page 3 - Dubai - Media City (outdoors)- March 3rd



There can't be a city in the world that has been more intesively developed than Dubai. In the past 20 years it's grown from a small trading port at the mouth of a creek to something quite spectacular. The biggest man made harbour, the worlds tallest hotel, the palm! etc. etc. The entrepreneurial talents of it's inhabitants, the vast majority being ex-pats. is self evident. All this and no tax????


Great show outdoors in Dubai. Great crowd. We didn't have time for a sound check and as always, the crew had everything totally together. Pretty amazing being onstage looking out at all the construction cranes in the distance working away all night.


One amazing fact was that the band and crew (21 of us) and all the other passengers flew from Johannesburg on an Airbus A340 together with ten and a half tonnes of our back-line equipment all on the same plane. No wonder it took a while for it to get off the ground.

The Fender Strat on the left was sold at an auction organized by the promoter for 100,000 dirhams (about $30,000). The money will go towards tsunami relief.

The story goes thus...A week or so after the MK shows were confirmed, the tsunami struck. The promoter donated 25 dirhams from every VIP ticket sold plus the proceeds form a guitar donated by Mark. There are talks between the Dubai promoter and the SriLankan govt. to build a shelter and name it after the Dubai show and the person who bought the guitar. The challenge is of course dealing with the level of bureaucracy.

Mark on-stage in Jo'burg. This pic was sent in by Kevin Phillips (not the guy from Southampton F.C.)


Matt and I had a swift 5 minute aqua massage at Johannesburg airport.


Just got up....forgot we were in Dubai, had a shock when I looked out the window this morning, 31 floors up.
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