Anthea Bissolati
I was prowling an online ticket platform, looking for a live performance of local artists to support, when a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity caught my eye.
Excitedly, I clicked the event titled “Jonathan Butler – A Life in Song.”
It said 43 tickets left. Imagine my shock and horror!
How did I, the biggest events troll, not see this before?
I hurriedly clicked on seating and found seats in the very last row, which was pretty much the only available option. I told myself, ‘it’s the Artscape, there are no bad seats in an opera house’.
When my daughter and nieces were much younger, I would always take seats at the back so that if they were fidgety or restless, they wouldn’t bother anybody because we were out of the way. While these seats are right at the back, you wouldn’t miss a thing. You would still get to see the beauty of the performance, just from a little further away, but the proof is in the pudding.
With my two favourite oldies, my mom and her sister, with me, we set off to Artscape to see our proudest South African export and most notable brown person, Dr Jonathan Butler.
At the opera house people were mingling while some local celebs were taking selfies with fans. We had some bubbly and at 19h20 we made our way to our seats on the 10-minute curtain call, ending up next to a lovely bunch of ladies who are absolutely bubbling with excitement to see Jonathan Butler perform.
Off to a Rocky Start
The lights went out and the show started with a video projected to the back of the stage.
About that back row seating still being good enough… Boy, was I wrong this time around.
I’m not sure how sound checks were done or if anyone from the tech team sat in the back row to verify the quality of the visual displays, but the entire back section could only see the bottom half of the screen. This was extremely disappointing as many pictures of the Athlone area where my mom lived for a part of her childhood were shown and she couldn’t see them.
Many other attendees were also disappointed. Imagine hearing a video of people wishing Jonathan Butler well but you are unable to see who is actually sending the well wishes.
Following that first big disappointment, I was in for another bit of a shocker. The stage was set with a “sink huisie” with the number 30 on it. Out of the “sink huisie” came members of the Butler family and other cast members, and they started acting like the “drunk coloureds” that we keep being labelled as by members of our government and some other prominent figures. I found this narrative to be over the top and in poor taste. As a Coloured person I have never found our people to all only speak colloquially in a way that sounds like a drunkard, and frankly couldn’t see the purpose of this farce at what was supposed to be a prestigious event.
Many of us do speak slang yes, but so many more of us are also very capable of communicating eloquently in a normal sober tone. We need to destroy the narrative that continues to imply that brown people cannot speak “proper” and respectfully. Believe it or not, many of us still have our own front teeth. I was rolling my eyes for the duration of this introduction, as the cast moved on to a song and dance.
Realising What We Came to See
It was when the host took to the stage and gave us a brief explanation of what was to come that many of us came to the sad realisation that we were not there to see Dr Jonathan Butler perform. Instead we were there to watch others perform his music in his honour and he would be presented with an award at the end of the evening.
I take full responsibility for not reading any fine print when purchasing the tickets but in my defence, who really reads the fine print when purchasing concert tickets? Clearly I wasn’t the only one.
It was a Jonathan Butler tribute show. He was not the main performer nor was he the organiser.
Jonathan Butler was the guest of honour.
Many people, including the lovely ladies sitting next to me left before we even reached the halfway mark of the show; clearly disappointed that they would not get to see the icon perform. We were contemplating leaving as well, but I had this feeling that if I left I would miss out on something important. That feeling turned out to be right in the end.
Throughout the show, none of the artists were announced or introduced. One would have no idea who was on stage, unless you were extremely familiar with the local cover artist scene. One of the artists I knew for sure was the beautiful and talented former idols winner, Sasha-Lee Davids, whom I have seen perform live many times before. I also recognised the lovely Candice Thornton because I have also seen her perform, and of course many of us knew Allou April, but would many of us really recognise him if we walked past him in a Checkers store?
