It's Only Rock n Roll with hosts Phil Blizzard & Russell Mason
"It's Only Rock and Roll" goes beyond the spotlight to reveal the fascinating stories of the unsung heroes who made rock's greatest moments possible. From groundbreaking concerts like Pink Floyd in Moscow during Glasnost to Wham performing at the Great Wall of China, this podcast captures a special time in music history through authentic, unfiltered conversations.
Co-hosts Russell Mason and Phil Blizzard bring complementary perspectives – Russell from his years touring and promoting, Phil from interviewing countless music legends throughout his broadcasting career. Together, they're creating a relaxed, nostalgic journey through an industry populated by unforgettable characters (many known only by their colorful nicknames).
Future episodes will feature tour managers, production crews, artist managers, record producers, and the legendary "liggers" (backstage gate-crashers) who defined an era. These are the people who witnessed it all – the near-disasters averted, the bizarre requests fulfilled, and the moments of brilliance that audiences never saw.
It's Only Rock n Roll with hosts Phil Blizzard & Russell Mason
Desert Rats Of Rock And Roll - Dubai, Abu Dhabi and across the Gulf - Pt 1
In this, the first of two parts, we trace how a small team of promoters and techs hauled second-hand gear, charmed airlines, and built a live music circuit across the Gulf in the 80s. Stories of burning dimmers, poolside plotting, cultural shows in ballrooms,
A concert scene doesn’t just appear; someone has to drag it across borders, bolt it together in the heat, and pray the dimmers don’t catch fire. We look back at how a handful of stubborn promoters and techs built a touring circuit across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Al Ain, Bahrain and Kuwait in the 1980s, bringing Tina Turner, Duran Duran, Meat Loaf, UB40 and more to a region with almost no infrastructure.
Russell is joined by lighting mastermind Graham Trudgeon and sound engineer Kevin Winder to unpack the grind behind the glamour. The stories are vivid: second-hand Tasco and Brit Row rigs arriving as “excess baggage,” lighting plans sketched from the swimming pool because the stage sat at the deep end, and follow spots that fought back with live shocks. There’s the Hyatt Ballroom turned into a three-hour Meat Loaf marathon with a smart blackout to dodge a kiss, UB40 dressing room brawls that vanished by breakfast, and Chris Rea touring with a plumber’s bag while borrowing socks from the crew.
Beyond rock, the team staged cultural shows that made improbable sense: Bolshoi stars on the beach with scene changes in the wind, Swan Lake in tracksuit bottoms for Kuwait’s conservative venues, and Cossack dancers leaping off stages that were a size too small. Local heroes like Sharif, the James Brown lookalike truck driver, powered the whole effort—hauling gear up mountains, surviving electrified follow spots, and delivering hot food to remote plateaus. Promoters and hotel GMs covered pools to build stages, charmed airlines for baggage, and kept audiences coming back for more, night after night.
It’s a portrait of resilience, ingenuity and mischief that laid the foundations for today’s polished Gulf live industry—air‑conditioned warehouses, reliable rigs, and arena-level shows. If you love live music, touring history, or stories of impossible projects pulled off with tape and nerve, this one hits hard. Enjoy the ride, then subscribe, rate and share so more people can discover the desert rats who made the music happen.
It's Only Rock and Roll is a Phil Blizzard Radio Production - for your production email philblizzardmedia@gmail.com
Welcome to the latest podcast. Now I've got my I'm a bit puzzled actually because Russell the guy behind this and the next one, the final one for the season, or the ultimate one for the season, is going to be about the desert rats. So I thought, what are we doing? We're doing a military historical, or is it going to be a national drug fee style look at vermin in the desert? And I've read that it's got it totally wrong. So Russ, what's this all about?
SPEAKER_00:Well, this one is uh I named it the Desert Rats, but the Desert Rats of Rock and Roll. The Desert Rats who bought rock and roll to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Alain, uh, Bahrain, all over all over the Arabian Gulf back in the 80s. And for those expats who listen on our podcast, it certainly wasn't like it is now. None of the luxuries, none of the equipment, and uh very boldly uh these guys who are on today were very much involved in in uh trying to patch up and make sound good for some very uh big uh prestigious artists at that time, I must say. But uh without further ado, um I have to set the scene. It does take a bit of time, so bear with with us. Um going back to the beginning of the 80s, uh, a promoter who we've already spoken about in previous podcasts, Brian Miller, who worked with Yatsik Slotala to take Pink Floyd and other bands to to uh Russia and and other places in the uh Eastern Bloc at that time, uh, decided in his wisdom to start looking at providing for cash-rich expats uh in the Gulf region, um, artists of the day. And um he teamed up with a cheeky chappy uh ex uh British Airways uh station manager from Bahrain, a guy called Simon Wharton, and the International Leisure and Arts was born, and uh they decided to bring artists, and one of the first artists that they they they they wanted to bring was Tina Turner, and Tina Turner uh had split from Ike, if you know your rock and roll history, and it was uh it was quite uh early stages of of uh of uh her relaunching her solo career, um, and others as well. But the main problem, the main challenge was to bring these artists to which is basically a desert with a few nice hotels and and lots of uh uh uh cash-rich, like I said, expats. Um one of the biggest challenges was equipment. And uh these artists were used to uh playing and performing to good sound and light, and there just was nothing like that in uh the the Gulf region. So they had to set about uh purchasing uh a lighting rig and a sound rig, which uh Brian went to a few old friends at Tasco, I think, uh and maybe Graham later on will correct me, uh, and got a sound rig together, an old Martin rig, which has already seen a lot of mileage, that's for sure. Uh the old Martin bass bins and filiches, and you know, brought that uh tried to bring that out to the Gulf, and a Selco system from SuperMic, um, the famous lighting uh company at that time, run by an Irish gentleman who uh a guy called Peter Clark. Um, but the biggest challenge then was, and this is where Simon Wharton from British Airways came in, how are we gonna get this in? How are we gonna get this into uh you know the Gulf? And half of it was shipped in with favours, and half of it was brought by excess baggage, which believe it or not, um, which just is unheard of nowadays. So this sort of sets the scene a bit of what they were trying to do. And like I say, some of the early artists, uh Tina Turner, um later on Eddie Grant and people like that, Leo Sayer, who you know, for the expats who are working in the oil fields, this was like amazing for them to be able to see these artists firsthand. Um, so that's it. So today, what I've done is I've invited some old colleagues of mine. I work with them. I was the promoter's rep for uh uh Mr. Uh Walton and Mr. Miller, um, and uh doing production, um promoters repping, and uh a bit of stage management as well, if you like, and tour management of these bands. So a bit of a bit of everything, but I came in a little bit later. There were a few predecessors before me. Um, I probably came in the mid-80s, uh, and I've invited Graham Trudgeon, who was a mastermind at lighting, uh, and uh Kevin Winder, old friends of mine who are Kevin who did sound. So without further ado, uh Phil, over to you, mate. I know that's a very long introduction, it's the mother of all introductions, um, but here we go, we're away.
