“I do not want to lose Max and his Magic Microphone but I have a friend who has an idea. I think you should speak to him.”
British pop music was changing and while Jimmy could still get his records into the charts his were not any more the immediate choice of the teenagers. Cliff Richard, Harold Webb, was appealing to a wider audience. Adam Faith, his real name was Terrence Nellhams, had lost his popularity. He only ever released two LP albums. Jimmy did not disappear from the pop music world as did Adam Faith but he was no Cliff Richard.
I never met The Beatles, even today I have never met any of the Fab Four. There’s only two of them left now of course, Paul and Ringo.
I knew Keith Richards and I met, let me try to remember; Gerry Marsden, Cilla Black, Dave Clark and even Freddie Garrity of Freddie and the Dreamers.
“That friend of mine,” Mike said, “he is coming to the show tonight.”
We were in Rotherham, wherever Rotherham is. It was so easy to forget where we were at any time. We would arrive, set up, perform, breakdown, sleep and move on. I do, however, know for certain we were in Rotherham.
“So who is this man and what does he want ?”
“His name is Carl and I will let him explain face to face what his idea and plan are.”
“So you are Max and his Magic Microphone ?”
I nodded.
“Quite a mouthful that. Why not Max’s Magic Microphone ?”
I shrugged my shoulders. I did not feel like saying much. Carl was a domineering man, I sensed that immediately and I did not like him. What was it he wanted ?
“Do you have any money left from what Paramount paid you ?”
“Most of it.” I had only spent money on the car. I had not had even one lesson.”
“I am starting a radio station,” Carl started to explain. “I have sold my house and put all of the money into buying an old fishing trawler.”
What was he talking about ?
“The ship is to be called The Jolly Roger, we will anchor her outside the three mile legal limit then broadcast non-stop pop music all over the country.”
“But…”
“Oh I can do it, nobody can stop me, Radio Jolly Rogers will be a pirate radio station.”
“That sounds illegal.”
“It is but nobody can do a single thing about it. We will make money broadcasting adverts and nobody can stop us.”
“What about the BBC ?”
“Least of all the BBC !”
“So what do you want me for ?”
Carl hesitated as he gathered his thoughts. He had been very pushy and speaking with a force behind his words, now he was changing his tone. “I would like you to be a presenter on the station, bring your magic microphone and be a DJ.”
“A DJ ?”
“A jockey rides a horse,” he explained. “A presenter will ride the records and become disc jockeys.”
I knew what a DJ was.
I would like you to be one of our DJ’s, to be Max’s Magic Microphone.
I liked that idea a bit.
But then this Carl continued. “I need two thousand pounds to finish equipping the studio. I do not have two thousand pounds left and I can hardly ask the bank to lend it to me to start up a pirate radio station !”
Was he really about to ask me to lend him the money ? Ridiculous ! Never !
“If you invest money in Radio Jolly Roger and become a shareholder I will make you a director, Director of Music.”
“I’m only eighteen and a half,” I explained.
“And I am thirty-eight and a half, do you think we could make a good team ? Two pirates ?”
This was crazy. Almost as crazy as being in Blue Hawaii with Elvis Presley. As crazy as buying a sports car when I could not drive. I did not like this Carl man but I fancied myself as a radio DJ.
Mike came into the room followed within moments by Brother Jimmy. Their arrival made me pause in telling Carl the last person who would give him any money would be me.
“So am I going to have to be the man of the microphone again, Mike of the Microphone ?”
“Having you play my records on the radio may save my career,” Jimmy smiled.
How come they both knew Carl ?
“I think I’ll ask Dad for advice.” What a stupid idea ! Why did it ever come into my head ? Dad was the very last person to seek advice from.
The scorn Jimmy then heaped upon me made me feel utterly stupid. Even Mike was laughing but Carl did not understand.
“What will happen with Radio Jolly Roger if I say no ?”
“Take Dad’s advice you mean ? If I had listened to our father I would be sweeping up rubbish from the factory floor, either that or putting pennies into envelopes along side him as a wages clerk.”
“I do have a Plan B,” Carl said.
“And I am that Plan B,” Jimmy said. “I will give Carl the money but I can not become a DJ on the country’s biggest radio station. You can. You can be the biggest DJ sensation in the world. Stop following behind me, get out there and become a star in your own right.”
“But –“
“Stop the buts Max.” Jimmy was almost shouting. “Get on with it. Bring Elvis Presley to England and have him sing live on Radio Jolly Roger !”
