Wildworld was always Alton Towers’s shitty little sibling #WhatHappenedThatSummer
MimiShepherd
Great episode! Can’t wait for next week! Who’s the love story going to be about? Surely not Pea and AJ?! #WhatHappenedThatSummer
JohnnyG63
Let’s get straight to the juicy stuff! I want to hear about this new info that’s come to light! #WhatHappenedThatSummer
2
EPISODE 2 – A LOVE STORY
Danny: Welcome to episode two ofWhat Happened That Summer?, the podcast looking into and around the mysterious death of pop superstar AJ Silver. I’m your host, Danny Drake. Since our first episode aired, AJ Silver’s music has had a resurgence, with hisGreatest Hitsalbum riding high in the download chart and a new remix of ‘Ice Cream’ bringing him to the attention of a new generation.
Last time, we heard from the Hunters and Pea Hunter’s friend Alex about their life before they got entangled with pop royalty and everything came crashing down around them, as well as the call that changed their lives. We also chatted to AJ’s family, the Campbells, about AJ’s origin story and how his fame impacted them.
I mentioned at the top of the first episode that new information had come to light recently and we’ve had tons of emails asking what that is. We’ll get to it all in good time, but I will say this. There are some people who believe that AJ Silver’s death wasn’t an unfortunate accident caused by lack of care, buta deliberate malfunction caused by someone in or close to the family. But we’ll get to that.
First, a love story. Everyone loves a love story, right? Over to the Hunters.
Pea: Mum let me have the day off school when they were due to arrive. I’m pretty sure Sebastian would have gone into college but it was a teacher training day or something like that. They were landing mid-morning, and Mum had offered to pick them up from the airport.
Cathy: Oh yes, I did offer to pick them up. Maggie laughed at that, said she’d already booked a car. When it pulled up, John was standing next to me looking out of the window. ‘A bloody stretch limo,’ he said. We couldn’t believe it. They were from a different world, and I think that was the first time I fully realised that. Sebastian and Pea were in their rooms, and we called them downstairs. Pea had more makeup on than usual, and I was pretty sure she was wearing a different outfit than she had been when I’d seen her eating breakfast, but I knew better than to say anything.
Pea: Mum and Dad called us downstairs and we were all just standing there, like we were waiting for the queen.
Sebastian: I felt like an idiot. I was a seventeen-year-old guy, waiting for a pop star. And not even the pop star, but his manager and his brother. I would have preferred to be at college, quite honestly.
Maggie: First impressions? I thought the place looked like a dump. I’d been expecting something more flashy. I was starting to understand the way Cathy had reacted when I’d mentioned the budget. But we were there and I hadn’t found us any otheroptions. I thought we should make the best of it. Zak had his headphones on, Discman in his lap, and his eyes were closed. I reached up and pulled the headphones off, then said his name right in his ear. He jolted awake. The family were at the door, Cathy and John standing side by side on the front step with their kids in front of them, looking awkward. I got out and Zak tumbled out after me.
Pea: Now, I don’t know why, given that I was a teenage girl and 80 per cent of my brain space was taken up with teenage boys, but I hadn’t given much thought to the brother. I didn’t know his name, even. I think the whole AJ Silver thing was so overwhelming it didn’t leave space for anything else. But when he got out of the car, I stopped breathing for a second. He was tall, he had to sort of unfold himself, and he had a similar look to his famous brother. Baggy jeans, long-sleeved top with a T-shirt over it. Hair in curtains that fell over his eyes. And his eyes. I don’t remember whether I noticed them at first, but they were like staring into space. It wasn’t the colour. They were brown, like mine. It was the flecks that looked like little stars. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I couldn’t have noticed all that when he’d just got out of the car. What I will say, though, is it was like he was magnetic. That’s the only way I can describe it.
Danny: Ah, first love. And did Zak feel the same way? Let’s just say not immediately.
Zak: I didn’t want to be there, man. I was eighteen and I was pissed. My baby brother was one of the most famous people on the planet, and what did I have? No job, no girlfriend, no plans of my own. I’d been sort of incorporated into the whole AJ Silver machine. I knew they’d always find things for me to do and ways to give me money for it. But it wasn’t what I wanted. This trip was costing a ton, I knew. And all because AJ had decided hewanted to run around a theme park for a few weeks. But if AJ said it, AJ got it. So I wasn’t exactly delighted to be on this trip, checking out some dumb park in the middle of nowhere to see if it was fit for the mighty AJ. I barely looked at them, the Hunters. I just wanted to get into the park so we could check it out and be on our way. Maggie had booked us two nights at a hotel nearby but I was hoping we’d split after one.
Cathy: I think I asked whether they’d like to come in for a cup of tea or go straight into the park. Maggie looked at Zak and said she’d kill for a coffee. So we all trailed into the house and I put the kettle on. John showed them into the lounge. I don’t think we even knew Zak’s name at that point, but I could already see that Pea was smitten. I must have asked them both three times how they took their coffee. I was so nervous. A lot was riding on this.
Maggie: They were very pleasant, very welcoming. The coffee was terrible.
John: I was eager to get out and show them what they’d come to see. I wasn’t great at small talk, but when it came to talking about that park, that’s where I would shine. I knew every inch of that place inside out and back to front. There wasn’t a question they could have asked me that I wouldn’t have been able to answer. Having said that, she did throw me with the very first thing she asked when we stepped outside.
Maggie: I asked whether they’d have room for three or four tour buses to park on site, and for mobile toilet and showering facilities. He looked surprised but he recovered well. Said he thought everyone would be staying in a hotel, like we were for this trip.
Zak: I laughed at that. I said it was one thing for me and Maggie to stay in a hotel in the middle of town and drive over to the park each day, but AJ couldn’t do that, or wouldn’t want to, at least. They’d obviously never come into contact with fame. Most people haven’t, of course, but it was ingrained in me at that point. Anywhere AJ went, they found him. The fans. If he checked into a hotel, even if he used a different name, they were there before he’d ridden the elevator to his suite. I hadn’t seen much of this place on the ride over but I was pretty sure it was the ass end of nowhere. And AJ was going to be here for six weeks, at least potentially. He’d told me the whole reason he came up with the theme park idea was because he wanted a break from all of it, in between the gigs. It was crucial that he stayed onsite and didn’t go anywhere.
John: There was the car park, obviously, but Maggie explained that they’d ideally want somewhere that was in the park itself, within the gates, so people couldn’t get to it. She said that otherwise the car park would be flooded with teenage girls for the duration of their stay. It was only then that I started to get a sense of just how famous this boy was. There was this big open space that people used for picnics or just to run around. Sometimes we put a circus tent there, or a birds of prey display. I thought that would probably be big enough for what they needed, so I said we’d head there first.
Maggie: There was enough space, and John showed me the access, how they could open up a big gate that was usually locked and the tour buses could drive right in. So that was the first tick in the box.
Danny: I think this was a real turning point for John. Like he says, he didn’t have a sense of quite how big AJ Silver was beforenow. And I think everyone is seduced by fame and fortune, even someone like John. Sebastian was different, though.
Pea: Mum and I trailed along behind Dad’s little tour, keen to be involved, but Sebastian stayed in the house.
Sebastian: No, I didn’t go. I could see Dad was pissed off about that, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care all that much.
Zak: When John asked where we wanted to go next, I said I wanted to see the biggest and best ride they had. AJ was a thrill-seeker and I knew he’d be disappointed if they didn’t have a rollercoaster that did loops.
