Mapfumo troops into UK for summer shows

Mapfumo troops into UK for summer shows

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By Showbiz Editor

THOMAS Mapfumo and his Blacks Unlimited are trooping into the United Kingdom for a series of shows in May following a successful tour of America.

Mapfumo, arguably Zimbabwe's biggest music star got his start in the 1970s band Wagon Wheels, which also introduced Oliver Mtukudzi. He is a traditional mbira songwriter to whom catchy grooves come as naturally as walking and talking.

With his amazing body of song writing, Mapfumo often confronts contemporary African issues such as poverty, corruption and the AIDS epidemic, but maintains enviable optimism.

Recently described as a “paragon of African nationalism” by the American Wall Street Journal, Mapfumo now nearing 60, has just completed a tour of the American Midwest and is back in Eugene, working on a new album before embarking on a West Coast swing. After the UK tour, he will be off to Canada for more summer gigs.

Although he lives with his children in an unprepossessing suburban home in the medium-size college town of Eugene, Mapfumo's heart resides in his homeland. Still one of Zimbabwe's biggest-selling musicians, he returns to his spacious Harare house each Christmas just long enough to see his family, check on his business interests (including the soccer team Sporting Lions and a record label he owns), and perform for his legion of fans.

Mapfumo earned that acclaim--and the nickname "the Lion of Zimbabwe"--during the 1970s, when his chimurenga, or struggle, songs provided the soundtrack for the black liberation movement in what was then called Rhodesia. He was briefly jailed in 1979, just before the white minority ceded power to the elected Mugabe government.

The highlight of Mapfumo’s tour will be the gig at the Royal Festival Hall in London on the 15th May. Four days later on 19 May he will be in West Yorkshire at the Hebden Traders Club for his second show.

More shows will follow, the third at The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes on 21 May before he staging a gig a day later on 22 May at the Starlite Entertainment Centre in Leicester.

He will wind off his UK tour with a show at the HQ Club in Leeds. He will be performing songs from his latest album which will be released sometime during the year.

Brian Ndawana of Y2K Promotions told us: “Mapfumo’s shows are one of those moments that are talked about for years after the event. If you are not there, no one will look for you because you won’t be anywhere.”

He also told us that they were embarking on their trickiest assignment yet when they promote leading Nigerian juju musician, Lagbaja, in June.
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