“How much of a share will two thousand pounds get me ?”
“Twenty-five percent.”
“I’ll give you two thousand five hundred and you will give me a one third share.”
"Twenty-five percent is a quarter, not a third."
"I know. I will give you two thousand five hundred and you wil give me a one third share."
Elvis Presley never did come to England but Max Robinson did become Director of Music at Pirate Radio Jolly Roger
Carl stretched out his hand, shook mine firmly and smiled. It was not just the money really, he wanted me to be part of his radio station. OUR radio station. My attitude towards him changed completely.
The boat and the intended radio station were called Jolly Roger but the company owning everything was Brandon Lewis and Associates. There was no Brandon Lewis but it was of that company that I was a shareholder and director. We had a one room office above a flat in Hull where Carl lived. There were two bedrooms, he slept in one while I crashed on the floor of the other which doubled as our office.
From that office I started to recruit my disc jockey team. I knew enough of the music scene to directly approach the kind of people the station needed.
Randy Raymond, he signed up quickly, I knew he would be good. Nicholas whose tag line I set as Knickerless girls should not climb trees ! Tiny Tim whose trouser waist size was almost the same as the boat.
“Only guys,” Carl said. “No girls.”
I had presumed a DJ would be a lad but why was Carl saying No Girls ?
“You don’t want me to recruit homos do you ?”
“Don’t be silly, of course not but this is to be a music boat not a shag tub !”
“Perhaps we should call it Radio Wank !”
“We can put stuff in the tea,” Carl laughed, “like they do in prison. Shagging will be perfectly permissible but only off the boat, ashore on dry land.”
Shagging ? I was heading towards my nineteenth birthday and had never had a shag. Was I normal ?
Sebastian Thoroughgood, Seb Goodie, I added him to the team. That made three, four if I counted myself. Carl said we needed a team of eight. While I was busy recruiting he was busy selling advertising.
Number five, Ponytail Pete. Twenty-two years old, he must have been growing his hair since the day he was born to get it that long. I had met Pete somewhere when my brother was playing. He sold tickets in the kiosk at the theatre, I can not remember which theatre it was.
“I’ve got a mate,” Pete said. “His name is Jimmy Morgan.”
Morgan, wasn’t that a pirate name. Pirate Morgan. Number six.
Oswald Charles Bainbridge. If you ask me, the moment I first saw him I decided he was a homo. With a name like Oswald Charles Bainbridge he had to be a poof didn’t he ? Number seven.
Carl brought in a guy to look after all the radio stuff, we called him Wireless Willy. Did he have a wireless willy ? I had no idea.
The fisherman who Carl had bought the boat from agreed to come back and sail her. Not that we were going to sail anywhere.
DJ number eight. I could not find number eight. “I think we could manage with just seven,” I said to Carl.
“The Magnificent Seven,” he smiled.
I did not like Max’s Magic Microphone. I was nineteen and still a teenager, I changed my name to The Eternal Teenager. Marty Wild’s song Teenager In Love would be my theme tune.
Would I ever be a teenager in love ?
A birthday card was sent to the office of Jimmy’s fan club. It was three weeks later when I got it. The card was signed Love Juliette but there was a letter inside it. She had been to the show that night in Rotherham. I had not seen her. Juliette said she had waited outside for me. I was inside with Carl. She gave up waiting, left and went home.
Oh Juliette ! Is that really her name ? Juliette I want to be your Romeo.
Radio Jolly Roger went live on air at one second past midnight on Monday 1st April 1963. Carl had been very clever telling the press there would be a special April Fool announcement broadcast on 703 metres on the medium waveband. Even the totally stupid BBC picked it up and told the country. Pirate Radio was born.
The Eternal Teenager became the very first pirate radio DJ, playing Marty Wild and Teenager In Love.
The second record played was for my friend in the snow, Juliette – Juliette by The Four Pennies.
Of course I played something from Blue Hawaii, the wedding song. Elvis Presley was not able to listen, the signal from 703 on the medium wave, would not reach so far but I did hope that Juliette was listening. Juliette who ? I did not even know her second name.
The law really was strange. Broadcasting without a licence was a crime but there were no licences to have. Only the BBC was allowed to broadcast radio. We were outside the three mile legal limit where British Law had power so there was no way we could be arrested. When we went ashore we had broken no laws on the land so we were quite free. The office in Hull was not broadcasting so everything there was perfectly legal.
