by LJ (ljensen1@gladstone.uoregon.edu)

Distribution: ALSTSC (http://www.oocities.org/brigidharper/index.html), only.

Spoilers: through "Sleep Tight" and "Normal Again"; speculation for the end of the season for both shows.

No 'ships; some original characters (well, kinda…) Behind the Music belongs to VH1 or MTV or something - I've only seen it a couple of times. I think. Lyrics are adapted from those listed at http://musical.chosentwo.com/. Originally intended as a quick little ficlet and full of silliness…well, my muse (or is it Bri's?) has spoken…

Summary: Our favorite three Englishmen become rock stars. Inspired by a BAPS chat over the weekend.
 
 

Tribal
 
 

[January 2003 - a college town on the Pacific Coast - evening]
 
 
 
 
 

"And next - Behind the Music takes an intimate look at the new British pop trio The Nancy Tribe…"

Bri Harper, her loyal co-webmistress and good friend, slowly entered the living room carrying a heavy tray. "Yeah, I'm coming," she said, trying to keep the tray perfectly balanced so as not to spill the precious liquid held in the little kettle.

"Bri!" said LJ again. "No wonder you haven't produced any fic in the two last years, if you write as slow as you walk. Jeez."

Bri scowled. It was true: her muse had died - or, she thought to herself, maybe LJ kidnapped it. It's not fair…she writes "Ghost of a Quarter Past" in one weekend, "Genealogy" in a couple of hours, and it takes me months to add a single page to "The Surprises Series"? Grr! Argh!

*Click* LJ depressed the record button, her VCR intuition suddenly activating - and rightly so.

"And now Behind the Music presents - The Nancy Tribe!"

"By now, just about everyone has heard of The Nancy Tribe, a new British group who released their first album, 'Music for The Sock'-"

"-earlier this month. Already, it's been a smashing success, outselling the new Sex Pistols classics compilation album, a collection of WWF inspirational fight songs, and a digitally remastered church choir album featured on Seventh Heaven. But who are the men behind the success that is The Nancy Tribe? How did a former librarian, a private investigator and a really bad poet form the band that has become a phenomenal success on five of the seven continents?"

"Well, it all started, I suppose, in 1997 in California. I, er, took a job as a, eh, high school librarian and that's where I eventually met, um, Wesley and William. None of us were actually, um, friends at the time. But that's the way things sometimes work out, you see."

"It seemed as though fate had directed these three men, all born in England, to move to a small town in Southern California. What they didn't know at the time was that their bizarre random meetings would eventually produce the hottest new British band of the new millennium."

"Yeah, I, ah, I'd been over there a few years with my girlfriend, but mostly back east - New York City, that sort of thing. But eventually she got pretty sick and there was, um, this specialist in California. Yeah. So, er, we packed everything up and went looking for the guy… Dru got better, yeah. So much better that she ended up, um, two-timing me with her ex. What? Oh. Yeah. Her, um, her ex. Yeah. He was the specialist. I didn't like the idea at all, you know? But she was sick. I loved her, would've done anything for her. So, fwwupp! Off we went to sunny California."

"Er, eh, William, um, and I met each other about a year before Wesley came to California. Were we friends? Oh, goodness, no. Not at all. In fact, we pretty much loathed each other for several years. But he eventually earned my respect. It took a while, but he did."

"Thanks, Rupes."

"Like I said, Wesley arrived a year later, but didn't stay very long. Eventually, he teamed up with, um, former colleagues of mine in Los Angeles and they began a private investigation firm. We didn't stay all that greatly in contact, although every once in a while we would telephone each other for consultation. We, ah, all three of us are, strangely enough, experts in one form or another on the paranormal, and that's what Wesley's detective agency specialized in. But aside from that? No. We barely tolerated each other, although, in retrospect, Wesley was something very much like the annoying little brother I never had."

"And when Behind the Music returns, how these three Englishmen teamed up to become The Nancy Tribe."

"Earl Grey, hot. Two sugars, milk." Again, LJ's fingers twitched over the record and pause buttons.

"And now, the third member of the band, Wesley. Unfortunately, he suffered severe injuries to the throat prior to his return to England in May 2002 and is still forbidden to speak, let alone sing, by his doctors. Luckily, he has picked up enough sign language to converse with us via an interpreter…"

"How do you contribute to the band?"

"Rupert and William are our vocalists, and truthfully, even if I hadn't been injured, I doubt I would be singing. Long-term exposure to my former employer has killed much of my sense of vocal harmony. Luckily, when I finally woke up after sustaining my injuries, I suddenly knew how to play both the guitar and electric keyboard. Rupert also plays the guitar. William? Well, he sings. My sudden musical abilities? The doctors have no explanation for it; however, it is my experience, as an investigator of the paranormal, that trauma victims sometimes develop any one of an assortment of psychic talents during their recovery. Therefore, it is not so great a surprise that I, too, would have developed some sort of new talent or awareness after my own ordeal, although musical skills are rarely linked to psychic phenomenon. In my years of…paranormal investigation, I have only encountered one individual who has been able to link music and psi powers. He is, I am sure, green with envy at our success."

"How was it that you, Rupert and William met up again and formed the band?"

"Well, after my injuries, I was…forced to quit my job, partly due to conflicts that had erupted within the firm, and decided to move back home to England. Without the firm, I had nothing keeping me in the United States. It so happened that Rupert had also returned to England several months earlier, and I thought that perhaps we…You see, we had both originally been sent to the United States by the same employer, we were both fired by that employer as well, though for slightly different reasons. I thought that perhaps with the few years' time between our initial co-employment we could at least become friends - there are few individuals in either country who…who have the sort of…paranormal expertise that we have, and it was unlikely that our former coworkers would welcome either one of us back into the fold, as they say. Luckily, I was right."

