Published by the government of Zimbabwe
1 March 2008
Harare — Alick Macheso's maiden tour of Australia got off to a disastrous start at the weekend with reports that he only managed to attract at least 100 fans.
His followers in Australia believe the blame lies with the promoter who did not do enough to market the shows save for advertising on a few online sites visited by Zimbabweans living abroad.
Fortunately for Macheso, he was paid his fees in advance which means he will be making it back home on schedule as opposed to a scenario where money was going to come from the shows.
But the promoter will be left singing the blues.
Below is what some of the music fans in Australia and elsewhere have been saying about Macheso's tour of Australia on the music and entertainment forum of a leading website for Zimbabweans:
Guys some things deserve condemnation at all cost, how can someone betray a guy like Macheso?
The show was never advertised nor marketed properly, it was meant to be a historic moment for Macheso as it was his first show in the Pacific.
But ohhsh, imagine the show was attended by 77 fans, and I mean 77, about 10 residents of Adelaide and rest had come from various states.
Macheso is an entertainer par excellence, he gave his best show from 9pm to 1am non-stop.
It was worth 1 000 Australian dollars but for the promoters I say quit now or else you will starve, Macheso is one time. -- Sir Banya Abedie Pressure.
Even the Brisbane show was poorly attended -- todiefor.
Maybe you overestimated the size of the market -- Pretty Boy Floyd.
How big is Macheso for real? Are people willing to go to a concert? -- iamsofly wa TK
True zimbo will testify he is big and ask the few that attended (the shows) they got more than what they were anticipating, makeke -- Sir BanyaAbediePressure
In Brisbane he had 50 people AT MOST . . . kwanga kusina kana munhu people who knew about the show are regulars of NewZim, what a wasted trip -- Ba' Kiki
The boorangoma in me would like to say, "KuAustralia kune masalad chete -- no museve lovers. But obviously these promoters did a bit of market research and saw that bringing him there would be profitable -- or did they?
I think that it's too simplistic just to think that because Australia has a significant number of Zimbabweans then they will come to the show.
It needs a bit of demo-and psycho-graphics e.g. age, income, personalities, Zim background as in those who grew up in Borrowdale Brooke or Mufakose of those in Australia -- b2tanner
I think six shows are too many, where will the people come from? As much as there might be too many masalala but those few (sungura lovers) would have made better numbers had the shows been just two or three . . . -- Mutsotso
Macheso is too ambitious. Ngaambodzoka atiridzire kumusha -- Mablazo
When Macheso is in the UK his shows will be packed with maybe 1 000 at one show -- Kathy.
An artist gets paid 100 percent before the show and whatever happens later is up to the promoters. You gotta give it to the promoters for trying because Aussie is big and how many Zimbos live up there (scattered by distance).
It's not like in England, Canada or USA -- Svikiro
Honestly people, who is Macheso? Given a free ticket I wouldn't even bother attending myself guess its a wake up call for the promoter! Gosh what a loss, I'm sure the promotors are kicking themselves -- Mpunzi.
Cheso ane winds, last time akaenda kuZambia kunoridzira vanhu nine, maborder jumper aida kuvaraidza nguva vasati vapinda pabasa -- Mahwan.
World music is a billion-dollar industry even in Australia. It's the Ghetto mentality of the promoters. Many people who are not of Zimbabwean origin (even in Australia, which is where I grew up 1980-1990) would love to see a top world music artist like Cheso on stage as they do with Salif, Bassisoco et al.
As a youth I attended Bundu Boys at the Sydney Opera House in 1988 I think (Bi-Centineray Year) and it was a capacity crowd for a week.
In those days my family was one of three Zimbabwean families Down Under (New South Wales) and most of the other 50 or so black people (state wide) were from Papua New Guinea.
Top artists need to be in better venues with a music loving, paying crowd, not entertaining our drunken country folk in nightclubs -- Kudakwashe.
Ok here is my account of it all and maybe how it happened for me can speak for others in Brisbane as well for you to understand why we did not attend.
Pakauya Tuku kuAussie people attended kwete zvefun. I know quite a few people who flew from Brisbane to Melbourne just to go and see him.
What made it successful in terms of attendance was also the fact that people knew well before hand that Tuku was coming and performing at which venues.
Then you tell me Macheso can't pull even 50 people? I heard Cheso was coming a few weeks back but the info given didn't even suggest Brisbane as a venue and it had no dates even. Takanzwa kuti Parramatta etc but NOT Brisbane so initially I had no intentions of going because I was not going to fly for his show.
I suspect the Brissy show yakazorongwa last minute. Whoever did the promotion failed to reach out to people the way they should have.
If they had any idea how to go about it they would've targeted the hotspots dzemaZimba, Universities dzizere kuno the biggest one pulling about 400 Zim students iri yega, Hitbangaz Promoters could've helped greatly, churches like Forward in Faith inodiwa nemaZimba etc.
Brisbane was the perfect location though because it also services the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, which all have quite a few Zimbabweans.
It happens so often to get Brisbane crowd driving to The Gold Coast to party and the other way round and so if people knew and wanted to it's no biggie to attend.
You have to know where the crowd is at to reach it, then figure out how best to do so. They didn't. They should've considered actually making fliers, posters and all that but seems like they didn't want to invest $$$ into all this.
They just wanted to get a quick buck without significant input. How can people attend a show they dont know about? -- Ba Kiki.
Guys, it's not fair to hammer the Promoter the way you are doing it pano. The guy already took a hammering financially, and the least you can do is try and appreciate what he was trying to accomplish, for himself, Macheso and the fans. No Promoter aims for a flop, but it sometimes happens -- Paparatz.
Ok fine, ko kuMelbourne zvakafamba sei ne Sunday? -- Sir Banya Abedie Pressure
According to my sources the actual count at the BNE show was 34 on the dot. Another point to note is that the Tuku show was AU$25 . . . Cheso AU$50 . . . Kudzinga vanhu -- Ba' Kiki.
Its not that people didn't know about the show BUT I think people didn't want to go for the show. You don't expect the promoter to force people to attend a show.
All you can do as a promoter is to reach out to people-which I believe he did. I was at the show and I personally talked to the guys, they were disappointed as well saka why adding salt to injury. Its a bit unfair, me thinks -- Nakacetamol.
Farewell yaMacheso yakaitwa Pamuzinda before the Aussie tour was a sellout. I don't know what happened in Australia but Macheso is a crowd-puller, no doubt.
Pamuzinda was packed and there were maNew Shape x5, ML, Fortuner, C-Class ne one Hummer. I even saw a Q7 saka usadheerere uchiti (kwaMacheso) kunoyendwa nemaboorangoma chete -- Jonso.
Don't compare the UK and Aussie market. Aussie is full of students, masalad for that matter whereas kuUK there is a bit of everyone but I am pretty sure if the show was well promoted people would have gone.
I went to the Brisbane show not that I knew but I was going clubbing kuChi Bar that night. I went to the main bar and then tried to go downstairs to the other bar and was told I had to pay since there was an African artist playing there.
That's how I found out.
Ndiri kupinda ndirikunzwa ah ndimukoma Macheso. To say I was surprised is an understatement. But ndakaspakwa. Macheso idhara. I don't understand why they did not consult the Hitbangaz. Hitbangaz show attracts heaps of people -- MC Maskiri.
Ramba wakashinga Macheso, pasi pevergie pane nyama -- Kengeman.
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