I was woken up 3 hours later by yelling and crashing as the boys erupted back into the dressing room. I sat up carefully and rubbed my eyes even more carefully.

'That was mental!'

'Did you see that girl?'

'Did you see that card?'

'I forgot my harmony'

'I've never seen so many girls waiting outside'

'Aww -they were so wet!'

The boys were hugging each other and shouting and I decided there were five of them. I could actually see several more, but I decided I was improving as I could sort out the duplicates.

There were quite a few other people in the room, including Big Kev and the older lady. She came over to me. 'Feeling better?' she asked

'I think so', I said.

'Well, we are going to head off to the hotel now, so if you are ready we'll give you a lift in the bus'

I got up slowly and a thought struck me.

'Which hotel are you staying at?'

'The Metropole – why?'

'Ah, you'd better check that it isn't flooded, its very close to the river...'

Which of course it was, and it was evacuated, and when the lady checked, there were 3 messages on her phone telling her about it. 'I didn't hear the phone', she said.

'Never mind', said one of the boys, 'we can sleep on the bus. We're here tomorrow night anyway. Two shows in one place!'

'But how do we get – um -um back home' said another.

'Grace', I said. 'I'll phone work – maybe they can send someone to pick me up'.

'No need for that', said Jay. 'Why don't you sleep on the bus? We've got a spare bunk'

'Well', said the lady. 'There isn't room for everyone on the bus. Why don't we sleep here? In the dressing room? Grace, me, Kev, Martin and the rest? We can get some food and drinks in'

So Kevin went off to get some food from the noodle bar in the shopping centre and the room gradually settled down. I looked at myself and realised that there was blood on the T-shirt I had been given.

'Oh dear', I said 'I'll get whoever it belongs to another one'.

'No worries', said a husky voice. 'I'm Tom, and this is Max, Nathan, Siva and Jay'. The boys gave me a wave each.

'And you're a band?' I asked.

They groaned and laughed

'We're The Wanted! I thought everyone had heard of us by now!'

I should explain that I hadn't heard of them not because I was a recluse but because I didn't have a TV, didn't read the popular press and didn't listen to much pop radio. My parents were Quakers, and me and my brother didn't grow up watching TV or following the charts. When I left home to go to University I did all these things but found I didn't really like them. Also I was busy with my studies, and making my own music, and my friends, and my hobbies, and now with work, and found I just didn't have the interest to make time.

It was too difficult to explain all this to everyone, and I was very shy about being judged by others. So I just smiled. Then I plucked up some courage as I was curious and asked them to sing me a bit of one of their songs.

Suddenly five voices rang out in perfect sweet harmony. I was amazed! And I think they were amazed at my reaction, and pleased. 'But that's wonderful!' I cried.

They laughed. They seemed very easy in each other's company, like brothers. I began to relax, and tried very hard to keep awake and to ignore the pain in my face. But if you've ever had concussion, you'll know that its impossible to stay awake, and before the food arrived, I was asleep on the old sofa.