A Thousand Words -
Chapter 4

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The phone rang, the sound echoing through the house. There was a click as the line was picked up.
“Hello?” said the voice.
“Hi, it’s Julie.” said the other voice.
“Julie! Oh my god! This is so amazing! I’m finally getting to talk to you!” cried Michelle.
“Yeah.” was all Julie could say.
“Oh wow, um…” Michelle wasn’t sure what to say. “Oh this is Michelle by the way!”
Julie laughed. “Yeah I figured that. How was your trip to Brisbane?”
“Oh my god it was SO terrific!” Michelle said.
“What did you do?” Julie asked.
Michelle gave an account of everything she’d done in Brisbane including nearly being arrested!
“Oh wow! That sounds like quite a trip!” Julie said. Now that she’d got through that, she decided to ask Michelle what was first and foremost on her mind. “What’s this about a Savage Garden law suit?”
“Yeah I heard it on the radio while I was up there! Something about the outdoor concert they did in Townsville. There were storms and they had to delay it but the security guards told the fans the concert was off!” Michelle answered.
Julie was shocked at the news and listened as Michelle told her as much as she could. She couldn’t believe that would have happened.
“So how was the Sydney concert?” Michelle asked when she had finished.
“Uh, it was okay. I was a little bit worried about Daniel and Darren, but it seemed to go over fine.” Julie replied and then decided she’d go into a little bit more detail and told Michelle everything that she had written into the mailing list the previous day.
When she finished doing that, they orgainised what was going to happen once Julie got over to Perth where she’d be staying at Michelle’s house for the weekend. Michelle couldn’t help but show her excitement at being able to see the concert that Friday night. She also mentioned they were supposed to be doing a radio interview that day as well. Julie smiled as she hung up the phone and looked down at her plane ticket. “Leaving 7pm on Thursday 19th February 1998 and arriving at 9pm Perth time” it read. She was completely ecstatic because she was absolutely sure that Savage Garden were going to be arriving on the same day and she was taking her chances of running into them at the airport.

The plane touched down at 8am on Friday morning. The band dragged themselves off the plane feeling slightly drained of energy after a long 4 hour flight to Perth.
“Do we seriously have to go do an interview right NOW?” Darren whined.
“Yes we do Darren.” Daniel replied as he lifted his bag off the ground.
“Couldn’t we just have like one little break for once? I NEED a break!” Darren whined again.
“Darren, it’s promotion work! You do it ALL the time! That’s what keeps the band going.” Leonie, their publicist, said to him as she stood next to him.
“Leonie, next time, just make them come to us!” Darren said.
She smiled and walked off when her mobile started ringing again. Darren and Daniel walked with the band to the awaiting car outside.
“I don’t need this.” Darren grumbled. “I’m not getting any sleep and it doesn’t help when I have the frickin’ flu!”
“It’ll be okay Darren.” Nicole said patting his back.
He sighed and jumped into the van. They drove to the hotel to drop off their luggage and then made there way over to PMFM studios. Climbing the stairs, they found themselves in the studio with three other people - the morning crew. The track to Matchbox 20’s “3am” wrapped up and the light blinked “on air” above their heads.
“Yes that was Matchbox 20 with their hot new track 3am. Now here’s some guys who look like they’ve just gotten up at that time… welcome Darren ‘voice master’ Hayes and Daniel ‘man of many instruments’ Jones from Savage Garden!” said the first male interviewer.
Darren grimaced and Daniel chuckled as the applause sound effect was played.
“Not to be confused with this guy of course.” the female interviewer said switching on a sample of Silverchair’s ‘Freak’. “No, this one is MUCH cuter!”
Daniel laughed again and blushed. Darren dug his elbow into Daniel’s chest.
“Ow!” Daniel hissed at Darren.
“You’re a bit quiet Darren.” observed the other male interviewer.
“Yeah, I’m still trying to figure out where I am!” Darren joked.
The interviewers laughed.
“So how has the tour been so far?” asked the 1st male interviewer.
“Well, let’s see….” Darren said glancing up to the roof as if he was thinking about it.
“We both fell off the stage in Brisbane!” Daniel piped up.