Our audience figures went up and up and up. We could tell this from the ever increasing demand for advertising space and the number of bags of fan mail arriving in Hull. Those bags of mail inundated my DJ team with requests to play. The BBC was a good friend to us ! Carl called it the Bullshit Broadcasting Corporation, their news reports never stopped telling people what we were up to. Thanks entirely to The Bullshit Broadcasting Corporation Carl was able to put up the advertising rates.
The Christmas 1963 number one record was I Want To Hold Your Hand by the Beatles. I so much wanted to hold Juliette’s hand. 1963 would be my last Christmas as a teenager, Would I always be a teenager NOT in love ? In November I received my usual birthday card from Elvis Presley but there was nothing from Juliette.
I was famous, I received fan requests every day asking for my autograph. I was the star of pirate radio. I was Director of Music at Radio Jolly Roger. But I was nineteen and I was a virgin.
I decided I would organise a party on Wednesday 1st April 1964 to celebrate our first birthday as a pirate radio station. The Beatles were again at number one with She Loves You.. Would Juliette ever love me ?
The year began with The Beatles and was dominated in the charts up to April and beyond. Of course Radio Jolly Roger played The Beatles but I instructed my team not to make us a Beatles only station.
Dear Max
I hope my letter reaches you. I am not sure if all of the letters I have been sending to you through your brother’s fan club have found you in the North Sea. Now I have found your radio station’s office in Hull I will try writing to you there.
I listen to Radio Jolly Roger all the time. I am so proud when I tell my friends I know DJ Max’s Magic Microphone
.
Do you ever get any snow in the North Sea ?
Love Juliette
She had put her address at the top of the letter.
I wanted to write back to her, of course I wanted to write back to her. I honestly did not know what love was. Being in love ? Before my twentieth birthday I so much wanted to be that teenager in love. What was being in love like ? What would it be like to be a teenager in love ? I had less than seven months to find out.
From the ship letters had to go to Hull via the supply boat which came in twice a week. Those letters would then be posted but they were not a priority to the office staff. The next boat was due the following day, not my letter but I would be on it.
“You deserve a shag break,” Carl said. “You’ve not been off the boat since day One.”
“I am not going for a shag !” I protested.
“Well you can play with your joy stick here, you do not need to go ashore for that !”
“Get knotted !”
I did wish that I had learned to drive. That car of mine was still sitting in Mum and Dad’s driveway, new but no longer worth the money I had paid for it. How was I to get to Sheffield from Hull and then when in Sheffield how was I meant to find Juliette’s home ? Could I just turn up and knock on the door ? It was not going to be easy. I will spare you the details but, no, it was not easy.
I moved to press my finger on the door ball, hesitated then pulled my hand back. I went through the motion again. On the third attempt I would press the bell, I determined I would. I would force myself. While I was still plucking up the courage the front door opened.
“I am sorry,” the lady said, “I keep telling him to fix that bell. Did you knock ? I saw you from the window.”
“Sorry, no,” I said. “is Juliette at home ?”
“You’re Max from the radio, Max and the microphone thingy.”
“Well yes.”
“I listen to you, I love your show. Can I have your autograph please ?”
I could feel my face going red.
“Is Juliette at home ?” I asked again.
“Juliette,” she turned and called. “You will give me your autograph won’t you ? Please.”
Juliette appeared. “I see you have met my Rock and Roll Mum,” she giggled.
Put me in front of a microphone and I can speak to the world but trying to find the words I had so carefully prepared for Juliette left me dumb struck.
“How long have you worked at the radio station ? At Jolly Roger ?”
“I don’t actually work there, “ I said trying to impress. “I part own it. I am Director of Music.”
I did impress. I wish I could find the words now all these years later to adequately describe to you the look on her face.
“So I have a wealthy businessman as a boyfriend,” Juliette said.
“Is he your boyfriend then ?” Her mother said excitedly.
“I hope so, or I hope he will be.”
Was I really, truly about to become at last The Teenager In Love ?
“I thought we could go somewhere for a meal, that is if you are free,” I said nervously but excitedly.
“Can I come as well ?”
“No Mother !”
“Do you have a car with you Max ?”
“No, it’s in Birmingham.”
“Take mine. Are you sure I can not come as well ?”
“Mother !”
“I know it is a little unusual for women of Mum’s age to drive,” Juliette said as she backed the car out of the drive, “but I don’t have a Dad.”
“Oh.”