Triggers Without Warnings
The show also featured skits and some historic film footage but one that stood out for me was extremely triggering; a video clip of the Apartheid police chasing and gunning down youth in the height of the resistance. Though we could only see the bottom half of the screen, most of the action was in the bottom half of the video frame. The first thing to trigger me in that clip were the yellow police vans: signature vehicle of the apartheid police. As soon as I saw the vans on screen, I could literally smell teargas and feel my nose and eyes burning to the point where I couldn’t breathe. This was amplified by scenes showing bodies of teenagers lying in the streets and young people crying and running for their lives.
I was a very young child during that time and thus never got directly involved in the protests, but I vividly remember the terror of hiding under my school desk with a wet handkerchief held over my nose, my eyes closed against the burn of teargas. We often had to run from police whether we were involved or not and I remember friends being shot with rubber bullets and buckshot just for being in the vicinity. If this clip triggered me in such a way, can you imagine how triggering it could be for anybody else who lived that experience first-hand?
Yes, the part kids from the Cape Flats played in the anti-Aparteid liberation struggle should never be forgotten, but what made it a terrible experience at this show, was the lack of narration or context.
A Show of Missed Opportunities
The lack of introductions or narrations was in fact a major let-down of the entire show, with Little to no context being provided for anything we were seeing on the screen or on stage.
The entire show was a missed opportunity to educate the audience on the life and music of Jonathan Butler. It was an opportunity to introduce the audience to new talent simply by naming the artists as the came up to perform. The opportunity to demonstrate a proverbial handing over of the baton was squandered in its entirety.
Dr Jonathan Butler deserves so much better than what we got on that night.
They should have introduced him formally at the start of the show. They should have told the story of his life through narration along with photos and video. Sadly, anyone who knew nothing or very little about Jonathan Butler before the show, wouldn’t have known much more about him after it.
Sometime during the show there was a skit where a young man told a story of how Jonathan Butler left the country to follow his dream. The story was told in a crying voice, which frankly makes no sense. This performer was pretending to be sad and crying about his life circumstances while he told the short story of how Jonathan Butler eventually left SA to pursue his music career away from Apartheid.
The little skit left a lot to be desired and came across as a mockery. Why not tell the story of what led to Jonathan Butler emigrating in celebration of how a brown child with talent came to be able to leave the country in those dark days. It lacked intellectual honesty in its perspective.
If we are to give our people hope by telling our stories, then we need to tell the whole truth. We cannot tell half stories. Even now, for the brown child with talent living in dire circumstances it seems impossible to buy a ticket to London or even Los Angeles. So why not tell the audience how it came to be? Clearly, not enough research was done. They should have asked Jonathan Butler’s team for the information. We know it’s not all available on the internet but that is why we do due diligence and gather information from different sources.
Dr Jonathan Butler Rescues the Tribute Show
Dr Jonathan Butler is an icon. He deserves every accolade. He has shown us that despite our circumstances, we can reach for the stars and get there. He has shown us that talent mixed with hard work and determination can take you places. He paved the way for so many.
That being said, in true iconic style and after receiving his award, he saved his own tribute show by doing a brief performance of “Falling in love with Jesus” and “Heal our land” which had the crowd giving him a standing ovation. This is why I am glad I stayed to the end. I love everything about Jonathan Butler. His gracious and humble personality. I love how proudly South African he has always been. How he always comes home and never makes an announcement about it. You will just see him popping up somewhere in the CBD eating a Gatsby or a bunny chow.
How he always remembers his roots. How he always goes back to number 30 7th Avenue to remind himself of where he is from and how far he has come. Despite this underdone tribute show, Jonathan Butler will always come out worthy of our praise and our pride.
All-in-all the show was not a complete disaster, and hopefully the many mistakes made and missed opportunities serve as great learning opportunity for the directors Keegan Williams and Dean Balie, who Dr Jonathan Butler praised for their efforts, along with the rest of the organisers.
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Finally, I say this to anybody out there who is planning a tribute to any musician: Do Better.
And we who believe in our local artists need to continue supporting directors like Keegan Williams and Dean Balie who are stepping up to do big shows like this Jonathan Butler Tribute Show, but, we need to also point out when and where they lack, as that is how they and their industry will grow.
