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• Poor attendance spoils bash • Top musicians share stage

Godwin Muzari: Arts Editor

Anticipations were high and the line-up of performers was the best in the land, but the celebrations could not match the bright colours painted by the hype that preceded the event.The Chipaz Birthday Bash that took place at Andy Millar Hall on Saturday had all the ingredients of a historic ceremony, yet something slightly went wrong and the mixture could not bring the required taste. Poor attendance spoiled the cake.

With the cream of local music including Oliver Mtukudzi, Alick Macheso, Jah Prayzah and Suluman Chimbetu leading the list of many other excellent performers, the celebrations were expected to draw a mammoth crowd.

Unfortunately, the event that was held to celebrate Partson “Chipaz” Chimbodza’s 43rd birthday will go in showbiz history books as one of the worst flops of the year due to a combination of factors within and beyond organisers’ control.

It was evident that organisers had done most things correctly ahead of the show and it only needed a big crowd to spice up an eventful stage programme that had a fair share of surprises and outstanding performances.

Performances

Pamela “Gonyeti” Zulu had a challenging task of setting the ball rolling just before 10pm when a few fans were dotted around the venue.

With confidence she went for it and chose to dig into the bag of old skool. She churned out yesteryear musician Tairos Tendaupenyu’s popular track “Furuwa” and Ivy Kombo’s “Handidzokere Shure” to the delight of her few listeners.

Gonyeti spiced her performance with trademark energetic dances that made her a point of attraction during her days at Jah Prayzah’s Third Generation band.

However, her selection of old skool renditions had striking similarity to Jean Masters common list. Although neither has copyrights for the songs, anyone outside the venue would have mistaken Gonyeti’s performance to be Jean Masters’ act save for slight vocal differences.

For a surprising reason, Gonyeti could not push hits from her debut album which is doing well. Still, her stage presence was felt.

Alexio Kawara

Alexio Kawara was next on stage and his first attempt failed to excite fans, prompting him to try a cover version of Leonard Dembo’s “Chitekete”, which got attention despite lacking proper execution.

He then serenaded fans with a few hits, but many wondered why he went away without performing his all-time classic “Shaina” that could have added valuable points to his rating of the night.

Female sungura musician Tete Pipilo was thrown somewhere in the mix and her performance was nothing short of a waste of time on a tight schedule that had so many musicians and had started late.

Trevor Dongo

Trevor Dongo took the tempo from Alexio’s performance. As has become the norm, Trevor got a good share of shouts from ladies when he went on stage although his finest moment came when he was joined by Leonard Mapfumo for a joint performance of the latter’s “Maidei” that was spiced with lines from Xtra Large’s “Uriroja”.

Peter Moyo

After the urban grooves feel, it was time for serious sungura vibes and Peter Moyo had the mandate to take fans through fast-paced dances. The band’s costume made first impression before their choreography and first song excited the small crowd that now had a few more heads.

Peter’s dancers were clad in all-red while the Young Igwe, as he is popularly known, was in all-black. The young musician gave a good account of himself and proved that he has improved in confidence and technique.

Shiga Shiga threw exciting chants that seemed to stimulate his leader’s energy. After a few introductory dance paces Peter took the lead guitar and did the trademark introductory “Pakanaka Dhewa” beat that gave his late father Tongai an upper hand at most music galas. Peter played the guitar with ease and his vocals were on point this time around. He sent the crowd into frenzy with a teaser of “Samanyemba” and left the stage, leading to futile loud clamours for his return.

Suluman Chimbetu

The sungura ship was on sail and captain Suluman Chimbetu immediately took over with his dendera flavour of the genre. His team was clad in black and white. Beginning with a throwback tune from his father Simon’s discography, Captain Sulu then took off his black jacket to reveal an all-white attire. He steered the ship with a mixture of compositions, swinging from his father’s “Ndarangarira Gamba” to his own “Nyuchi” before signing off with “Sean Timba”.

Freeman

Organisers thought of balancing genres and the first dancehall musician of the night was called to the stage.

If Sulu thought he had raised the bar high, Freeman had a different feeling.

The HKD boss heavily shook the auditorium and was one of the best performers of the night. His performance easily added a few facts to the sungura-versus-dancehall debate. He did tracks like “Godo”, “Shaina Mwana” and current chart-buster “Zvakaipa Itai Ndisiye”.

Oliver Mtukudzi

It should have been an honour for Freeman to prepare stage for the superstar as Oliver Mtukudzi came after the young musician’s outstanding act.

Despite being welcomed by wild cheers, the superstar’s entry was not so super. He slowed the tempo down and his first two songs seemed to ruin the night for merrymakers that had just begun dancing the night away.

But nothing beats experience. Tuku apparently noticed he had dampened spirits and changed gear. Tunes “Right Direction (Mbombera)”, “Handiro Dambudziko” and “Tsika Dzedu” brought back the vibe.

Jah Prayzah

Tuku led in Chipaz’s birthday formalities before Jah Prayzah took over.

Jah Prayzah was another outstanding performer of the night.

He favoured songs from his current album “Mdhara Vachauya” although tracks from “Jerusarema” were the most popular of the night. Songs from “Mdhara Vachauya” would ignite wild cheers when they were introduced, but the excitement would die down as the songs went on while “Eriza” and “Chinamira” from “Jerusarema” proved their lasting power.

