After a much-publicised event, fans were left disappointed with the outcome of Ray Charles' show. Because of  bad weather and terrible equipment, the  superstar was unable to perform for his fans. He apologised profusely but fans still left the venue upset.

Published Thursday, November 1, 1962

Chaos at Ray Charles show

-Rain, faulty microphone systems, hooliganism

It seemed unbelievable but it actually happened. Thousands left the National Stadium on Tuesday night in disgust while brilliant and versatile American vocalist and musician Ray Charles was on stage.

Well over 12,000 had braved the weather for the Ray Charles Jamaica Spectacular Show, which billed Ray and his 17-piece band, his female vocal group, The Raylets, vocalists Dottie Clark and a host Jamaican entertainers. However, the show was a flop. It was chaotic.

But don’t blame Ray. The blind entertainer who was having a one-night stand on his first appearance in Jamaica, tried his best to please the patrons under the adverse conditions, but it was impossible to do so. Heavy rain in the evening delayed the start of the Texaco-sponsored and Stephen Hill-promoted show for about two and a half hours, and also played havoc with the microphone system. The local artistes could hardly be heard when they opened the show with Byron Lee and the Dragonaires around 10:30 p.m.

All this time, the unruly element, left on their own because of the handful of police present, had taken charge of the proceedings and patrons who had booked stage-side seats had to be content with standing in inches of mud on the sodden stadium field.

For Ray Charles, 'The Genius', and idol of show-business enthusiasts all over the world, it was very embarrassing to perform under such unfavourable conditions.

As the patrons protested that they could not hear him, he kept apologising that he could not help it because of the faulty microphones.

It was a long wait for Ray Charles to go on. After the local side of the show and Ray Charles' band had exhausted itself with some good music, which unfortunately could scarcely be heard, Ray sat twiddling his fingers in his dressing room contemplating what to do.

As he ruled out promoter Stephen Hill’s suggestion to stay over until yesterday (he has other engagements in the United States),the soft-spoken blues, gospel and jazz singer admitted that he knew the conditions were terrible outside but promised to go out and do his best.

Ray and his strong group, which included his wife Della, had come in on Ray’s private aircraft shortly after 4:00 on Tuesday afternoon. They left just before noon yesterday.

There was no doubt that, bad microphone system or not, Ray Charles had to go onstage as the restless crowd were becoming boisterous.

However, they gave him a roaring ovation when, on his manager Jeff Brown’s shoulder, The Genius made his way to the bandstand which, by this time, was only half its original size. The other half, used by the local artistes, had collapsed after their side of the show. One man was seriously injured.

Ray opened up with a bouncing piece on the saxophone but, once he started singing and playing the piano, the terrible microphone system took away whatever genius there was in him.

'The Genius', whose surname is Robinson, performed for well over an hour, but hardly anything he did came over to the audience, and the stadium started emptying.

For those near the stage, Ray Charles and his band did say something especially on Georgia and Born to Lose, the latter stopping the exodus for a while. By the time The Raylets came in to accompany him with Hit the Road Jack and I can’t Stop Loving You, more than a quarter of the house had left, as hardly anything could be heard.

It seems that the only person who really got all that was going on was Ray Charles himself, as, time and time again, one saw him rear back his head as he reached the depths of his renditions. Some members of the audience remained fixed in the mud doing a slow twist to some of the numbers, but the majority could not hear anything.

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