After retreating from the food tank and meeting the Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, the Erlich cousins had retreated back to their father's trailer, with a couple bags of food and drinks in hand. Joan seemed to be far more put together than her sister. The photographer in question couldn't seem to be able to tell if she was hallucinating in the heat, or if she had really seen the blonde boy.
As the girls entered the trailer and felt of gust of cool air pour over their faces, Chloe sighed, immediately slipping down onto one of the beanbags that had been set up in the damn thing. Her eyes fluttering shut to think of the man in question. Maxis. Not Hans.
Maxis Erlich was a simple guy, who had an extraordinary talent for writing music and playing guitars. In his 20's, he founded an entire psychedelic mess of a band that loved LSD and playing nonsensical long rock riffs, and while they sold a shit ton of records, Maxis wanted to expand his genres.
And so he did, alone.
The 60's were a fun time, or Chloe assumed so, by looking at the photos she'd found or seen of her dad back then. He just looked younger, had longer hair and was still hanging out with the people he did now. A lot of those people being The Beatles.
Maxis liked to say that Paul set him on track and was the one who got him to finally leave his mess of a band, saying that he could create way better material than what his band had been putting out as of late.
Turns out, the man was right.
Maxis Erlich created more lyrically satisfying music and "hipper" tunes that pushed and genre defied his career even more when he was solo. This also led Maxis to Maeve in 1967. The two fell in love in Switzerland high on whatever some sketchy dealer had given them. A year late came Kendal and Hans. And then, in 1970, the same year that The Beatles broke up- Chloe was born.
It was funny how much The Beatles were in her life in some way, almost comical even. And she even preferred The Stones.
The worst was probably when a toddler Chloe had accidentally called John Lennon on the home phone and said a few nasty words to him. However, while he had found the whole ordeal both amusing and confusing, Chloe now found it humiliating.
People were always fascinated with her experience with The Beatles. She could understand why, but then again she couldn't, since they were close family.
Besides, she'd met weirder Maxis Erlich fans over the years. Like Kendal's guitarist.
Chloe adored her father. He was an encouraging and doting man, he'd always wanted the best for his children. He had never forced ideas or careers onto them. He had let them roam along with his money. He was what fathers should be. The man had given all of his children the world.
While he was normally energetic and free spirited, these days Maxis seemed weary and withdrawn. Tired even. Everyone in their immediate circles knew why, that Hans had taken the life out of him. Had him questioning his choices. His lifestyle. His parenting.
And yet for the rest of the world he marched on- touring, saving face. Even managing to come to Glastonbury, the first of many punches to the stomach after realizing it would be the first family event to exclude Hans.
Kendal was using the trip as an excuse to fuck around.
Joan wanted a vacation.
It seemed that only Chloe and her mother had taken Glastonbury as a chance to boost his morale. They were the only ones concerned with making the trip perfect, with tossing their own social lives down the drain for a bit. Glastonbury was about Maxis.
Focusing back to the present, Chloe divided up the food and took a sip of her water before plopping back down into a seat. "Found a band you should check out."
"Oh?" Maxis asks, raising an eyebrow, the expression on his face lighting up "Now I'm intrigued. You don't really give me recommendations these days."
"They're called Oasis, lead singer is a bit of a cunt but I have to shoot them later anyways."
Maxis chuckles "Sweets, how is he a cunt?"
Joan jumps in "he's just a little bit of an arse. That's all, was getting all cocky in the food line, talking about knocking you off the charts."
"Oh boy. Sounds like trouble, those boys never go far- even if they do have talent. Ego ruins people." Maeve speaks up, tsking a bit.
"Mum that's not true, look how far Kendal's gone." Joan complains "We all know his band is a load of-"
"It's more like his band mates. They wouldn't be terrible if Kendal could hire decent people."
Maxis rolls his eyes "Kendal is doing better than I thought.." he murmurs, brushing off his blazer "I never thought he'd play at Glastonbury. But here we are."
The room falls silent for a minute. As if everyone was thinking about the missing aura in the room. Or perhaps remembering that they had all missed part of Kendal's set.
He perks up and beams a little bit, remembering something "Oh! I have a group for you all to be on the look out for. I think you'll like them Chloe."
She sits up, crossing her legs, mildly interested as whatever recommendations her dad gave her, were things she considered sacred. He was something of a psychic to her. He always knew what she liked or wanted before she did. That was what made Maxis so eccentric. But- that's besides the point
She would have to like whatever he found for her. It would make him happy. And that's all she wanted.
"I know you're drained of American rock. I've kept an eye on this group for a little while. I'm surprised you haven't gotten into them already considering how anti-grunge they are."
