Nine members of Tantram, the Grammy-winning artist Shaggy’s band, were prevented from leaving Guyana after they failed to produce receipts confirming they had paid artistes’ tax.

However, head of Mc Neal Entertainment, Odinga Lumumba, yesterday said that the receipts were produced and the band members were expected to leave the country last evening or sometime today. He explained that normally when entertainers visit to perform they have to produce a receipt indicating that they had paid artistes’ tax before leaving the country.

This is usually paid by the promoter of the show they would have performed at. There was some mix-up, according to Lumumba, and the receipts proving that the tax was paid were not produced.

Orville ‘Shaggy’ Burrell and his manager had already left the country since Monday and the band members were expected to leave yesterday morning, but were prevented from doing so by immigration officers.

Shaggy was the headliner for a show, Beach-a-Rama which was held on Sunday at the Splashmin’s Fun Park.

Guyanese Natural Black, another of the big names expected to perform, was unable to do so as the police stopped the show because of the late hour. The culture singer only appeared on stage to apologise to his fans for not being able to perform. The show was expected to commence at 3 pm and it was promised that Shaggy would have appeared on stage at 9 pm sharp but in reality he never appeared until minutes to midnight.

Jamaican Tami Chynn, who was slated to perform, was a no-show as she was said to have had flight difficulties.