SPEAKER_02:There we talk about long introductions, yes. One of the longest we've had on our podcast series, and probably in the history of podcasts. So there we go. That was a great introduction. I'm sorry guys, but we've run out of time now, so uh we'll see you in some other time. See you later. Okay, okay, right, so a great introduction there, and how that landscape has changed from the uh city side, the metropolises, and also on the technical side equipment. So so Graham, let's start with you. I mean, how did you get involved without being out in the desert and uh sort of doing shows with what seemed like very basic setups at that time?
SPEAKER_03:Well, to start off with, um I I knew a guy called Colin Hanna, who was actually tour managing at the the very start of of my start, and he contacted me one day and said, Would I be interested in uh doing some lighting? To start off with, it was supposed to be in South Africa, you know, the uh the church. But um that soon changed and he be he got put me on to uh coming out into the Middle East, which at the time I was DJing and uh discoing and what have you, and so well yeah, why not? So that's how it all began, really and truly. I just sort of fell into something that I never knew anything about, but decided that why not? We'll give it a go.
SPEAKER_02:We're gonna find out more about that journey from South Africa to the desert in a moment or so. But let's let's get uh Kevin's take. How did he get involved with the bunch of desert rats? I want to know.
SPEAKER_04:I met uh Russell in Sun City when I was working there, and we became friends. And he said, When you come over, uh I'll I'll give you some work. And I came over in '88 to the UK, and within a month I was um Graham's lackey on the lighting for faking Stevens. Gosh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that was I must I must interject there, Kevin. Uh the real story is that you were doing monitors for status quo at the Super Bowl um in uh in South Africa, and uh I took pity on you because the band used to wind you up and they used to call during Phil, during the the gig, you know, you got a Super Bowl full of fans, they're playing, you know, uh famous status quo songs, and they're like going, you know, like this to Kev. And he comes running along. You've seen it a million times, the roadies, you know, they try and uh do it as as discreetly as possible, but everybody can see them, even though they're crouching going. And then uh uh Mick Rossi would go, um uh or or I'm sorry, Rick Parfitt would go, and you go, What what do you want? He'd go, fuck off, and he and then so Kevin would go back again, and and and then then Rossi would call him and he'd come running out and he'd go, Yeah, yeah, yeah, what's the problem? He'd go, fuck off. And he kept running back. They do this like all through the show. I don't know if you remember anyway. I can imagine them singing down, down, down, Kevin, down, down, down here. But it was so funny because Kev was like keen, you know, and professional. It was like he he had his eye on the band, and they they you know, something was wrong with the monitors, but no, they were just playing games with him. So anyway, we we did become fair friends and um and and and I invited him out. Anyway, sorry, Kev, carry on, buddy.
SPEAKER_02:That sounds a good laugh. So uh back to uh the desert and the uh the kit, the equipment. Uh what did you start off with, Kevin? I mean, was it top-notch stuff or what?
SPEAKER_04:No, actually, it was the it was Brit Row, um, Russell. Brit Row, yes, they got up from Brit Row, and it was the Pink Floyd quad gig. All the quad equipment. Um, so it was one of the desks and one of the PAs that they brought out there. So it was part of the a tour that Pink Floyd had done, and then they sold off all their stuff because they were going on to new gear. So it was it was it wasn't bad. That's pretty impressive, yeah. Quad setup, yeah, yeah. We had to keep it running, you know, we had to tweak and and fix it all the time. But yeah, it wasn't it wasn't bad equipment at all. Yeah, a lot of band-aids, I think.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean a mart system when it when it's cooking, it really sounds sweet. The only thing is I couldn't say the same about the lighting because when it was when Graham's lighting was cooking, it usually meant that uh one of the dimmer racks had caught fire during the show.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, but regular. We had good engineers coming out with the bands as well, so uh they knew how to make a system sound good, so it worked and it and it was yeah, it was a good good system. And Murray, the guy before me, who I took over from on the sound system, he had umpteen problems and used to bitch about it all the time. And uh I was more chilled.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Murray, when I first met Murray, uh because I came uh Colin Hanna was before me, and I think even Phil Bowdrieu was before Colin Hannah, and maybe another one before that, which I'll talk about about a bit later. Um, but um when I came, I came a week after you Kevin wasn't involved then. It was you and Murray, and you were in the warehouse in in Burdeaby, uh hot and sweaty, horrible, dusty place. Uh sorry, I don't want to give you too much uh flashback there, Graham. But I just remember coming and I I I would describe Murray, bless him. He just he'd really, really just had enough of this rig. And he sounded like, I don't know if you ever watched The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, he sounded like the manic depressive computer, you know. He was like, Oh no, this is like he just really, really had enough of it. And I said to Simon, you really need to get this these guys some help, you know. They're they're really doing their best to patch up, you know, the uh the best of a bad job. It was it was difficult, wasn't it? You know, bringing always bringing parts and and that, but uh that was my first memory. I met you and and Murray in in that warehouse where you were trying to prep the gig. I don't know what gig it was, maybe it was shaking steelens or something. I don't know.
