Macheso - Maiden US tour an eye-opener

Monday, 24 November 2008

‘city.com reporter VETERAN sungura artiste Alick Macheso — who has just returned home from his maiden tour of the United States — has described the visit as an eye-opener. Macheso was happy that the Orchestra Mberikwazvo managed to fulfil their mission of creating new contacts and delighting a handful of fans who graced their shows. "I was satisfied with the tour. Vanhu vekuAmerica vakasununguka uyezve vanonyatsobata joy yavo. We had a nice time. "Being our first visit, we managed to study the market and see how we can penetrate it. I was also surprised that the people in America knew some of our songs. "In short, America is an ideal market that we intend to explore and see how things go." Macheso conceded that the tour had its own problems. "While the promoter (Derrick Shonhiwa) did his part by inviting us to America, we have also learnt together with him some of the challenges the promoters face. For instance, we were forced to cancel one of our shows in New York after the organisers had failed to make travel bookings on time. "As for this particular (New York) show, we had to fly in batches and some guys arrived the following day after the scheduled show and we had no option but to cancel the shows. "In addition, some of our shows like the ones we had in Boston and Atlanta were not properly marketed and we hope the promoter will put his act together next time he invites us. "But I would like to point out that some shows, in particular those in Washington DC, Jersey, Dallas and Indianapolis, went according to script," he said. The sungura icon said he managed to establish a number of contacts with some international promoters. However, Macheso’s dream of meeting Dr Thomas Mapfumo was unsuccessful as the Chimurenga godfather was also touring other states in America. "I would have loved to meet him, but we only managed to get hold of his younger brother Lancelot. "If all goes according to plan, we are likely to stage another show that will see us sharing the stage with Dr Mapfumo." Macheso, who is working on his documentary, said he had also captured some of the videos during their maiden tour of America and engineers in the US were busy editing the footage. He also applauded his band for the professionalism they displayed while in the US, saluting Donald Gogo, who stood in for Zakaria Zakaria, for a superb performance. Zaka Zaka failed to travel to the US after he was denied a visa. Meanwhile, Macheso will share the stage with veteran Zimbabwean artiste Oliver Mtukudzi in the UK next weekend. The two artistes are scheduled to perform at the Athena Arena in Leicester next Friday and then at the Stratford Rex the following day.