I put the concert up to a small room in the center of the city at the end of Makati Avenue and went to work selling tickets. The response was good and we were almost sold out the day of the show, so I'm pretty confident that we would be full by the time the evening. The band arrived the day of the Singapore show and the schedule was tight but with a fair wind and a little luck with Manila traffic, they would arrive in time to save for the sound check, a nap and a quick beer before the show started at 21 hours. In 17 hours, I was pacing the floor with minor chest pains and wondering where the hell they were. There were no mobile phones around providing piecemeal accounts of their progress.
At 18 hours the group arrived and I was relieved to see Chris and Eddy Amoo out of the car, but they do not look at all happy. Eddy spoke, "We have lost a guitarist companion." (Yes, they are British.) I looked at him in confusion. How can you lose a guitarist?
It emerged that the guitarist had arrived with five months and 28 days validity of his passport and immigration regulations Philippines required six months after arrival. Someone looking for a bonus. I cursed for five solid minutes and examined all the obvious options but they could not play without him, they had no backing track and they could use a local guitarist could not fill, no matter how they been good. He was back at the guitarist gushing out of the airport.
I found a telephone in the office place and started calling friends to see if anyone knew a senior immigration officer. After a few calls, I discovered that an American friend of mine knew someone. He said he would call and call me. Twenty long minutes later, the phone rang and I snatched the receiver from its base. His touch could help us but he wanted a thousand dollars to get there and ten free places in the living room. In the absence of other options I agree and I went with him to adjust as I am the rest of the group on stage for a sound check. (I had the chance to sing You are everything to me with them that the sound recording - my minor claim to fame) We set up the equipment guitarist (with the exception of its guitar he was wearing) and hoped for the best.
Ten minutes to nine, the room was full and I was frantic. There was no sign of guitarist and no words of my friend the fixer. Chris and Eddy Amoo are lovely guys, but they started to get a bit nervous. We could delay the emission maximum for 20 minutes or perhaps stretch to 30 minutes, but it would grow -. It was a Wednesday night and people had work in the morning
Ten minutes after nine doors opened and guitarist came bustling through the door with an escort tem immigration officers and two policemen. We rushed him to the stage where the rest of the band was waiting and plugged him and the drummer shouted: "One, two, three, four" and the group broke into their greatest success smoothly and without missing a beat. real pros. No one in the audience was any the wiser. I swallowed a long cold beer in one go and enjoyed a great show by one of my favorite groups of children. the show must always continue!