They all laughed and the female interviewer said “That was a great start!”
“Sure was!” Daniel said laughing again.
“No, actually, it’s been a whole heap of fun.” Darren answered. “We get out there on stage and that feeling of exhilaration, when you first get on there and they’re all screaming at you, it just gives you this feeling like an adrenaline rush and that’s what drives you on for the rest of the show. It’s the crowd that carries you. We just love it.”
“I heard you have quite a few costume changes during your show too.” said the female interviewer.
“Yeah I have about 5 changes of costume all up.” Darren said.
“I don’t have any.” Daniel mumbled.
“And there’s a great little dance sequence in ‘All Around Me’ as well isn’t there?” the female interviewer asked.
“Actually everyone seems to enjoy that one the most. I mean, visually it’s pretty good, and they like that in the crowd, but I won’t tell you anymore. You’ll just have to wait until tonight to find out!” Darren said playfully and winked at the interviewer. She smiled back.
“So have you guys been up to anything else lately?” asked the 3rd interviewer.
“Well, ‘Truly’ went to number one in the US not that long ago!” Darren chuckled.
“Oh that’s right!” the female interviewer shrieked.
“So where were you when you got the call?” asked the 1st interviewer.
“In bed actually!” Daniel butted in before Darren got the chance to open his mouth again. “We got the call at home at like 4 or 5 in the morning and I just picked up the phone and said ‘This BETTER be good!’ and it was! After we found out it didn’t really matter what the time was cause we were just so excited, it totally blew us away!”
“It jumped from number 6 to number one didn’t it?” questioned the 3rd interviewer.
“Yeah I think it did!” Daniel responded. “That’s why we were so surprised cause we didn’t expect it to do that, we didn’t expect it to have happened that quickly!”
“Yeah I would have been surprised too!” said the 3rd interviewer. “That’s because you can’t sing!” joked the female interviewer. Everybody laughed.
“Okay, we have to put a track on here.” said the 1st interviewer. “Let’s see… oh that’s right, we pulled this one out just for you Darren!”
Darren looked at the CD cover and laughed as Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ began to play on the radio.
“You know I’m bad, I’m bad, ow!” Darren sung.
The others laughed. The song finished and they were now back on the air.
“If you heard that extra voice at the beginning of the song, that was Darren doing his Michael Jackson impersonation. Do we get a repeat performance?”
Darren and Daniel laughed. Darren shook his head “No.”
“Oh look, he’s gone all shy now!” the female interviewer commented. Darren blushed.
“Have you got any other impersonations?” the 3rd interviewer asked.
“He’s got thousands!” Daniel said.
“Can we hear some more?” the female interviewer pleaded. “Please?”
Darren hid his face behind his hands and shook his head. The others laughed.
“For all you people at home, Darren is now trying to hide to get out of this!” the 1st interviewer said into his mic. They all laughed.
“Can I go home now?” Darren whined in a little boy tone.
The interviewers laughed and the female interviewer said sternly “No!”
Darren peeked between his fingers and said in the same tone. “Will you stop picking on me then?”
“I’ll think about it.” the female interviewer said. Darren closed his fingers again and kept his hands on his face. “Yes yes okay!”
“Wohoo!” Darren cheered bouncing up in his seat as he removed his hands from his face. Everybody laughed.
“Okay, well now that Darren’s happy…” the 1st interviewer began.
“I’m not happy!” Darren joked.
“Why not?” the female interviewer asked.
“Cause you guys didn’t give me and Dan chocolates like you promised!” Darren replied. Everybody laughed.
“Okay! Hey guys, can we get some chocolates in here for these two blokes? They won’t do the interview without them!” the 1st interviewer called towards the doorway. Darren and Daniel laughed. “Well, while these guys are waiting on their chocolates, we’ll put another track on. And, since it’s your song, why don’t you introduce it guys… okay?”
Daniel nodded and took a big breath in, he’d done this many many times before. “Hi this is Daniel.”
Darren followed with “And this is Darren.”
Together they said “And we are Savage Garden.”
Then Darren continued “And you’re listening to our fab new track off our marvelous album.”