“My Dad was a GI. He and Mum were married when he was stationed here during the war. They then went back to America where I was born. Dad never left the army, he went to fight in Korea where he was killed. I was small at the time. Mum and I moved back to England.”
“To Sheffield ?”
“Yes, I am a Steel City Girl.”
“A Steel City Girl who has a driving licence. I’ve got a car which I don’t drive, you can use it if you like.”
“Really ?”
“It does not drive well on the North Sea, the tyres keep getting stuck in the waves.”
I guess that is what people call making small talk. It was the first time I had ever used small talk, it was the first time I had ever tried to chat up a girl.
“I came to see you and your brother when you were in Rotherham.”
“Rotherham ?”
“Yes, I waited outside for ages after the show but you never appeared.”
Rotherham !
“Where are we going ?”
“You said we were going to eat.”
“Yes, but you are driving, where are you taking us ?”
We went to a pub that had a very good steak bar. As we ate Juliette told me she was training to be a nurse. “I am a couple of years older than you. Who looks after you boys on the boat ? Who renders first aid when you need it ?”
“We don’t get that many broken legs,” I smiled.
“So The Jolly Roger is not looking to appoint a Ship’s Matron ?”
Carl, he’s the boss and co-owner, does not allow girls on the boat. Only male DJ’s.
“Perhaps you need a nurse to take care of all those sprained wrists,” Juliette giggled.
I blushed. How did girls know about these things ? I suppose she was a nurse !
“You said you owned Radio Jolly Roger so why can’t I come and work as Ship’s Matron ?”
“I only own one third, Carl owns two thirds. And I suppose your Mum will want to come as Ship’s Cook ?”
“My Mum has a job, she works in a department store. She is manager of the lingerie department selling knickers to fat women.”
“So she didn’t sell you your knickers then ?”
“Cheeky. Besides you have seen my knickers. That night up on the moor. Remember ?”
“And you have seen my pants !”
“I have seen a lot more than your underwear.”
“Do you mean my socks ?” I smiled. “Do you want another drink ?”
“Yes please, I will have a snowball !”
Who was chatting up who ? I needed to be the one in charge, after all I was the man.
“When do you qualify as a nurse ?”
“July.”
“I see.”
“Oh for goodness sake Max and your silly microphone, can’t you tell I fancy you rotten ?”
“And I fancy you,” I said clumsily.
“So that officially makes us boyfriend and girlfriend.”
At last I was that teenager in love. “Is it far to the moor ? Could we drive there ?”
“It’s not far if I drive quickly. Perhaps another snowball would help.”
“Don’t drink and drive and don’t drive too quickly in the snow.”
“There’s no snow this time of year,” she giggled. “Only in the mind.”
In my mind it was a raging blizzard of emotion. I wanted to say it, dare I say it, should I say it. I changed the sentence slightly. “So it won’t be cold then when we -,” I hesitated.
“When we get there you mean ?” Juliette smiled.
You know what happened next, of course you do. I am going to keep that special moment private and to myself. You can use your imagination if you wish.
Back in the car we turned the radio on. “Who is that ?”
“Pirate Morgan, I put him in charge while I am away.”
“Is he your deputy then ?”
“I don’t have a deputy, this is the first time I have left the boat since we came on air.”
“Max Robinson, you naughty DJ. I can see that Matron Juliette is going to have to smack your bottom !”
“Yes please,” I thought but did not say it !
The Jolly Roger did not have a ship to shore telephone. We may have been the world’s most sophisticated radio broadcaster but when it came to personal communications RMS Titanic was more advanced. The Hull office had a telephone, of course it did. People would call there then messages would be relayed by radio. It was not possible to call the ship direct. I smile now, writing these words. I hope my younger readers can understand a world without computers, mobile phones and the internet.
That night I hoped Juliette, MY Juliette, would stay with me in Hull but she said she had to get home. Surely we had both planned a night together. We had, hadn’t we ?
“I want to stay with you, honestly I do, but Mum will probably want the car back.”
“Please stay.”
“Oh Max I would like to.”
Did her mother really need the car ? It sounded like an excuse to get away from me. Did Juliette really love me ? If she did then why would she not stay ? Was ours to be the shortest teenage love affair in history ?
What ! I could hear the door opening. Someone was coming up the stairs. Juliette looked at me. It had to be Matty, Scatty Matty, who ran the office but was he doing at such an hour ?
“I saw the light,” Matty said. “I hoped beyond hope that it would be you.”
I looked puzzled. I was puzzled. “This is Juliette,” I said.
