Goodbye Dubai

  Monday 23rd October

   Five days after the last British date, I drove to Heathrow to stay the night at the airport before our lunchtime flight to Dubai. After the seven hour Qantas flight that passed us through a quick afternoon and evening, we arrived close to midnight into the heat of the emirate. It didn't start well for me.

  Upon arrival at the hotel, my main bag was not in the back of any of our ground transportation vehicles. It turned out that I had not put it behind the vehicle and had taken a very cavalier attitude to the loading of said luggage. It had disappeared. I went back the airport the following morning to have a search for it and check with left or lost luggage, etc. I was dropped off by taxi at the wrong terminal and took a train to the correct one.

No sign at all.

  At the very end of that day, our tour manager had a call from a hotel the other side of Dubai. He asked if a black Patagonia bag was anything to do with our party, having seen the number on the tag. YES. The bag arrived just after midnight.

  In the intense afternoon heat of the 26th of October we did a sound check at the Irish Village outdoor gig. We had played the venue before and the procedure was not a surprise to us. Opening the show was the lovely Heather Small from the band M People followed by the guys from Aswad. We closed the show.

   Right from the top of our set, cameras were raised high and photographing and filming ensued. This was over the top, as the usual notices were posted to please respect the band’s wishes for no photos or filming. The security did nothing at all to make it obvious that this was disrespectful. Some audience members even tried to help us by telling the more persistent offenders to stop. There is no doubt that there were some people who enjoyed annoying us. Then, even though it's a Muslim country, Chrissie let the persistence have it with both barrels, but it did no good. We did our best for just over an hour and then the organisers were going to drag us off. James held them off for a few seconds, then Chrissie walked off and we followed her. 

  I said 'Well done' to Chrissie, and a man not far from me gave me some grief. At first I ignored him. The situation was tense to say the least. I didn't know the man hurling abuse was the license holder for the gig!  

He followed me for some yards away from the stage with security guards flanking him. I didn't know who he was, and then he crossed the line and called me something I didn't like. I immediately spun round and lunged towards him. I couldn't work out why nobody was stopping him. By now our tour manager had stopped me from moving as the guy continued to abuse me. I wanted his name but wasn't clued in to the fact that our tour manager had tried to keep him sweet for the last 45 minutes. The license holder had done nothing to help the situation. A person in that position should have tried to do something constructive during the show, rather than behave like a stupid youth at the end of it. Now he was pushing towards me and goading me to be as stupid as he was and calling me more names.

  Pope Francis was reported recently as being critical of a mobile phone being held aloft at a mass in St. Peter's Square in Rome. The whole point is lift up your hearts, not your phones.

 In our musical performance, each show is unique. I certainly don't play each show the same. So, be there if you can and partake of the evening. Be a part of each song’s creation on the night. Spot the mistakes!

 After the show we had a long chat about it, but my main concern was getting out of the country. What would happen at the airport, etc.

The following day we uneventfully boarded the Qantas flight to Perth at 10am arriving in Perth WA in the early hours of the following day. An eleven hour flight.

 Another odd thing happened in Perth a few days later…

 M.D.C.