It's Only Rock n Roll with hosts Phil Blizzard & Russell Mason

Pioneers of Gulf Entertainment - Comic Nights, Gulf Lights, Desert Rats Pt 2

• Phil Blizzard + Russell Mason

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We relive how comedy, concerts, and sheer grit brought modern live entertainment to the Gulf, from Billy Connolly and Lenny Henry to Bollywood stadium spectacles and ballet on the beach. Heat, customs, and failing gear tried to stop us; diplomacy, craft, and humour carried the day.

• British comedians breaking new ground across the Gulf
• Jasper Carrot’s late-career surge and Lenny Henry’s airport pranks
• Cancelled shows, customs hiccups, and strict cultural lines
• Bootleg tapes, censored artwork, and local media quirks
• Airport systems for moving bands and gear fast
• Indian and Arabic weddings with complex technical limits
• The Sharjah Bollywood epic with camels, horses, and balloons
• Gypsy Kings rescue plan after lighting failure
• Ballet under blistering lights and DIY power solutions
• Winning over electricians and hotel crews through respect
• Saudi gigs, Sadiqi stories, and a narrow escape
• Shout-outs to crews, mentors, and long-time colleagues

Go to YouTube for the video version of this podcast. There’s a link is- https://youtu.be/e0Yjm_wJSBA and some fabulous images of the Deserts Rats in action  and more ...



If you would like to have a podcast production for your organisation, get in touch with me:phillblizzardmedia@gmail.com


It's Only Rock and Roll is a Phil Blizzard Radio Production - for your production email philblizzardmedia@gmail.com

SPEAKER_03:

In part two of the Desert Rats of Rock and Roll, we'd look at some of the shows performed by comedians, and many comedians who visited the Gulf Region. So many comedians which were brought over to the Gulf Region by you guys. I'm thinking of a few of them, like uh Billy Connolly did a few memorable gigs and uh Ray Risque in Dubai and almost got thrown out for various things he'd said. Uh Barry Humphreys' great. I remember that one at the height and doing an interview with him on the radio, and uh, you know, oh Jasper Carrot's another one which comes to mind. And he's back on the road again, isn't he? Jasper Carrot.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh Kev, um, you know you sent me Kevin sent me today or yesterday a picture of Jasper Carrot, the the the advertising program or flyer of Jasper at Abadabi, Abdabi Hilton or something. Uh I I sent it to his manager, who's still his manager, Steve Hutt. I sent it to him today, and he was like, Oh, that's classic. 1990. And I said, hats off to Jasper. Um, he's still he's still doing um he's 80. And uh yeah, he he sent me a message actually. Maybe I can just uh share it with you guys.

SPEAKER_02:

It was Lenny Henry as well. Sorry, yeah. Remember Lenny Henry?

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, Lenny Henry. It was it was nice.

SPEAKER_03:

Come on to Lenny Henry in a moment. Yeah, so what's the message, Russ? Have you got it there?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh yeah, here you go. Um I I sent I sent him a message. I sent him the thing, and then I said, Amazing, Jasper has has been established, he had been an established star for more than 30 years. Uh he'd already been an established star, and that was um 35 years ago, um, and he's still going going strong. Hats off to him. And Steve replied, his manager, he said, um, sold out 30 shows this year in venues ranging from 500 to 16 uh hundred, all pretty much within 48 hours and going of going on sale. Not bad for an 80 year old. So he's still doing it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, sounds good, yeah. Brilliant, brilliant. Yeah, Lenny Henry was a great one. Lenny Henry was really good, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_02:

He was a nightmare. Was he who yeah, going through um uh the airports because he'd joke with all the all the uh and the customers. Who was a nightmare, Cap? Lenny Henry. He'd also Lenny was funny, yeah. And he'd do what Simon did. He'd he'd say, Oh, this guy is he's carrying something. Oh no, what's oh no, I'm gonna get searched again. Yeah, yeah, right. That was a laugh, but he was brilliant.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely brilliant. He came into my radio program for a 10-minute uh slot, and he was so funny. We just carried on for well and he's a nice guy, as well. Yeah, he did all his characters, and uh the news came along. I said, Can you stay for the other side? I said, Yeah, and he stayed for about an hour, and just him and a bit of music, his characters, it was brilliant, absolutely outstanding. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I had a story where um we I did the tour with him in that, and then I was back in the UK and I did uh a loadout for his wife's show, um, French and Saunders in the end. And I'm standing there on the side waiting for the show to finish, and I get a tap on the shoulder, and he's it's Lenny Henry, and he says, Kevin, what are you doing here? And he remembered me from like uh six to eight months before. He just remembered me and I had a good laugh, you know. Nice so nice.