He nodded politely towards Juliette. “I’ve come in to sort something for you. I was going to do it in the morning before you came back but I was so excited I could not sleep and just had to come back.”
What was he talking about ?
“He phoned !”
“Who phoned ?”
“It was him who phoned, he phoned himself. Not a manager or an agent. He phoned.”
What was he talking about ? What was so important to bring Scatty Matty back to the office ? Even if I could persuade Juliette to stay what was the point now with Scatty Matty making us into a trio ?
“Who phoned ?”
“Elvis Presley phoned.”
“Oh him. What did he want that brings you back into the office ?” Damn you Elvis Presley you are messing things up for me with my girlfriend.
“He wants you in New York.”
“New York ? I don’t want to go to New York.”
“He said it was for the Ed Sullivan Show. He said you would know about that.”
“It’s an American TV show,” I explained.
Juliette looked incredulous. I liked the effect.
“Tell Mr Elvis Aaron Presley I will only come to New York if my girlfriends can come with me.”
I turned to Juliette.
“You do have a passport Juliette ?”
She nodded. “Mum and I went to France for a week-end.”
“Good. Matty Sort it. You can tell that Mr Sullivan the same as Elvis Flippin Aaron Flippin Presley, Max’s Magic Microphone is only coming to New York if my girlfriends can come with me !”
“Is this a joke ?” Juliette asked. “Are you two scheming to tease me ?”
“Matty get it sorted.”
“Pan Am’s London Office is open twenty-four hours, I will call them and book seats.”
“Get on to it. My girlfriends and I are going to bed. We do not want to be disturbed.”
“I do not sing,” I tried to explain.
“He’s right, he doesn’t,” Elvis confirmed. “the magic in my friend’s microphone is as a DJ and, trust me, not as a singer.”
“But he was in Blue Hawaii.”
“Trust me Mr Sullivan, Max will not be singing on your show.”
He thought for moment, he stroked his chin and looked to the floor as he pondered the mistake of inviting me onto his show.
“We’ll skip the singing into,” The Great Ed Sullivan said. “I’ll introduce Elvis as an American rock star then he can introduce Max as a British Radio DJ.”
I nodded.
“Elvis will sing and then you can show me how you would introduce him in the style of a British DJ. That should work. The song Elvis will sing, what will it be ?”
“Blue Hawaii, it has to be Blue Hawaii.”
“Then I will show you how to be an American TV host. After that Elvis can sing again.”
“Rock a Hula Baby ?” Elvis suggested.
“Do you dance Max ?”
“Of course.”
“That little girlfriend of yours,” he looked towards Juliette sitting at the side of the studio. “does she dance ?”
“Yes.”
“So in the second number you two will both dance,”
Ed Sullivan again pondered, rubbed his chin and studied the floor. When the idea was fully formed he continued speaking. “You start off the dancing then as many of the studio hands as can be spared will come and join you.”
“Let’s give it a try,” Elvis said.
“Are you sure you do not need me to rehearse your lines with you ?”
Elvis feigned a punch.
Juliette thought she was in a dream. When I was with Juliette I was permanently in a dream. Max Robinson, the teenager so deeply, deeply in love. I never wanted to wake up.
Ed Sullivan, America’s greatest by far TV host, Elvis Presley the unquestioned world’s greatest rock and roll star could not even stand in the shadow of my very own Juliette.
“What is a Matron ?” Elvis asked during the break between rehearsal and our going live on TV, live to the whole of the United States of America,
“A matron is the head nurse in a hospital.”
“Really ? Matron, I like that name. I guess we just call it head nurse in our hospitals. Matron ? So are you going to be a matron ?”
“Perhaps, one day. But not for years yet. I do not even qualify as a nurse for a few weeks yet. I have to pass my examinations.”
“So what is this all about you becoming Matron on The Jolly Roger ?”
“I wanted to be the ship’s nurse but Max said women are not allowed on the boat.”
“Garbage ! Max you fix this for Juliette.”
“But Elvis.”
“But Elvis my big toenail ! You take Juliette on as ship’s nurse or I will ban Radio Jolly Roger from playing any more of my records.”
“I smiled.”
Elvis was not smiling. “Max, I mean it.”
“Did you try to get him to change his mind ?”
“Yes Carl, I did, but he is not an easy man to argue with.”
“From a letter he sent me I can see that. It arrived today. Special delivery.”
I had a lot to do. I had not been away from the boat for long but there was a mountain of work waiting for me. Juliette was back in Sheffield with her mother and her final examinations to pass in order to qualify as a nurse.
