| Tuku resumes shows |
| Saturday, 27 March 2010 00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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By Shepherd Mutamba JOHANNESBURG – “This is my first show since the departure of my son. When we have these children no one bothers to think about how much time we are going to have with our children because we are simply so happy that a child is born. And when it so happens that the child is no more that is when you realize that you did not have much time together. I am not here to regret the loss of my son but to celebrate his life. I have to celebrate the 22 years of a wonderful relationship with my son. I was very lucky that my son took after my profession…I am even more proud of him now than before. When he died I didn’t see his departure – what I saw was only love overflowing from the people. There was so much love from everybody, everywhere. So we are here to smile, celebrate and be happy for Sam.” – Oliver Mtukudzi addressing fans at Blues Room, Johannesburg, Friday 26 March 2010. When we flew into Johannesburg yesterday, for Tuku’s first performance since the loss of his son Sam about a fortnight ago now, there were quite some mixed feelings whether he was strong enough to pull the show off. But Tuku had reassured his management while in Harare the previous day: “Yes, I have to do this (Johannesburg) show for my son.” Tuku's life is music. Fine, he would be consoled over Sam's death by word of mouth. But even better the best counseling for him is music on stage – the platform he loved sharing with his son. At Blues Room the show was scheduled to start at 10:30pm. When Tuku’s band The Black Spirits went in to do the pre-show sound check and stuff at 8pm the venue was already filling up. And the Johannesburg performance was not going to be Tuku's day-to-day show coming as it did in the fortnight of the tragic loss of Sam (22) and his childhood friend and workmate Owen Chimhare (24) who was a sound engineer in Sam’s Ay Band. The subplot in his opening play-list revealed two things: it reflected purely a character responding to the emotions of loss at the same time revealing a father agonising over the tragedy and trying to unlock himself from grief – to pick himself up and carry on his son’s legacy and his own legacy too. Always a humorous persona, who loves jokes with his fans during performances, Tuku departed from his traditional structure selecting the ‘deathly’ songs first. Tuku wanted his fans to “smile, celebrate and be happy” that night. But what he got were, some amongst the audiences, sobbing as they listened to the grieving father sing about life and the reality of death. Overwhelmed he fought back tears very hard and tried to be strong throwing in anecdotes for moments of light relief. He opened with Lord’s Prayer then Akoromoka Awa, Ndipeiwo Zano, Mabasa, Hear Me Lord, Kupokana and Madiro which was Sam’s favourite of his father’s songs. For most of the time the audiences did not sing along with Tuku – they actually took over the show…well, in the literal sense, drowning Tuku’s own voice in one massive outburst of chorus. Tuku is loved in the whole of South Africa it is not surprising that when he celebrates the whole of the South African music community and fans celebrate with him. When he mourns they mourn with him too. There are even more calls from London where Tuku’s fans cannot wait to be with him – to share with him grief and be together at this difficult time of his life. Tuku performs at Stratford Rex in London on April 2nd. Ringo Madlingozi, a friend of Tuku’s and amongst the first artists to call Tuku conveying their condolences, joined Mtukudzi on stage and played together Kupokana to the memory of Sam. Ringo also teams up with Tuku at the Stratford London show. Jamaican reggae artist Sizzla attended the show and also conveyed his condolences to Tuku. The Pretoria showgrounds show at the West End Theatre scheduled for tonight has been cancelled due to logistical challenges. The promoter and Tuku Music Company apologise to fans.
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