SPEAKER_01:

And yeah, yeah, we we worked with some quite quite interesting people, I must say. Um uh one of the um uh good bands that we worked with, which actually was cancelled. We only did one show, I think, in the ending, which was Cool and the Gang. Were you there that for that, Kev? Um uh that was in Dubai, and they got cancelled because one shake died, and then they had the morning, so we had to cancel it. I think it was the most profitable, uh, apart from Samantha Fox, because Simon got the insurance.

SPEAKER_02:

It was one of the most embarrassing moments through an airport as well. Well, I'm gonna tell you about that. Yeah, one of the guys carried out.

SPEAKER_01:

So in Muscat, the the singer of Cool and the Gang. Um, and we knew all the people. That was the thing. It was embarrassing for us because we knew all the people, but we sent out a circular before we did a tour. We always sent out a circular saying, Don't do this, don't do that, don't do that. It was very clear, you know, no pornography, nothing. Anyway, they opened his bag and he's got the filthiest porn you've ever seen in your life. And I'm quite broad-minded, I like to think, but it really made me blush. And so they confiscated it from him. And maybe you don't know this, Kev, but I'm going to tell you a side story to that. About a month later, I was there at Muscat at two o'clock in the morning, waiting for somebody to come through because I had their visa. Do you remember it was a paper visa then? And I'd flown from Dubai and I had a paper visa. I was waiting for them to come to go through custom, uh, to go through immigration together with this visa. And the the the fire chief, who was a Scottish guy with a big beard, I don't know if you've ever he used to come, he used it whenever it bads used to come, he's a big beard, and um he um likes easy top beard, you know. And um he came up, said hi Ross, how are you doing? I said, Oh, all right. He said, he said, I'll tell you what, he said, a few weeks ago the filthiest porn was passed around. He said, all the staff, he said, Wow, he said, I don't know where they got that from, but he said, Oh, and I said, I know exactly where they got that from. Yeah, we had a few of those scary moments, didn't we, Kev? Yeah. But you know, usually we talked our way out of it because the people liked us and trusted us, and to be fair, we never intentionally ourselves um, you know, did did anything out of order. Um except a few a few bootleg Thompson tapes, eh, Graham?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, just a few.

SPEAKER_03:

Remember those still? I do indeed. They had a massive collection. When you said Thompson, I thought it meant the band for a moment. Then I yes, no, did those uh what were they about a five five derhums or something? A pound a shot for uh all the top top uh releases, yeah. Yeah, massive collections.

SPEAKER_00:

Usually released prior to the original re release as well. Yeah, they were, yeah. Yeah, and better compilations, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

The lyrics were the best.

SPEAKER_01:

The greatest hits were much better than the origin.

SPEAKER_02:

No, because they'd write the lyrics on the inside of the uh that was that was the funniest. Nothing like the original lyrics. I I think it was Filipino um guys who were translating it. Such a laugh.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, they were just writing out what they were hearing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And remember all the covers, like Madonna, um, she was uh kokied out, all her body parts that yeah, black black black censorship, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Black lines through it all, yeah. Censorship on them, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um do you do you remember how do you remember do you guys remember how we used to we used to have a pretty good system of getting these bands through airports, which you couldn't do again, you couldn't do it now. I remember I used to leave you guys with with with the band. I go ahead and you'd have the band, and you'd send some of the crew with the with the with the luggage and me, and I'd get them checked in, I'd get all their boarding passes, we'd get all their luggage checked in, we get all the tags, and they just come along, go bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. There you go. Go to duty free. It was such a good system in the end, wasn't it? Yeah, potentially a nightmare, but it was a good system, it worked.

