Zimpapers Logo

Fred Zindi Music Column
I am curious to find out what has happened to some music legends of yesteryear. Magical music never leaves the memory. It is the magical music of these legends that I still cherish to this day.  The likes of Michael Lannas, Rosalla Miller, Thomas Mapfumo, Lovemore Majaivana and David Scobie are true living legends who churned out magical music during their time here but none of them have been in Zimbabwe for a while.

One yesteryear group, Talking Drum was a band formed in 1987 by Michael Lannas, a qualified pharmacist, guitarist and singer/songwriter. Together with bass player, Brian Paul, Brian Jerome Williams and Wellington Mandizha on vocals, Temba Gumbo on lead guitar, Stuart Hutchinson on keyboards and the late Sebastian Mbata, who also worked for a period with Dr Thomas Mapfumo, on drums, the band became a formidable force on the Zimbabwe music scene in the late 1980’s.
Their first release, “Iyi Ngoma” hit the airwaves in 1987 and was well received nationwide.

It immediately put the band on the Zimbabwe map as many music enthusiasts fell in love with this hit single.
As if not satisfied with the results of their first hit single, Michael Lannas went on to write more songs in the same year and came up with a hit album entitled, “The Song, The Dancer” which again received popular support throughout the country.

Immediately after its release, the band set out on a tour of the country with Lannas leading his troops on vocals even though there were two other vocalists in the band.
However, after a brief period together most of the musicians decided to leave the band. Wellington Mandizha said to me after he left the band, “I found working with Talking Drum rather frustrating. Michael Lannas was in charge. “He owned the instruments we used and we would only work when he decided to.

“I wanted to perform at least once a week. Michael would tell you that he was going out fishing and cannot afford to sacrifice his fishing for a band performance.
“In the end I decided to quit and started looking for greener pastures.”

Talking Drum continued with Sebastian and Michael Lannas as the original members after the rest of the band members had left.
They then recruited session musicians, Brian Rusike, the composer of the classic song, “Ruva Rangu” which has seen many renditions from a variety of singers, on keyboards and vocals, Kelly Rusike of the Rusike Brothers and later Jazz Invitation on bass, Louis Mhlanga now based in South Africa on lead guitar, Henry Peters who replaced Kelly on bass and Rick Van Heerden on the saxophone. Henry Peters now lives in Botswana while Brian Williams who recently suffered from a strange condition that affected his legs is in the UK.

These session musicians kept the band going for approximately three years and in the process the band recorded three more albums which included hits such as “Come to Me (Hapana Mazwi)” and “The River”. One session musician, Glenn Taylor, who played the pedal steel guitar on the recordings came from as far afield as Denver, Colorado in the United States of America.

After 1989, Michael Lannas could not be bothered with Talking Drum anymore and the band died a natural death. In 2006 he also got fed up of running his pharmacy at Montague Avenue shopping centre in Harare and he also closed it down.

Michael is said to be living comfortably in the Isle of Man, UK at the moment. The second musician who thrilled my heart with his edifying music was David Scobie, a young man with a big voice, but I am told he has also relocated to the “greener pastures” of the United Kingdom.
His music indeed set my soul into operation.

One of the reasons he gave for leaving Zimbabwe was that local white artistes in southern Africa were not taken seriously as people who bought white music preferred music imported from overseas.
He felt that he was being taken as a bit of a novelty act.
So he relocated to the UK to try his luck there. David Scobie was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1964.
He was raised on traditional Scottish music which influenced his musical interest.

In 1973 he emigrated with his parents to Rhodesia and, by 1975, was appearing regularly at the Beverley Rocks Motel Folk Club in Salisbury. During this time he was further influenced by Zimbabwean folk singer, Iris Jones, as well as Neil Diamond.
As a result he started to write his own songs and approached Martin Norris at Shed Studios in Salisbury who facilitated a recording deal for him. Martin penned David’s debut single “Gypsy Girl” and it went straight to Number 1 in Zimbabwe and Number 4 in South Africa.

When I first heard this single, I thought it was Neil Diamond singing.
In Zimbabwe, David Scobie attended Nettleton Primary School in Braeside between 1973 and 1977.
After that he attended Cranborne Boys High School from 1978 until 1979 before proceeding to Prince Edward Boys High School in 1980.
After school, David went into music full time. He started to work at Shed Studios where he was instrumental in making commercial jingles for various companies. It was during this period that he released his first album, “Cleaning Up” which was a follow-up to “Gypsy Girl”.

The second album “Reborn”, (nothing to do with religion) was released in South Africa. The 3rd and 4th albums, “Photograph” and “Special Edition” were released in Zimbabwe. They didn’t have the same impact as “Cleaning Up”.
David Scobie has joined the bandwagon of musicians who have left Zimbabwe for either social, economic or political reasons.
Zimbabwe, which has a vibrant musical history and culture, and its musicians have dauntlessly played their music within the country’s borders and abroad, working hard to preserve and develop the country’s rich musical legacy has in the past twenty years lost a number of prominent musicians to the diaspora.

Whether David Scobie, now aged 50, will make it musically in Britain where competition is high, is a question of wait and see.
There are several musicians who have also left Zimbabwe for various reasons.
These include Thomas Mukanya Mapfumo, Rozalla Miller, Lovemore Majaivana and Ivy Kombo among others.
Although these musicians now live abroad, they have failed to make an impact outside Zimbabwe because of the stiff competition out there. Lovemore Majaivana is rumoured to have quit music altogether.

Thomas Mapfumo was rumoured to be coming to perform in Zimbabwe this September, but from the look of it, just like the John Legend concert, it is not going to happen. All we ask is, “Where are they now?”

Feedback: [email protected]