First Shout Out – Back Story – Wayne 50

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Wayne had never felt so exhilarated nor so at home. He didn’t know what time it was any more, he wasn’t even certain he was in the same time zone or city he’d started in that evening. Everything he had known two, three hours before had been swept away because of everything that had happened in this tiny room in the back of a pub. Wayne shouldn’t have been there, he was too young. But come to that he suspected no one was actually meant to be there. The place didn’t have the right license for this kind of thing, hence no publicity, no proper PA, no nothing.

But it was happening. Probably a couple of hundred people, packed shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, sweating together and swaying and jumping. A mass of humanity with him packed into it, and then overseeing it, shouting out his rhymes over the top and watching as this massive creature of a crowd flexed and rippled, and essentially lost itself in the noise he made. It was so good it couldn’t be legal.

With sweat dripping down his back and making his eyesight squinty he needed to talk to Flames, the artist who had just been tearing into the crowd with their own unique brand of music, rap and more besides. This act was like nothing else Wayne had ever seen and he was keen to get on their radar, maybe get on their vibe somehow.

This, he thought, shouldn’t be much of a problem because Wayne had himself just torn up the floor as best as any newcomer could. He had taken the mic, given it his one shot and gone down a storm. The transformation was mind-blowing and was actively blowing his mind right now. He’d fooled the doorman he was old enough to come in, fooled him that he knew something was on and that he’d been invited, fooled the organiser into giving him a slot alongside two others but, after all that fooling, he had delivered. He had been authentic, real and riding with the best. He’d stormed it. His first big gig and he’d talked himself into going on stage and now they had to talk to him, to listen to him, because he, Wayne, had power too.

“He’s my brother,” he told the first bouncer who stood in his way as he tried to make his way to the back room where Flames was holding court.

“Yeah,” said the bouncer, believing him for not a second, “he’s my brother too.”

Wayne wondered whether to follow this up - ‘oh, really, is he? what was he like at school?’ - but the alternative, playing it safe, was by far the best route.

“Look, did you see what I did tonight?” said Wayne. “Nearly levelled the sound system, you know? Blew everyone away and I wanna see what Flames thinks of it. I could be the next best thing and you can help me,” he added.

“There just one of you?” asked the bouncer. 

“Yeah, yeah absolutely,” said Wayne

There was a pause. The bouncer thought about it and then said: “No, not a chance.”

Refusing to be put off Wayne crashed out the venue, walked straight round the building, scanning his options as he went. Finally he found a slightly ajar window and climbed and crawled his way in, finding himself on the right side of the bouncer’s boundary. Flames plus entourage were in the second room he pushed into.

Shouldering his way through he found himself face to sunglasses with his hero. And his hero immediately knew him.

“Hey man,” said Flames. “You did good tonight. You took the heat I gave you and rode it well, hey?”

“The what?” said Wayne.

“Crowd was ready for me and up for the night, right? And there you were - right place, right time. How did that feel huh?”

“It... I...” and then Wayne couldn’t leave it there. “I made that happen,” he said. “I brought it man, that was me, not just something they were waiting for...”

“Hey I’m not saying you were nothing,” said Flames. “But you needed me to have the scene up there in the first place, right? Couldn’t do it alone man, and hey, you didn’t lose them. You didn’t lose the vibe.”

Wayne just stared at Flames. A couple or three minders were getting itchy over having the kid this close.

“So you like my stuff?”

“Man, I’ve seen worse, but you ain’t no star. You’re OK, and like I say, tonight you were lucky cos the crowd were up for it. But that’s me, not you. I’ve helped you tonight, but you ain’t that good. You ain’t got it man, no offence it just ain’t there. And you dress weird.”

Stoney faced, Wayne just turned and walked slowly out of the venue. He ignored every word from the bouncers, every slap on the back from the crowd. He walked in a near straight line through the sweat and swearing crowd until he was outside smelling the damp fresh night air.

And then he turned on his heel, looked at the venue and spat.

“Will prove you wrong,” he said quietly and wandered back home.