Thursday, Sonny spent the entire day over at my house trying to practice and absorb as much as he could. I very gradually guided Liz through her lesson and counseled her on mental tricks and bullet pointed facts that would keep her from getting frustrated. I also played to her vanity by underlining how much attention she would receive being an excellent guitar player.

Jessica had nothing better to do and so when Liz' hands got tired, she took her into the livingroom and gave her a singing lesson. The first issue was learning to generate power because Liz had such a small sounding voice since she wasn't breathing properly when she attempted to vocalize.

Friday, we sold out the Led Zep tribute show. I had to subcontract a security company to do that for us since Bobby and Nick were no longer available due to Bobby's relationship with Sharon. This raised our costs and definitely hurt our profit margin, but at least we didn't lose money. Jessica sang quite well and was especially effective on "Going to California" and just overall displayed a lot of promise.

I was very pleased at how well Pete and  our new drummer, Kelly, meshed and the latter exhibited a lot of taste in terms of how he accented certain parts of songs. Joe and I destroyed and more and more, he was surprising me with the level of authority he was throwing out there for somebody as young as he was.

We had a band meeting Sunday to go over our performance and to get ready for doing our regular sets. Boston had just released its debut and after I played it for everyone we decided to learn, "More Than a Feeling," "Smokin'," "Peace of Mind" and "Rock and Roll Band." The first of those also went right into our set. Both Joe and I got pretty much drunk on Tom Scholz' tone.

Al Stewart's best record, "Year of the Cat, was also issued and I picked  up "On the Border" from it.

Monday, a lot of the schools in the area  were scheduling their classes that week, so I hustled around to many of them endeavoring to find noontime gigs. The following week, I did the same for local colleges. I was pretty successful and we had much of September booked as a result plus a Halloween dance that would pay us actual money.

It got even busier when a local club owner phoned us desperate to find a new band to cover a few nights. Their house band had apparently broken up just that week and they were stuck. The club owner's kid had been to one of our park and rec hall gigs and still had the flier from it. So he passed it on to his father. I reminded the guy that we only did hard rock and not disco or Top 40. We were also going to get our $500 guarantee up front in cash before load in or we wouldn't play. He agreed to our terms and couriered the contract over to me. Pete and I signed them and I went to the club to look at their facilities and to get a feel for what the owner was like. We would have to do four one hour sets, with half hour breaks in between, a piece of cake.

Pete, Joe and I went over a bunch of songs we did in the first incarnation of the band with Jessica and Kelly. They learned nine songs in three days, which was commendable indeed.

That Friday, I collected our fee and we loaded in. We used up all of the entire second set playing nothing but Led Zeppelin songs, which went down extremely well.

We did the same sets Saturday and Sunday, too, and the club owner appeared pleased with the result . They were closed Monday and Tuesday and we used that time to keep expanding Kelly's and Jessica's repetoires via long rehearsals. Unfortunately, that also meant I couldn't give Liz and Sonny their guitar lessons other than telling them to practice some scales.

Wednesday night, I was standing around outside with Joe after our third set just to get away from the bad air in the smoke filled club (yes, times really were different back then) when two British guys walked up to us and said they liked our band. They were both pretty cute, spoke with regular London accents (as opposed to those from the East End of the city, for example) and were on holiday from their jobs writing for the tabloid rock paper Music Tripper. "So you guys write about music and you came out to hear a cover band on a Wednesday night?" I teased. "Well, we already did Disneyland, Magic Mountain, Sea World and all that shit. We're actually disappointed with the lack of nightlife here. The concierge at our hotel recommended this place and we thought, what the hell. Beats staying in the hotel watching 'Happy Days or some shit like that." I confirmed that there was very little real nightlife for the music maven in Orange County at that time and gave them a list of places in L.A. to check out. I then said that Joe and I had to do our last set. "Would you like to have a drink with me sometime?" the best looking of the pair, Derek, asked me. Sure, I'd be up for that," I accepted and gave him my number.

So what happens? Even though I'm a musician, Derek called me at 10:30 in the morning.Jessica and I were both still in bed. "Hello?" I said in a sleepy manner. "Hi Melody. Did I wake you up?" I laughed because if you have to ask this question the answer is always yes. "I'm sorry dear," he apologized. I needled him about being a music writer and yet calling me before noon. "Yeah, in retrospect it was rather dumb on my part," he admitted. "Are you sure you actually write and you're not just some dude on the pull?" "I wouldn't be English if I wasn't on the pull, dear, but I am being truthful about how I make a living." I asked him about the Deep Purple debacle with Tommy Bolin and he gave me a bunch of stuff I hadn't read before about it and it sounded plausible.

