By Marshall Shonhai
South African songstress Makhadzi stirred up a hornet nest at the weekend after accusing Zim dancehall star Winky D of unilaterally performing beyond his scheduled time during Africa Music Festival held in the United Kingdom.
The Magear singer had many tongues wagging and, in the process, took hit for an election result many are struggling to come to terms with. Election or no election, Makhadzi was always going to get the backlash she got in my opinion.
Where I disagreed with her was when she accused a fellow artist of sabotage by refusing to get off the stage.
The people she should make issue with are the promoters and the stage manager of the event, if there was one. Unless Makhadzi us saying both promoter and stage manager failed to remove Winky D when he had played over his allocated time.
From her own account, it looked like this show was already running behind time. She said Winky D performed for 80 minutes and she and Jah Prayzah had to share 40 minutes, if you add this together it gives you just 2 hours. This alone is not enough for JP, I have watched him perform for 3 hours before.
So, to think that you could squeeze 3 headline acts into 2 hours was always going to be a had act. Maybe Makhadzi could have done her set in 45 mins as it was her original given time but to think both Winky D and JP can perform 37 mins each was going to be a hard sell to Zimbabweans and those two guys need at least 90 minute each to put up a performance their fans can be happy with. Which are the times both artists were billed to perform in the first place.
It is clear that by the time the Gafa took to the stage, the show was running way, way late. It would be interesting to hear what the conversation was before he went on the stage. Did the stage manager cut his set and gave him a new time and he ignored it? Or there was nothing communicated?
The show organizers and the stage manager needed to have handled this situation better. They knew well in advance that their venue was going to shutdown at 10pm so they ought to have managed their time well. The UK is not like Zimbabwe where you can pay the police and go over the agreed times, no.
These guys could have started the event earlier for starters, or maybe manage the earlier sets better. A lot of time is usually taken up in between sets, how you change over from one act to the other is also very critical to stage management. If you are working with a tight schedule, then you need to have acts ready before whoever is on the stage finishes.
I have seen it too many times, many people start looking for bands just before they go on stage, and trust me, if you let those people wonder, they will disappear on you. So, they need to have a stage call time, for me it’s usually 30mins before performance time, everyone should be in one place and ready to go.
This is not to say that’s what happened with this particular show, no, I am just highlighting something that can delay a program even if it would have started on time.
It is the duty of the stage manager to make sure that everyone is in the right place at the right time and that the transitions are handled smoothly.
Where we normally have a lot of acts, we use stage timers. Those I have worked with will know that the moment you step on the stage, your agreed time will start running down, the clock will be right in front of everyone on stage and when your time is up we will send the MCs out to get you off the stage. If that that does not work, we will find other means of achieving that goal.
This whole unnecessary war between artists we are now witnessing was caused by poor stage and time management. A cancer with most of our events. Most of our events are run without stage managers or if there is stage management, there is zero appreciation of the role and its functions from both the event organizers and the purported stage manager.
A stage manager usually and normally works with a director (a role that is non-existent at most of our productions)
A stage managers job is to “facilitate communication across all creative and technical departments; act as a right hand to the director; oversee sets, props, lights, and sound; and call all technical cues during performances.”
The stage manager is also responsible for all rehearsals for the event and soundchecks and dress rehearsals. The stage management function is not about holding a piece of paper, running around like a headless chicken pretending to be busy whilst giving access to the backstage to friends and girlfriends.
The stage manager runs the show! It’s a serious and hectic job that requires lot of technical understanding. You have to know about lighting, sound and a whole of things that happen with a music event. You have to be able to communicate and understand what the artists and technicians will be saying so that you know what help to get from where.
Stage management is not just about making sure the stage is free from people who like to stand on the stage during performances. It is an integral function to a well run show.
The level at which we are playing at like the show in question, needs and demands proper stage management.
It was sad watching Jah Prayzah addressing the crowd complaining about time. Curiously he said this happens every year, this proves that there has been no or little effort to fix the problem. Surely, we cannot be having the same issues year in year out, it shows something is fundamentally wrong somewhere.
My challenge to JP and his camp is that it is high time we stopped waiting for these promoters to call or book us for events. It is time for our own shows in the UK, in the USA, in Canada and in Australia. Same goes for Winky D, time for our own tours gentlemen because we are shortchanging both ourselves and our fans. Let us take a leaf off the late Dr Oliver Mtukudzi’s book, whilst he still took bookings from promoters, he still maintained his own events outside Zimbabwe.
On another note, one has to really feel for Makhadzi, poor lady, she was livid. It also looked like she had no idea who Winky D was and what he means to the people of Zimbabwe. Thats surprising for an artist of her caliber, she ought to know, maybe she was just being arrogant acting like she doesn’t know who he is.
Whichever way, I feel her conduct was very unprofessional and should not be repeated.
It’s interesting how things are going to pan out when these 3 Artists share the stage again on the 14th of October at the Odyssey Hotel in Kadoma
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