SPEAKER_03:But um, I can't remember the gig, but yeah, it it was always fairly stressful in the warehouse because there was nothing there apart from sand.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly.
SPEAKER_03:Corrugated corrugated asbestos or whatever it was, and dust, lots of dust.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, Graham, Graham, what were the biggest challenges for you on the lighting side and the lighting rig and kit?
SPEAKER_03:Keeping it alive, really.
SPEAKER_02:Alive, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it would die, death at an instant. They especially the dimmer packs, the dimmer packs just didn't like hot dust, sand. Sure. Sand and electricity doesn't really go well together.
SPEAKER_02:It's a bit like electricity and water, but there's a different dimension, I suppose.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:When Kev first set came, he thought he thought it was it was break time and it was a bry, but it wasn't, it was your rack, it was your racks on fire, and we all are so used to it, we were like, Oh no, it's just it's uh Graham was sorted out, they they catch fire all the time, don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we just take one out of the system, yeah. Yeah, we did that with the gypsy kings.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, as you can see, Graham is a very calm and cool guy, which is exactly what was needed for that time and those challenges, uh Phil. And how would you describe Kevin? Is he the opposite or what? Oh, oh, Kevin used to uh Kevin always used to throw his arms in the air and and say it as it is, but uh in the end, his passion his passion for getting the show on the road was uh I have to commend him for that.
SPEAKER_02:Uh Kevin, what is perhaps some of the fondest memories you have of uh life in the desert rats and the shows you put on?
SPEAKER_04:Well, well, it's some of the artists. I mean, we worked with some of the best artists in the world at the time, um, and some of the oldest, you know, the old 60s and 70s crowd that uh and that that was fun. But I I what uh Graham was saying earlier about his his uh Dimeracks getting frying, getting fried in that. My um sound modules used to get fried as well, and I remember that the two of us used to take stuff back to the UK to get it fixed in our hand luggage and back out to to the uh to the Middle East on the next tour, you know. So we'd we'd be fidden with all this stuff, and uh because Simon didn't want to pay anything, you know, excess baggage and all that sort of stuff, so we had to fit it into our luggage. So you remember that, Graham.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I was gonna say, did didn't we take a monitor desk back once?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and and uh truss, truss, we took some truss excess baggage, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Simon, Simon, who we will talk more about Simon, because Simon, looking back, even though for me working for Simon quite openly, the most uh funny, irritating uh wind-up merchant you'll ever work with, but at the end of the day, he did have a passion for it, and but he he had the gift of the gab. How he pulled it off with with golf air, which you're which you you've got behind, which is great you've got that up. Uh, because we we went everywhere on golf air and we abused that airline. We we we had these these excess baggage vouchers, if you remember. We knew all the people at the airports in those days. It was like a family, it was nothing like it is now. Um metropolis. We knew everybody, we could swing anything, and taking a blooming half a lighting rig and trussing on a plane, excess baggage, is is you just never do it nowadays, it's madness, especially somewhere like Q8.
SPEAKER_03:We went into Q8 several times.
SPEAKER_00:Oh gosh, yeah, because they had nothing there. They if you thought our equipment was bad in the Emirates, and I mean, once you got to uh Q8 and oh dear oh dear, and Doha, even the because there was only the Sheraton in Doha then, if you remember. Sheraton was built in 1985, four or five, I think. Um, and we all started doing shows there in 1987 or eight or something like that. But the equipment it was awful, wasn't it? And you had the glass, yeah, you had to sort of like stick your head out there. Am I right in remembering that?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we had simpler shows there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because oh, yeah, we used to do cultural shows, yeah. It's important to say, Phil, that um yeah, we did a lot of rock and roll, and these guys brought rock and roll to the desert, but we also did um cultural things like the Bols Stars of the Bolshoi Ballet on the beach, which you know the ballet okay, but on the beach, and then we do the ballet in the Hyatt Ballroom, and they had a big, big uh chandelier, and the dancers used to have to have to carry the the girls round the chandelier, otherwise they'd butt their head. It was such a low ceiling. Oh, crazy and comedians and uh you know the the Cossack dancers also memorably the Cossack dancers. If you remember, Kev, I've I've seen a picture. We are going to show some of these pictures at the end of the the podcast.
SPEAKER_02:But but talking about the ballet, you didn't have the orchestra because the costs involved would have been really really prohibitive. But you had tapes, and wasn't there a story where the tapes were going faster and slower at one event? Probably.
SPEAKER_04:Very possible. It was during Murray's time though.
SPEAKER_00:It um it was a challenge. The Cossacks, if you remember, maybe do you remember the you know I've got pictures with you with the Cossacks? The Cossacks where the guy was was spinning and spinning it, and the stage was so small in the height regency, he flew off the back.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it was the red army choir and dance ensemble. That's the one that's there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, do you remember that, Graham? The guy flew off the back and it's like, oh shit, we've lost one.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I thought I'd lost my curtain in the back. He gone off the back of the stage.
SPEAKER_04:I remember that with Dr. Alban in um in Lebanon. I did uh I don't know if you remember Russell.
SPEAKER_00:I took I sent you on a on a yeah, and um there was a war going on, it just finished.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well, it was uh missiles, but um this is a job for care. Yeah, but um the the guitarist for Dr. Alban was jumping up and down on the stage and it gave way. It was on a radio guitar, so he he just carried on below up the stairs and back onto the stage again. It was incredible what he did.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that was so funny.
