1 1. Matthew Watkins

Tuesday, 19th February 2019 2300hrs

I had just completed the gig that we had performed over in Hyde Park and was sitting on those black boxes that were used to store our stage equipment.

It was a packed 65,000 spectators over at one of the four concert arenas, and we would be earning a 50% royalty for the £50 ticket price that was set by the organisers that had given a slot to perform a Tuesday evening.

We just got back from Paris, France after a tour of about 5 days there before heading back to the United Kingdom on Saturday morning.

Even if we felt a bit jet-lagged but we managed to keep our spirits up with the company of other spirits, like Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and the like!

One of the organisers entered the backstage to congratulate us on yet another successful and powerful show that we had performed and the spectators enjoyed it much the same!

Some of the spectators had followed us all the way from Paris, France when we played in U Arena in Nanterre where it packed 39,500 spectators. It was short of several thousand compared to the one we just completed here in our hometown.

Even though we received lesser spectators there, we earn slightly more royalty at between 55% to 65% when we played overseas as we would be handling our own sound, lights as well as the pyrotechnics which we had heavily invested in.

We also brought along with us our own personalised musical instruments, and every time we move around doing local gigs upon demand, our 20-foot long haul container would be coming along with us as well.

We are considered as one of the Top 50 Pop/Soft Rock band named 'Eye Candy' which we had established way back in 2016. It took us some years before we were able to skyrocket our fame to where we are now.

There are 13 members in Eye Candy and it would be yours truly, Matthew Watkins on keytar and vocals, Carter Harvey – Lead Guitarist, Rowan Atkinson – Rhythm Guitar, Jaden Reynolds – drums, Elis John – Wind Instruments, Annie Lowe, Rachel Barker and Audrey Harvey on backup vocals and last but not least, Macie Fox on piano/keyboards.

We have 2 male and female dancers that are Sean Patel, Lochlan Davidson, Emily Newman and Mya Hayes.

They would be on and off stage that would be controlling the pyrotechnics as well as the lightings as the remotes would be with them.

Once they are on stage, the lightings would be trained and following wherever they are on stage.

It is pretty cool since we do not need a lights man to control the lighting and only needs the soundman and other technicians on standby.

Throughout the years, we had produced a total of five albums with at least 10 MTVs in them and more 50 singles altogether.

The five albums were called Time After Time, Remember Yesterday,

Even in this advanced and modern music industry, our producers still insisted to churn out HD-DVDs or High Definition Digital Video Discs since the market for such media exists in some countries such as Japan, Korea, China and some other parts of the Asian markets.

The reason that the producers wished to churn out these HD-DVDs is that it would be a collector's item in the future.

Well, at least we could earn 8% royalty from it since we do not fork out any money to produce the copies. Indeed, what the producers had said was true.

The sales for each of our album were sold at more than 15 million copies worldwide, and we earned about £8.38 million as it was sold at £6.99 each in Monorail Music, Mixed up Records, Assai Records, The Vinyl Exchange, Jumbo as well as Rough Trade record stores.

The gig that we had just performed at Hyde Park earlier had netted us a gross income of £1.625 million and it would be shared between the 13 members after taxes. So right after taxes, we each earned a nifty £100,000. Not bad for 120 minutes of performance!

"Hey Matt, what are you going to head next after this? Your home in Knightsbridge would have hundreds of fans waiting outside. Your dad's store would have hundreds of fans there too. Hohoho…You really can't escape your fans since you lived 3 hours away from here by rail. Hohoho…!" Carter highlighted to me since I knew I loved to ride the tube to escape from the crowd and fans, and I could easily blend in. If we were to arrive by our luxury liner coach, we would be seen easily and be trailed by the groupies!

Even if we are the Top 50 Pop/Soft Rock, being a B-List celebrity isn't easy. There are two celebrity listing, one for the band and the other for its members.

All of us, including the stage performers, are in the B-List celebrity rankings and it took us a year from being an unranked celebrity to D-List, and then to C-List after a year and then the current B-List which we had maintained for a year or so now.

To climb higher? Naah…it's a dream beyond our means because we happen to be in a common genre and we have to compete with the rest of the other hundreds of Pop/Soft Rock bands.

"I'm not sure Carter. My parents knew I have reached back here in London and so do the rest of your families too. But I think I would stick around and head for the low-key budget hotels around here. I would most likely grab a Gett or UberX and move about town for a while bit."

"But before that, I would need to go to the dressing room to get changed and remove the makeup and all. Have all our equipment been settled yet? If not we could just leave them to the technicians. A fifty quid tip would do them a good deal, yeah?"

