My favourite 5 concerts of 2011 (FOUR)

OLIVER MTUKUDZI

Backup singer croons

The dancing started right on the stage and spread into the crowd

Energetic, expressive, age-defying...

Simple beautiful stage

Tendo Kaggwa looks on hopefullly as I try to confince Oliver's manager that the concert wont end up on Youtube. He let us keep the live feed cameras

Mtukudzi is an old man. You would never know it. This man has an enormous stage presence. When he stops mid song to talk to you in that raspy voice, it is like he is just talking to you alone. And he tries to  relate to you.


He has been around. he gives advice on hundreds of things between songs jumping from one thing to another. 

But when he sings he fills the room with “a very big energy”. He dances. And dances. And he has this one singing girl on the stage who floated around in a long skirt or dress. You spent half an hour without seeing her feet but she just moved and moved and filled up the stage with an ageless legend beside her mirroring the moves.

He then said copyright this and that and asked for the cameras to be switched off so that the concert doesn’t end up on YouTube. The old timer is scared of Youtube. I pleaded with the manager and gave assurances. We were allowed to live feed to the screens. But people have smartphones with HD cameras. And ipads and galaxy tabs (which should never be used to record video by the way) I hope the concert isn't on YouTube. 


Then he sang again and danced. For hours.  And his wife sold his cds in the lobby. Old habits I think from the early days. Rich sound, real life legend, nice concert

My favourite 5 concerts of 2011 (THREE)

Musical shows in Uganda are some of the most competitive events you can come across anywhere. Numerous yardsticks  are used by different people to judge what constitutes a good show.


This it is simply from my vantage point at these shows. I use my experience. In no particular order. I will feature them in different articles and give them article numbers that dont indicate positions.


JUDITH BABIRYE:  MAAMA WANGE
Judith had a wonderful selling point. Our mothers. And she is a crossover artiste. She braved the Nile Hotel myth and we had the makings of a really nice concert. Now, many times this concert bordered on running away from us. Awards were given out that we were unaware of initially. And I couldn’t find the responsible people when it was time for the awards.
But I like Bugembe’s appearance even when he had his own show at Nakivubo on the same night. He asked me if he could perform early and go. I said how many songs. He said only one.  I said please do two. He said no time, only one. I said if  you do only one I will make you perform last! Bad joke I think. He was under pressure to run and he took me seriously. He glowered at me. I didn’t know he could do that! He performed 5 minutes later.
Then there were the presidents daughters. They have grown up in the public glare that comes with their father running this country for over 20 years. Yet they are shy. They fidgeted.  A lot. Then for some reason they were called up to the stage to hand over something. Events overtook what was being awarded and they got stuck up there. To make things worse they were asked to say something. I was sure they were going to bolt.

Surprise appearance

Shy

Surprise embrace

A mother closes her eyes and grooves  as a 128 channel ilive digital mixer behind her thumps out the song "Maama"

I liked this show a lot because everyone brought their mothers. Very different crowd from the usual. Many white haired ladies in their favourite busutis. At some point their all stood up and danced with their sons. And daughters. All kinds of funny dances from the 40s and 50s. And all kinds of tears. Men concentrating on their forgotten favourite women and many wives happily stepping aside to let it happen.
I thought maybe the sound system is too loud for some of them. I was tempted to turn it down. I didn’t want the concert remembered for all the wrong reasons.
Then some sad stories and a sad video. Then we danced again and celebrated the gift of mothers and all they mean to us. Wonderful concert

My favourite 5 concerts of 2011 (TWO)

Musical shows in Uganda are some of the most competitive events you can come across anywhere. There are numerous yardsticks that are used by different people to judge what constitutes a good show.
 
This one is simply from my vantage point at these shows. I use my experience. In no particular order. I will feature them in different articles and give them article numbers that dont indicate positions


Other in this list shows here


2. MAURICE KIRYA




I had always wanted to do a show for Maurice. We talked about it for a while and then I gave up


He then came up to us and said I want to do a show that is different. He had some truly crazy ideas about how he wanted the show done and I am saying CRAZY! We indulged some. He wanted 20 bodabodas on the stage. and Iam talking real bodaboda men, helmets, dirty jackets and all. The bodaboda smoke would set of the Serena Hotel fire alarms.
A boda man can have an accident all on his own in a large open space.  Now Maurice wanted  many of them on a small stage that had some expensive equipment. We jammed!


We had many meetings What came out was that Maurice knew EXACTLY what he wanted down which light should be warm yellow 3 minutes into which song.

 

I hear Maurice called for auditions on Facebook. Then whittled down to this wondrous meloidious group!

Cheeky lighting when Valerie came on. Henry (our lighting guy) made it seem like her dress glowed and threw light on the crowd!

My friend Hosea Jemba was on board with a Panasonic HPX 370. For the first time we rocked HD for the whole show. Stuff doesn't get tighter than that! Thanks Hosea and Julius Sentongo

My biggest worry was that since Maurice was integral to the pre-production, he would fail to be the artiste and try to direct the show form the stage. Shouldn't have worried, should I?

That is a real boda boda man. Hosea has an elbow up. just in case 

And it was a wonderful show. Maurice has done over 30 concerts around Africa and the experience shows. The air was electric. The choir crooned! Girls screamed 'Marry Me Maurice!' and swung placards and guys danced. The boda boda men drove on. Yes. But just 2 of them. They were nice and they didn't knock down anyone. They wanted to get on 2 songs early and I got a bouncer to keep them in check!


His brother Vampos did a cameo at the climax. Vampos quipped before going on,'Iam gonna have to get paid before I go on. This thing of being his brother isn’t gonna work this time.,.' he then ran on and rocked! I didn’t see any payment made.


Maurice has a unique style. And a fire in the belly. And we indulged him a lot. Hardly any compromises were made in doing this show. Wonderful, wonderful show!

My favourite 5 concerts of 2011 (ONE)

Musical shows in Uganda are some of the most competitive events you can come across anywhere. Numerous yardsticks  are used by different people to judge what constitutes a good show.


This it is simply from my vantage point at these shows. I use my experience. In no particular order. I will feature them in different articles and give them article numbers that dont indicate positions. others are here


5. IRYN: BIROWOOZO CONCERT

We did the Iryn concert at a venue we have done a number of concerts. I feel like she did it at a great time. Just as she was confirmed as a possible Artiste of the Year by the PAM awards. And her good friend had just come out of jail and the crowd was wondering whether he would show up.
 

Mosey and Weasal curtain raise

Iryn appears. Lasers and all. The best intro since Blu 3

The MC kept shouting "PUT ON THE LIGHTS!!??!"

 

 

Warm and cool colours are pretty hard to mix with the lights and the graphics. Sometimes it pays to try

It was full house before the curtain raisers came on. And a full complement concert on the equipment. When she came on stage we reverted something we had hardly done this year which mix down the lights and graphics live to create one stage, let one compliment the other.
The sound and lights and graphics merge into one big artiste presence.

  

People hoped he would come. And he did

Halima pays homage

Iryn has a full voice. And she used it. There have always been mixed reactions and rich discussion to her dress sense. None of that. When she walked down into the crowd, the reaction she drew was warm. You felt was artiste of the year in the making. She went down to the former vice president’s table to serenade him after singing a song honouring his mother.


This concert gave me a nice buzz. One like the Bebe’s Agenze show a few years ago. When it ends you wonder where it all went. Smooth. Whole. A great many things have to come together for this to happen. They did.

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