Daniel then said “It’s called ‘All Around Me’ and you’re hearing it on PMFM.”
“Sweety sweety!” Darren called in his ‘ab fab’ voice as the track began.
The on-air sign flashed as the track finished. The boys each had a chocolate bar that they were munching away on.
“So how are you enjoying those chocolate bars?” the 1st interviewer asked.
“They’re nice, thanks.” Daniel replied in-between bites.
“So Darren, that new track ‘All Around Me’ sounds very Ab Fab to me. Is that what you were aiming for?” the interviewer asked turning to Darren as Darren swallowed the last of his chocolate bar.
Darren laughed. “Yeah, actually when I recorded it I didn’t realise how Ab Fab I was being! It just kinda came out that way, but yeah I enjoyed the show a lot so I guess it did come from that.”
Daniel coughed and the others turned to him.
“You okay mate?” Darren asked.
Daniel looked at Darren sideways, not sure if he meant it or was just saying that because he was on the air.
“Yeah, chocolate just went down the wrong way.” Daniel hoarsely replied.
“I’ll get you some water to wash it down with.” the female interviewer said jumping out of her seat and went and fetched Daniel a glass of water.
“Thanks.” he replied as she handed it to him.
“I guess we should be thankful that you’re not the singer then!” said the 3rd interviewer. “You know, assuming that damaged your voice box or whatever.”
Daniel rolled his eyes away from the interviewer and vainly nodded. He couldn’t be bothered trying to answer that one, and his throat was starting to feel slightly sore anyway.
“Well we have to wrap up our show now, and I’m sure you guys would really like to be getting back to that hotel of yours and taking a break.” the 1st interviewer said.
“Sure would!” Darren said and Daniel nodded in agreement.
“Any last messages for your fans?” the female interviewer asked.
“Yeah, I’ll see all of you tonight guys! And have fun!” Darren shouted ecstatically down the mic.
“Yeah, thanks for your support guys. See you tonight.” Daniel managed to say.
They pulled themselves out of the chairs they were seated in and walked out the door calling “Bye!” as they left.
“That was Savage Garden, dropping in for a quick chat on your station, PMFM. Next up, the Music Marathon.” said the 1st interviewer and put on the ad sequence.

“PMFM will be here any minute now.” Leonie said pushing Darren and Daniel towards the little interview room located by the stage door backstage.
“Okay okay!” Darren said. “We get the picture!”
Darren and Daniel took a seat on the couch as Jay and Mel from the Hot 30 strode into the room.
“Hey guys!” Jay said.
“Hey!” Darren replied in a cheery tone.
Daniel sunk even further into the couch. He didn’t feel like doing any interviews. Jay and Mel took their seats directly opposite the boys and organised the mics.
“You ready?” asked Jay.
“Sure am!” Darren replied with a smile.
“Okay, let’s go!” Jay said. He cleared his throat and then began “Hey this is Jay…”
“…and this is Mel…” Mel said flicking her hair over her shoulder.
“…and you’re listening to the Hot 30. Tonight we have with us Savage Garden.” Jay continued.
“Hi guys!” Darren replied in his happy tone.
“Hey.” Daniel grumbled.
“How is the tour going?” Mel asked.
“Great! We’re really enjoying it!” Darren replied.
“I heard a rumor that Colby designed all your costumes.” Mel said to Darren.
“Pfft!” Darren laughed. “No, she didn’t design them. She’s a wardrobe assistant on this tour which means she gets to wash our stinky, smelly clothes after every show!”
The interviewers laughed. Daniel pulled himself back into a sitting position.
“Didn’t you fire her though?” Jay asked.
Darren and Daniel laughed. “That’s quite funny actually. We were about 2nd show into the tour, and I was walking around saying ‘I have the power! I am all powerful! Nobody can stop me!’ and she didn’t believe me so I started this big argument with her then and she said that I couldn’t fire her so I turned around and did!” Darren said. Everybody laughed. “But we rehired her the next day though cause we still needed her.”
“You’re a big fan of U2 aren’t you Darren?” Jay said next. “Are you having any days off to see the show?”
