Tocky delivers stunning performance

HARARE – Award-winning Zimdancehall star Tocky Vibes delivered a stunning performance at the “Econet Million Dollar Storm” event held in the Harare Gardens on Saturday afternoon that must have put his critics to shame.

Despite repeatedly thrilling Zimbabwean music fans in Australia, the United Kingdom and South Africa where he has regularly toured, Tocky Vibes, who was born Obey Makamure, has often got the stick for allegedly failing to deliver at gigs in Harare.

But at the weekend event, where 50 lucky Econet subscribers walked away with $2 000 prizes with an equal number pocketing $500 each, the Mhai singer demonstrated in spectacular fashion that Harare was not too big a stage for him contrary to popular opinion.

Tocky Vibes came to the stage after Zimbabwe’s current favourite entertainer Jah Prayzah had taken the big crowd sky high with another imperious performance but the Rugare-bred youngster, who was backed by a live band, refused to be overawed.

The 22-year-old musician’s playlist included songs from Mhai Singles Collection and his latest album Toti Toti. Though the crowd warmed up to the performance of the title track of his latest album, it was clear that his old hits remain his trump cards.

Early this year when Tocky Vibes started using a live band, he seemed to struggle a bit but on Saturday there were no such glitches. The crowd was particularly impressed by the way the rising star alternated tempos as he played his various hits. It was a performance that showed that at long last Tocky Vibes and his backing band have now fashioned the right blend.

Tocky Vibes’ manager,  Elvis Bokosha, attributed his charge’s impressive performance to the good sound engineers on the day.

“We have always insisted that most of the events where Tocky allegedly failed to perform well were down to poor sound. The Econet gig had a good sound engineer who consulted our own sound engineer to create the right sound for Tocky and it worked wonders,” Bokosha told the Daily News.

Tocky Vibes was so delighted with the way the crowd warmed up to his Harare Gardens performance that he decided to hold a free concert in his home suburb of Rugare later that day. Bokosha said the gig, which attracted over a thousand people from Rugare, was Tocky Vibes’ way of acknowledging their contribution to his success.

“Tocky always wants to acknowledge the support he continues to get from the people of Rugare. It was a gig we thought of at the very last moment so we are delighted that so many people, who included friends family, attended,” he said. Daily News