Init script & the green [ OK ]

I am trying to install fast-cgi for nginx on an EC2 instance. I followed the steps explained here, but that is meant for Debian and does not work out of the box for a red-hat based system. I modified the script a bit to look like -

#!/bin/bash
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          php-fcgi
# Required-Start:    $nginx
# Required-Stop:     $nginx
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: starts php over fcgi
# Description:       starts php over fcgi
### END INIT INFO

. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

(( EUID )) && echo .You need to have root priviliges.. && exit 1
BIND=/tmp/php.socket
USER=nginx
PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=15
PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=1000

PHP_CGI=/usr/bin/php-cgi
PHP_CGI_NAME=`basename $PHP_CGI`
PHP_CGI_ARGS="- USER=$USER PATH=/usr/bin PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=$PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=$PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS $PHP_CGI -b $BIND"
RETVAL=0

start() {
      echo -n "Starting PHP FastCGI: "
      #ORIGINAL LINE
      #daemon $PHP_CGI --quiet --start --background --chuid "$USER" --exec /usr/bin/env -- $PHP_CGI_ARGS
      #MODIFIED LINE
      daemon --user=$USER $PHP_CGI -b $BIND&
      RETVAL=$?
      echo
      [ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/php-fcgi
      #echo "$PHP_CGI_NAME."
}
stop() {
      echo -n "Stopping PHP FastCGI: "
      killall -q -w -u $USER $PHP_CGI
      RETVAL=$?
      echo "$PHP_CGI_NAME."
      rm /var/lock/subsys/php-fcgi
}

case "$1" in
    start)
      start
  ;;
    stop)
      stop
  ;;
    restart)
      stop
      start
  ;;
    *)
      echo "Usage: php-fastcgi {start|stop|restart}"
      exit 1
  ;;
esac
exit $RETVAL

The problem I have now is -

1. service php-fcgi start keeps the shell blocked. If I run service php-fcgi start & and then ps aux, I see the php-cgi process running bound to the socket. I see the start command stop only when I execute service php-fcgi stop. How do I solve this blocking issue? I have tried adding an & at the end of the line spawning the daemon. But other scripts do not seem to be doing this. This is the most complicated script I am attempting to modify yet :-(
2. How do I get the script to display the green [ OK ]? I checked scripts like httpd and saw that all they were doing was something as shown below. But I never see a green [ OK ] when I execute php-fcgi. I also discovered that putting echo_success with functions sourced displays the green [ OK ] but I do not see any other scripts in the /etc/rc.d/init.d/ executing echo_success or echo_failure. What have I got wrong?
3. Also, How do i specify PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN with daemon?

echo
      [ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/