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It was a dark and stormy night.....

There are nights when Mother Nature is your friend, and there are nights when she has her own agenda. The first Friday in August 2002 was one of those nights when Mother Nature was on her own. The directors of Manilow's Modems had converged on PNC for the final concerts of the tour (so far) and were sitting together towards the front of the house when someone behind us yelled 'raise your feet'. By the tone of the voice we didn't ask questions and the next thing we knew, water started pouring down the sloping floor of the venue.

People jumped up on their seats and others were running. Stagehands and venue staff were pulling fans up on the stage and within a matter of minutes the seats in the first 8-9 rows of the venue were under water.

It happened so fast that I think we were all in shock...and then we heard the screams behind us. We turned in time to see gallons of water pouring through the domed ceiling in the center of the venue and there was a very real fear that this could come down on people and cause serious injury.

Credit goes out to the venue staff and security for keeping people safe that night.
The fire department responded immediately. They hauled in pumps and hoses and once the drains were unplugged, the staff set about shoveling tons of debris into large plastic bags.

They finally assisted in escorting the hundred or so people who were on the stage, to safer ground. Several of the band members and BMIFC 'people' were wandering around assessing the situation, most of them shaking their heads in disbelief! We did see them taking photos of everything as well as video taping the entire episode.

There was still hope that they might pull the concert off, but finally, three hours later, Barry came onstage to let us know that the show just wasn't going to happen. He seemed surprised to see just how many of us hung in there all those hours to see him. He put his hand on his hip and smiled that smile, then said, "So, what's new?" Barry called Steve to join him and together they sat down on the piano bench and Barry sang a chorus of 'We Made It Through the Rain' and did we ever! Amazing how those few little lines seemed to make the entire night worth all we went through.

The upside of the evening was that no one was hurt. As always in a time of crises, people pulled together to help those who couldn't help themselves. I think a lot of us made some new friends that night and we showed everyone just how dedicated Barry's fans really are.

All Photographs by Margie Ramey and Fay Landi

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