Poor timing undoes the On Fire show
WITHOUT a doubt, last Friday’s On Fire concert at UMA Hall in Lugogo, lacked only one more ingredient to turn out a mega success. That is proper timing. <br>
By Joseph Ssemutooke
WITHOUT a doubt, last Friday’s On Fire concert at UMA Hall in Lugogo, lacked only one more ingredient to turn out a mega success. That is proper timing.
It is not to say that the show was a total flop, but the thin turn-up it suffered could have been a sea of fans had the organisers understood their target audience better and set the show on a more favourable date.
Look, the chunk of the fan-base of Michael Ross and Vampino lies in university and secondary school students. Yet the two artistes, for a reason that remains limitlessly inexplicable, decided to hold the show when both camps are not in position to supply quorum for any show.
Secondary school students only attend concerts during holidays, but now they are at school for second term; while the university students on the other hand only attend when at school where they have all freedom to be out late.
Right now they are on holiday and back to their parents’ homes — a number of them even far from town.
Even the young corporates, who might have provided Michael Ross and Vampino with a good number, were incapacitated by the fact that the show was put at a time before they got their salaries (most companies pay from the 25th onwards.)
For holding the concert on the same night when Angella Kalule was launching her Katikitiki album at Club Obbligato, surely the Katikitiki should have made no significant subtractions on the On Fire numbers.
The Katikitiki fanbase is quite different from Vampino and Michael Ross’. And even if Angella was not launching, they would ideally not have been at the UMA hall.
Now with the background of poor timing, one has to give Michael Ross and Vampino some due respect for managing to pull even the small crowd they did under such unfavourable circumstances. At least, with their about 1,000 fans, they did much better than some of the concerts that we have seen turn out as total flops.
But the fact that the stage performances were superb makes the poor timing of the show even more disheartening. The stage, lighting and sound were top-notch — save for the occasional glitches that caught the sound.
Then the list of musicians who turned up to support was endless and made the show worth every penny. Think of big shots like Maurice Kirya, Navio, Peter Miles, GNL Zamba, Ragga Dee, Benon (Swangz), Aziz Azion; all the way to innumerable lesser or upcoming stars like Mun G, Lillian Mbabazi, Don MC, Gift of Kaddo, Viboyo, Mr X and Tikita.
Michael Ross and Vampino held their own from the moment they stepped onto the podium to open with their 2006 collaboration On Fire. Michael Ross served an overflowing plate of his trademark performances featuring eclectic dance moves and resonant vocals. When he stepped down, Vampino gave a roof-tearing climax with his powerful beats and flows.
It was at about 2:00am when the show came to a close (the midnight time limits do not apply to indoor concerts). You would get the feeling that had there been enough numbers, UMA Hall could have turned into a dance floor for the revellers to enjoy the benefits of the indoor venue by dancing peku morning.
WITHOUT a doubt, last Friday’s On Fire concert at UMA Hall in Lugogo, lacked only one more ingredient to turn out a mega success. That is proper timing.
It is not to say that the show was a total flop, but the thin turn-up it suffered could have been a sea of fans had the organisers understood their target audience better and set the show on a more favourable date.
Look, the chunk of the fan-base of Michael Ross and Vampino lies in university and secondary school students. Yet the two artistes, for a reason that remains limitlessly inexplicable, decided to hold the show when both camps are not in position to supply quorum for any show.
Secondary school students only attend concerts during holidays, but now they are at school for second term; while the university students on the other hand only attend when at school where they have all freedom to be out late.
Right now they are on holiday and back to their parents’ homes — a number of them even far from town.
Even the young corporates, who might have provided Michael Ross and Vampino with a good number, were incapacitated by the fact that the show was put at a time before they got their salaries (most companies pay from the 25th onwards.)
For holding the concert on the same night when Angella Kalule was launching her Katikitiki album at Club Obbligato, surely the Katikitiki should have made no significant subtractions on the On Fire numbers.
The Katikitiki fanbase is quite different from Vampino and Michael Ross’. And even if Angella was not launching, they would ideally not have been at the UMA hall.
Now with the background of poor timing, one has to give Michael Ross and Vampino some due respect for managing to pull even the small crowd they did under such unfavourable circumstances. At least, with their about 1,000 fans, they did much better than some of the concerts that we have seen turn out as total flops.
But the fact that the stage performances were superb makes the poor timing of the show even more disheartening. The stage, lighting and sound were top-notch — save for the occasional glitches that caught the sound.
Then the list of musicians who turned up to support was endless and made the show worth every penny. Think of big shots like Maurice Kirya, Navio, Peter Miles, GNL Zamba, Ragga Dee, Benon (Swangz), Aziz Azion; all the way to innumerable lesser or upcoming stars like Mun G, Lillian Mbabazi, Don MC, Gift of Kaddo, Viboyo, Mr X and Tikita.
Michael Ross and Vampino held their own from the moment they stepped onto the podium to open with their 2006 collaboration On Fire. Michael Ross served an overflowing plate of his trademark performances featuring eclectic dance moves and resonant vocals. When he stepped down, Vampino gave a roof-tearing climax with his powerful beats and flows.
It was at about 2:00am when the show came to a close (the midnight time limits do not apply to indoor concerts). You would get the feeling that had there been enough numbers, UMA Hall could have turned into a dance floor for the revellers to enjoy the benefits of the indoor venue by dancing peku morning.