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A Cuban challenge for the Manic Street Preachers

Added November 20th, 2010

Celebrating 10 years in business in 2010, one of EFM’s earliest and most memorable challenges was when the company was entrusted by the Manic Street Preachers to get all the band’s equipment safely in and out of Havana, Cuba for their landmark concert back in 2001 at the Karl Marx Theatre.

Although Cuba has a burgeoning tourist trade, even now, it’s still not the most user-friendly place to put on a gig, unless Fidel Castro is rumoured to be in attendance. This concert was the first ever rock n’ roll show to be put on by a Western Band in Cuba, so it was a very high profile event and there was an awful lot of equipment to move out – some by air and some by sea freight, all of which was co-ordinated by EFM.

Much of the equipment for the show was on rental and therefore it had to be turned around quickly and efficiently in both directions. With only two airlines – British Airways and Cubana – the national airline, operating the route, capacity was tight and the band’s equipment filled an aircraft, taking over all of the cargo capacity on the flight, thanks to some careful negotiations by EFM, including off-loading a cigar consignment from one of the flights to fit the Band’s equipment on the return journey back to Europe! Challenges on the ground in Cuba ranged from trucks with gaping holes in the floor to only one forklift in the entire country, which had to be driven between the airport and the Venue to load and unload each truck and then sent back again to do the next truck load!

The man directly dependent on EFM’s operation in Cuba, was the Manic Street Preachers’ Production Manager:

“Cuba is definitely on a par with the stranger parts of the world. It was the first time since the revolution that a Western band had played there, so no-one knew exactly what to expect – neither ourselves nor the local people. In that situation, knowing that you have someone who’s working at every level of freighting and really knows his trade is an enormous relief, because there were just so many opportunities for something to go wrong. EFM made some fairly miraculous things happen, so while it was all very nail-biting an exciting, it was done calmly and professionally.”