Darren laughed. “You know what? When we were scheduling the dates for our tour we got out all the dates of the other concerts and we said ‘Okay, U2’s performing that night, we aren’t going to have a show then’!”
Everyone laughed. Darren continued “We only have one day off in Sydney, we’re going to see the concert then.”
“Have you met Bono yet?” Jay asked.
“No.” Darren replied. “I hope to one day though…”
“Actually, we got a fax while we were in Sydney about that. Our management said that we might be able to go backstage and meet them at the Sydney show.” Daniel piped up.
Darren looked at Daniel “REALLY?”
Mel laughed. “See his face light up when you said that!”
Everyone laughed.
Darren couldn’t contain his excitement “Oh wow! I can’t believe that!”
“Settle settle.” Mel said. Darren stopped bouncing around on the couch.
“Did you hear about Oasis?” Jay asked.
Darren laughed. “I feel so sorry for them! It’s funny cause we do that on the planes ALL the time! But all the flight attendants just clean up our mess and say ‘You’re such nice boys!’” Everyone laughed.
“Hey, could we see one of your infamous tantrums?” Mel suddenly asked.
Darren laughed. “Sure!”
He got out of his seat and started flailing his hands everywhere. He hit the mics, knocked over pitches of water, flowers were squished on the floor.
“Wow.” Daniel said seeing for once just how violent Darren could get in his Oasis style tantrum. Darren knocked over the chocolates and stepped on them and Daniel yelled “Hey! You stepped on our chocolates!”
Darren stopped his tantrum and sat down. The back room was a complete mess.
“Just to explain to everyone at home, there are pitches of water everywhere and everything has just been made into one disorganised pile. We’ll just clean this up and be right back.” Jay said switching off the tape.
“I can’t believe you did that Darren!” Daniel said climbing to his feet. “Don’t expect me to help you clean it all up! You’re such an… an… argh, just… I’m getting out of here! You’re such an IDIOT!”
Darren watched as Daniel stormed out of the room. Jay and Mel looked at Darren curiously. Darren shrugged.
“I think he’s just having a bad day.” Darren said.
Jay and Mel looked at each other then grabbed a few things off the floor to help Darren pick his mess up. Daniel eventually came back to finish off the interview with Darren. He was grateful that he could actually have more of a chance to talk this time instead of Darren answering every single question. He still wasn’t happy though. When the concert began Daniel began to have some fun and enjoy himself as he usually did, but the thought still lay in the tiniest part of his brain - he hated Darren more than ever.
The next day it got worse. Darren and Daniel were at each other’s throats for most of the time whenever they were together. Colby ended up being the mediator. She would drag Darren away everytime Daniel was within sight.
“Darren, honey, is it really worth going through all this? It was only a comment in a magazine! You both know what the truth was!” Colby said.
“It’s just gone way past that now Colbs.” said Darren. “Every little thing about him is starting to annoy me. It’s like he’s seeking creative control or something. Really, if I wasn’t here, where WOULD he be? You can’t just get by on a career playing keyboards and rhythm guitar.”
“Don’t take that attitude Darren!” Colby yelled. “You know for a fact that he AND you are what created Savage Garden! It wasn’t just one or just the other!”
Darren sighed. “Look, I don’t care if he leaves the band. He can be easily replaced.”
“Maybe live, but who’s going to help you write those songs?” she replied.
“Oliver.” Darren said plainly.
“Do you really think Daniel’s older brother would really want to help you after what you did to Daniel?”Colby replied.
Darren shrugged. “I didn’t think so.”
Darren looked down at his feet and kicked the dust on the ground. Colby gently placed the back of her hand on his forehead.
“How you feeling?” she asked.
Darren shrugged. “Okay I guess.”
“Your throat alright?” she inquired.
He nodded in response. “Yeah it should be okay.”
She smiled and kissed his cheek. “You better get in the van. You said you wanted to get there early.”
He put his sunglasses on and kissed her back. “Seeya later.”
Darren jumped into the van as the rest of the band piled in. He ended up sitting between Daniel and Nicole.
“Don’t worry too much about it Darren.” Anna-Maria whispered in his ear as she lent forward. Darren didn’t move.
