June 29, 2010

Hi friends, I am back, feeling sheepish, though through no fault of mine. I plead absolutely innocent about A.R RAHMAN JAI HO CONCERT once again being RESCHEDULED.

Even though, most of you may know the reason, at the cost of being repetitive, I will tell you as to why, not just BOSTON but the entire North America and Canada tour is being rescheduled.

After the hugely successful concerts in New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C. and Chicago; JAI HO CONCERT Tour’s next stop was Detroit.

A few hours before the audience were to come into the auditorium and the stage was being set up. This is the first time that an Indian Concert stage presentation is of the Broadway standards; hence there is a lot of metal and lights in the stage set up. I do not know the exact technical reason, but the stage collapsed injuring a few stage personnel; nobody seriously though.  It’s a major miracle that nobody was killed! Mr.Rehman made a personal apology on his website ARREHMANLIVE.COM and thanked god for small mercies.

But naturally, the concert had to be cancelled in Detroit and Toronto, which was to be held the very next day. A picture of the stage is attached for you to understand the magnitude of the disaster, almost 50 tons of steel with high end designer lights fell down on the ground just 5 hours before the starting time of the concert. Image this happening with over 10,000 audience in the arena? I shudder just by the thought of that.

all cities including us were informed of the mishap the same night and were asked to go on as usual.The team was hopeful, that by the following Friday, the system can be recreated and the shows could go on as originally planned in  from San Francisco onwards.

But Mr. RAHMAN, the perfectionist that he is, would not allow any compromise when it came to the acts and  quality of his concert. He wants his audience to experience the same standard, the same excellence, as were seen in the above 4 cities; and to be able to recreate the same grandeur of his stage props, they needed TIME, originally it took them over 3 months to put the whole system together and fine tune it to meet the maestro’s approval.  Hence they decided to postpone entire US engagements and go on with their EUROPEAN tour from July 17^th onwards and then revisit North America and Canada in September.

So you see, in all probability, the show WILL HAPPEN in BOSTON too. We were pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming response of Boston-ites.  It has never happened before in our 15 years of concert promotion  that so many orders were placed on line in such a short period of time! Stores were calling us every hour and screaming to get the tickets. customers were calling them  every minute. Maybe third time would be a charm! 

 The moment new date and venue is decided, we shall announce it on our website  www.AapKaManoranjan.com. Now, for some sweet nothings. On Sunday, June 27^th, I was the master of Ceremonies for the Saptaswar concert organized by United India Association. Saptaswar is a  local group of very talented singers and musicians who came together under the guidance of Mr. Mohan. I loved the show and enjoyed a very pleasant evening in the company of some friends whom I had not seen since a long time.

 So that’s all for today. Tomorrow I am going to see the world premier release of a Karan Johar film titled “I HATE LOVE STORYS” starring SONAM KAPOOR and IMRAN KHAN. Yes, this film is releasing on a Wednesday. Personally I love, Love stories, but I am sure that despite the title, it will be a perfect chic flick, an absolute romantic film.

So have a GREAT JULY 4^TH WEEKEND. Enjoy and stay healthy. As usual I look forward to your feedback at www.AapKaManoranjan.com