"Who?"
"Blur. I think you might've heard a few of their songs."
"I've heard quite a few." Joan says as she adds "I like them. Girls and Boys is a good song. It's quite catchy."
Maxis smiles, leaning back in his seat "Parklife, that's their new record. It's been out a couple months. People are loving it- hell, I like it."
Joan shrugs "I think it's mainly the lead singer, he's a bloody looker. Take a picture of him for me, would you Chlo?"
The family laughs and Maxis grows serious once more. "They're very good. Musically, they have a unique style, they're all very talented. I don't say that often."
"You said that about Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains."
"Because those are all very talented people, you should know, you've shot most of them."
Chloe shrugs "It's just you say there's talented people a lot."
"Because we're in a part of time where we're lucky to have this many people able to express and share their talent. It's very lucky. We could have nothing at all."
"Imagine if everything was elevator music. Wouldn't you just want to combust?" He throws out the question, not really waiting for a response.
He chuckles. "Just something to think about. Now let's get a move on. I want to see these Oasis fellows, the fucks at creation have been bragging about them for nearly a year now."
Maxis picked up her camera bag and swung it over his shoulder, just as Chloe got up to follow him out the door, shoving his shades on in the process.
"What stage is it? I can't remember which high roller you're shooting for these days." He teases
"It's NME dad, and shut up, you were my first customer anyways."
"Ah, New Musical Express. I've been in there a few times."
"A few?"
"More then a few, and of course I was your first customer. I'm a patron of the arts."
"Very funny." She says nudging him gently
"Oasis isn't set to play for a little while. Why don't we try to hunt down those boys I was telling you about, Blur? I think you should shoot them. They're really something."
She seemed concerned. He had nearly rushed her out of the door to go see Oasis, and now he seemed to think there was plenty of time to hunt for some other band. Maxis was all over the place. Which wouldn't have been abnormal had it not been about music.
"Really? Are you sure? I think you'd like Oasis. They're pretty cocky."
"Funny, you said the same thing about WaitTime. I didn't like them."
Chloe rolled her eyes "That's why I'm only friends with Karlie. She's quitting because their singer is well, she's-" She stops herself before the words fall out of her mouth. As much as she'd love to gossip about the singer of WaitTime, she doesn't want to speak on it. Nothing to upset her dad.
"What about her? Go on now. I'm curious." Maxis raises an eyebrow once more, despite his hesitance to hear about the American band, he was now hooked on his daughter's words.
"We can talk about it later."
"Why? It can't be that bad. Besides I've heard it all already. Remember?"
"She's back on drugs." Chloe mutters before turning to look in a different direction.
"That's a shame." He wrinkles his nose "The singer? Are you sure? Isn't she here? Could've sworn I saw her somewhere"
"What? No. I'd know. But she's not here. I'm positive."
"Maybe I'm wrong. But humor me Chloe, help the old man find Blur's trailer."
"Fine." Chloe huffs, beginning to pay attention to the name tags on each of the trailers.
As the two made their way down the rows of labeled trailers containing their artists and whatever the fuck they'd brought along, Chloe couldn't help but think about the conversation she'd been having with her dad minutes ago.
Oh how she wished she had called Karlie Kloss this morning.
Karlie Kloss was the popular American band WaitTime's bassist. She was a real corkscrew and was one of the first friends Chloe had made when she came to America. Mainly because Karlie didn't give two shits about her dad being famous, and also didn't put up with anyones bullshit, even from WaitTime's batty lead singer Avery Pince.
In Chloe's eyes, she didn't understand why everyone liked her so much. Sure, she was talented, but she was a piece of work. Karlie had already shared enough horror stories about the singer being a perfectionist.
And the last thing she wanted to do was run into the mopey singer at Glastonbury.
The last time Chloe Erlich had even seen the woman had been at a shoot that was supposed to focus on Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain. It had been hard to get the two booked. Even harder to schedule a date. They refused to come out to a studio, so she had to photograph the duo in their home. Ugh. It had been frustrating.
Especially since it was clear that the both of them were out of their minds and that Kurt had no interest in being photographed. He seemed much more interested in chatting. Which could've been fine, had she not been working. The entire situation made her job harder.
And this was all before Avery Pince had showed up.
It was all a fucking surprise and pretty quickly, what had originally been supposed to be a shoot focusing on two musicians that were in love spiritually and all that, had transformed into a shit show. There were loud conversations. Screaming. Crying. Loud guitars and proclamations.
It was a mess.
Avery Pince seemed to continuously shatter the quiet nature of people and bring out the worst in them.
Something she hoped, wouldn't happen here.