“Can we get going PLEASE?” Darren said after a minute or so of silence.
The van started up and they drove down to the Perth Entertainment Centre, arriving just before 5pm.

“The guys from Savage Garden arrived at 5.” Julie overheard the doorman tell some other girls who had just arrived.
“Oh my god! Michelle, did you hear that?” Julie cried.
“What?” Michelle asked gazing longingly at a picture of Daniel.
“They just said Savage Garden got here at 5 o’ clock!” Julie screamed in dismay.
“Shit! Are you kidding me?” Michelle asked.
“No! I can’t believe this! We decide to come early and they decide to come earlier! We missed them by 15 minutes!” Julie groaned.
“Shit! Oh that’s not fair!” Michelle cried. “15 minutes! I can’t believe that!”
Michelle and Julie moved over so that they could see the doorway. They ended up standing with the other girls and peering in to see Savage Garden. They could hear ‘Break Me Shake Me’ being played and then ‘All Around Me’. One girl there had gone to the soundcheck the day before. She informed everyone that the woman who had just been standing outside was Leonie, their publicist. Michelle and Julie groaned, looking in the vain hope to see just one of the guys make an appearance to come out and say hello.

Darren wrapped up the soundcheck with ‘All Around Me’. He was glad that he had the choreography down now, well he’d always had it right but he still wasn’t feeling the best. He followed Daniel off the stage into the backstage area. There were about 4 fans waiting by the door. One of them cried Darren’s name and the other 2 fans came running.
“Was Daniel there?” One of them asked. “I only saw Darren!”
The others all nodded at her.
Darren and Daniel disappeared into the room where they had been interviewed the previous day. Darren came out and stood by the coke machine, watching the fans look at him with gapping mouths and cry his name. He didn’t feel like talking to them, afraid that he may lose his voice if he tried. He disappeared back into the room. Daniel gave him a cold look and walked out. The doors were closed, he presumed the fans had gone. He went into the room across the hall to talk to the guys doing the paperwork. When he left the room he saw the fans all standing at the door again and they began to cry his name. He waved as he passed.
“Daniel! Come here!” one of the girls cried as he went through the door into the interview room again. He knew the voice, he remembered hearing it, but who did it belong to? All the fans had been a blur as he walked past. Darren walked out of the room and gave a half-hearted wave over his shoulder to the fans as he made his way to the stage. The doors were closed.
Michelle and Julie took their seats inside. When the support band finished they raced for the catwalk. Julie pressed her body up against the fence so she could hold her handbag, camera, pen and notepad all in one. She had to take both photos AND write a review for the mailing list.

Darren looked for Daniel backstage while the support band were on.
“Daniel, could you PLEASE do all the talking tonight so I only have to sing? ‘Cause otherwise my voice is just going to go during the concert, I’m sure of it.” Darren said.
Daniel grimaced. “Do I REALLY have to? I mean, you already IGNORED the fans before, I think they would want to BE acknowledged by you! You don’t want to show them what a big ego trip you’re on now do you?”
“I AM NOT!” Darren shouted. Daniel nodded. “I’m SICK of you just standing there all the time Daniel! For once in your life you could just do all the talking instead of me! I’m sick of having to fill in silences for you!”
“You don’t ‘fill in’ silences for me Darren! You just butt in! That’s all you ever do! Stuff everyone else! When you have something to say then it doesn’t matter who’s talking ‘cause only your opinion matters!” Daniel yelled.
Darren lifted his foot and kicked Daniel in the shins.
“Ow!” Daniel cried and removed his foot from the ground to rub his ankle.
“I’m warning you! If you don’t talk to them for me then you’ll get more of the same!” Darren said forcefully.

Savage Garden made their appearance on stage for the 2nd Perth concert. Darren had decided that he was just going to forget all about Daniel for the moment and make peace with the crowd. He ran around roaring at them, getting them all hyped up for the concert. He saw some cameras flashing in the front row as he headed up the catwalk. He stopped in front of 2 girls who had their cameras raised and posed for them for 20 seconds before moving on.
