Echoes of the Heart - Casey, L.A. (digital ebook reader .TXT) 📗

“We know that Risk’s sobriety has the full support of our Sinners but we understand many were left disappointed not to have a gig in a city near them,” Hayes took over. “But this mini tour was just a practice run for our new stage with our new crew. It’s all part of our preparation for our next tour.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Next tour?” Toni repeated. “What next tour?”

I looked at the guys. “Did we not tell them we have a world tour coming up for our new album?”

“What?” Brian blinked. “New album, world tour . . . what the fuck, lads?”

“I knew we forgot to do something,” May facepalmed. “We were supposed to announce our new album, Lost in the Darkness, and the accompanying world tour for it.”

“Right,” Angel snapped his fingers. “The album drops next month, right? On the sixteenth?”

“Yup,” I nodded. “You’ve got it in one, bud.”

“Look at the comments,” Brian pointed to a monitor on the wall. “One hundred per second, I think you broke the live stream.”

The comments on the stream were coming in so fast it was impossible to read them. I flicked my eyes to the number in the left hand corner. Just over eight million people were watching the stream . . . and the number was rising.

“I think our Sinners are excited we have a new album and tour on the way.”

“Not just any tour,” Toni said. “A world tour. Your first, right?”

“Yup,” Hayes answered, beaming. “North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania. We’re hitting six of the seven continents. Two hundred shows broken up into twelve legs. We’re going global this time, baby.”

“Two hundred shows,” Brian said and took a sheet from one his crew members. “We have an official email from your management. Holy hell, guys, you’re going everywhere and most of these venue are stadiums and arenas. This tour . . . this might be one of the highest grossing tours of all time.”

Our team had calculated that the upcoming tour could earn anywhere between seven hundred and nine hundred million. So yeah, it’s definitely going to be one of the highest of all time if that proved to be correct.

“We hope so,” Angel chuckled. “That’d be pretty sweet.”

“So your new album, Lost in the Darkness, releases on the sixteenth of March, next month, and the tour kicks off exactly a year later on the sixteenth of March 2021 in Paris, France. Leg one is for Europe.”

“Yup,” I nodded. “The exact press release you’re reading is being uploaded on our website right now, so, Sinners,” I looked at the camera. “Go and check out when we’ll be in a city near you.”

“I can already hear the screams and roaring of your Sinners.” Toni chuckled. “But speaking of tours. We heard a rumour that you guys worked out a really sweet deal for upcoming tours . . . is it true?”

“What’s the rumour?” Hayes asked. “There’s a shit tonne of them.”

“This rumour is about money . . . apparently you guys own all the earnings from merchandise sales on top of your sixty per cent earnings on ticket revenue per show.”

That was public knowledge, but since Toni wanted an answer, I gave her one.

“Yeah, that’s true. We’re very anal about our contracts, we go through them with our solicitors with a fine-tooth comb. Singers, and bands, have been ripped off because they didn’t read their contracts thoroughly and know their worth. We know how much money we make people, we just make sure we earn more on our careers than anyone can earn off us and by that I mean the big companies that are likely to take advantage of artists like us.”

Tony laughed. “And that’s the way it should be.”

We spoke in depth about the tone of the new album, the writing and recording process for a solid thirty minutes before Southwold was brought back into the conversation.

“It all over Twitter that you guys returned home to Southwold to attend an old teacher’s retirement ceremony, is there truth to that? I mean, we’ve all seen picture evidence and there’s video footage of the paps questioning you, Risk, but that could have been in any location. Like in London, where Nora Maxwell happens to be.”

I snorted. “Nora is shooting a new film. I haven’t seen or spoken to her in months. I’ve said it a million times but we really are just friends. That’s it.”

“And that’s how you to stamp out a rumour.”

I smiled at Toni.

“It’s true about why we were in Southwold though,” Hayes chimed in. “Mr Jones, we’ve spoken about him a lot in interviews, was our school’s counsellor, PE teacher and our after-school music teacher. He bought us our first instruments with his own money, the man is a gent. We honestly love him.”

Toni pouted. “That’s so fucking cute.”

We chuckled.

“Angel,” Brian prompted. “You didn’t grow up with Mr Jones, how was meeting him?”

“He’s a great man,” Angel answered. “He was really welcoming to me, we jammed with him a little in the guys’ old music room. I had fun. I’ve heard so much about Mr Jones and the school rock days, experiencing a little of it made me understand how much of a connection the three of them have to Mr Jones, and Southwold overall.”

Brian was reading our fans’ comments on the live stream chat window.

“MayActonSitOnMyFace has a question for you guys.”

Each of us erupted into laughter, Hayes nearly fell off his bloody chair.

“Fuck’s sake.” May covered his face. “What’s the fucking question?”

“Is Mr Jones the original Sinner?”

“He’s actually not,” I said, rubbing my cheeks to stop smiling. “Mr Jones was the second Sinner, not the original.”

This surprised Brian and also excited him.

“Who was the original Sinner?”

“A girl who supported us from the get go,” I shifted. “She went to school with us.”

“She liked your voice?”

This came from Toni.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “She liked it, she liked our style too. She’s the one who encouraged me to put my focus into music, she’s sort of the reason for Blood Oath being Blood Oath.”

“Well,” Brian shook his head. “Millions