Grimalt’s secrets

If digression is the spice of life, then allow me to indulge today.

A few days ago, I had lunch with Bobby Grimalt at a fast food place in Tarlac. Bobby’s wife is from Tarlac and he was there for a week after a hectic tour down south. Bobby is Viva boss Vic del Rosario’s close associate and heads the entertainment company’s concert division.

Bobby and I share a passion for music. He used to play the conga drums for a band that did gigs in Hong Kong many, many years ago. And in 1963, he began a colorful career as a concert promoter and producer. Now, at 66, Bobby has lots of stories to tell about the artists he contracted to perform here.

As for me, I’m a rabid collector of British pop music whose origins trace back to the 1960s. My haul includes CDs, videos and books. Among my favorites are the Moody Blues, the Searchers, Dave Clark 5, the Zombies, the Hollies, Manfred Mann and Small Faces.

Bobby’s picture appears in the book "Travelling Man–On the Road with the Searchers" by bassist Frank Allen. An entire chapter in the book is about the Liverpool group’s visit to Manila in 1966. "Our liaison in the promotions company that had brought us there was a guy called Bobby Grimalt," wrote Allen. "He was stern-faced and intense, a character right out of a spaghetti western in which he would most certainly not have played one of the ‘white hats.’" Grimalt was portrayed as the "bad guy" who whipped the fun-loving Searchers in line.

Over lunch, Bobby recalled his experiences with some of the music industry’s all-time greats.

He started off with the Beatles. Bobby worked for impresario Ramon Ramos in a company called Cavalcade International that paid $250,000 to fly in the Beatles for two shows at the Rizal Football Stadium on July 4, 1966. The concerts grossed P2 milllion, not bad considering the exchange rate then was P2 to $1.

The Beatles’ tour, however, took a sour note when the Fab Four snubbed an invitation for lunch by President Marcos and the First Lady. The snub triggered an angry reaction from Malacañang sympathizers. At the airport on their way out, the Beatles were harassed by government functionaries. Escalators were shut down to force the Beatles to carry their luggage up several flights of stairs with a baying mob of 200 Filipinos at their heels, recounted Bill Harry in "The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia." The group’s manager Brian Epstein was punched on the face in the wild dash to the departure lounge.

The Searchers performed four days at the Araneta Coliseum a few months before the Beatles came. Allen, rhythm guitarist John McNally, lead guitarist Mike Pender and drummer Chris Curtis were in their early 20s. Bobby singled out Curtis as a weirdo. Once, Curtis was late for a performance, causing a mild panic.