Julie and Michelle flashed their cameras as Darren posed for them. Lowering her camera, Julie glanced over to Daniel to see that he had his head down and wasn’t moving at all. A solemn look was on his face. They’d reached the 3rd song into the show - Violet - and Darren noticed that Daniel wasn’t moving or doing anything. He went over to Daniel and stared directly into his eyes telepathically sending him messages to move or do something because Darren knew he would start tiring out if he had to do everything himself. He kept staring at Daniel who stared back at him. Darren was giving Daniel an incensed look as another warning to make sure that Daniel introduced the songs instead of himself. Finally Darren broke away and walked off to another part of the stage. Daniel moved over to his keyboard to play the introduction to ‘To The Moon And Back’. Everytime he played this it always gave him some kind of calming effect. He was proud of this song and its success, it was something he could always rely on to keep him happy and to remind him that others had problems too, not just him. He glanced over to the catwalk. The fans were enjoying themselves. He smiled. It wasn’t until the end of ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ that Daniel looked up again, this time a little further up the catwalk and what he saw surprised him. Now he knew who that voice had belonged to, she was there like his own personal guardian angel to cheer him up when he felt down, it was that girl he’d seen in Brashs back in Sydney wearing the exact same top as she had in Sydney. She glanced up at him and their eyes locked. He grinned to show her that he remembered her. She smiled back. He felt confident now that he could do this, he could do all the talking instead of Darren. Daniel took the lead and beat Darren down the catwalk, taking a seat on his stool next to that girl and her friend who he remembered seeing outside. He smiled at them as he positioned his acoustic guitar and they raised their cameras to take pictures of him.
Daniel positioned the microphone and said “I know I've said this before but I'll say it again... the past 2 years have been a real roller coaster ride for us. We really wanna thank you guys for all of this.”
Darren came up the catwalk and added “Thanks for your support!”
After they finished singing a couple of songs on the catwalk, Daniel glancing up at Darren with a smile on his face and Darren being kind enough to step out of the way for Michelle and Julie to get photos of Daniel, the boys went back to the stage where Daniel took his place and spoke into the microphone yet again. Julie started getting a strong feeling that Darren had yelled at Daniel backstage about not talking enough.
Daniel glanced over at Ben with a grin on his face and said “Hey guys, you know the last song the support band did? The guy in the blue cloak who ran on - that was Ben.” Everyone laughed and he continued. “This song was written while we were in America dealing with ourselves and the insecurities of the whole industry.”
Everything remained relatively friendly between Daniel and Darren until the end of ‘A Thousand Words’. Darren's feedback line - a little box clipped onto the back of his costume which had an earphone running up to his ear - was falling off and one of the crew guys ran out behind Darren as he said “Stop.” When the lights came back on, Darren began to move about across the stage. The crew guy vainly tried to keep up with him and tried to hook the box back into place. Darren wouldn't stop for him. Eventually Darren stopped, and gave a look to Daniel which would say “C’mon, do something! I can't exactly move here!” Daniel consequently moved around a bit, but it wasn't too long before the crew guy quickly got the box into place on Darren and turned around to leave. As he did so, Darren chased him across the stage then booted him up the butt. The whole audience laughed.
They broke into ‘Break Me Shake Me’ next, with a verse of Nirvana’s ‘Come As You Are’ in the middle. Darren looked at Daniel in an infuriating way - as if he was yelling at him because he wasn't on the catwalk yet. Darren stood there on the catwalk, and Daniel slowly walked on standing towards the stage end of it, trying to keep away from Darren. Darren could do absolutely anything to him in this song and the audience wouldn’t notice because they’d think it was all part of the show. Darren held out his hand as if he was telling Daniel to go no further, and Daniel did as he was told - standing on the catwalk looking guilty, not moving a muscle because he might get in trouble. He didn’t want to get into any trouble with Darren, especially since they were going onto the bridge next, he didn’t need to fall again. Once on the bridge they were fine, at least it appeared so. They moved back and forth trying to claim one another’s territory. It was a struggle of power to determine who was right and who was wrong, even though there was no right or wrong. Just two friends who could no longer get along.
