"For pete's sake, Micky!" Mike shouted at the drummer, who'd just fallen a beat behind again. "Can't you get a damn thing right?"
Micky scowled at him. "If you think you can do any better, Big Shot, you know what you can do!" He shot back.
"Come on, Fellas, just chill out, okay?" Peter said calmly, trying to smooth things over.
They'd been in the studio for over eight hours now and patience were becoming very frayed.
"Don't tell me to chill, Peter," Mike shouted. "Tell Ringo here to get the goddamn drum line right!"
Davy sighed and sat down on the floor of the recording studio. He didn't even know why he was still there. He'd finished all his vocals hours ago and the guys didn't really need him there anymore.
"And you can tell Hitler here to stop yelling at me!" Micky shouted at Peter.
"Look, Mike," Peter said cautiously, knowing how fiery the Texan's reactions could be. "Micky's doing his best, man, just give him a break, huh?"
Suddenly, Mike turned on Peter.
"Why don't you stop defending Mick and start concentrating on your own business!" Mike yelled angrily. "Your piano solo was a mess!"
Mike regretted his words immediately. He hadn't meant to take his temper out on Peter he was angry, that's all.
"Here, now wait a minute, Mike," Davy said, leaping to Peter's defence. "Don't start on Peter, he was only trying to help! You need to learn how to control your temper, man."
That was it Mike saw red.
"Don't tell me what I need to do, Shorty!" he retorted.
Davy let out an angry shout and lunged at Mike. Peter put himself between them and pushed Davy back from Mike.
"Look, just everybody calm down!" he demanded, slipping into his familiar role as peacemaker.
"Pete's right, man, just cool it," Micky agreed.
Davy, still furious at Mike for calling him `shorty', then started to shout at Micky.
"This is all your fault," he yelled, pointing at the drummer. "If you'd have just got the damn thing right in the first place, none of this would've happened!"
"My fault?" Micky shouted, climbing out from behind the drums and heading towards Davy with an angry glare in his eyes.
"Look, cool it, Micky," Peter pleaded, putting his hand out to stop him.
Micky roughly pushed Peter out of his way. "Back off, Hippy!" Micky threatened him.
Peter wasn't about to stand by and watch his friend beat the crap out of Davy, so he grabbed Micky's shoulder.
Before he realised what he was doing, Micky swung around and punched Peter squarely across the jaw. Peter fell down onto the floor, shocked by the normally placid Micky's outburst. Davy and Mike were equally taken aback.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Mike screamed at Micky.
"You wanna be next, Big Man?" Micky shot back at him. Truthfully, Micky was just as shocked and ashamed at what he'd done as Mike was, but he was too angry to back down now.
"I'm not putting up with this," Mike announced, and then turned his back on them and stormed out of the studio.
"Now look what you've done," Davy shouted. "You'd better go after him."
He knelt down next to Peter to check that he was alright.
"The hell I will!" Micky said defiantly. "He's the one who started all this!"
"Aw, grow up, Dolenz," Davy sighed. "Just go after him."
"Forget it." Micky replied and headed for the door. "I'm out of here screw the Goddamn album".
Then he walked out, slamming the door with an almighty crash behind him. Peter and Davy looked at each other in despair.