SPEAKER_02:That was a big hit, was it? It's my life, Dr. Albin. Yep, carried on, it's my life, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, so um just to sorry, Phil, just to back a bit, I just want to quickly run through some of the artists for our viewers and listeners. I mean, okay, Tina Turner, Gloria Gaynor. Some of you guys maybe maybe you guys weren't on all of this, but Tina Turner, Gloria Gaynor, uh Hot Chocolate, Demis Russos, Eddie Grant, The Wailers, Um, Shaking Stephen, Status Quo, Cliff Richard, Cool and the Gang, uh, Maxi Priest, Chris Rea, Randy Crawford, Duran Duran, Imagination, UB40, Aswad Meatloaf, Paul Young, Mungo Jerry uh in the summertime, Samantha Fox, Latoya Jackson, Danny Minogue, Swinging Blues, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, and many, many more. There were many. Ryan Adams, Brian Adams. Brian Adams.
SPEAKER_04:One of our biggest.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, it was just crazy. Some of the um, and at that time, uh, maybe not such big acts now, but they really were big current acts. I mean, when Chris Rear turned up, as I mentioned on another podcast, which was hilarious, um, I met him at Abu Dhabi Airport. He'd come in on his own, the band were already there in Dubai, and um, I went through to the baggage carousel, which you could never do now, but because I knew everybody, they let me in. And I was like, Oh right, Chris. And he had this little plumber's bag with him. And I said, Oh, have you lost your baggage? He said, No, this is my baggage. And for the rest of the tour, I was lending him clothes, and there is a there is a side stack to that graham because on your thing, and I wanted to ask you, your signed picture says, Thanks for the socks or thing. Did you lend him socks?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, the guy all he was worried about, as I mentioned in a previous podcast, was he didn't have any clothes, so we were let the crew were lending him clothes, and he wanted a bacon sandwich and a pint of bitter, which was really hard to get in those in the in a Muslim country, as I mentioned before. But I saw on your your thing, he said thanks for the socks. I was thinking, I bet he had socks off of Graham as well. Yeah, he's good old Chris Rio, eh? And he had a big at that time, he had uh Road to Hell. It was a massive hit in World War Down to Earth, great guy from Middlesbrough.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, here we go.
SPEAKER_00:We're at that point, Phil, where I totally lost my way. Um, it's back up to yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, talking about those big names, massive names, of course, and uh, I mean, who was responsible for doing the bookings?
SPEAKER_00:Ah, well, that was uh combination of uh of Brian. Brian really was uh, and at this stage, Brian was taking more of a back seat, and eventually they did split. And um Simon pulled the short straw because he he he got me to go with him as well. Um at uh at the beginning I worked for both of them, so that's why I went to Pink Floyd in Russia because I I worked for both of them, but um yeah, he uh yes uh Brian would would come up with all these artists and and quite often link them up with things he was doing, and then Simon uh would then uh get to know some of the agents and uh and and you know he he'd do it directly. Uh in the end, of course he did it directly because they they they they parted ways and ILA just ended up solely in the in the in the Gulf.
SPEAKER_02:You mentioned Chris Rear with his request for bacon and beer in a Muslim country. Now there's a few other things which went on, I understand, which were just a bit bizarre, and people got away with doing these things in in a Muslim country. What's this one about speedo trunks, Graham? I think your fondness is fondness for the famous sun. Uh what do you think? Sunlight. You love the heat, apparently, so you went around what with trunks on or what?
SPEAKER_03:I used to rig rig in it with my trunks on, yeah. But I used to go in uh in for dining uh with a set of overalls that I got from Yeoman, which I don't know if you can see this or not, but basically they don't get they don't get used, but um you've got the budgie smugglers. What about yeah, what about the speedoes? Those disintegrated a long time ago. Yeah, Kevin died of death.
SPEAKER_00:Kevin calls them budgie smugglers, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Set the scene there you are in your red speedoes, up a lighting rig, what 20-30 feet above the stage in your trunks.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, bizarre. We used to plan all the um all the lighting rig from the swimming pool because nine times out of ten the stage was at the end of the swimming pool, so we used to just climb in the swimming pool and plan out where we were going to point stuff with the the LDs that used to come in with the artists, so they we would just get in the pool because it was so hot during the day.
SPEAKER_00:Graham, I think, really it was brutal. The heat you I mean, you I remember you worked, you guys. We just worked through the day. You just went through the day.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know how you I mean looking back, water a lot of tea, a lot of tea. Oh, yeah, you drank tea and and a break between I think it was 12 and 2, wasn't it? Yeah, something like that. We used to have lunch about that time, didn't we?
SPEAKER_03:Just getting the sun, really.
SPEAKER_00:But amazing. I mean, now I look back. I I mean, respect to you guys. It was it was hard work. I mean, I I remember, I don't know if you can relate to this. I mean, I was doing three jobs. I was promoters rep, production, and um a bit of stage managing, and so maybe four, and and tour managing, looking after the band and stuff like that. But I remember with late finishes and early starts that we had where we'd have to get on a plane and go to another country around the Gulf. I know they're only an hour, but you know, the whole thing of getting a whole band who predominantly, you know, not the brightest sometimes, you're asking stupid questions, wanting stupid requests, and you've got to get them on at seven o'clock in the morning for to get to the next thing and blah, blah, blah. And I remember very clearly, and I was probably only about 28 years old when I was thinking this, standing in a shower with my hands on the wall in the morning at like about six in the morning. I'd only been to bed about two o'clock, thinking, I'm not sure I can do this any longer. I don't know if you had ever had any moments like that.
SPEAKER_03:I'm sure you did, but usually climbing up the truss, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I love it. Yeah, they're usually cut, yeah, boiling hot truss, yeah, at 11 o'clock.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, because it you could only focus at night, so basically you'd you'd have to climb it at a at about sort of eight, nine o'clock at night, so you're ready for the show the following day. So it was amazing.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, people like I mean, I know a lot of people now who and I'll I'll I'll put a shout out to a few people. Rob Storm's still in the in the Gulf. Um, you remember Rob? Yeah, yeah, uh and uh um James Goodall, who's a mate of mine, and he's a bit of a rock and roller, and he he watches the podcast. Hi, hi James. Um, and they wouldn't believe the conditions then to what it is now, and they probably complain about it now, but I mean it is incredible Dubai, Abu Dhabi, uh Doha.
