1968

Chapter 1

"I call your name, but you're not there," I sang into the mic through the thick layer of fog that filled the room, putting my mind in a haze.

I looked through the packed club filled with psychedelic people to see them all pleased by the song choice since, compared to our bands originals, was actually something they could sing along to. I smiled seeing the crowd light up and turned to my boyfriend Jeremy on the guitar, who focused down on his guitar uninterestedly, causing my head to turn back down on the piano to focus in slight disappointment.

The rendition was much more similar to the one of the Mama's and Papa's than the Beatles, as they were one of my favourite American artists at the moment, and it was much easier to sing and play than the strong voice of John Lennon, also made into a duet, which was shared with Jeremy, who was much more drawn to sing out to a group of girls than look in my direction at all.

"Was I to blame, for being unfair," I sang, putting on a charming smile once again, looking out into the crowd.

Our band had been together for five years, also consisting of close friends Alexander on bass and Milly on guitar.  We hadn't made much progress in our exposure, other than having enough money to live and have a run down apartment in East London, but even then I worked as a secretary part time, which wasn't at all my cup of tea. I think my band mates had lost a lot more hope than I had at this point in our career though, as they seemed much less interested in the music than they'd used to, although they'd never admit it, and I suspected it was just for my sake.

I took a large swig of liquor between songs, without the buzz I wasn't sure if I'd make it through.

We continued on with our set with songs I'd written for us mixed in with other popular songs from the charts to please the crowd. I felt like a sell out when we weren't allowed to play our own music all the way through, but it was kept the club manager happy enough to book us again I suppose.

"That was absolutely brilliant," Lou, the club manager praised absolutely thrilled with the performance as we got off stage.

"Don't kid yourself Lou, we've played that same set millions of times before."  Jeremy commented while passing me without a single shred of joy to be seen, which was unusual even for him.

"Will you excuse me for only a moment?" I asked Lou before going after Jeremy who stormed off immediately to our dressing room.

"Jer, what's the matter with you? He's the one who pays our bills, remember?" I shook my head seeing his back faced to me as he gripped the countertop of his vanity with white knuckles.

"No, Sadie, it's my job as an electrician that pays the bills, as well as you secretarial job." He nearly shouted, turning to me so quickly it made me jump.

Sure, he'd made this argument before. But usually, after he drank a whiskey and smoked a joint or two, he would come back around. It was the screaming phase of the night that I never looked forward too, but yet here we were yet again.

"But that isn't our dream." I grinned as if to call him silly.

"I took a full time position." He looked from his hands to up at me, mumbling lowly.

"A-a-a, full time? Jeremy," I asked bewildered by his negligence to run this by me at all.

"-In Brighton." He added, causing my jaw to unhinge itself and drop to the floor absolutely disgusted by him.

"What about the music? What about us?" I asked in a state of immense shock.

"It's over, I just can't keep living like you Sade, you're never going anywhere." He spoke cruelty before swiftly exiting the room, and I feared from my life, forever.

I stood there for a moment unmoving, in absolute shock. I had felt the build up coming to this moment for awhile, but his words stung deep in my soul as the echo bounced off the walls of my brain.

He sounded like my parents, who was he to tell me I would never amount to anything?

At this point, what hurt the most, is I think I believed him.

Without knowing what I'd done, I had picked up his guitar with all my strength and threw it against the mirror, shattering the glass everywhere in the room, letting myself fall to my knees immediately afterwards, my strength escaping me with the cry of frustration I'd let out.

"Sadie." Milly gasped as she entered the room, just as I was struggling in my shaken state to light a smoke.

"So, Jeremy's out." I choked on my tears, looking up to where her confusion turned into concern.

She sat across from me on the floor, beckoning me to cry on her shoulder, which I took her up on without hesitation.

"Do you think he meant it this time?" She asked wearily.

"Yeah," I wiped the tears from my face with a small smile as I broke away from her shoulder, "He's got a job in Brighton," her expression dropped into anger.

We sat in a moment of silence, neither of us knowing the right thing to say.

"Well this may seem silly now, but, Lou got this business card from a lad in the crowd, says he seemed pretty legitimate." She gave me a small grin hoping it would perk me up.

I finished lighting the cig in my mouth and took a puff of it, sighing.

"He's about five minutes too late." I shook my head taking ahold of the card that was almost completely white except for the faint address of 94 Baker Street on the bottom left of the card in a light grey and a note scribbled on the back.

Funny. I thought, all white branding.

The singer's in red, her eyes are blue, here at Apple Corps, we want you!

I looked down at the red turtleneck I was wearing with my brown bell bottoms and smiled. I wasn't sure if this was a businessman or a secret admirer talking, but either way, the cheesy poem that I was confident a four year old had the capability to write made me blush, despite my instinctual urge to cringe. I knew it didn't say much but he noticed me, and right now I needed this exact reassurance that someone believed in me.

Apple Corps. Sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it through the roller coaster of emotions I was being lead through at the moment.

"There's that smile. No wonder this lad wants you 'round his office tomorrow for noon." She smiled and my heart nearly kept from my chest.

"Tomorrow?" I squeaked.