“At almost the same time, he discovered that the man who brought him up as his son, in Chinhoyi, was not his natural father The two things knocked him sideways I went to see him in the mental hospital in Chinhoyi He said: ‘I cannot deal with this. He gives me details of the singers’ affairs with a number of women. He says that when Biggie left the band, in 1989, his last words were: “I quit Fuck the lot of you.” Kagona agrees that Tembo walked out. Not long afterwards, Muir adds, Biggie attacked him.”He beat the shit out of me. I have pictures.”Tembo, for his part, told Kershaw and others the group had become envious of his individual popularity, and sacked him. Nobody disputes that Tembo could be extremely difficult, or that, subsequent to his departure, he pleaded to rejoin the Bhundu Boys, but was rejected.”Now I don’t know who my enemies are,” Tembo had sung, in an improvised lyric on the second WEA album, Pamberi. I told him that the record company had arranged the car, and if we went by bus we wouldn’t get the money back.

Biggie used to say that we were enjoying too rich a life, while our brothers and sisters were suffering back home in Zimbabwe I understand what he meant But I told him look, enjoy it while you can. Because these things go away, and once they have gone you will never get them back again.”Kagona’s instinct was prophetic.Together, the band, which was registered as a limited company, bought a large house in Kensal Green, north-west London, where they lived for 18 months or so.As the Bhundu Boys’ reputation grew, Tembo’s behaviour, according to Muir, became unpredictable He says Tembo got to thinking he was bigger than the band. One time in New York the limousine arrived and Biggie wouldn’t join us.”"Why not?”"He felt such behaviour was not correct. True Jit, the first of two albums for WEA, introduced an anodyne, westernised sound that horrified some of their core admirers.”We came from a poor background,” says Kagona “We toured the US We met Ray Charles We played Central Park with Eddie Murphy Limousines took us everywhere We rode along with our heads sticking out of the roof.

We were all taking a reasonable salary; about £300 a week.”As is often the case in the music business, it was when the major label became involved that things went badly wrong. Muir’s boldness and initiative as a manager have never been in question. At the time of Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday concert at Wembley in 1988 – a bill with a disappointing ratio of black artists – the Bhundu Boys organised a rival event in Brixton, where Mark Knopfler sportingly appeared as “The Token Honky”.But once at WEA – instead of Roskilly, who had captured their elegant simplicity on their early records – the band hired Robin Millar, the producer of singer Sade. “The deals we got have been unsurpassed by any world music act. WEA must deeply regret that they ever came into contact with us.”"How much did you get?”"From Blue Mountain [the publishing company] about £50,000 to £60,000 in advances. From Warners, about the same.”Income, Muir says, was split equally between himself and each of the band members “There were a lot of expenses,” he says. “We sank large amounts into purchasing a PA and studio equipment.

The tracks they have recorded are, in Muir’s words, “basically grooves”. Sung in English, not Shona, they are some way removed from the sound that established the band’s reputation.Muir, a slim, intensely-focussed, grey-haired man of 44, recalls how he and Doug Veitch took a battered van to meet the band when they landed in London in May 1986.”Doug had no soles on his shoes,” says Kagona. “We thought they must be henchmen for the people with money.” He was mistaken.The group arrived with no instruments.”They were determined to acquire their own gear,” Muir says “With the monies per gig, this was not realisable. I got into a hire purchase agreement.”For a year, the Bhundu Boys lived with the Scotsman and his partner Anne in Hawick. After overseeing the band’s success with Shabini and Tsvimbodzemoto, their first two albums on Discafrique, Muir brokered the deal with WEA.”That is one thing I will blow my own trumpet on,” he says. I have to play.”A few years ago, he invested his savings into a farm outside Harare.”When I arrived there with some relatives, a gang of youths – those who call themselves ‘comrades’ – were waiting They said: ‘Show us your Zanu PF Cards.’ We didn’t have any We showed them the deeds.