Musician Skeff a Chimoto on Sunday called on fellow mus i c i an Luc ius Banda popularly known as Soldier and veteran promoter Jai Banda alias Mr Entertainer, to come to terms for the betterment of the creative industry.
Skeffa made the call during a show at M1 Centre Point in Lilongwe where Lucius also performed.
Skeffa urged the two heavyweights to bury the hatchet pointing out that their sour relationship was affecting the industry.
In between his performance, Skeffa said:
“Let me seize this opportunity to ask my two elders Lucius and Jai to consider putting their differences behind them and move forward as children of one family.
People like me look up to you two and when you fight, it is people like me who suffer,” Skeffa said.
He said their differences will not serve any purpose but will only work to slow down the development of music in the country considering their contribution.
The two first appeared to cross paths when Soldier and his Impakt Events invited Jamaican dancehall artist Busy Signal last year, in September.
The Busy Signal show was initially slated for August but was later shifted to September 3 just close to the Sound and Light concert which was held the following day at Lilongwe Golf Club.
The two Banda’s tussled over the scheduling of the two shows on preceding days in the same city and after futile attempts to have one of them shift his show, the two shows went ahead as planned.
From then on, things have no longer been the same for the two.
Their sparring has escalated beyond the music stage as evidenced by posts that have been made on the social media mainly on Facebook.
Jai went to town on Facebook in October last year when Impakt Events invited Diamond to perform at the Sand Music Festival.
But the festival did not live up to its billing as it was disrupted by heavy rains.
But when Malawi News Agency (Mana) sought the views of the two on the matter, the two Banda’s have both played down the issue, insisting that they do not hold a grudge against each other.
“I am a peace loving person. If there was one bad thing that my brother Jai would mention that I have done that has injured him, for the sake of our reputations, our children and of course our fans, I would go and knock on his door with humility and apologise,” Lucius said.
The ‘Mabala’ hitmaker insisted that he has nothing against Jai but he failed to commit himself on the possibility of working together with him.
“Those who know me very well know that I cannot keep a grudge for an hour. Some of my band members have at some point left in very rude circumstances, they have come back and we have talked as men and moved forward.
“But when you are being persecuted without knowing what wrong you have done what do you do?,” Wondered Lucius.
On his part Jai said he has no problem with Lucius and pleaded with people not to read too much into what has happened in the past between them.
“What comforts me i s knowing that despite both of us being in the music industry our domains are different. I am into music promotion and he is a musician and I am open to working with him in any project,” Jai said.
When put to him as to what were his thoughts when he chose to pick on Lucius on the outcome of the Diamond show, Jai said:
“We are all Malawians and we should therefore care for the image we send out to people when we host international artists.
“Mine was just a call for us to up our game when we organise such shows. You know very well that we at Entertainers Promotion have standards which we adhere to,” he said.
Last year Lucius under Impakt Events also invited Lucky Dube’s band led by his son and in the course of their arrangements, one member of the band, Thuthukani Cele, opted not to come.
Ironically, this time around, Thuthukani Cele will be performing in the country on April 29, courtesy of Entertainers Promotion.
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