Power failures haunt Splash again

CHIPPA LEGODIMO
Correspondent | Tuesday April 1, 2008 00:00

 

The show was the last of Splash's National Summer Tour, which started in February. Since the Lions Park festival late last month, the band took a break and only returned last Friday to perform first at Club 2016 in Molepolole and then Molapowabojang the next day. While incidents of violence and crime were reported in Molepolole where some criminals who wanted to gain free entry to the show pelted security guards with stones, the only hiccup in Molapowabojang was power failure.

The entry fee for this last show had been reduced from P50 to P40 due to the same problem of power cut and poor sound last year. Matshikos, who kicked off the gig, hardly played for five minutes before they were interrupted by a power cut. But the problem heightened when the all-girl trio of the Dalom Kids came on stage. They had hoped to give the fans a good taste of their best seller Izinduduma but it only came in bits and pieces. Ironically, the band had to take an hours break in darkness while the problem was being addressed. This seemed to affect even the back-up band, as the guys were not their usual energetic, fun-loving instrumentalists.

But Don B is an inspirational musician who ensures he interacts well with his fans and makes them forget about all the troubles. His positive energy seemed to have been automatically transmitted to band members as Thando Zinto, Enock Nkosi and Walter Sithole suddenly started to click once he started.The owner of the venue, Nelson 'Super' Letshabo, defended the power system. 'We have several channels where we tap power for these instruments so the engineer apparently over-loaded some of the channels leaving others free and this impacted on the whole system.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with our electricity supply,' Letshabo said. Splash boss Dan Tshanda also said that earlier on he thought the system was faulty but that after Letshabo called an electrician to help on the night he realised that it was his engineer who had not connected power to the system.But other than the power cuts, the festival was fun filled. In fact the venue was so full that revellers had very little space for dancing. People had come from as far away as Ghanzi for the show.

That it has been a month since the Lions Park show also contributed to the huge turnout. A lot of people had come from Gaborone and surrounding areas to attend the show. Don B was just what the fans needed to cheer up. A true Pantsola, the lad from Pitsane came on stage in a brown Dickkies overall.

The hype was there even when he arrived in a white Toyota Venture, security men struggled to keep excited fans aside, as everybody wanted a piece of him. Matshikos number, My hero, must have something in it that made people go wild.

The audience seemed to be turned on especially by its chorus which goes, 'lets take the world and turn it over to the other side and let's see what the people used to do' and this is where the instrumentation has a real reggae beat which made people jump-jump.

It was a mixture of new and old for the 'boss' Tshanda took his fans down memory lane with the likes of Nesidande, Vhumavungu, Banamanga, Tshokotshoko and Eye for an eye and then giving them the his latest tracks like Springbok and Lufhuno. Veteran Patricia Majalisa was not to be left out. She still has the enthusiasm and energy of a teenager. She is by far the group's best dancer and everybody had been waiting to see what jive would she be in and they got a plate full. But youngster Peacock's choice of tracks was poor and by the time he played the fans' faivourites like Mafohlosa and Nozukile the damage had already been done. Perhaps, closing the show is just not his thing. Normally he is the first on stage and Matshikos comes at the end but things were the other way round.