adminCrew, Winky D, Sulumani Chimbetu and a host of other acts in Harare and Bulawayo.
Delta Corporation is an organisation that does not wish to have its image put in disrepute. It is a good thing that the organisation is now fully involved in music promotion as evidenced by their support for the
Beenie Man show last year, Chibuku Road to Fame and recently the Cocoa Tea/Fantan Mojah show at Glamis Stadium and Hartsfield in Bulawayo.
However, music promotion can be tricky if experts do not handle it well. It seems from the recent music festival, Delta do not have the capacity to deal with such events directly.
Last week’s event was sub-contracted to Shumba Instrumentation whose main anchor man, Nhamo Chitimbe made strides to visit Jamaica and brought the artistes here.
What Delta should know is that if anything goes wrong, the people will blame it for being irresponsible and not those who have been delegated to carry out the task. Those who went to the stadium last week were expecting to see Beres Hammond, but he did not turn up for the event.
No explanation to the music fans was given by Delta or its assigned promoters. The crowd could have easily run riot especially after they had parted with US$10 each expecting to see Hammond.
What saved the show was that Cocoa Tea gave a five star performance and managed to woo the estimated 15 000 strong crowd into a frenzy with tunes such as “Sonia Come Back”, “Rikers Island” and “Hurry Up and Come”.
The crowd went wild with hysteria when they started to skank to the heart-stopping Jamaican beat, which could easily stop an elephant in its tracks.
However, despite this most people are up in arms with the organisers for the bungling.
Why did Beres not come when he was advertised as one of the performing artistes even on the day of the event?
I spoke to Patricia Murambinda, the marketing and communications manager of Delta who told me that “there was a mix-up in communication as Beres had some shows scheduled for London and Manchester during the same time he was supposed to be in Zimbabwe”.
She went on to say that he had already been paid in full and Delta money was sitting in his account.
I wondered what Patricia was talking about because when I spoke to a close music friend in London on Sunday, October 16, he told me that the Beres Hammond tour of the UK was over.
He had performed with Tarrus Riley, another Jamaican artist, the previous week. On Friday October 7, he had performed in Manchester at the Sheridan Banqueting Suite.
The next day, Saturday, October 8, he was at The Ballroom in Birmingham and the tour ended in London on Sunday October 9 at the Troxy Club. So where was Beres on October 15, the day he was supposed to perform in Zimbabwe?
If Patricia of Delta, the financiers of the show, has no clue as to what happened to Beres, then who should give the answers to the estimated 15 000 fans who thronged the venue in Harare expecting to see Beres?
When people do not get answers from organisers of the show, speculation becomes commonplace. Some people have come up with theories that money could have been swindled from Delta when no contact was ever made with Beres.
To make matters worse, local artistes had not been paid when the show kicked off at Glamis.
If foreign artistes had all been paid in advance, why was it difficult for Delta or Shumba Instrumentation to give local artistes their dues before the concert began?
After all they were getting peanuts compared to the foreign artistes. By Thursday last week, Transit Crew had still not been paid.
Beres Hammond is undoubtedly the most experienced and magnetic don of Lovers’ Rock whose velvet voice is on the same level as that of the late Gregory Isaacs. He is well respected in Jamaica and by reggae fans all over the world.
Born the ninth of 10 children August 28, 1955 at Annotto Bay, Saint Mary, Jamaica, Hugh Beresford Hammond grew up listening to his father’s collection of American soul and jazz music; including Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. He was further influenced by the native music of ska and rocksteady, and in particular by Alton Ellis.
Later on, Hammond formed his own record label, Harmony Records, in 1985 for the release of his “Make a Song” album, which had two Jamaican chart-toppers that were influenced by the emerging dancehall style: “Groovy Little Thing” and “What One Dance Can Do”. The latter, produced by Willie Lindo, began to break Hammond into the international market.
He scored another hit in 1986 with “Settling Down” on his eponymous release. He left his fame in Jamaica for New York in 1987, after being tied up as thieves ransacked his house during a burglary.
There he recorded the “Have a Nice Weekend” album and the duet single “How Can We Ease the Pain” with Maxi Priest garnering interest from major studios and record labels such as Elektra Records.
Hammond recorded five more albums in the 1990s as well as several compilations, establishing himself as one of the top lovers’ rock artistes. His first album of the new millennium was 2001’s “Music Is Life”, which featured an appearance by Wyclef Jean and contributions from Earl “China” Smith and Flourgon.
The album spawned several hits, including “They Gonna Talk”, “Rockaway” and “Ain’t It Good To Know”. The 2004 release “Love Has No Boundaries”, had guest spots by Buju Banton and Big Youth.
He released yet another album in 2008, “A Moment in Time”, on VP Records, which featured the single “I Feel Good”.
What a great pity that Zimbabweans missed out on a great opportunity to see the performance of this fantastic musical icon!
A lot of reggae fans were disappointed by the non-appearance of Beres and many of them did not have kind words for the promoters. Some of the words said cannot be repeated in a family newspaper.
One rastaman in particular kept cursing: “Dem a bombaclot, dem too tief man. Dem rob me of me US$10. Nuff to buy nuff spliff to lass me fe days. Dem too Rassclot man!”
One angry fan, Garland Kachesa, wrote and I quote him verbatim:
“Where was Beres? I think we were ripped off man! First and foremost big up to Transit Crew for nicing it up during Cocoa Tea/Fantan Mojah show. I really enjoyed watching them play. Please advise these promoters of Reggae shows that the fans DO NOT want anything other than reggae played during these shows. I do not personally disrespect other people’s music, but let me stress this point that the supporting acts should be local Reggae artists only, or Sound Systems like Stereo One, Silverstone and so forth.
We do not want to listen to Kwaito, Di Gong, Rhumba, Rock, RNB, Jazz, Rap, just to mention a few. When they stage their shows we don’t attend but kana zvazve marasta makuda kungo kwana kwana pese pese please . . . “
Another fan, Majollie Mandandi had this to say:
“Why is Zimbabwe full of dodgy fly by night promoters? I came here for Beres. Where is he? The other time I paid to watch Sean Kingston perform I was so disappointed as he started playing CDs instead of performing. Then another time I expected Timbaland to come and he failed to come, then Akon’s show where my US$100 did not buy me freedom in the VIP area where I ended up mingling with unkempt youths
who paid as little as US$5 to get in.”
What a big farce!
- Fred Zindi is a Professor at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a musician and an author of several books on music. He can be contacted via e-mail on [email protected]
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