Little Drummer Dog. (3)

By Wolfie Steel.

Once my tyres have been replaced I drive to the park where AJ is waiting. I stop the car in the parking lot and I look out through the windows to see if I can spot the Black Panther, after a couple of seconds I see him sitting on a park bench holding what looks like a tissue up to his muzzle. I clamber out of the car and head over to where he is sitting.

I stand in front of AJ and now the reason for the tissue becomes all too apparent, it seems that one of the old band members has given AJ a little parting gift of a split lip, I don't think that I need to guess which one is responsible, but just for arguments sake I ask the question.

"I have a pretty damn good idea who gave you that split lip, but I want you to humour me, which of the assholes hit you?"

AJ slowly looks up at me but remains silent, which practically is a signed confession as far as I'm concerned.

"Okay AJ, we are going to the new studio where we will meet our new band mates, hehe, and you will also meet the guy that I have managed hook"

AJ smiles weakly at me and then he replies.

"Samuel, you never cease to amaze me, only you could get shit on from a great height and still come out smelling of roses. Well I guess we had better get going, oh but before we go anywhere I have a real big favour to ask you"

I sort of know what is coming, but I let him ask me anyway.

"Well, as you know I was Shaun's roommate, but now that he has thrown me out of the band it also means that I am now homeless, and so I was wondering if I could stay at your place just until I get my own pad, I mean I won't expect to stay as a free loader, but it would really help me out"

I chuckle a little at his nervousness, and I decide to tease him a little because of it.

"Oh damn that is going to cramp my style, now that means I won't be able to bring Steve home so that I can fuck his brains out"

AJ mewls a little which earns another chortle from me.

"Relax AJ, I was yanking your chain, of course you can stay at my place, I would never allow a good friend like you to be homeless"

AJ jumps up from the seat and then wraps his arms tightly around me.

"You shit head, don't ever tease me like that again, but thank you from the bottom of my heart, you have no idea what that means to me"

As we begin to walk back to my car AJ removes the blood stained tissue from his lip and dumps it in the trash can at the side of the bench. We walk back to my car and I show the Panther the note that Shaun had put on my car after slashing my tyres.

"Sam, what the fuck has gotten in to Shaun lately? I mean up until yesterday he was full of fun, and always reliable, never once was he angry with us, and then suddenly yesterday it was like somebody flipped a switch in his brain and he went nutsoid on us"

I unlock the car and begin to get in as I reply.

"I'm damned if I know what goes on in that mind of his"

We close the car doors and I continue.

"But if he thinks that he has heard the last of AJ Saunders and Sam 'Beats' Vine, he is sorely mistaken"

I take a card from my jacket pocket, it has the address of the new studio, so I input the details into my cars GPS and then I start the engine so that we can begin our journey.

A little over half an hour later and we arrive at the studio of Jacks Records, AJ and I sit in the parked car staring in awe at the building before us. The building has to be five or six storeys high and from ground to roof is smothered in glass panels.

It seems that wherever Steve is inside the building he is obviously looking through one of the windows at us because I receive a text message.

STEVE "When you two have quite finished ogling my building come in and wait for me in the foyer"

I laugh a little as AJ and I get out of the car, we make our way towards the main entrance and then push our way through the revolving doors, I was almost tempted to joke, What goes around comes around but I thought better of it.

We head over to the main desk and find a young female Dalmatian sitting at a computer terminal; her eyes look up from the screen as she addresses us.

"Hi guys, you must be the ones that Mr. Jacks is waiting for, well take a seat he will be with you shortly"

AJ and I head to the seating area and park our butts on the extremely soft leather couch. We are sat there for no longer than a minute when Steve makes his way down the staircase and heads towards us with his paw outstretched and ready to shake AJ's paw.

AJ takes the Rottweiler's paw in his own as Steve introduces himself.

"You must be AJ, well I'm Steve Jacks, founder and CEO of Jacks Records, and as you have probably already been told, the love interest of your friend Sam"

I blush profusely as Steve says that, I also see the young female Dalmatian's ears flick a little.

"Okay guys, lets head up to the main studio, the rest of the guys are there all waiting for us"

AJ and I stand from the couch and follow Steve back up the stairs, before he vanishes from sight of the Dalmatian he turns and calls back to her.