SPEAKER_04:Sorry, they have air-conditioned warehouses.
SPEAKER_03:They have air conditioned warehouses when we open the doors, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and and they don't flood, they don't flood flood when it rains.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Now, what about other team members? I mean, uh, you must have had quite a support organization, and uh, I'm sure there would have been a few characters there. Wasn't there a uh sort of very charismatic uh truck driver called uh what's his name? Sharif Sharif.
SPEAKER_04:Sharif James Brown of the Middle East. Yeah, that's right. He was he literally looked like James Brown.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, he was, and at the end of this podcast, we will show a picture of Sharif, and he is the spitting image of James Brown. And if he could have sung, we could have really well. Simon would have definitely marketed him and Brian, because they would you know we were doing the bootleg Beatles by that time. I reckon they could have done a bootleg uh bootleg James Brown with old Sharif the truck driver. Yeah, who's quality?
SPEAKER_02:I remember him from one occasion. I think you guys were having a break, and Russell, you organized a little camping expedition up into the Hajar Mountains very high up above Russell Kmer, and uh we were pitched on this rocky uh plateau terrace, and you said, Oh, we got food coming soon, and then you said the catering team will be coming along, and up the uh off tarmac track, and it was just bumpy stones for mile after mile. This white pickup truck came along, and it was driven by sharif, and in the back, there was all these great big urns that it was like rice in one, curry in another, and that was only driven miles and miles outside catering film outside catering, yeah, and it was still piping hot. I mean, it's not surprising when temperatures at 40 45 degrees, but he brought the food up to this plateau, top of a mountain, four or five thousand feet up. Good old Sharif.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, uh while we're on the subject of Sharif, and I will share a story with you two guys that you may or may not remember. Now, Sharif, I've I just thought he was such an important part of our team. He got us out of so many scrapes, and I just felt we weren't really looking after him as well as we should, and I never really understood why he didn't have a hotel room, you know. I was like, well, he sleeps in his truck, and I was thinking, yeah, but he's a bit to us, he's a bit more than that. So anyway, there wasn't a there was never a hotel room for him. He always slept in his truck, but so one night, and I remember suggesting this at uh at one meal, we were all sitting together, and I remember everybody looking at each other a bit, and I it was a bit uncharacteristic and as if you were hiding something from me. Anyway, so that night I invited Sharif. I had two single beds in my room, and I said, come you know, share the room with me, Sharif mate. You know, no problem. Anyway, I discovered why you were hiding this from me. This guy to this day, and I'm 65 years old, I've never heard anyone snore so loud continuously through the whole of the night. And I was propping him up with pillows, and you know, and it I just and I'll get him to a stage where he and uh at about four o'clock in the morning, I got him just about right where he wasn't snoring, and all of a sudden, the next room to me, two Egyptians big who I'd seen go in their room earlier, big fat Egyptians, they were at it, they were having a good go, husband and wife, and it was literally vibrating the wall. And so I got Sharif sorted out, but then I I was my head ball was was you know, it it we you couldn't make it up. And in the morning, I remember coming to breakfast and I was all and I remember telling whoever it was, and they were just pissing themselves laughing because they knew they knew that the that Sharif definitely had uh a snore problem. Bless him. But indulge me for one more Sharif story, and I'm sure you've all got them. Samantha Fox in the garden at Alain Hilton, yes. And Samantha Fox play playing singing to backing tracks. I mean, it was it was such a such a such a cop-out, but it was the best-selling show I think Simon ever had. It was probably was anyway, and we had Sharif on we had Sharif on Follow Spot and uh in true form of our equipment, a bit faulty. Anyway, it was like a bloody air raid. So I come round to Sharif, I say, Sharif, and it's all the noise of the concert and everyone going mad. I said, Sharif, and he's up on a up on a riser, and it's like shaking, and he's like he can't keep it, he can't keep it steady. And I was like really bollocking him. I say, Sharif, you No, for goodness sake, keep it straight. And he was like mumbling something to me and he was like holding on for dear life. Anyway, I realized later that he was actually being electrocuted. But he wouldn't leave it. He wouldn't leave it. He was so dedicated. And I felt so bad. I gave him such a bollockin, and but he wouldn't leave it, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think I think he actually had a headset on at the time and he was shout shouting hot, hot, it's hot. Said his no, it's hot. And he got his shirt out and was actually holding the handle.
SPEAKER_02:That's right, yeah. As if that would help. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I did a triple to Muscat. Huh? Do you remember that, Russell? I we we had an Indian show in um Muscat. And I don't think Simon wanted to pay flights for me. So I hopped in the truck with Sharif.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you've sent me a picture of you in the truck.
SPEAKER_04:And that's me in the truck when we're going through the desert, and it is hot as hell. And Sharif is like playing his Indian music at full glass. And then we had a we had a laugh. It was a good Graham.
SPEAKER_00:Have you ever seen The Life of Brian? The film?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, you know where Brian jumps in in the pit, and there's the guy who's had a vow of silence.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Jumps on his toe and then he starts talking. That guy with his that's what Kevin used to look like. He used to go native. Do you remember? I mean, you were in your speech. And he used to wear like a turban thing with his shirt and all that. But he used to he always used to remind me of that some of the guys in the life of Brian. And I've got a picture of you on Muscat Beach. Um, you know, and and and and in my scrapbook, I've got um day day out a re rehabilitation day out at the Maudsley Hospital, you know, for the for the mentally insane. But um, yeah, those are great days.
SPEAKER_02:I embrace the culture. What a bunch of characters, and I you know, there must have been quite a few others as well who are lodged in your memories of uh days in the desert. So uh Russ, remind us of some of the ones you came across.
