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Bob Nyabinde

Fred Zindi Music column
Musicians have always displayed high levels of creativity and genius. Unfortunately, many of our musicians have also been exploited by unscrupulous businessmen in a variety of ways, such as signing contracts that leave the artiste making only pennies when the manager and company make real profit.
I recall in the 1980’s when the then Minister of Sport, Youth and Culture,  the late Ernest Kadungure, came to me and asked if I could organise Thomas Mapfumo and his Blacks Unlimited Band to go to Tanzania to join the Tanzanians in their Independence Celebrations.

I asked the minister what the trip was for and how much the band would be paid and he replied: “This is our way of showing Tanzania how we appreciate their support during our years of struggle for liberation. Look, we are going to pay the band’s airfares to Dar-Es-Salaam. We will accommodate the band and also feed them. What more do they want?”

When I told Thomas Mapfumo about this proposal, he went ballistic! “Why do these people always take musicians for granted? We are always asked to perform for free. Does the minister think we eat the aeroplane and accommodation? We also have bills to pay just like any other worker. We are no longer kids who get excited by being on an aeroplane. Go and tell him to donate to us his salary for just one month and we will go to Tanzania.”

This is why I hesitate to ask my musician friends when I am approached by organisations to ask them to perform for free at charity events. Musicians argue that their only source of income comes from performances and asking them to perform for free is like asking them to sacrifice their meagre earnings.

Last week, I went one-on-one with Bob Nyabinde aka The Headmaster,  to discuss this  situation which shines light on many of these unprincipled practices and asked him to give important history lessons that may be of benefit to the artistes of today.

Bob simply put it this way, “ I am glad you have asked me this. Only two weeks ago, a local university was having a five day convention in Victoria Falls and they wanted a sound engineer for the entire period.

They asked my friend to do this job and offered to pay $100 for the five days. Is that not ridiculous? The university offers courses in business management and if this is the kind of stuff they are teaching their students, well, we are all doomed. Do they not know that musicians also have bills to pay? Musicians should be treated like any other employee and not exploited.

“It is bad enough to deal with companies and organisations that exploit musicians, but our survival depends on night clubs and other venues throughout Zimbabwe. There are plenty of venues in Harare for and most of these venues have ways of making money out of the sweat of musicians. I often play at a city venue with my band in front of 60 to 100 patrons paying $5 each, but they have never given us a fee of more than $200 for the night.

“That money goes into paying for transport and band equipment. I do not know how these people think we survive. If I don’t play there, another musician is happy to play there for less. I think we as musicians need to fight back.

“We should all agree not to play those venues which take huge percentages from the door takings, yet we do not have a share in their sales at the bar.  What we can do, is explain to the club owner that it’s not in their best interest to operate their business like this.

“There is too much at stake for them not to be truly interested in the music presented in their venue. They get a band and customers for that night, and have to pay very little if anything. But what they don’t realize is that this is not in their best interest. This is  where the club owner doesn’t get it. The crowd is following the band, not the venue. The next night you will have to start all over again.

“Convince them that if they think that live music is important to the demographic that they are trying to reach, then they need to reach out to that demographic in a professional way. We need to unite as musicians to stop this financial skullduggery.

“I have been looking for gigs in places like Victoria Falls, Mazowe and in Bulawayo lately and they offer very low fees. Well, the economy is bad, so I can understand that a little bit.

“However, it is no longer good enough for the musician to be willing to perform for little compensation. The expectations are that the band will not only provide great music, but also bring lots of people to their venue. It is now the band’s responsibility to make this happen, not the club owner.”

Another popular musician who prefers to remain anonymous reported: “Just the other day I was told by someone who owned a wine bar that they really liked our music and would love for us to play at their place.

“He then told me the gig paid $75 for a trio. Now $75 used to be little money per person, let alone $75 for the whole band. Now listen to this. We hire a 5-piece band to back us. We also hire musical equipment for $200. It had to be a joke, right? No, he was serious.

“But it didn’t end there. He then informed us we also had to bring 25 people minimum.  He didn’t even offer us extra money if we brought 25 people. It’s not the first time I’ve got this silly proposal from club owners. But are there musicians really doing this? Yes. They are so desperate to play, they will do anything. But let’s think about this for a second and turn this around a little bit.

“What if I told the wine bar owner that I have a great band and we are going to play at my house. I need someone to provide and pour wine while we play. I can’t pay much, just $75, and you must bring at least 25 people who are willing to pay a $10 cover charge at the door. Now wouldn’t they look at you like you are crazy?

“‘Why would I do that?’ they would ask. ‘Well because it’s great exposure for you and your wine bar. The people there would see how well you pour wine and see how good your wine is. Then they would come out to your wine bar sometime’.

“‘But I brought all the people myself, I already know them’”, they would say.
‘’’Well maybe you could make up some professional looking flyers, pass them out, and get people you don’t know to come too’. “‘But you are only paying me $75. How can I afford to make up flyers?’”

“You see how absurd this sounds, but musicians are made to do this all the time. If they didn’t, then the club owners wouldn’t even think of asking us to do it. So this sounds like a great deal for the club owners, doesn’t it?”

If you asked a club owner, “who is your target demographic?” I doubt they would answer, “the band’s friends and family.”
But yet clubs operate like it is. What most club owners do not realize is the fact that  live bands bring increased bar sales, because without us, you have an empty room with nothing going on.

So there you go, club and restaurant owners. The advice is free. But you’ll most likely ignore it because “that’s not how it works”. But if more musicians kept telling them the same thing, perhaps it would start to sink in.

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