"Yeah mate, fifty quid would be great for a person but not a group of them. Have you got any loose change on you, Matt?"

I went over to my luggage and rummaged through the front compartment and took some crumpled fifties in my hand and passed it to Carter once I had smoothened down the notes.

"Yeah, this should do it. If I am short, just top it off for me, mate. I would be transferring to you later. You know how I hate to carry loose change especially when we are on a tour like this." I explained as I smoothen out 4 pieces £50 notes and handed it to Carter who would be handling the technicians for now.

Right now, we would be free for the next one week before our scheduled trip to Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan before performing in front of 72,000 fans in Nissan Stadium.

It would be the biggest event there. It was also the home stadium of Yokohama F. Marinos, a local football team there.

Even if Manchester United is one of the main favourite football team in England and is well known throughout the world, but here in London, the fans favoured the top four which are Arsenal FC, Chelsea FC, Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace FC. I'm a Gunner's fan myself when I was a kid, and I had once, accidentally boarded a bus which was full of the Blues and I slowly and without raising a riot, slowly got off the bus and removed the jersey that I wore that day!!!

Football hooliganism still exists today but on a subtler note.

We all wished each other farewell as they headed towards the luxury liner coach that was waiting for them near the grounds and had several hundred coppers surrounding the area so that the crazed fans would not cross over the barriers and crashed head-on towards us.

Our English fans are the rowdiest of the bunch that we had ever met, and they were not there for autographs.

They would tear at our clothes and even the coach's banner! Anything they could get their hands on would be a keepsake for them or even being auctioned off Amazon or bay!

Simply crazy, I tell you!

A single autograph from us would fetch thousands of pounds sterling online!

They don't even have to work so hard at all and all they did was to grab whatever they could! C R A Z Y!!!

"No worries, Matt. I would settle the rest of the untipped technicians. At least they would do a better job in handling our equipment if they got an extra tip, don't you think so, mate?. If not, who knows that they might turn out to be porters from some YouTube clips that literally throw luggage around on their transports even though the luggage may be marked as F R A G I L E!"

I looked at Carter wide-eyed as he mentioned it, and he laughed out loud with the rest of the members. "Got you there, mate! You got a face filled with a super epic shock! Alright, we going to head out now. Be careful out there. We won't want to see you in the tabloids tomorrow morning with nothing except for a pair of jocks! Hahaha!"

The rest of the band members loved to tease once another and the one long night has finally come to an end! They left the backstage and were whisked away by the security personnel as fast as they could to the idling luxury liner coach waiting at the designated pickup point, away from the prying eyes and the knowledge of the crazed fans.

I took a packet of cigarettes that I had kept in my luggage and took a stick and lighted one. The smoke soon filled my lungs and my head and even though how much I loved to smoke, too much of it would damage the vocals and fortunately I do have some backup vocals done by some of the members.

After a few puffs, I snubbed the remaining stick of cigarette underfoot and walked around a bit and peered at the drapes that covered the backstage.

Most of the fans and supporters had left the arena and the cleaners were deployed to clear the rubbish that was left by the 65,000 strong audiences.

Someone might have dropped a wallet, a mobile phone, some pieces of jewellery or even some bras and panties too as some would even have time and opportunity to get knocked up in the middle of the performances! Hahaha!

As the barricaded area has located some distance from the main stage, we would not be able to get a glimpse of what was happening among the 65,000 audiences!

I snuck my head back in and proceeded to the dressing room where I had some of my daily clothes stored there. I would get changed and removed my stage clothes, removed my makeup and then would put on a long overcoat and shades before I leave the place.

At least I would be able to blend in with the crowd, and if someone recognises me in the crowd, I would always say to them, "I always get complimented this way. Thanks, man. I sure do look like Matthew Watkins from Eye Candy, am I right? You want to have my number or my autograph or something?"

Once I acted like a common person that looked like 'me', they would quickly go away and then go about their business. Hahaha! This method works all the time! They would even comment back, "As if you are Matthew Watkins. Baahh! Go and look at yourself properly in the mirror, dude!"

Hahaha!

I tried to remove the makeup on my own since the makeup person had left the dressing room and headed for home I suppose. So what I could do right now is to use some moisturizer on some cotton balls and removed them myself.

I had observed this many times before and it worked wonders except it made my face looked rather pale as the skin contrast would be much clearer than the skin on my arms. Hahaha…

Fortunately, there was a sink next to it and I rinsed my face afterwards to get rid of the aqueous cream that acts as a make-up remover and a substitute for soap! If I do not wash it away, it would leave white streaks over my face!

