Rise Kagona, a Bhundu Boys founder has spoken for the first time about how lead singer, Biggie Tembo sold the band down the river in the U...
Rise Kagona, a Bhundu Boys founder has spoken for the first
time about how lead singer, Biggie Tembo sold the band down the river in the
UK.
Kagona told the Sunday News from UK that a furious row over
a house purchase was the band’s undoing.
“Gordon Muir, our manager, got 20% of everything that we
made. So when the deal with Warner came along, he realised that he wanted a
house. But the 20% that he would be getting from the deal would not be enough
to buy a house so he tried to convince the group that buying a house was a
smart idea. This was something that I was resistant to from the start,” said
Kagona.
“I wanted us to invest back home. When we left Zimbabwe all
of us were living with our parents. I was living in Mufakose; David was from
Bulawayo and so rented one room in Harare while Shaky was also from Karoi and
didn’t have a home in Harare. Biggie was from Chinoyi as well.
“So I told them that it wouldn’t make sense for us to buy a
house in the United Kingdom because we were there on work permits and Margaret
Thatcher could suddenly change her mind and stop foreigners from coming in. Who
would carry the house to Harare?” said Kagona.
“I told them that this was our first major deal and we
shouldn’t miss the chance to invest back home. They agreed. But one by one
Gordon started working on the guys that drink. I myself don’t drink or smoke so
I’m always focused. He started taking the other guys to bars at night and
telling them how the house would be beneficial to them.
“He told them how they would never have trouble bringing in
groupies to sleep with after gigs because they would be no landlords as we had
grown accustomed,” said Kagona.
Mankaba and Kangwena were easily swayed but Kagona, Tembo
and Chitsvatsva were steadfast, rejecting all of Muir’s advances. When push
came to shove, the decision would be decided by a vote, with Kagona’s camp
holding all the aces.
However, a day before that crucial vote, Muir got hold of
Tembo and over a cold beer in a pub, the fate of the Bhundu Boys was sealed.
“The night before we were to have the vote the manager took
Biggie out. At the time we didn’t know what was being discussed there but I was
satisfied that my brother would stick by me. On the day that we were supposed
to sign the agreement, Gordon all of a sudden called for a meeting.
“I was convinced that the meeting was all about clearing
the air. I thought we would go on as agreed but instead called for a vote.
That’s when Judas Iscariot (Biggie Tembo) sold us out,” said a still bitter
Kagona.
“They had agreed that Biggie would go solo with Gordon as
his manager and they would thus split the profits between themselves. Biggie
had these songs that he didn’t want to record with the rest of the group and
they would bring in another band to play with him,” said Kagona.
Before the ink had dried on the agreement to buy the group
a house and Tembo went solo, the Bhundu Boys had already started to turn on
each other.
“There wasn’t any trust anymore. We only met for rehearsals
and performances. Our relationship didn’t go beyond the stage because whenever
we would discuss something Biggie would go and tell the white man (Muir),” said
Kagona.
Details of this agreement only came to light when things
turned sour between Muir and Tembo, as the gifted vocalist’s solo career
suffered a still-birth.
“The years were going past and Biggie kept on asking when
he would break out as a solo star. Muir had seen Biggie would not make it alone
without the Bhundu Boys. We both needed each other. But he couldn’t tell him
that because he had promised to make him a star.”
Things came to a head back home in Zimbabwe when the two
were sharing a cottage owned by Oliver Mtukudzi’s then publicist, Debbie
Metcalfe. Fists were flung and harsh word exchanged as allegedly Biggie set on
the violent course that would see him commit suicide in an asylum in 1995.
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