"Fiona, I'm going to be in a jam session for the rest of the day so any calls that come in just take messages please and I will call them back when I'm free"

The Dalmatian nods her head and then goes back to her computer. After six flights of stairs we enter the control area of the main studio, the rest of the guys are indeed all waiting for us. Steve gives AJ the introductions and then turns his interest fully on the Black Panther.

"I was kind of thinking that being a lead guitarist would mean that you would have a lead guitar to play"

AJ begins to sob a little so I make his reply.

"Steve, that bastard Shaun has effectively stolen AJ's prized guitar, all he left him with was a split lip"

Steve lets out a sorrowful sigh.

"I'll be right back"

Steve vanishes from sight for a few moments, he then returns with a large guitar case that looks as if it has seen better days, he lowers the case gently onto the work surface and then opens it, inside is a pristine looking Fender Stratocaster, I can see Steve's eyes are beginning to tear up a little, so this guitar obviously means a great deal to him.

"This guitar belonged to my father, he had his own band in the 60's and 70's, in fact he was playing it the day that he died of a heart attack at 8:58pm, Monday 19 February 1971, the day of his wedding to my step mother. She is actually the Vice President here at Jacks Records and Fiona on the desk downstairs is her daughter, my half sister. This guitar belonged to a good man, I want it to belong to another good man, but I beg of you, please guard it with your life"

AJ shakily but gently removes the instrument from its case and then gingerly places the strap around his neck. Steve finally manages to regain his composure.

"Okay guys let's get jammin'"

We all enter the main studio, I instantly come face to face with the most gorgeous looking drum kit that I have ever seen, I take a seat and wait for everyone else to get ready. I watch as AJ nervously plugs his guitar into the amplifier, with that done Steve clears his throat.

"Okay, seeing as how I want to see exactly what AJ and Sam are capable of I'm gonna let Sam suggest a song that we can jam to"

I wrack my brain to try and come up with a song, and then it hits me.

"Okay everyone, some of you guys might be a little young to remember this one, but it is an old favourite of mine, the song is called Don't Talk To Me About Love and it is by an eighties band called Altered Images"

Max's eyebrows almost hit the roof.

"Oh man I haven't heard that gem in years; it will be an honour to jam to that one"

The rest of the band all nod their heads, it seems that I was wrong about them being too young to remember the song, even Steve has a satisfied smile on his muzzle, maybe the song brings back some memories for him too.

We begin an instrumental run through of the song, to iron out any kinks you could say. We then perform another couple of instrumental runs so that we can say that we are satisfied that we can play the song, suddenly Steve surprises me by standing at the microphone and then indicating to the control engineer that we are going to go for a take.

The engineer gets his sound board ready and then counts us in to the song. We perform an almost perfect rendition of the track, the music dies away and the engineer just says one word "Perfect"

We all head back into the control booth and wait for the engineer to finish working his magic on the recording. Once he is done he hits play on the console and the tracks playback begins. As the playback begins to fade out, there are stunned faces all around the room; silence is our only friend until Steve breaks it.

"In all of my years in the music business I have never had a jam session like that, I don't know about the rest of you guys but it damn near took my breath away. And to think that I thought that having two lead guitarists might cause friction within the band, but exactly the opposite has happened, it seems that we have gelled on so many levels, in fact I'm sending that demo off to all the major radio stations, in my view, this track has hit written all over it"

Again the room is filled with silence until Max speaks up.

"Well guys, I don't know about you, but all this emotion has made me very hungry, I mean it is already 3:30 and none of us has eaten since breakfast this morning, and I seriously doubt that AJ has eaten at all today, so let's head out to a restaurant for a slap up meal to celebrate a successful jam session"

There is no argument from the rest of us, but Steve does speak up before we leave.

"We need a name for the band before we send out the demos, and since Sam and AJ are the only real ones with an established presence in the music biz how about we call the band Sam Vine and the Howlers?"

I blush again but then I come up with another name.

"Well I think I can do much better than that Steve, since AJ's first name is actually Ace, how about the name Jacks and Aces wild?"

The soft murmur of agreement flows around the room. With the band name now agreed upon, we all head out for a well earned late lunch. As we head to the restaurant which is just across the street from the studio, I grab myself a pawful of delectable Rottweiler butt which gains me a lustful groan from the owner, and I can't help but think that maybe tonight my flat is going to be full to bursting with having three guys staying there, two of which I am pretty sure will be making another kind of sweet music.