By RUSSELL BAILLIE and ALAN PERROTT
On stage last night Ricky Martin didn't actually say sorry for the 24-hour delay to his concert which caused fans a weekend of turmoil and then soaked them as rains lashed Ericsson Stadium.
He did, however, twice thank the audience of more than 20,000 for their patience and at the end asked for a round of applause for the production crew - whose failure to build his stage's ceiling in time apparently caused the last-minute postponement.
If the star's brief pronouncements on what has been a PR disaster for him and promoter Paul Dainty fell well short of damage control, then the dazzling show itself managed some major spin-doctoring.
There was enough verve and fireworks, both musical and literal, to show that Martin isn't past his pop star use-by date and nor is he a one-hit wonder.
But as the rain fell and Martin slipped occasionally into overwrought ballads, you could feel many in the crowd wishing he would just get on with it - "it" being his stadium-sized pop pastiche on salsa, mambo, samba, while fronting a crash-hot band and a Vegas-sized dance troupe.
Firing on all Latin cylinders, Martin's show was great giddy fun with percussion-mad songs such as Por Arriba, Por Abajo and his 1998 World Cup song, La Copa De La Vida, which ended the night.
He had started with Livin' La Vida Loca, then as the weather hit a bit of a damp patch so, unfortunately, did he with some of those ballads.
During one of these he ascended to that stage ceiling on a platform, his messianic pose making him look like Christ-as-high-rise-widow-cleaner.
But with the meaningful bits out of the way, Martin and his brass-happy band found their syncopated stride all the way to full time.
The worst thing was that, despite the rain, those fans who couldn't make the postponed show missed a good one.
The postponement may have caused both matrimonial strife and financial worries for disappointed punters from outside Auckland.
Many of Martin's female fans queuing outside the stadium earlier were conjuring up good excuses for their extended stay to give to the husbands they had left minding the kids.
The show's promoters have yet to decide whether those who could not attend last night's show will have their tickets refunded.
Ticketek is recommending that anyone who had to miss the show should return their tickets with a letter outlining why they could not attend.
Nicki Cottle and Debbie Davies, from Golden Bay, had to juggle babysitters, husbands and bosses to see their heart-throb. They were trying not to count the bill for their extended stay. On top of extra food and time-killing shopping, each had to pay $80 to reschedule her flight.
The extra day cost the AWA netball team, from Ngongotaha, $600 on top of the $2000 they had already spent on accommodation and tickets.
Coach Anaru Paul said the team had started fundraising in February for the show and were determined to have a good time, so they spent Saturday night at a male strip club.
Another trio, Sue Waite of Tauranga, Kelly Lowes of Hastings and Sharon Shearer of Te Awamutu, had a simple message to Martin's minders before the show: "Get your act together."
They would not accept any excuse for the delays in assembling the set. "Their stupidity has cost us a lot of money," said Mrs Waite. "They must have known they had a problem well before they postponed the show. It's just not good enough."
The promoters were also lucky they did not have to face the wrath of the small group of disabled fans.
Caregivers were not allowed to watch the show in the special wheelchair section.
One woman, Rochelle, was worried about what would happen if she needed help and her caregiver, Doug, was not on hand.
"The security guys won't know what to do, and anyway, why can't we sit with our friends like everyone else?"
Latin heart-throb's fans endure rain and bills
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