"How did William come into the picture?"

"Well, um, Wesley and I were sitting in a pub in London one evening. I went to order some more drinks when, lo and behold, William was sitting there at the bar. I was quite surprised, as I had never expected him to leave California."

"Why was that?"

"What? Oh, me. Yeah. Well, um, after my ex ran off, it took me a while to get back on my feet, but eventually I got my act together. Sure enough, next thing I knew, I was in love again, and worse off than I ever was with Dru. Y'see, this girl was special. And I mean special. All her friends hated me, she hated me half the time, too, but I made myself an oath, to do whatever I could to, y'know, help her and the little sis'. The folks were split. Their mum'd got sickly and died, and the dad…well, if he had ever married one of the birds he'd been vacationing on the Riviera with, my girl would've been the elder of the two, y'know? Hell, Rupert had been more of a dad to those girls while he was still there, weren't'cha, Rupe?"

"Well, I did try."

"Did more than try. The girl practically thought Rupert was her real dad by the time she hit eighteen. Anyway, she and I kinda started getting together, but things just went downhill. It wasn't meant to be - at least, not then. Maybe we'll get another chance. I sure as hell hope so. Then, I got wind of this guy in Africa - one of those headshrinker, braintwister type fellows. Thought maybe he could help me. I knew part of the reason me and the girl hadn't worked out was 'cause of some of my problems, so I figured maybe we'd have a better chance if I got myself straightened out a bit, y'know? So I went to the guy and sure enough, the guy delivered. It was sheer hell, but it all worked out in the end. Part of me fixing my life, practically the last thing the guy had prescribed for me to do, was to put to rest some of my ghosts, so I came home to England. It was just a random thing - I happened to be in that pub at the same time Rupert and Wes were, and things just started happening from there…"

"Next, an exclusive peek at the making of their first hit single, 'Rest in Peace'…"

*cue music*

"'I cried
so many days ago
but you can make me feel
like it wasn't so…'"

"Their haunting first single, 'Rest in Peace', was the brainchild of William, who is believed to be the youngest of the trio -"

"Nope. Sorry. A gentleman never reveals his age."

"-and quickly climbed the charts, hitting #1 before the end of the first week."

"It's about that girl, y'know? About how our relationship was for a while, before we actually got together. I'd loved her for a time, and she knew that I loved her, but she was playing the old 'let's be friends' game. It was driving me crazy. I mean, yeah, she was in a bad place in her life - her mum had died, dad was AWOL, little sis' was having trouble for all sorts of reasons, she herself had been, um, outta commission for a few months. Life sucked big-time for her. But I really thought I could give her some happiness, you know, and for a while I thought just being her friend, being the person she could just talk to, was enough. But it wasn't. It's kind of selfish, I know, and I'm sorry 'cause of it, but it just wasn't enough for me. So one day, she was over at my place, and I just started singing to her for no apparent reason. And 'Rest in Peace' is a direct descendant of the song I sang to her. Same melody, most of the same words - Rupert and Wes kinda made me change some of the words. Like, in the fourth verse, there's this line - 'You know/you got Will enslaved'. It started out, 'you got a willing slave', but Rupe and Wes didn't like it for some reason. So we started talking and joking around and someone said, 'Well, why don't you just change it to "Will enslaved",' you know, slipping my name in there and all. Back in California, I'd gone by a nickname, but ever since that shaman in Africa, I've felt like a new man and went back to my real name, William, so the lyric change was fitting. I still love the girl and all, but things are different. Used to be I couldn't stand to go out in the sun, couldn't socialize, all sorts of things. Couldn't even look myself in the mirror, that's how bad things were for me. But that guy in Africa…everything's changed. New man, heart and all. And 'cause of that we had to play around with most of the other verses, too…but…uh…I'd rather not get into that…"

"'You're not ready
For the world outside
You keep pretending
But you just can't hide
I know I said that I'd be
Standing by your side
But I…'"

"Their second single from 'Music for The Sock', 'Standing in the Way', has also been a smash hit. Sung by Rupert, it, too, has the haunting tones that are quickly becoming The Nancy Tribe's signature style. We asked Rupert to tell us a little bit about his ballad…"

"Strangely enough, 'Standing in the Way' is about the same girl that William sings about in 'Rest in Peace', only from a different perspective. His is definitely that of someone with romantic interests at hand; mine, on the other hand, is intended to be a message from a father to a beloved daughter, which is most certainly how I perceive myself relating to this girl. But you would be surprised how much fan mail we've received about it, fans certain that it's a love song of some kind, a romance piece! I was shocked and to be quite honest, I was a little perturbed and distressed by the idea. There may well be some faint subtext indicating such a relationship, but that was certainly never my intent and never shall it be! How would she put it…Ah, yes - I am 'wigged out' by the concept."

"What's next for The Nancy Tribe? We asked William - according to polls, the most popular of the three - how he sees the future of The Nancy Tribe…"

"You know, that's a really great question. The problem is, I honestly don't know. Will we always be this band? The answer is pretty sure to be 'no', but then that's the way things always are. Nothing's eternal, if you know what I mean. But will The Nancy Tribe be our great life's work? I don't really think so. I'm optimistic - I have to be. I have to believe that I've become a good enough man to be considered a good man, I have to believe I have the potential to become a better man. And intertwined within that hope is the hope that all three of us will be able to return to the lives we once knew, the people we had those lives with - not that we revert to who we were, but rather come full circle. I have to believe that. Otherwise…I have enough happiness in my life that if things don't come full circle like I hope, I won't consider my life over, but I will be disappointed. It's the hope of these things that keep us going - but that doesn't mean we won't have some rreally great detours before we get there. The band is one such detour…"

[The End]