After I had done away removing the makeup from my face, I changed my stage clothes into my tattered pair of Hugo Boss jeans, an Abercrombie and Fitch round neck tee and a pair of worn-out Dr Martens boots.

My stage clothes were hung back on the clothing rack as the other person would be taking care of it and compile them together.

"Y A W N! My gosh…I felt awfully tired after this performance! Mind if I take a short rest here while I look at my phone?!" I called out to no one in particular as the dressing room was empty, and so does the rest of the dressing rooms for the members.

I walked about the dressing room after I had changed and found a nice spot in the corner where a worn-out 'L' shaped sofa was placed.

I cleared away some of the fabric that was covering it and sat on its plush seat while I fished out my £549 OnePlus smartphone and surfed the internet to check on the band's standing after each performance and the public's and fan's feedback.

After surfing the internet for some time, my eyes started drooping, and I really felt so comfortable on the sofa set that my thoughts soon drifted apart and suddenly I was overwhelmed by sleep!

In my semi-conscious state, I began to dream that I was in another parallel world much like what we are living in right now. In that parallel world, there's no hover cars or buses that sort of things and no one is wearing some kind of space suits like The Jetson's cartoon series.

It was just like what we are seeing now on the streets with all the shops on the sides of the thoroughfare. The crowd was thin as it was early in the morning and I am sure there would be some cafes that had opened during this time of the day.

I saw myself walking down a street overlooking the River Thames and Big Ben, and as I checked the large clock tower, it showed that it was barely 8 o'clock in the morning. Most of the retail shops are still closed and the guards at the Mi6 were about to change their shift.

I guessed it was a normal work week as I saw several office workers rushing with their bags of bagels and Styrofoam cups of coffee or tea towards underground at Vauxhall to ride the tube.

Where else would they be going in their business pants and coat in their arms with the leather business bag on one arm and a bag of bagel and a Styrofoam cup of coffee or tea?

Then I watched myself going around aimlessly and looking at the windows displays as though it was perfectly fine for me to do window shopping in the early wees of the morning.

The weird part is that no one recognises me as I made my rounds, looking at the signs on the bulletin board that were put up near a bus stop.

After spending some minutes over at the bulletin board, I saw myself walking away, and was crossing the road when suddenly I felt a strong magnetic or gravitational pull towards the person that resembled myself crossing the street!

"What the…? Hey, what's going on here?" I hollered to myself as I suddenly was plunged into darkness, and when I opened up my eyes, I was right there as the person that I had been observing earlier in a third person's perspective!

Suddenly I heard a female robotic voice in my head like some sort of Google's when you press the microphone icon next to the search bar.

"System Initialised"

"Host: Matthew Watkins"

"Age: 16-year-old. Born on 2nd January 2001"

"Game status updated. Welcoming new user to MMORPG – Popstars!"

"User statistics reset back to ZERO"

"To access the main menu, please click on the left-hand side of the screen to view all the attributes and achievements of being the Number One Popstar!"

Is this a joke of some kind?!

One moment I was sitting on the sofa in the dressing room, the next I saw myself wandering about in the streets of London aimlessly, and now, I am in that person's body as my bloody self!

Now there is a system that sounded in my head, and it is welcoming me to a world of MMORPG called Popstars!

Did someone put something in my packet of cigarettes earlier or maybe in my bottled drink during the performance?

Never in my life had I experienced this kind of psychotic feelings before!

*SCREEECCHH*

*HONK HONK*

"Eh, up, laddie. Cop yor ass off the bleedin' middle o' the bleedin' street, guv? Are yer 'igh on sumfink and this early in the mornin'? Wot sort of bum are yer ter cop knocked up so early eh, isit? Yer out o' uncle Bob and on social welfare assistance or sumfink? Better stay off them drugs, boy, mate! It won't do anyone good. Now cop off the bloomin' street before yer cop 'urt!"

I am still in London, and that was the Cockney accent of some Londoners here I just heard.

I don't understand it at all right now. I really do, and I need answers fast.

But the thing now is I've got to get across the street before I got booked for jaywalking. I tried to reach into my jeans pocket to look for my mobile phone, but it is not there at all.

I dug into my pockets to see if I have some small change so that I could use the telephone booth to call my parents, but I discovered that I don't even have a pence or a penny with me!

"Wot bloody fuckin' luck!" I looked back at the street that I had just crossed to see if I had dropped my mobile phone, but I did not find any.

"Just where the bleedin' fuck am I now?"