Darren ran off stage to get changed for ‘All Around Me’. Daniel and Ben came to the edge of the stage to play a little guitar solo together. This was an idea Ben had come up with in Melbourne to keep Darren and Daniel apart for at least a minute or two so they wouldn’t be at each other’s throats backstage. At the end of the instrumental, Ben and Daniel took a bow and left the stage together. Ben made sure he took Daniel in another direction completely away from Darren.
Darren came out for ‘All Around Me’. He stood on the catwalk in front of Michelle and Julie and posed again for them to take pictures. As he’d planned, they took quite a few snaps of him, and he continued with the choreography. Once Anna-Maria had left to go over to Daniel, Darren noticed that the two girls who originally had been snapping pictures of him were now watching Anna-Maria wander off. Anna-Maria approached Daniel from behind and threw her arms around his shoulders. He glanced back over his shoulder to see who was restricting him from playing the keyboard and smiled when he saw Anna-Maria beaming back at him. Julie raised her camera and snapped a photo, Darren intentionally stepped back to get into the shot but the flash went off before he got there. By the time the next song had started, Darren had come up with a plan. He sat on the chair on the catwalk and began singing ‘I’ll Bet He Was Cool’ and set his eyes upon Julie and Michelle who were paying much more attention to Daniel than they were to him. They looked back at him and his stare became intimidating. Michelle and Julie both cringed and Julie looked away. Darren smirked at his small victory and went on to dance with his chair as he sang the song.
Once they decided to finish the song and Darren had yelled at Karl for doing a drum solo without his permission - as he always did in every show - they introduced the other band members. Daniel didn’t even see it coming. Once Darren had introduced the backup singers, he ran down the stairs and hit Daniel with full force on the back as he passed. Daniel jolted forward, stopping himself just short of the keyboard. He gave a sideways glance to Darren, an evil look on his face. He wish he knew how to stop Darren from doing all these things on stage, but he didn’t know how. He couldn’t talk to Darren without getting into a fight anymore, most of the time they just gave each other the silent treatment.
“We're going after one more song. We won't be seeing you guys for a very long time.” Darren said to the crowd.
“I wish I wouldn’t have to see YOU for a very long time!” Daniel grumbled under his breath.
They broke into ‘I Want You’, Darren vogueing for the first part of the song in mimic on the US film clip before he went onto the stage and requested the audience sing “Chic-a-cherry cola”. The crowd was definitely hyped, they all sung the line terrifically and just seeing the excited faces made Daniel happy as well. As the song reached it’s peak, he bounded across the stage with his guitar like a kangaroo. Daniel gave one last grin at Julie and Michelle as they all bowed and left the stage. They came back on for ‘This Side Of Me’ followed by ‘Truly Madly Deeply’. Darren walked down the catwalk to have a t-shirt thrown at him, sailing past him and landing on the edge of the catwalk. He looked down at the shirt with a look that showed he had no idea why they’d do that, shrugged and then continued singing. Again Darren saw that Daniel wasn’t paying much attention to what he was doing, so he could strike again. He went down the catwalk, behind Daniel and grabbed hold of his shoulder, pulling him right back so that he was trying to play guitar and balance on one leg at the same time. Daniel could feel his knees groaning in agony beneath him but he managed to keep his position until Darren let him go.
Finally the show ended. Daniel helped pack up the PA equipment, even though a few people started to remind him that he didn’t need to do that anymore - other people were being paid to do that job for him. Daniel groaned everytime he was told this, but he still stayed and helped. He needed to get away from Darren.

Their attitudes were still the same when they got to Sydney. The only time they spent together was at the U2 concert on the Friday before their Sydney show. Darren was overjoyed at being able to meet Bono at the show, Daniel was just happy that Darren’s attention was focused away from him for a while. On the Saturday Night was the Mardi Gras. Darren had organised to appear on the special that was going to be screened on Monday night. Daniel, on the other hand, didn’t particularly want to get involved - especially when he heard that the room was only really big enough to fit two people in. He couldn’t stand being with Darren in a large room let alone a small one. Everybody decided to make a night out of it though, so they were all going to watch from the streets. Daniel ended up having to sit next to Darren in the van. They stopped outside the building that Darren had to go into to do the interview. Darren pulled the sliding open and jumped out of the van then slammed the door in Daniel’s face.