SPEAKER_00:Well, maybe I'll just throw a few names out of uh Graham and Kev. And uh Chris Davis, GM of the Marina Club. Uh a man who was lovely, he was the one with the red button. But he did have a little bit of a drink uh issue, yeah. Just a little and uh the more the day went on, the more belligerent he became. So you always if you wanted something, you always got it before he started hitting hitting the source. But anyway, you I don't know if you remember him. He was the only one more pissed than the UB40 guy.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, UB40.
SPEAKER_00:I'll talk about UB40 in a minute. Yeah, that's also another one. Um, so bless him, good old. But he was a great promoter, great promoter, always full, covered his swimming pool. The members loved him. Um, always a great show there.
SPEAKER_04:Um, he always made money.
SPEAKER_00:I remember that. He always made yeah, he yeah, but it was a big what big wind up merchant. Um, the other one was, of course, the famous Tolly Papiani. Alpha Large M of the Alpha Large Hotel, a little shithole hotel, um, none of the grandeur, had a swimming pool, used to cover it, and always used to steal all the best shows. And um, Simon and him had this love-hate relationship, and eventually, eventually became the Greek consul. He was a Greek guy, and he became the Greek consulate. And the last I heard of him, he'd run away with some shake two million dollars to send to South Africa. Might bump into him, Graham.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but what he actually uh he drained a swimming pool twice as well, didn't he? So they they could go down under the hunters went down stage. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:He did UB40 there.
SPEAKER_03:That's right. Yeah, I remember Meatloaf there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, meatloaf, yeah. Played for three hours, but I would turn the place upside down. But he was what a spots used to be on great promoters.
SPEAKER_03:Sorry, follow spots used to be on top of the truck. You park the truck at the end of the on the drive close to the wall, yeah. Yeah, and we used to put the follow spots up on there, down to the stage.
SPEAKER_00:Picking up, and if you think the emirates is hot, if you think the emirates is hot, muscat was the hottest, I think.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, it's a different heat as well, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it used to come off the mountains there very close. Yeah. Um uh who else? Gerald Lawless, maybe great, but maybe not you, Kevin, but Kevin. Uh Gerald Lawless, the Irish goes at many hotel many hotels. He was a good fan of our shows.
SPEAKER_02:And then bit Russ, Gerald Lawless deserves a bit of a mention. I mean, started off with Forte Hotels, Forte Hotels, uh set up Jameer, Jameer Group for Sheikh Mohammed, still on the scene as an advisor with so many global organizations like the World Travel Organization, and so many still active, very active. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I I remember he gave us uh free membership to the Colton in um uh which is uh quite near our office in Knightsbridge. And I remember going with Simon one day, and there was um Anthony Hopkins on the running machine. Really?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Who was not a very big actor then, but he was well known. Um, the last one, there were many, but the last one was Imad Ilias. If you remember, Il Imad Ilias was a very young GM. He was probably in his only in his early, very early, maybe only 31, when he was the GM of the Alain Hilton. It was a 52-bed hotel. It's where we did sandbox. He was very ambitious. We did the ballet there and everything. And I remember sleeping on his couch in his apartment because he'd over he didn't have enough rooms. And I mean, he was a character, and he ended up um running the uh Abdhabi Hilton where we did some great we did Gypsy Kings, which we haven't mentioned. We did uh the stars of the Bolshoi Ballet on the beach with scene changes. What were we thinking? I'm surprised we didn't sail off to Iran. Oh yeah, can you imagine that? Well they what were we thinking to do those shows on the beach?
SPEAKER_03:Is that the one where we put a rope across this the set because it was blowing off like a sail?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, there's there's a yeah we did um duran during there as well. That's right, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And Metropolitan Dubai we did that was literally the next night.
SPEAKER_04:We loaded out of Dubai and straight into Abidabi.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we used to used to drive overnight, and we used to travel overnight, sleep for for about an hour in the hotel we've setting up in and then go out and set up.
SPEAKER_00:I mean it's amazing, isn't it? All these lovely hotels. Well, not the Alpha Laj Hotel, but uh or the Metropole. But there, I mean, there were some quite nice hotels even then, the Alba Stan and all that. We never got a chance to really enjoy them because you maybe only spent two hours in the bed. Yeah, but uh there you go. Um, I must just mention, guys, uh we just touched on it, but we used to do a lot of cultural shows in um in Kuwait at the old and loose theatre, if you remember. Yep and the equipment. Uh there's some pictures you sent me, Graeme, of the equipment. My goodness.
SPEAKER_03:Is that what we got it from the music stores across the road? Yeah, didn't we do a band or something? And got me the equipment for a band.
SPEAKER_00:I'll tell you what we did do. I'll tell you what we did do. Pavlova who was one of the one of the richest, uh one of not the richest, one of the most famous Russian dancers, Pavlova in the Bolshoi Ballet, and we had to have them all dancing in tracksuit bottoms because it was so conservative. I mean, imagine going to the ballet and watching Swan Lake, and they're all wearing tracksuit bottoms. Uh, do you remember the promoter?
SPEAKER_03:No, vaguely, didn't really get involved.
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna remind you of the promoter. There's a little bit of a walk down memory lane, guys. A guy called Anankopadia, Indian guy from Gujarat, lovely guy. Um, and he was our local promoter there. And um I have a very quick story, Phil. Sorry, mate, but the Gulf War, the first Gulf War, um, Anankopadia. I I we heard that the the Iraqis had invaded Q8, and so I rang Anankhapadia and the lines were still open, you know. So I rang him from the office. I said, Anand, what's going on? And he said, he said, oh, there's there's there's there's tanks in the street, and he said, it's chaos. I don't know. I said, um he said, but he said, I'm really concerned. He said, I'm sending my my family today to Canada. He said, I'm gonna stay around because obviously I've got a business here. He said, but can you do me a favor? I said, yeah, sure, anything. He said, uh, do you live do you live um near Park Lane? I said, well, our office is in Knightsbridge. Park Lane's just around the corner in London, you know. He said, could you go to the Kuwait, um, the the Kuwait National Bank or Bank of Kuwait or whatever it was. I said, yeah, sure. Well, how about anyway? He said, I'll send you, I'll send you a uh, you know, like a note. And in those days, you'd never do it again today. I got this note from him, this this facts authorizing me to go and transfer all his money into another account that he had. Yeah, so I went and did that for him, and he got out about three months later. He drove, he drove, I think, to Jordan and then out some. And he managed to join his family in in Canada. I never heard what happened to him, but yeah, I I was very happy to help him that day, but probably today you wouldn't be allowed to do it, you know. Banks are so tight. They allowed to do it.
