunion? What kind of reunion?’ But Roly already knew he wasn’t talking about a get-together for a few drinks and a trip down memory lane.
‘You know – the group getting back together. Making an album, doing a tour – a comeback, basically.’ He picked up his fork and resumed eating.
‘Oh.’ Roly swallowed and reached for his Coke. Suddenly his throat felt very dry. ‘And… did Zack want you to talk to me about it?’
Charlie threw him a wary look. ‘No. He actually said not to mention it if I was talking to you. I thought maybe he wanted to tell you himself – you know, extend an olive branch sort of thing.’
Roly gave a bitter laugh. ‘No. I’ve heard zip about this. I doubt I’ll be getting any olive branches from him.’
‘Well, I thought I should give you a heads-up either way.’
Roly nodded. ‘Thanks. I appreciate it.’ He felt bad for thinking ill of Charlie in the past. He’d had his own problems to deal with, but he was basically sound. ‘So when is this happening?’
‘Nothing’s been decided yet. It’s just an idea at this stage; we haven’t thrashed out any of the details. It may not even happen. He was just throwing it out there, seeing how we all felt, if we were up for it.’
‘And are you?’
‘Hell, yeah!’ Charlie grinned, his eyes wide with enthusiasm. So much for envying Roly for getting out when he did.
‘You’d go back to all that?’
‘In a heartbeat.’
‘What about your solo career?’
Charlie shrugged. ‘It’s dead in the water. My heart wasn’t in it anyway. I loved being in the group. It wasn’t the same doing it all on my own.’
‘Well, there’s no point in doing something you’re not enjoying if you don’t have to. It’s not as if you need the money.’
‘Yeah, exactly.’
It wasn’t fair – Roly did need the money. Of all of them, he was the one who had the most to gain from an Oh Boy! comeback. But it didn’t look like he’d be part of it.
‘Maybe Zack will call you yet. It’d be a laugh if all five of us were back together. It was never the same after you left.’
‘What about the rest of you?’ Roly hated asking, but he couldn’t afford to be proud.
This was the lifeline he needed, and he had to at least try to grasp it.
‘Can’t you ask me? It’s as much your group as Zack’s.
’ It was true on paper, but Zack had somehow become the de facto leader by dint of shouting the loudest and being the biggest success.
‘I know. I said we should sound you out about it.’
‘And he said no?’
‘He said we’d discuss it when we meet up, but his thinking was that it should just be the four of us. He said that’s what the fans would want.’
‘Bullshit!’
‘That’s what I said – well, not in so many words. But I said fans would totally want to see you. I mean, you were probably the most popular one.’
‘And what did he say to that?’
‘He, uh…’ Charlie’s eyes slid away and he looked sheepish. ‘He said that was a long time ago, and you left the group so early, everyone has forgotten by now that you were ever in it.’
‘Wanker!’ He’d always known Zack was a total shitbag, but this was low even for him.
‘He’s just jealous,’ Charlie said with a shrug. ‘You know he was always a bit envious of us.’
He and Charlie had been the most musically gifted members of the group, the only song-writers among the five of them and the only ones who could play instruments.
They’d been the ones everyone expected to make it big on their own.
Zack had resented their song-writing credits and musical ability.
He’d always been more of a showman, good at dance routines and goofing about in interviews, but with no substantial talent.
Even his voice needed a lot of production to sound halfway decent.
Yet against all the odds, he was the one whose solo career had gone supernova.
‘I’m surprised he even wants to go back to sharing a stage with anyone else. And do you seriously want to be working with him again? To be stuck in studios and on tour buses with him and his ego?’
Charlie shrugged. ‘I liked being part of a group. I still miss it.’
‘I thought you were glad to be out of all that.’
‘It’d be different now, though, wouldn’t it? We’re older… wiser, hopefully.’
‘Hmm.’ Roly wasn’t so sure about the wiser part.
Growing up inside Oh Boy! wasn’t the same as growing up in the real world.
They’d been exposed to a lot of stuff, of course, that most kids their age never got to experience.
They’d travelled the world, meeting presidents and prime ministers, soaking up different cultures and partying with rock legends and movie stars.
There’d been cocaine and Kristal, and exotic food that his mum and nan had never even heard of.
But they’d been shielded from a lot of stuff too.
He’d only realised once he’d been kicked out how cocooned he’d been in ways, how ill-equipped he was to function in normal life.
It had been too much too fast, and at the same time too little, too late.
‘Anyway,’ Charlie said, ‘I thought you had a right to know, so you won’t be blindsided if you see it on social media or something.’
‘Thanks. I appreciate it.’
‘And maybe Zack will still call you.’
‘I don’t see that happening. What about Vince? Will he be involved?’
‘Of course.’ Charlie rolled his eyes. ‘As if we could make a move without our puppet-master.’
‘Well, I guess that’s me out, then.’ Vince, the man who’d made and managed them, was a ruthless music mogul, who’d never forgiven Roly for fucking up.
‘Would you even want to do it?’ Charlie asked.
‘Yes, I would.’
‘Really?’
‘Like you say, it’d be different now. I’m not going to go off the rails again at this stage. And it’d be fun, all of us back together. I mean we had a laugh, didn’t we?’
‘You’re only remembering the good parts – how it was at the start.’
‘Maybe. But even so, worst-case scenario, it’s just a job, and there are a lot harder ways of making money. Any job has good and bad parts. Besides, I could really do with the money.’
‘Yeah, I heard what happened with Marty.’ Charlie threw him a sympathetic look. ‘That sucks.’
‘It really does.’ But maybe his mum had been right about something turning up. An Oh Boy! reunion might be the miracle he needed. He just had to do whatever it took to make sure he was part of it – even if it meant sucking up to Zack.