“Hey!” Daniel shouted.
Darren glanced at his reflection in the car door making sure he looked okay for the camera. Daniel rolled his eyes - this was the MOST annoying thing about Darren. He always did this before any television performance. Darren finally turned and Daniel could open the door to get out. He needed to stretch his legs. The next thing he knew Anna-Maria was pulling him off towards the street where the parade would be coming down. The others followed, leaving Darren to go into the building himself.
Finally it came down to the day of the second Sydney concert. Darren and Daniel spent most of the morning going over the costs of the film clip they were doing that afternoon. Carla made a sudden appearance at the door.
“Darren!” she cried.
He looked up and smiled, then went over to her and gave her a hug.
“How ya doing?” he asked.
“Great!” she replied. “Look, I brought the kids.”
Darren glanced down and saw two small children standing by their mother. He crouched down to their height.
“Hey guys!” he said to them.
They smiled as Darren got more acquainted with them. In the end they just wouldn’t let him go.
“We’re going now.” Daniel said in passing.
Darren waved as Daniel left with the rest of the band. Daniel wasn’t in much of a good mood, he spent a lot of the time talking things over with Ben.
Darren finally left the hotel later than he was supposed to. When the van pulled up at the Sydney Entertainment Centre he saw two fans standing by the fence - a boy and a girl. It was Julie and her brother, but he didn’t remember her at all.
“Hi.” he said to them as he approached the fence.
A look of surprise came on the girl’s face as she lowered the camera.
“Hey!” she replied. “We’re here now cause Carla told us you were gonna get here early.”
“Oh! You’re the Internet guys. Carla said to me that you guys told her you were going to be first in line!” he joked. Neither of the two laughed. He held out his hand to the girl who seemed to be saying the most.
“Oh, okay.” Julie said as she untangled her hand from the camera strap and shook his hand.
He smiled weakly. “What’s your name?”
“Julie.” she replied and a broad grin appeared on her face.
“You two coming to the concert?” he asked.
“Yeah, I saw the first Sydney one too and the 2nd Perth show. I flew over just to see you guys in Perth!” she replied.
Darren’s head was throbbing, he had the flu really bad now, but he tried to pay attention to what she was saying. It was hard for him to do because she was speaking so fast. I took him a while but he suddenly realised what she had said.
“Oh really? You did?” he said in surprise.
“Yup. I went to the Perth show, it was great! I was sitting right next to where you were standing on the catwalk, you know, where you always stand?” she said.
“Yeah I remember that but I don’t remember you!” he thought.
A head popped over his shoulder. “Julie? Hi!”
“Oh hi Carla!” Julie said.
Carla disappeared and Darren then continued “Yeah the second show’s always a little flatter than the first.”
He was surprised by her answer. She cried. “No no no!!!! We all thought the 2nd show was better!”
He looked at her with disbelief. He wanted her to prove it to him, to tell him why it was better. He waited for her to tell him why, but she didn’t.
“You did??” he prompted.
“Yeah.” was her reply.
He looked up to see that two girls were standing on the balcony overhead, quietly screaming at the sight of him.
“C’mon down!” he called and watch them run for the stairs.
“Darren, about you and Daniel…” Julie began.
He turned his head back to her. “What about me and Daniel?”
“Is everything okay between you two? You both look like you hate one another!” Julie said.
He shook his head. “Not really. It’s just a little dispute. I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you.”
“LITTLE!” Julie shrieked. Darren looked at her in surprise. Julie looked down at her feet feeling a little embarrassed. “What I meant was, um, well a few of us on the net know it’s not like that. Carla told Kirri who told us. There’s not many who know, but really you don’t have to hide it from us.”
“Hide what?” he asked.
“It was only a comment, you should know that.” Julie replied.
Darren moved his head back to look at the girls approaching him. He held his hand out to them too and asked their names. Julie suddenly got the feeling that he didn’t want to talk to her anymore. She knew she shouldn’t have opened her big mouth. She didn’t know how she was supposed to solve this now...

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Chapter Five
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