The Hidden Chords of Jasper David Chapter 8

"Honey, that's easy, hire a private jet."

That's ridiculous. Even if I could afford the fee, I'd never thought about it that way. David took a private plane to see me several times, but I was still sensible and never thought about spending so much money. place.

It was indeed a lot of money, and because we were short on time, we had to take the only plane they had at the time, and it was a big plane. Just as we were about to board the plane, my father called. Louise gave birth to a girl. He said he would meet us at Stansted and take us directly to the hospital. Even though the plane was ready and we had everything ready, we still couldn't leave Copenhagen before eleven o'clock because we couldn't return to the UK before midnight because of the "overseas tax year" and to make matters worse, our Accountants inform us that the new Labor government has abolished the "foreign tax year". We can give up now. If we continue, the taxes we should pay will only be exempted until the date of the new policy. In the end, with all the extra flying costs, I don't think we saved a penny, either for me or my family.

Poor Louise's delivery was not smooth. In the end, the doctors had to use forceps to pull the baby out, so the child's head became a strange cone shape. Everyone was saying: "What a beautiful child!" But in my heart Thinking: "No, she's not beautiful."

It was about four o'clock in the morning when we were able to rest. In order not to be late for training, David flew back to Manchester early in the morning, and I went back to the hospital to stay with Louise for a day, and then flew to Helsinki. I would be a fool not to leave England before midnight.

Wednesday was just as long and meaningless: we had to go to London for a lottery show, so we left Helsinki in order to arrive in London before midnight. Before midnight the next day we were on our way back to Oslo and the staff were already arranging our next concert, but at least I could see Liberty that day, a name Louise came up with on the way to the hospital. At that time, "Lucky Man" by the Shen Yun singing group was playing on the radio.

On the way to the hospital, it must have been Wednesday morning, the phone rang.

"Hello, Victoria"---It's Andrew Thompson, "Hot Girl's" lawyer---"Can you please speak"?

He wasn't always so cautious.

"What's up"?

I could feel him pause.

"Jace is leaving the band."

These words stuck somewhere in my mind, as if I had eaten something I shouldn't have eaten. This must be a joke, this must be a joke.

"Oh alright."

"No, this is serious, Victoria. Jace is leaving the band. She's had enough. She doesn't want to come back."

I---really---can't---believe it.

"Then we have to have a meeting. At twelve noon, in my office, okay?"

If someone had taken a picture of me at that time, it would have definitely not looked good. A monkey's B*tt is much prettier than mine.

"No, I can't go at noon. You know what? My sister just had a baby, and I'm going to her right now. That's more important to me than anything else. I don't want to be in a lawyer's office all day. It's very difficult. Sorry, but we can talk about it tonight on the draw."

How do I cope with all this? Stay with my sister and ignore it.

Back in "Hot Girl World", all hell breaks loose. We all tried to call Jace, but her mobile phone was always turned off and no one knew where she was. The lottery draw is a live show and everything is open to the public. Finally, someone found her after rehearsal - I think she was at her brother Max's house. At least, he was the one who answered the phone. We persuaded her one by one. We said, OK, Jace, we've come all the way to where we are today, what the hell are you playing at? I remember trying again - trying to get Max to convince Jace to come back to the phone - ---But Max said that Jace couldn't talk anymore. She was already upstairs, a little hysterical.

"She doesn't look well," he said.

"Ji Rui was sick" became the excuse that night. We all believed that Jace was just sick. We even waved to her through the camera, smiling so hard that our faces almost broke, and we wished her a speedy recovery.

Manage yourself

The next few days were pretty chaotic. Within 24 hours, we went from a busy office of 10 people to just 5 of us. We called our attorney every half hour. We need to use our brains to come up with some written materials. As much as possible, we delineate different areas of responsibility. I'm in charge of finances. Madison Melanie Melanieis responsible for touring, Melanie B is responsible for record company affairs, Emma is responsible for charity work, and Jace is responsible for contacting sponsors.

We go step by step, work hard, perform hard, and do everything hard. We desperately need someone to help us, even if it's just to answer the phone. But who to look for?

As we talked about the person we were looking for, one name kept popping up: Victoria Williamson. Tori used to work for Simon - Tori was the one who helped me sneak out for a night with David in Manchester - but, since then she's gone to EMI Records . She is about the same age as us---24 years old---she is very efficient and we like her very much. It was an incredible coincidence that when we called her, she told us that her resume had been sent out.

It was a difficult time. In Barcelona we were booed off the stage by the foreign press. We've always said we don't video the shows - I mean, who wants their panties to be captured on camera? But you have to tell the cameraman first, and Simon was responsible for all of that before.

I remember Simon once said, honors are taken away from you just as quickly as they are given to you, and I have always remembered this sentence since then. After what happened in Barcelona,   we were indeed very scared, but we would never back down and we would succeed. We have won every other battle, so why can't we win this one?

Back in London, we had our first big meeting with Viking. There's no way they're going to allow something like Barcelona to happen again. We are used to Viking's lazy style, but this time it's very different. They were frightened. You can see it in their eyes. There were about 40 people in the conference room, lawyers, heads of all departments, and senior management.