His guitarist Braveman “Baba Harare” Chizvino seems to be improving his delivery of Diamond Platnumz’s lines on “Watora Mari” with every show while the female vocalists/dancers are doing well.

Sandra Ndebele

After Jah Prayzah it was time for gender balance as Sandra Ndebele took to the stage. Whether it is age catching up with her or motherhood calling for some level of decency on stage, Sandra is no longer the same.

She seemed reserved and her other female dancer could not also make up for her boss’ reduced activity.

Sandra called two male fans on stage, but she evidently exercised extreme caution when she danced with them.

However, she betrayed some traits of her old-self when she dismissed the first male dancer because he was failing to hold her waist ‘properly’. Fans sang along to her old song “Guva Rangu” while her male dancers exhibited serious flexibility.

Alick Macheso

It was back to serious sungura dances as Alick Macheso took over after Sandra. Coming on stage in his usual close-down hours around 3am, Macheso appeared fired up for a massive slot, but the sound system let him down.

As he tried to hit the first chords of “Madhawu”, sound went bad and he had to temporarily leave the stage as engineers tried to sort out the problem. It seems his engineers altered the settings to their disadvantage because no other musician had experienced a sound problem throughout the night.

They finally got the right harmony and Macheso returned to churn out “Chengetai”, “Mundikumbuke” and “Gungwa”. His ‘mawoko mudenga’ chant brought joy to the early hours of yesterday.

Andy Muridzo

Most people wanted to see Andy Muridzo in action and few merrymakers went out after Macheso’s performance as the “Dherira” hitmaker took over around 4am.

He started with the song “Chidhafu Dhunda” that he concluded with an impromptu twisted accappela version of a Christian chorus adding hilarious lyrics “ndiMwari akanaka akasika zvidhafu dhunda” as the crowd sang along.

Muridzo’s team was energetic and they exhibited good dances while he showcased his mbira skills on the song “Dherira” which was the crowd’s favourite.

Muridzo’s music dominated the show since he recorded a song for Chipaz congratulating him for turning 43. The song was played at intervals throughout the night.

BIRTHDAY BOY’s MOMENT

After Tuku’s performance all musicians were called to the stage to sing ‘happy birthday’ for Chipaz and share the cake to mark the actual celebration.

Promoter Josh Hozheri led the proceedings while Wanisai “Mahwindo” Mutandwa took care of the stage set-up of the moment.

Despite knowing and proving that he cannot be a musician in his life, Hozheri showed some love for his fellow promoter when he led the auditorium in singing ‘happy birthday Chipaz’.

It was a touching moment as Chipaz brought his mother Gogo Chimbodza and other relatives to the stage to witness the proceedings.

Tuku said touching words to Gogo Chimbodza, thanking her for having a son who has contributed to the growth of the music industry.

As the moment of celebration madness came, someone poured water on Chipaz, which splashed to Gogo Chimbodza. The old lady was caught unawares and the ever-alert Mahwindo had to stop members of the crowd from pouring all sorts of liquids on stage in order to protect Gogo Chimbodza.

Such madness comes with celebrations and Chipaz had to complete the formalities in a wet shirt. He cut the cake with his wife.

Notorious Peter Moyo took a huge chunk of the cake and devoured it with zeal. He is known for that funny behaviour after having done the same at Macheso’s birthday earlier this year.

Chipaz took to the mic to sing ‘ndinotenda’ to his fans, fellow musicians and family. He seemed unmoved with the low turnout to the show.

WHY POOR ATTENDANCE

While it would be erroneous to give a conclusive reason behind the poor turnout, a number of factors could have contributed to the unexpected development.

Signs of a bad attendance began manifesting in the afternoon at social soccer matches that were played as part of celebrations pitting promoters, soccer legends, journalists and musicians.

Besides players and their few immediate associates, the terraces were practically empty and there were no fans to talk about.

It seemed the social soccer component of the celebrations had not been properly marketed since the focus was mainly on the night’s stage performances. It was unlike the popular Chipaz Bhora events where the thrust is mainly on social soccer. The common conclusion on Saturday afternoon was that people were saving their energy for the music bash, which seemed more attractive.

Towards sunset, the sky that was overcast for the better part of the day turned darker. It was evident the skies would open up any time before even early birds of nightlife left their nests.

Heavy rains threatened to blanket the whole of Harare and totally wash away the bash. By 7pm rains were pounding some parts of the city while other areas, including the venue of the show only received showers.

Although the wet weather could have contributed to change of plans for some probable attendees of the bash, there was still hope of a good attendance, especially when the rains subsided early.

But organisers should have started feeling pressure when, by 9pm, only a handful of fans were milling around with the venue still to record any activity.

The next hour saw fans slowly trickling in at a pace that evidently spelt doom for the night and by midnight, it was certain the event had attracted a small fraction of the expected crowd.

It turned out that the major put-off of the night was the price of tickets.

Although organisers might justify their fares by claiming that it was expensive to bring together such a big line-up, prices of between $10 and $15 per head were exorbitant for many, considering the current economic challenges. Organisers could not control the weather aspect, but they definitely could have attracted a better crowd with cheaper tickets.