By Dakarai Mashava and Brighton Goko
Jamaican dancehall star Kiprich has criticised the organisers of Busy Signal’s just-ended two-concert tour of Zimbabwe for failing to provide a good sound system.
Busy Signal’s much-hyped maiden performance in the City Of Kings failed to take place on Friday night after fans ran riot following technical glitches that saw supporting act Winky D leaving the stage prematurely.
The chaotic scenes caused by a poor sound system did not escape Kiprich — the winner of the 2013 edition of the internationally-acclaimed Sting Dancehall Clash.
In a hard-hitting audio message, the Telephone Ting hit-maker attacked United Kingdom-based Y2k Promotions for their amateurish organisation of Busy Signal’s second tour of Zimbabwe.
“You see the thing is bringing an artiste such as Busy Signal you have to make sure the quality of the production is really way up there.
“To bring Busy Signal to Zimbabwe is not cheap. So why pay so much money to bring him to Zimbabwe and have a poor quality sound system?” said Kiprich.
The celebrated dancehall star is convinced that if Busy Signal had addressed the restive crowd, tempers could have calmed down.
“I feel if the people were hearing a quality and proper system and Busy got onto the mic, he would talk to them and calm down the situation,” said Kiprich, adding that the concert organisers ripped off music fans.
“Because as Winky D was saying that the sound system was not good whatever…some short was going on maybe…they must take all these things into consideration because it is a lot of money they (the promoter) are spending and you can say $15 can give you two weeks’ worth of food — it is a lot of money for the people to spend and to not get a quality show so the production team must be up there like 100 percent.”
Kiprich’s criticism of the Busy Signal concert organisers came before the Harare gig which took place at the Glamis Arena on Saturday night.
Though it was slightly better than the Bulawayo gig because at least Busy Signal performed, the situation was equally chaotic.
After the disturbances that hit the Bulawayo concert, many expected Y2K to acquire a much better sound system for the Harare gig but none of that appears to have happened. Sound issues blighted the concert throughout.
Just like in Bulawayo, angry fans regularly threw missiles on stage, even during the Jamaican star’s performance.
Some fans appeared to have been infuriated by the fact that Busy Signal only took to the stage around 1am.
Despite the poor sound, Busy Signal tried his best. He performed fans’ favourites such as Brighter Days, One More Night and Tic Toc, Wine Pon Di Edge in his performance that was almost two hours long.
After the Jamaican star’s set, volleys of missiles rained on the stage once more after Soul Jah Love failed to turn up.
With the situation increasingly getting out of hand, the concert had to be stopped just before 5am.
Other local artistes who performed include Killer T, Freeman, Lady Squanda and Dadza D. Daily News
