“It was the perfect day. Everything seems crap by comparison.”
In 2001, the Rumba concert series took Australia by storm. All of the biggest musical acts in the world were there. It was a massive day, but there has been an unfortunate side-effect. Every other musical event seems extremely povvo by comparison.
Organised by Frontier Touring, the inaugural Rumba tour in 2001 included a veritable who’s who of current musical stars. This included Nelly Furtado, Craig David, Blue, Killing Heidi, Paul Mac and the one and only Shaggy.
It was magnificent. The day started with the likes of Emma Bunton, Bardot, Madison Avenue and Tina Arena. And, as the drinks in the sun started to have the desired effect, the massive stars one by one smashed out incredible sets.
The second-last performance was by the inimitable Shaggy. He destroyed the place. Anyone who didn’t already love him was completely won over by his unbelievably infectious performance.
We caught up with Bill Ramen (37), a man who was lucky enough to be there.
“Anyone who doesn’t think there’s such a thing as the perfect day- They weren’t at Rumba. Shaggy was monstrous. Everyone was dancing like little kids at a Peter Combe concert.”
Bill did admit he felt a little sorry for the final performers of the day.
“Yeah so Shaggy finished up and everyone left. Human nature played to like 500 people. No one stayed to see them. It was a weird anticlimactic way to finish the day. Piss funny at the time though.”