The Ned Wood Archive

Ellie

She really enjoyed the first band.  They put on a really good show.  Had everyone bouncing.  They were obviously based on Queen.  Similar sound.  Guitarist who played all the solos.  Singer who thought he was God’s gift.  Pranced all over the stage.  Did one slower song at the piano.  But they did it really well.  The ideal act to kick off the festival.  She wondered why she hadn’t heard of them before.   

She asked Joe whether he knew any other good bands like them.  

“You want some more rock and roll?” he said.  

“Yeah, OK.”

So he suggested they go to Woodsies to see another band.  They start soon after they get there.  There’s what five/six of them.  They’re more punky, more indie than the Struts.  Not as slick.  Not as rehearsed.  Dirtier.  More energy.  

She liked them too.  She didn’t quite catch their name first time round.  Maybe her brain was being deliberately stupid or deliberately wicked, but she thought Joe called them Menstrual Cramp.  She thought that was hilarious.  She pinged a message to the group chat to tell them she’d just seen Menstrual Cramp.  Phoebs wrote back immediately saying she thought that was the name of Jehnny Beth’s band.  Ellie & Phoebe had been talking about Jehnny Beth cos they were planning on seeing her on the Saturday.  Abi wrote that it was a supergroup with Jehnny Beth, Beth Ditto, and Lady Gaga.  The rest of them traded messages on and off for the next couple of hours making alternative suggestions for the band members.  Charlie XCX?  Arrow de Wilde?  Beth Jeans Houghton?  Brody Dalle?  They settled on Jehnny Beth, Amy Taylor and CMAT.  They discussed whether having a male drummer in the band would be satirical or stereotypical and then agreed that the only appropriate drummer would be Meg White.

They had two group chats.  One was a bit more exclusive than the other.  There was the Glastonbury chat they’d set up before they left.  They’d got Georgia on that so she wouldn’t feel left out.  Then Lauren put her Mom on so she could think she was joining in with the fun.  Lauren’s Mom’s OK, but you can’t tell her boyfriend stuff.  It gets leaked.  Lauren doesn’t care who finds out about her love life, but Ellie does.  At least at the start.  So Ellie set up a proper just the four of them group.   

No, yeah, she wasn’t on the phone solidly.  She was mainly talking to Joe.  But she dropped a message to Phoebe every so often to let her know things were going well until she realised that she was running out of charge and then switched off thinking, hoping she’d save something for any emergency.