"Well listen, sweety, I have five hours until load in. So what do you want to do?" I wondered. "Well, how about we meet for lunch?" he offered. "I think the best I can do is about two. I'm still pretty out of it," I asserted. "Alright love, two it is," he relented. "Sounds like a date, Derek." He told me what hotel he was staying at and I hung up after taking the information down. Unfortunately, Derek and I had contradictory agendas. He wanted to fuck me and I just wanted to hang out and talk about music.

I was so knackered the previous night since I didn't get in until nearly 4 a.m. that I didn't even bother to shower before I went to bed. I tthought about going back to bed, but I was awake enough now to make that choice inoperative.  I showered and then did my hair and makeup. I went  through my closet and picked out a red cheongsam, black thigh high stockings, red heels and black lacy underwear because I wanted to knock his socks off. I ate a bowl of ice cream for brunch since I didn't want anything else at that moment and was still hungry by the time I left for Derek's hotel at a bit after one. I also brought one of my stage costumes with me for the gig.

Once I found parking, I entered the hotel about 15 minutes before the scheduled meeting time. He had apparently just come down before I arrived because I immediately saw him. "I must say Melody that you look exquisite," he commented, kissing me on the cheek. I thanked him for the compliment. I was knocked out at just how  good looking he was now that I got a better view. He wore a shag hair style, had very alert brown eyes and was slim and maybe 6'1". He was shocked I was only 18 and I was the first person of Korean extraction he had ever met. Like most American girls, I loved his accent and he was quite articulate. He took me to a restaurant called The White House, which is really good but also somewhat on the expensive side. I initially told him, in fact, that he didn't have to take me there, that I knew some places that were good but cheaper. He later told me that this was the first hint that I was the girl for him.

As we talked over dinner, I found myself becoming more infatuated with him. The meal was killer and he flattered me that I wasn't just the best girl guitarist he had ever seen, but one of the best guitarists, period. Time whipped by and I announced that I had to get back to my car and then on to the club. He asked me if he could see me again and recommended that I come to England sometime so he could show me around. He was leaving for home the next day, so seeing him again was pretty much impossible. I hugged hm and let him kiss me on the lips at my car before I got in and headed to the club. I put all this down as a nice experience and didn't expect to hear from him again.

Monday, the band was in the middle of a rehearsal when he called me. "Oh my God Derek, this must be a really expensive call for you!" I calculated. "Quite right," he confessed. "I couldn't get you out of my mind, though, Melody and wanted to talk to you again." "Derek, I'm not blowing you off, but my schedule is pretty packed for the next two months and I don't want you wasting your money attempting to ring me. We usually knock off for the year in November, so unless something drastically changes, call me back then and I'll have more time for you." "I can understand your position, love. It's the life of a working muso." "Yeah. Sorry honey. I feel guilty about having to cut this short. If you still have time for me, though, call me then and we'll go from there." "Okay Melody. I'm sorry to interrupt your rehearsal." "No problem, Derek. You take care." "You do the same, darling." He hung up and I thought that was the end of that. I was sure he would find another girl closer to home.

We kept working on tracks that Jessica and Kelly didn't know yet or just songs we wanted to do so that we could change up our set. That Wednesday, we kicked our night off with "Jailbreak" by Thin Lizzy rather than "Now I'm Here"/"Stone Cold Crazy." and followed it with Alice Cooper's "Elected" since it was a presidential campaign year and we went on from there. Everybody in the band liked finally making some money with the music we played even if we were dead tired afterward. Playing the tunes was easy,  but at 2 a.m., when the adrenalin was no longer pumping, you crash land.

The club owner kept bringing us back and we were in residence for another two months. During that stretch, we added "Dirty Deeds" and "Big Balls" from the "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" AC/DC album that was out in Australia, "Don't Believe a Word" from the new Thin Lizzy record, "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" by Bob Seger," "Crystal Balll" by Styx and "Carry on Wayward Sun" from Kansas.

For the college students in the band, and that was everyone but me, while the money was nice, it was nonetheless fatiguing to work five nights a week and go to school during the day. Thus, in mid-October, we notified the club owner that we were going on hiatus for the next few months. We played there through October 30th (we had the aforementioned Halloween dance to do elsewhere) and while we would continue to rehearse 2-3 days a week after that, we wouldn't do any live gigs until at least February.