Cloud Control

When the mother of guitarist Alister Wright banned him from playing Counter Strike and signed him up for the local musical to make some friends, Mamma Wright claimed she only did what any mother would have done. It was, however, an act of exemplary parenting that would be applauded in child-rearing manuals for years to come. From his back row position in the chorus of Pirates of Penzance, Alister could see that the production team was having issues with the shaggy-haired lighting man Ulrich Lenffer, whose need to hit things rhythmically made him useless at following the directors cues. When Ulrich escaped back-stage for some time out, he befriended disillusioned bass player Jeremy Kelshaw, who was sulking in the green room because the conductor had confiscated his phuzz pedal. They were soon joined by Ulrich's sister Heidi Lenffer, who appeared concerned, not as much by the pirate costume she was wearing, as from the earnest faces of broken men. She sat down to commiserate, and the three haunched figures swapped sorry tales beside the vending machine. Jeremy was a frustrated creative visionary trying to channel his musical ambitions through his quad box; Ulrich's compulsion for making beats had plagued him like an involuntary twitch; and Heidi had forced herself to attempt acting in an effort to lose the piano-nerd stereotype. It did not take long for Alister- eavesdropping from the stalls- to join the forum, confessing that all he had ever really wanted to do was rock out. And so it was; the stars had aligned to make Cloud Control. Ten songs were written in the space of as many days, and the Blue Mountains have been slowly eroding from the stampede of merry punters ever since...