Nothing, not even a prior warning, prepared patrons for Soldier Lucius Banda\u2019s absence during Zembani Music Company\u2019s show at Pajokala in Zomba on Sunday.<\/p>\n
For a week, it had been announced that Zembani Music Company, led by Lucius, would invade Zomba. The message might have imposed the order of hope on entertainment-starved Songani residents, who thronged the venue as early as 2:00 pm.<\/p>\n
Who would have resisted the urge when the lineup of musicians included Lambanie Dube, Sam Simakweli, A.K.A. Sam Smack, Nep Man and Postnegative.<\/p>\n
However, patrons were fed a cocktail of dummies. For example, Lucius was not there. Nep Man, too, was nowhere to be seen. Two dummies, one Sunday!<\/p>\n
Dube performed three songs done by foreign artists before developing confidence to perform his compositions. He performed \u2018Kulira kwa kholo\u2019, \u2018Yankho likadzafika\u2019, \u2018Mtima wako\u2019, \u2018Chisoni n\u2019kumatenda\u2019, among others, before going international again.<\/p>\n
Postnegative, the \u2018Iwe iwe undiberekere mwana<\/em>\u2019hit-maker, was also there. He proved just how poor at stage performances he is by playing well-known songs such as Allan Namoko\u2019s \u2018Lameck\u2019 off key. He also sang the songs with a high tempo, killing both the flavour of the songs and one\u2019s interest to take him seriously.<\/p>\n The extent to which the day had been bad was summed up when Postnegative drew the curtains on the show.<\/p>\n But it can be said that Zembani Band leader, Sam Smack, stood up to be counted. He filled Lucius\u2019 shoes, though he seemed to belittle\u2014as great individuals do\u2014his own outstanding performance.<\/p>\n It can, however, be said that the Zembani Band leader took too long before spilling the beans that Lucius would not make it to the show.<\/p>\n Patrons\u2019 hopes tumbled into ruins and half the patrons left the dancing floor for, nobody knows where. The announcement put a full stop to their wild hopes of landing their eyes on theSoldier of Balaka.<\/p>\n But Smack justified his boss\u2019 absence.<\/p>\n He spoke with a sense of relaxed plenitude, while probably hoping that such a sense would be echoed in the patrons. Oh, Smack even moved with an easy grace.<\/p>\n \u201cYou might have noticed that I have played a number of nyimbo za munthu wamkulu <\/em>[a thin-veiled reference to Lucius]. Of course, I know that I cannot fill his big shoes. But this is because he cannot make it to this venue. A child to one of the chiefs in his Constituency [Balaka Central] has died and he [Lucius] could, therefore, not make it here,\u201d said Smack, as some of the patrons interjected with \u2018bodza<\/em>\u2019 [that explanation cannot be true] chants.<\/p>\n However, one of Zembani Band members said in an interview that Lucius had travelled to South Africa and was expected back home on the day of the show.<\/p>\n The band member said chances were that he could either arrive on time and avail himself to the Pajokala patrons or he would not make it on time and, thus, not appear on stage at all.<\/p>\n But Lucius did not appear on stage until Smack bid farewell to patrons at 09: 12 pm, but not before some of the remaining patrons forced him to play \u2018Sofia\u2019. He played a foreign reggae piece instead and left the stage to Postnegative at 09: 20 pm.<\/p>\n That is when Postnegative\u2019s trend of off-key songs started.<\/p>\n By which time, a sense of disappointment had become a glittering pile of visible anger on the faces of some patrons. Without Lucius, they had no option but to emerge out of Pajokala gates to face the darkness of night outside. The disco lights, like Lucius Banda, Nep Man and Postnegative, had been playing tricks on their senses.<\/p>\n The only dominant feature at the show was visible beyond the Pajokala stage; in the form of a vast amount of space unhindered by sky-scrapers which led one\u2019s eyes to Zomba Mountain. As the artists performed, one could not help but gaze up into bare stones and scattered trees that portray a sense of greenness on Zomba Mountain.<\/p>\n Again, it can be said that nature had its own way of \u2018telling\u2019 that Lucius would not come. Dark clouds, which come with the promise of rains, loomed over the venue but, like Lucius, the rains did not come.<\/p>\n And, in the absence of the larger-than-life stature of Lucius, it was easy to get distracted and look at the mountain rather than musicians who were supposed to be curtain raisers in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nothing, not even a prior warning, prepared patrons for Soldier Lucius Banda\u2019s absence during Zembani Music Company\u2019s show at Pajokala in Zomba on Sunday. For a week, it had been announced that Zembani Music Company, led by Lucius, would invade Zomba. The message might have imposed the order of hope on entertainment-starved Songani residents, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27829,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27825\/revisions\/27829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}