SPEAKER_03:Is he the one that uh used to hire cranes, all the high-rise building cranes and stuff like that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember him now.
SPEAKER_00:And this was like a sideline for he's a great, great guy, yeah. It was lovely, lovely fella. Yeah, and then Copardia. Anyway, ego, he goes in the book of history, rock and roll in the desert.
SPEAKER_02:Um, from rock and roll to cranes by the side of it. What a diverse uh operation he had. Yeah, Graham. Must have been a lot of uh great memories. I've uh you know, come across quite a few so far in this podcast. But what Graham, from your side of things, what any sort of really notable, memorable uh events from uh from a lighting side or challenging events, what were they for you?
SPEAKER_03:Um yeah, I suppose doing lights for meatloaf was a bit uh bit hairy because I just turned uh I set everything up and expecting to see an LED LD come in, which is a lighting designer. And he didn't have one, but he said, No, you can do it, can't you? Uh well, yeah, it sort of can, yeah. All right. So then I had to redesign the whole rig so it would fit what I wanted uh out of his his thing. And his his cues were like, Well, you you operate the lights, you turn them out and do because it was one song. I can't remember the song now. Yeah, the kiss is the kiss on stage. Obviously, obviously in Abu Dhabi, it wouldn't you you couldn't kiss anybody. So he said, Well when it looks as though I'm gonna kiss her, black lights out, and he said, As soon as the lights come back up, we'll we'll throw you to the report. So it looks as though we've done a kiss, and that's what you did. I remember it went really well.
SPEAKER_02:Very good, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That was the first time. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, you would just go on and on and on, wouldn't he?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, three hours. The Hyatt Ballroom was like like a like a football match at the end of a like a cup tie or something, it was just totally trashed.
SPEAKER_03:The ball Samantha Fox was the worst for that, wasn't it? Sorry, Samantha Fox was the worst for that.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That's the first time the Hyatt had ever seen a riot happening in the ballroom. There's people on standing on tables, on chairs, shouting, screaming, and and she was miming to most of it.
SPEAKER_01:It was like crazy, crazy.
SPEAKER_02:And Kevin, for you. Oh, sorry, sorry, Graham. Kevin, no, no, no, no, no. Kevin, some of your most memorable uh events, shows you put up.
SPEAKER_04:Well, we were talking about Q8 there. Um, we took Soul to Soul, which was a combination of all bunch of artists, uh Odyssey being, I think, the top one. And um, we stayed in this hotel that overlooked the American embassy. So the what the first night we were there, we decided that we had a hell of a way of getting into the country. We'd sat in the in the customs for about probably about five hours and eventually got out with visas and everything. Um so we had a a soft drink party. I don't know if you remember this. So we pretended that all our soft drinks were alcohol, and we all got pissed after taking pictures of each other out out of the windows, you know, on the balcony and that. And and the police came around and they wanted it to take all the cameras because we've been taking pictures of the American embassy, and we're not allowed to do it. So they took all of the cameras, developed all the film, and then gave it all back to us, and they asked us if we were drinking the alcohol, and we said no, no, it's just soft drinks, and they tested everything to see. They tested the drinks. So that was breathalyzer.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was a memorable evening that was. Yeah, just um just one thing I did find, which I don't know if you can see this at all, but uh seven up party. Seven up party.
SPEAKER_00:Seven up party, yeah, yeah. That's I must I must commend you both actually for uh uh Phil. The things they've sent me and the things you've collected all over the years, it's amazing. I've just got hardly anything from those days, just memories. But you guys, well done. That's really good. We're gonna try, like I said, we're gonna try and post what we can, um, so people can get a good feel for madness. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:No, Russell, Russell, you must have a few uh memories of crazy antics and uh incidents and goings on. Spill the beans.
SPEAKER_00:Uh talking about Meatloaf, because you were just talking about Meatloaf, and then before UB40, very briefly, UB40, um, they were an amazing band. I really like them and good live act. But every night in the dressing room, they used to fight each other. I mean, properly fight each other. And I always felt I never got to the bottom of it, but um uh so much so that I just wouldn't go in the dressing room in the end at the end of the show, you know, because they just used having a big punch up. Um, and they were really weird. And in the morning they were all like the best of friends. Um, one time I had to break up punch up in first class when they were arguing whether the horn that Gulf Air had served up, which is uh, for those who don't know, it's very traditional um fish of of the region, humor. And it um they were saying no, this is chicken, and the other guy was saying, No, it's fish. And they had a fight. I had to break it up. I mean, they were mad. Anyway, that was that was another that was one thing. Um, but meatloaf, um, I remember meatloaf because I had a very bad wisdom tooth pain. And you know, obviously you've all probably had wisdom teeth, and it's very painful. And I told John Wallace, if you remember, he was the GM who went on to run higher worldwide, by the way. Uh, he was just the GM of Dubai Galleria at that time. And he said, Oh, go, he said, go to my my Dr. Ziegler, I'll I'll get Ching, the the secretary, to call him. So I turned up, I was in so much pain, and I remember turning up at this Dr. Ziegler, Ziegler, the dentist, American dentist. And I just said to her, I have to see him now. I'm really in pain. I was really like aggressively, like in a spate. And she so she he he took me in there and he was like all very chatty. Hey man, how are you doing? I was like, Well, you know, and all this. Anyway, he got me on the chair. He said, Oh, we'll we'll have that out. Well, normally for a for a wisdom tooth, it's quite an operation, you know. But he he he was going to take the whole thing out there and then anyway. And it was like, I'm on the chair and he's saying, So where are you from? I said, Well, actually, actually, uh, I was born in America, but I'm British. And he'd say, In America, where are you from in America? Oh, well, Virginia. And he brought down this roller blind of the uh sort of roller map of America and said, We're neighbors, I'm from Kentucky. And I was like, I was in so much fun. I was like, I don't really need this bullshit. Anyway, at the end, I paid him in tickets for meatloaf, and he said to me as I was leaving, I said, He said, Good news. He said, You can have a couple of days off now. I was like, I've got a show tonight, and uh he was yeah, and I gave him his tickets and that was it, I never paid him. And um the next morning I got on the flight sitting in first class there with the band, and uh uh I was so tired I fell asleep before the plane took off, and I was woken up by two golf house stewardesses white as sheet, because I was lying there like that with blood coming down. They thought they thought that I died on the flight. So uh that's my meat, that's my meatloaf memory.