“Pete’s been getting a lot of fan mail,” Pirate Morgan explained. I have a bit of an idea, why don’t we name a DJ of the week based on the fan mail ? We could get people to write in.”
It was a good idea but where would I come in such a game ? How many would vote for me ? It could be embarrassing if I were permanently in last place.
“Do any of the boys have girlfriends,” I asked, changing the subject.
“I don’t.”
“I wondered what the reaction would be if I brought Juliette to live here with me on the boat.”
“What about Carl and his no ladies policy ?”
I explained about Elvis. “He was joking, I think, about banning us from playing his records.”
“There is a way round it.”
“How ? What ?”
“Bring Juliette to live on The Jolly Roger not as your girlfriend but as your wife !”
My proposal of marriage to Juliette was not romantic and packed with cliches, down on one knee, birds singing and so on but it was overflowing with the deepest love any man had ever known for a woman.. I am certain that Juliette's acceptance in those tiny few seconds caused the Earth to spin faster on its axis.
I was engaged to be married. We were engaged to be married.
"Let's set a date, the moment you have finished your final examination, Let's get married the Saturday after."
"Come here," Juliette replied. She then kissed me.
Families had to be told and then we could announce our engagement to the world. Telling her mother would be a happy time for Juliette, telling my parents was going to be an act of duty to be done as quickly as possible and in as short a time as possible.
"What are you intending to do about that car on my drive ?" Always cold and practical, my father.
"I tell you what Dad, put an advert in The Birmingham Mail, sell it and give the money to charity."
"I will."
"Good !"
My mother, bless her, was more excited. "Will Jimmy be your best man ?"
I hesitated. I had not thought about it and made my decision. "Yes, I had thought about asking my friend Elvis Presley but Juliette's father was dead and she would need someone to give her away. I know he would do it and what a touch to a fairy tale wedding that will be."
My Mother pulled her hands to her mouth and she was lost for words.
My Brother Jimmy's music career as a performer was all but over, he had opened a record shop in the centre of Birmingham where he spent most of his days. I went to see him. Never having learned how to drive and now with my car up for sale I went on the 'bus.
Sitting on the top deck of that Midland Red 113 'bus from Chester Road, Sutton Coldfield, to New Street Birmingham I looked at my fellow passengers and wondered if any recognised me. How many were listeners to Radio Jolly Roger. When the conductress came to collect my fare I think she recognised me. I smiled and hoped that my smile showed I was the happiest person alive.
Jimmy's shop was impressive and very busy, the tills were in overdrive. Three girls were busy attending to ever growing lines of pop pickers buying their favorite records, helping them up the charts and filling my big brother's pockets with profits. The customers did recognise me and begged for my autograph.
Brother Jimmy emerged, took me away to his office to return his business to the way it had been before I walked through the door.
"Very impressive," I said.
"This is just the beginning. You are in the first of what will become a chain of record shops with branches up and down the country."
"Good for you."
A radio was playing in the office. It was, of course, tuned to Radio Jolly Roger. Mark Dinning with Teen Angel was playing.
"That's a bit old fashioned," Jimmy observed. "You need to get your DJ's to play more from the charts."
"It's Rock and Roll, you are a Rock and Roll singer."
"Was. I am a business man now. I have moved on."
"Perhaps you should give Dad a job sweeping the floors in your shops."
He smiled. "So what are you going to do when the government closes down pirate radio ? It can't last for ever. What are you going to move on to ?"
"I am going to get married !" I declared.
I had thought that my Rock and Roll star brother would have been just a surprised but it was as if he had been expecting the news. He was, however, taken back when I explained I wanted him to be our best man.
"Of course I want you. Who else ?"
"I thought - "
"No," I cut him short. If you had not become a rock and roll star, if I had not followed in your shadow, if we had not met Elvis Presley, if I had not become a radio disc jockey. I would never have met and fallen in love with my Juliette. You brought us together, you made me a teenager in love."
"Where are you going for your honeymoon ?"
I hadn't thought about it.
"Hawaii ?"
"No."
"San Francisco. ?"
"No ?"
"Blackpool ?"
"Possibly," I smiled.
When Juliette returned from sharing our news with her mother we would talk about it.
But I never saw my Juliette again. Driving to Sheffield she was involved in a crash. The doctors said she died instantly. My darling Juliette had become a teen angel. Would I see her again one day ? I could never love another. I would never love another.
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