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Bongani Ndlovu Showbiz Correspondent
LEGENDARY musician Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi spotted a pair of shoes from his brand new line, Hai-Kobo at a scintillating make-up show at the Large City Hall on Friday night. Tuku returned to Bulawayo for the make-up show after falling ill on the day he was supposed to share the stage with South Africa’s Ringo Madlingozi at the same venue last month. This time he shared the stage with Dendera King Sulumani Chimbetu.

Tuku has fully recovered from his illness, if the energy he showed on stage is anything to go by. His spirits and mood on stage bore testimony that he has found new energy maybe buoyed by the launch of his shoe line last week.

During the show Tuku would make little inferences to the shoe line amid cheers from the over 400 strong crowd. He wore the black high cut, lace up shoe which is part of an 11 shoe collection that is retailing at a local departmental store, blue jeans and a white shirt.

Starting his set a little after 10.30PM, Tuku’s nimble fingers plucked away at his guitar effortlessly while performing songs like Dzikama wakura, Bvongodza Mhuto, Dzoka Uyamwe, Patapata, Neria and Manyemwe at the same time dancing with a lot of energy.

For once promoters got the stage lighting right and also the sound. Save for a momentary switching off in the middle of Tuku’s performance, everything went well.

The usually dimly lit Large City Hall stage has made it difficult for fans to see their stars on it. Often promoters have not invested in lighting but it seems their ways are changing.

The stage and lighting was the same as at Sandra Ndebele’s successful and highly glamorous seventh album launch on Thursday evening.

With the bar set so high by Tuku, Sulu decided to reinvent himself during his performance as he took on the dancehall craze.

On his new album Gunship, he features Zimdancehall bad boy Soul Jah Luv on the track Nyuchi.

During the show Sulu took it up himself to be a dancehall chanter and performed Soul Jah Luv’s part, much to the amazement of the crowd. So dazzling was his performance of the track that the crowd asked him to perform it again. He obliged.

Sulu took fans down memory lane with renditions of his father’s tracks, One Way, Ndarangarira Gamba and Dzandipedza Mafuta. He also performed a fan favourite Sean Timba (Batai Munhu) with aplomb.

A female reveller spotting an African print mini dress took centre stage as she gyrated during the performance by Sulu.

For some 10 minutes she seductively danced, everyone’s eyes moved from the stage and were glued to the dance floor as fellow revellers cheered and encouraged her on.

Some men in the crowd couldn’t resist her gyrations and joined her taking turns dancing with the woman. The festivities went on into the wee hours of Saturday morning.