SPEAKER_02:Russ talking about your dentist, did he tie a rope from your tooth to the back of his Range Rover? Because he was a rally guy in Dublin. He was crazy, this guy, Dr. Ziegler. Yeah, yeah, he was a rally guy in Dublin with John Wallace. Yeah, they sit together.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:And they're crazy, absolutely crazy. I had a battered Range Rover that um racing around the sand during no hope in hell of a winning, they just did it for the fun of it. They were absolutely, as you say, crazy, mad.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you know more about me. I just remember that side, but I mean, imagine having a roller map of America, and he he literally pulled this thing down, and uh, you know, I'm in so much pain because I we're neighbors. So I don't give a toss. Anyway, where are we? We're totally lost on this thing.
SPEAKER_02:We took now, we're just talking about crazy moments and uh big shows, and uh we've had a few crazy ones from dentists and dying on a plane to Kevin's uh and Graham's uh what Pepsi party and uh taking photographs of the American Embassy. Yeah, but can't get more diverse than that, can you really? So changing direction, Russell.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Do do you guys have any stories about the infamous Simon Wharton? Because I I I feel I do owe it to him to because we're all here, we're sitting here now because you know, ultimately he did, but he was quite an interesting character. I mean, I was saying was, he's still alive. I mean, um, I sent him a message the other day, but um, I have to give him credit because he he loved his music, but he it was as if, um, correct me if I'm wrong, this is my because I worked with him for so long. It's like he never took anything or anyone seriously. And uh, you know, I I mean, I I I was always flabbergasted at some of the things he'd do or say, and I remember being in a bar in Bahrain, and he said, Come and have a beer with me. So I said, Yeah, okay, we went for a beer, and um, it was a bit of a rough place. There was a lot of like merchant seamen and and like oil workers, you know, they were they were tough guys in those days, you know, guys from Aberdeen and all that. And anyway, I thought I'm just gonna go to the toilet. When I came back, I felt a certain tension, and all these guys were staring at me. And uh, I was like, oh shit. I said, I said, Simon, I said, come on, drink up. I think we should go. I said, I said, he said, why? What's wrong? I said, Well, everyone's like staring at me. I think, I think, you know, we might get ourselves into a bit of a ruck here. He said, Oh, yeah, I know. He said, because when you went to the toilet, I told him, I told him that you you think you're hard and you can you can have them all. And he that's his joke. I was gonna get killed by these guys because he told them that I I wanted to have a fight with them. So we left that pretty good. And the last one is I remember driving down a muscat, and I would I drive, he never used to like to drive, he used to make me drive. I'm driving along on this side, obviously, and um uh there's a guy in front going really slow. So Simon leant across, beat the horn, and on my side above my steering wheel went like this, as if I was like abusing the guy, but it was actually him, and he used to do all things like that, you know. He was a crazy guy, and every time I used to go to his room, he'd call me to his room, he'd say, Can you come up to my room? He'd open the door and he was totally naked every single time. Every single time, and it was like, Simon, please put some clothes on, you know. And then, do you remember when he stopped wearing glasses and he he he started wearing contact lenses? And he called me up to his room and said, I can't find my contact lenses, these bloody contact lenses. I'm really so I go up to him after I come up. He said, Can you help me? Because I can't see. Um, so anyway, I go up there, he answers the door naked, and he and I said, Simon, you your your contact lenses on your cheek. And it's like, you know, all these crazy things I remember about Simon, but he really was a wind-up merchant, wasn't he? You know, and he didn't take anything seriously, but he had this passion for music, and uh he brought some great artists, and at the end of the day, he was really through it all, he was very honourable and very fair, and he always paid his way. And uh, I I respect him for that for sure. Uh, have you got any memories, Kev Simon?
SPEAKER_04:I didn't work that much with him, so I mean I think yeah, we I think Russell had more of a dealings than we did.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, there's only the occasion uh yeah, there's occasional times when he's side of stage or off stage and he's jumping up and down because of the band. He enjoyed the band and the music, yeah. And Brian Miller was the same, he'd he would enjoy seeing the shows. Yeah, and this is great, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think in hindsight, I think in hindsight, and I have to mention this, I remember him dancing profusely to carry glitter, but maybe we shouldn't. Bless him anyway, Simon. Well done, mate.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well done to him.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, he brought some great ads.
SPEAKER_02:Russ, what was his favourite? And there was one or two which he wanted to but never did bring over.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I feel bad for him because he really loved Brian Ferry. Well, I loved Brian Ferry, and he he I I he just wanted to bring Brian Ferry, but he never quite got it across the line. And uh, I think that would have been his swan song if he'd done it. But um, there you go. It's uh you can't always get everyone you want, can you, you know?
SPEAKER_01:And part two of the Desert Rats of Rock and Roll becoming your way on YouTube and all major podcast channels very soon.