Chapter 8

Rock n Roll lifestyle

The gig was to take place in 2 months.

Well, the Lee household was suddenly even more mental than usual.

Now there were reporters from the national press and rock magazines camped on their doorstep.

Tom, Louis and Grace had to battle their way up the front drive. Grace had to put up with the constant question ‘are you Lucas’s girlfriend?’

“We are just friends,” she would say unconvincingly.

As for Tom and Louis, they quite enjoyed the whole fame thing - being best mates with Cuch’s owner.

Trying to take Cuch a walk would turn into a fiasco.

“Give us a dance!” the photographers would shriek, running up the road trying to keep up with Lucas and Cuch.

Alex did his best trying to carry on working as usual.

Janine paid extra attention to her hair, clothes and makeup before daring to venture out of the house.

And then - the TV crews arrived.

“This is just insane,” Janine said as she watched the huge BBC truck position itself outside the house.

The family - and the dog - took part in interview after interview.

Sometimes the TV crews attended the Tackeroo club.

People remarked how Cuch’s moves were getting ever more adventurous.

And even the camera crew laughed when Cuch launched himself off the stage into the audience in a perfect ‘stage dive’ which received a rapturous round of applause.

Geoff at the Tackeroo started selling pictures of Cuch in various rock poses.

Lucas and Cuch had now taken to wearing cool, matching bandanas with various rock motifs on them. They wore them every time they were out in public. One design was of a skull and crossbones - and the red material matched Cuch’s studded red collar perfectly.

Geoff was selling pictures of Cuch standing in headbang pose with a guitar in front of him, pictures of him leaping into the air like former Van Halen front man David Lee Roth and pictures of Cuch ‘grinning’ from ear to ear, wearing his bandana.

It became quite a lucrative business, especially when he started selling poster sized pictures at £5 a time.

All the press reports were positive and fun - except for the usual Alan Greyman pieces in The Post.

‘Family Take Advantage of Poor Pooch’

‘Dog Tired Cuch in Near Collapse’

‘Dog Forced to Dance’

These were just some of the untrue headlines which appeared.

Even The Post’s opinion column, written by Toni Farmer read: “We demand this dog be taken off the family and rehomed somewhere where it can live out its life in peace and quiet.”

“Peace and quiet?” Janine shouted at the page. “What do they want for Cuch, classical music playing softly in the background? The poor dog would die of boredom.”

“Let’s try it!” Alex suddenly came out with.

“What?” Janine said.

“Let’s find a piece of classical music and see what he does - just for an experiment.”

Before long the doleful sounds of an orchestral symphony were found via the internet.

Alex set the volume on low.

“Come on boy, let’s dance,” he whispered.

Cuch looked at him, pricked up an ear - and strutted out of the room.

“Well, that’s settled that then,” Alex said - turning off the computer.

The day of the arena concert was getting near and the publicity frenzy had stepped up another notch.

Cuch’s picture had made front page of metal music magazine Kerrang! Under the headline ‘Rock Dog Tops The Bill at Donnington!’

Paul had been in touch and had issued special passes to the Lee family and friends. Janine was having panic attacks at the thought of meeting one of her heroes - Iron Maiden front man Bruce Dickinson.

Cuch’s performance was all arranged. He’d attend the rehearsal and would make a special guest appearance, dancing with Lucas, during two of Iron Maiden’s songs.

A special platform was to be built for Cuch and Lucas to perform on - and their dancing would be shown live on gigantic screens on both sides of the stage.

There would be dry ice, cool lighting effects - and plenty of doggy treats on hand for Cuch at the end of the show.

Lucas was starting to feel very nervous.

“What if he doesn’t dance just this once? What if he runs off? What if he acts like a normal dog? We’re all gonna look really stupid,” he confided in Grace.

“Whenever has Cuch let you down?” she pointed out. “He’ll be great. Just enjoy it.”

And she gave Lucas a kind of embarrassed, reassuring hug.