Morgan Heritage’s Strictly Roots tour loots from Malawians

…use CD’s instead of a live perfomance

The royal family is not loyal at all!

The billed to be show of the year by the Jamaican Reggae outfit, Morgan Heritage, which took place on Sunday 27 December in Lilongwe has left many Malawians who went and failed to go to the show disappointed.

Coming hot on the heels of a brilliant performance by Jamaican artist Busy Signal whose memories are still stuck in the minds of Malawian, the Morgan Heritage had promised a show of fireworks to Malawians.

Following a media publicity that boasted of two trucks that carried equipment for the show only, many people had expected that once Morgan Heritage signs off their deal, they will have conquered the whole country.

With only K10,000 Reggae loving Malawians had been promised a great show by Promoter Born Afrikan who earned a reputation of honesty after bringing to the warm heart of Africa the Jah Messenger, Luciano.

People expected that Born Afrikan would bring a brilliant  and fulfilling set from the Royal Family. However, it was only until a few minutes before midnight that the hearts of Malawians were broken.

Having enjoyed brilliant performances from local acts that were ably dished by the Lilongwe Reggae force, Soul Raiders; the Chileka based Black Missionaries and Born Afrikan himself, it was not until very very late in the night that a part of the Morgan Heritage group appeared.

However, to the dismay of most Malawians, the Jamaican group did not only appear late on stage but ahead of their appearance, some of the stage equipment had to be moved. A development that raised questions among Malawians.

The questions were soon answered as the group went into full gear lip-syncing the songs that were being played from a CD. This was against a background in which the local acts had performed live music.

They even opted to playing the CD’s without even singing forcing some patrons to leave the venue of the show after the time had already struck past midnight, meaning they had stayed all the time to midnight waiting for nothing.

Lot’s of fans were left frustrated considering the amount of money paid to watch the group performing in their tour also meant to share a recipe of their Grammy Awards Nominated album Strictly Roots.

“This was the same as buying a CD because we paid the money hoping to see the group performing but everybody was left frustrated to see the band using CD’s instead of performing live.”

“We enjoyed Busy Signal’s show at the Sun Music Festival in Salima because he did a live performance but honestly, we are disappointed with the Morgan Heritage band,” said some concerned Malawians.

The disappointing act continued for the who remained behind. At one point, the Grammy nominated outfit had to rap for themselves after sound went off on stage.

“It was terrible and poor. Imagine folks singing on stage to what you can’t hear in the audience,” said a frustrated patron, Dennis Mzingaya.

Other commentators have however faulted Malawians for wanting good things on a cheap platter.

“Did you expect to watch the whole Morgan Heritage crew for K10,000 only?” wondered one commentator.

Morgan Heritage is a reggae band formed in 1994 by five children of reggae artist Denroy Morgan. The group comprises of Peter “Peetah” Morgan, Una Morgan, Roy “Gramps” Morgan, Nakhamyah “Lukes” Morgan and Memmalatel.

As we went to Press, we were waiting for a comment from the promoter who many Malawians feel has cheated them with the show.

*Additional reporting by Aubrey Makina