ok well here goes:
A mate of mine in London is a bit of a one for makin up stories. He likes to exaggerate. Anyway he went away to the states for a fair while to do this music course and try to kick start a career as a musician. he knew a few people and he wanted to make a go of it. But basically he sucked. He took up a career as a shop assisstant instead and spent his spare time tryin to make music in his basement. Eventually he got in with a few guys who had some talent and they made a few decent songs. They played a few gigs but never made it like he'd hoped. Their trade mark, so he told everyone, was bowler hats and bow ties. However his mates were heavy drinkers and in the end it was one too many. The 'band' split and my mate was left makin a crappy wage at the local store in a country he'd come to detest. However not wantin to be a disappointment to his family back home, whom he'd told he was makin it big in some small towns, he never let the truth be known. In fact it pretty much went from bad to worse and when he gave up and said he was comin home he somehow gave the impression that he was comin home with his band. He told me his family were arrangin a really posh welcome home do for the lot of them.He tried to convince his ex band mates to come back to the uk with him, pretend everything was fine and save his sorry ass. But there was no way that would happen. In the end i told him he'd have to break it to his family. But he got it into his head that if he came back as a shop assisstant with no qualifications in the music course he'd set out to do, his family would see him as a failure. He was in a bad way so i compromised with him, in return that he will take up decent employment here and soon tell his family about the truth behind his 'band' i will pretend to be one of the band members for a night. his family don't know me you see. It's at this point he tells me he's already promised his family they're turnin up in bowler hats and his little sister and mother are lookin forward to seein them in "full costume".
Anyway i managed to get him to tell his family that only one band member could make it and that we weren't performing! I'd do the bowler hat and we'd tell his family that artistic differences were splitin the band and we were gonna put it on hold for a while. That way they won't have to know about the drinking problems and the failed dreams he's coped with. His family really aren't that sympathetic.
I don't normally encourage lying on this scale but i do know from his past experiences that if he tells them the truth now he'll be in for a rough time. Best to break it slowly.
Which is why i need the bowler hat!! We could just change our minds and say we won't bother with it but it would make everything that little more convincing about the 'band' and there are enough complications already. Plus its a really posh do so i'd have to wear somethin posh anyways.
