The adulation continued for him an after-show party where he was introduced to a local chart-topping duo who begged him to use his music business connections to help them make it big in the UK. A week later, he returned to Abakan where he was mobbed by girls who had seen him judging the beauty contest on television.

To cap off his remarkable experience, safely back at the factory, he finally got to meet the man who had resulted in his sudden decampment to the hunting lodge when he formed part of line up of workers being introduced to the Russian President.