I thought things were going so well. I am...I mean, was, in a very successful band in my home town. I play the drums. I'm probably not the greatest drummer in the world, but you know, we make rock'n'roll that's fun to dance to, and I'm a good enough drummer that the girls would be dancing up the front as we played at the Cavern. That's what matters, right? Rock'n'roll is such great dance music.

Anyway, recently we had recently signed a record contract with a major record label, and made enough money that I was making more than my Dad each week. We had a session at the record label's studios in London recently, that I thought went alright, though I think everyone is still figuring out how the recording studio works.

In terms of this band, my mates reckon I'm kind of the most handsome man in the band, and, let's face it, drummers like me have never had a hard time attracting the ladies. I think the rest of them were a bit jealous, honestly. But I've never quite clicked with the three of them, to be honest - J, the leader of the band, kind of scares me, and I've seen him do some crazy/terrifying things, especially when we were touring Germany, when he was doing Hitler salutes etc. I saw him beat someone up on the street, and he's always been a bully.

I can't quite tell whether the other two (P and G) genuinely admire him and or whether they're scared of him. He's wild, and not in a good way - most of my mates' parents hate him (my Mum loves them though, she has a soft spot for boys like that she calls 'cheeky', and a big part of the success of the band was that she let us basically rehearse in her shop so we could get better and better). I never ever got their weird in-jokes, I didn't know what they were talking about half the time, with all that Goon Show stuff they'd put in conversation. But you know, we make good music together, and make a lot of money, so I can deal with that.

Anyway, the other day, the band manager rang me up. I thought it would be about us having a gig in Manchester or something. Nope: he was informing me that I was sacked, replaced by R who's been playing in the Hurricanes until recently.

The fuckers. J didn't have the balls to tell me to my face. Anyway, I was furious - suddenly I was out of the band, and the 'toppermost of the poppermost', as J called it (he does have a way with words) wasn't something I was going to be experiencing with them. I told a bunch of my mates, and they were furious too. I ran into one of the band fans who I think has a big thing for me, and she saw I was in a bad mood, and asked what was up. I shouldn't have said anything probably, but I told her - 'I've been sacked from the band'.

She started crying. "Who's playing drums now?" she asked through her tears. "R who was in the Hurricanes," I said.

"But he's rubbish!", she replied. "BestOfTheBeatles forever, R never!"

Why I feel bad is that I hear that basically R got beaten up after being introduced as the new drummer, while some girls were chanting "BestOfTheBeatles forever, R never". I don't have anything against R apart from that he's got my job. He's an alright bloke who's had a bit of a tough life, and I feel a bit bad. Wish they'd beaten up bloody J, who's the worst. I think I set this in motion by winding up my mates about me leaving because I was so furious. AITA for not trying to dissuade them from beating up poor R?