Getting the media back on our side is the biggest problem we face. Viking decided to let an outside PR person handle the matter. They called in Alan Edwards, who was working as Janet Jackson's publicist at the time.

After leaving Sterling Simon, the second stop on the "Hot Girl" schedule was Rome. Allen believed that offense was the best defense, and he announced to the outside world that the "Hot Girls" would perform an impromptu performance on their hotel balcony on a certain day at a certain time. This is useful. When the British media arrived, they found the streets crowded with our Italian fans and traffic jams for several miles. The newly claimed death of "Hot Girl", the newspaper wrote, was an exaggeration.

But, that's just the beginning. When booking a hotel, we always ask for a live phone. Because we are now self-managed, the five of us spend an hour every night on the phone with our lawyers. Jace was very good at this, and Melanie B. would throw in a quip every time she thought she needed to lighten the mood, like what kind of underwear these lawyers were wearing. But these are big business decisions: sponsorships can run into millions of pounds. Although Jace and I both have natural business acumen, we were still in the adaptation period.

In the end, after listening to all the debate, soliciting suggestions and opinions, and considering all possibilities, we always arrive at a unanimous decision as a group. The principle we have always followed is to stick to the decisions we have made and not change our minds. My dad may not have realized it at the time, but it was he who taught me so well.

One of the funniest experiences during this time was in Brazil. When we got there we found out we had to board 5 boats filled with contest winners and float down the Amazon River.

It may seem like a great idea to anyone sitting in an office in London or Los Angeles who comes up with this idea, but it's very dangerous. Don’t they know that the Amazon River has the largest population of piranhas in the world?

So I called Paul Conroy, Viking's managing director, and said there was no way I was going to set foot on this bark thing with piranhas surrounding it. The oar bites east and west. We had turned down the hotel we were offered and it was a cesspool - the walls of my room were a mosquito graveyard. Someone said that a friend of his had a big boat that we could stay on. Ok, deal.

It was hot as an oven, so what were five pop stars doing on a riverboat tied to the banks of the Amazon River? They pulled out Wham CDs and Madonna CDs and drank tequila. All I can remember about that day is dancing to George Michael's fast songs and eating several bowls of rice. Either the tequila or the rice...I personally think it was the rice...I soon made friends with the toilet bowl. It's so charming.

What makes the situation so difficult is the hateful "foreign tax-free year". If we were in the UK - even with a dedicated base - things might be a lot easier. But we didn't.

We don't have an office for Tori either. In fact, she only had a mobile phone and was sitting in the car. How she got here, I've never known, but I'm sure she got us out of a lot of trouble. But it was unbearable to do this work alone. Speaking of unbearable, in December, our single "Unbearable" shot to the top of the charts - the sixth number in a row. "Hot Girls" is still running.

Tori suggested that we meet Nancy Phillips, whom she had worked with at our TV promotion agency, Shining, where Tori had been before joining Simon. Since leaving Simon, Nancy has been working at V2, the brand that Richard Branson created when he sold Virgin to EMI. Nancy was previously a partner in a planning company, and among the people they planned were the "Bass Minor" singing group and Thomas Dolby.

We met her at the Hotel Bristol in Paris. It was mid-December, just a month after we fired Simon. We talked to her and told her we were not looking for an agent, but someone who would work for us and run an office for us. Suddenly, she interrupted one of us and picked up a large glass ashtray and handed it over. "Use this," she said.

Because she first saw one of us sticking chewed gum to a beautiful porcelain plate. For a moment, you could hear a gasp. But from there we learn something important. Nancy didn't do this to attract our attention. She just said whatever she thought without any nonsense. In the record industry, bragging can generate enough heat to fly across the Atlantic. We need someone who is completely straight to the point, someone who is completely down to earth. And Nancy was, of course, the ideal candidate.

From the beginning, she had a calm and confident temperament. She seems to be in her late thirties or early forties, very natural, elegant and decent in conversation, but not rigid. So we made her an offer we didn't think she could refuse, and a month later she took over all aspects of running the "Hot Girls" operation, bringing in her personal assistant, Julie, from V2. She joined us in January 1998, and in April we started taking care of business in Marie-Le Pen's office.

she betrayed us

How do you explain something that you can't even understand? The last time I saw Jace was on a plane to Helsinki, and I remember that flight because we were both in a good mood - after all, we were in Fly home, even though I can only stay at home for one day. I remember laughing the whole time. Then we hugged and said goodbye. I can't imagine it happening like this. Really, no idea at all.

We still intend to keep this confidential. Jace may be sick for a few days or weeks. There is only one last show left on our European tour, and there will be a short break before the show in Miami, the first stop of our American tour. All this can be covered up. Eventually she will come to her senses. But on my way to the airport, Aaron Edwards called. Someone from the newspaper called and told him that he saw Jace boarding a plane to France at Heathrow Airport. So Jace is not sick. The whole thing exploded.

The newspapers were all busy. Everyone has their own opinion. There were reports that we had a huge row on the plane back from Helsinki. Reports say we even got into a fight (actually we were laughing on the flight back). There are reports that something big has happened in the past few months. Some people say that Jace's departure was this person's fault or that person's fault. I mean Jace's departure is as unexplainable as a strange circle in a crop field. I'm sure some people think she was kidnapped by foreigners.