UK-based promoters fight over Shinsoman, Freeman
By Sharon Muguwu
Zimdancehall musicians Shinsoman and Freeman have triggered a turf war between United Kingdom-based music promoters — Digital One Entertainment and Charles “Torro” Guvamatanga.
In a hard-hitting comment on Facebook, Guvamatanga accused Digital One Entertainment of sabotaging his gig featuring Shinsoman and Freeman.
“Digital One …you want to threaten and bully people because you think you are on top. You have been trying so hard to make my show a flop.
“Why are you trying to cause problems…threatening me with violence? We live in a free country where you can’t just go around threatening people.
“You are not the alpha and omega of promotions…I will return fire with fire musambofa makafunga kuti ndokutyai. (I’m not afraid of you.)
“I have recordings of you lying to people and discrediting me and everything will be exposed the minute you cross that line,” he wrote in a Facebook post in which he tagged Digital One.
But in an interview with the Daily News, Digital One’s Don Calo poured cold water on Guvamatanga’s accusations.
“We held shows in Dunstable two weeks ago with nine musicians, among them was Freeman. When the shows ended, Freeman asked to remain behind as he wanted to buy a car here and it was okay with us.
“When Guvamatanga heard this he asked us to release Freeman so that he could perform at his show, which was okay with us, after all we are all Zimbabweans.
“It was a free show (for Guvamatanga) in the sense that Freeman was working under our work permit and we had covered all his costs. All Guvamatanga had to do was pay the artiste,” Don Calo said.
The Digital One official said all hell broke loose when they asked Guvamatanga to reciprocate when he hosts the same artistes in August.
“Following the show I then asked him to avail two artistes in August because he will be organising a show featuring Shinsoman and Freeman. I thought this was going to be easy as we had done the same for him.
“The two will be part of London shows being organised by Guvamatanga and we had asked for them to perform in Manchester.
“The two cities are miles apart, more like the distance between Masvingo and Harare. Surprisingly, he is attacking us for no apparent reason,” Don Calo added.
Freeman claimed he was not aware of the tiff involving the two UK promoters.
“I do not know what you are talking about. Maybe the problems are taking place at management level, but I haven’t heard anything,” he said.
Shinsoman’s phone was unreachable. Daily News
