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Nyore Madzianike Senior Arts Reporter
THE much-hyped Tuku Memorial Concert held on Friday at the Glamis Arena in Harare left many people with unanswered questions after it failed to attract a bumper crowd to honour the late music icon.

Although various musicians, including South African group Mi Casa and Zambians Amayenge and James Sakala as well as local crowd pullers Alick Macheso, Jah Prayzah, Selmor Mtukudzi among others took to the stage, the “wow factor” that many had anticipated was missing

Partson Chimboza, of Chipaz Promotions, who were behind the show, acknowledged that the Friday gig opened their eyes and taught them a few lessons.

He said he was open to constructive criticism for the betterment of the music industry.

One lesson that could have been drawn from the Friday gig was the need for good communication between promoters and musicians.

It was vividly clear from the onset that there was poor communication between the show organisers and artistes who were scheduled to perform on the day.

This was confirmed by dancehall singer, Winky D’s decision to pull out of the event at tyhe eleventh hour.

Winky D, through his management, was on record as saying poor communication forced them out of the concert, as they were kept in the dark as to the performance line-up or what time he was expected on stage. He was not the only one who was affected by poor communication, as other musicians, including Selmor’s management, were also reportedly kept in the dark on various issues until the last minute.

A good example was Jah Prayzah, Mi Casa and Macheso who were not informed on who was supposed to take to the stage first, as their management were seen wandering backstage, trying to figure out on when they were due to perform.

To cut a long story short, , there was no clear programme of the night’s proceedings.

In business terms, transparency can be defined as the extent to which investors have ready access to financial information about a company such as price levels.

Transparency helps market participants to make informed decisions and lack of it may result in less motivation among the players.

Information gathered revealed that there was lack of transparency in the manner in which the show organisers have been dealing with artistes.  Reports had it that Chipaz Promotions was stingy with information on when and how they were to pay artistes for their performances.

This could have resulted in lack of motivation on the musicians’ part, who ended up giving lukewarm acts, as evidenced by Mi Casa’s performance.

There was clear lack of energy and motivation, leaving some fans booing them during their performance. It is not in dispute that things are not well in the country economically.

This situation has affected the spending patterns of people, especially on entertainment.  Many a people has downsized their budgets on leisure leaving the few that can afford it being choosy on where and who to spend their hard-earned cash on.

A bit of weather research would have also helped them, as it could have been another factor that accounted for the number of people who attended the concert. Weather forecasts help a lot in organising big events like the Tuku Concert. Over the years, gigs have been cancelled because of weather conditions and it is a shame that promoters are still ignoring the weather when organising their  shows.

There was also need for a research on how the foreign artistes were performing in their respective countries.

Some music outfits could have made their names some years ago and because of changes on the entertainment arena, they might no longer have that yesteryear “steam”.

These are some of the things that Chipaz Promotions could have looked into before they included Mi Casa, Amayenge and Sakala on the Tuku Memorial Concert line-up.