SPEAKER_00:

I think the Russian one was a good one. Oh, yeah. Me and Kev used to sit and play chords. Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Remember that you can buy everything, yeah. Literally truckloads of electronics they used to take back to Russia, didn't they? The ballet dancers. But what about Lata Mengeshka? Just before I arrived, you did Lata Mengeshka, uh, Graham, and she she brought everything, including the kitchen sink. Yeah, she took back to India.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's amazing, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

It's good old Latter and a sister Ashley.

SPEAKER_00:

Ashabosley was the other one, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was packed. I've never seen so many Indians in one place.

SPEAKER_03:

Anyway, like I say, Phil. Yeah, I was gonna say, same with the Indian thing there. You did a lot of Indian shows and also weddings, didn't you? Yeah. And Arabic weddings, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah, where you weren't supposed to be even in the same room as as the look what you're lighting.

SPEAKER_01:

Quite challenging that, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well, we stripped a lot of lighting down to make it work.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know what they were called.

SPEAKER_00:

I I don't remember the names, I just remember the actual big stars, you know. Yeah, because I had Sharif rebuilding some of the lights so we could actually run the uh ACLs in parallel with uh series to light up all the columns and stuff. So we stripped the old lighting rig down there to actually make it work.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we used to do a lot of weddings. Um, I remember getting called to Rasal Kema, which was really an outpost in those days, Phil. You remember it? I lived there. No, to the sheik, no, but you lived there when it was exactly very different. I went to this old palace, which was like a fort where the sheikh lived, and I was doing a wedding for his daughter or something, and it was$35,000, and they had a really bad reputation of not paying you. So I said, but you know, we really do need them, you know, we need money up front. And so he sent this little Mulbury guy out, and he came back with all this money, all this cash in dollars, not Durham, dollars. Okay, I said a check would have done, you know, and he started counting out all these dollars and he got to about$33,000. And I said, Oh, you know, Sheikh, I don't want to offend you, that'll do, you know. That's okay. You know, we'll you can sort out the rest later because he'd obviously shown really good faith. He said, No, no, no, no, my friend. He sent the guy back out, and he came back with Diran's equivalent and gave me the balance. I was like, I belong with this big bag of cash.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, 5,000 years. You mentioned Ara Diab. I remember him on the one of the powerboat races on the beach. Oh, he's so pop. And he was there with Banana Rama, and I thought, God, they've pulled in a big crowd, 60,000 people for Banana Rama, but no, they were there for Amar Diab. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, they loved him. Yeah, it took a good shows on the beach, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Talking about weddings, we did a wedding in Muscat. There's me and Murray, and um turns out they they bought the house next door and demolished it to make a car park ready for the wedding. And they redesigned redesigned the whole driveway with a fountain and everything ready for this wedding. But we weren't allowed to see Murray had to mix it without actually being on site. He couldn't be in front of the speakers because he wasn't he was a male and he wasn't allowed to be where the female section was until the males arrived. When the males arrived, he could go out and and listen to it. But before that, we weren't allowed to be there.

SPEAKER_01:

So the word he did was incredible.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I'm just thinking, Gray, what sort of lighting rig you'd have in uh a function for an Arabic wedding? The mind boggles.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we only had par cans, so you couldn't have anything other than that. But we actually flew them because we actually put um points very high in the LEDs, weren't they, Gray? No, they're thousands thousand watts each, so yeah, it's a a kilowatt per lamp. You've got to have two because there was 110. Yeah, yeah. So it's two kilowatt of light in just two lamps. But yeah, we we actually rigged it. I got some photographs somewhere of it actually rigged in the ceiling of the crystal ballroom. Because that's when we started uh doing a backstage truss on on stage, yeah. Back truss, yeah. And that that was not on the lifters, that was actually flown. Yeah, flown in the crystal ballroom. Electrician was doing his nut, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Another, another obviously you mentioned Indian shows, Phil. Uh, were you both I think Kevin was, but I'm not sure about you, Graham. Were you on the the big uh um Amita Bachan show that we did at um Al-Shakab Stadium in Charger?

SPEAKER_02:

Where they they're the elephants, they were planning on the elephants, I think.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, this one was this one was quite challenging because it was it was um uh it was run by a guy called Kishore Trevedi, who was actually a tailor. I remember him, yeah. And he had never promoted a show, but he just happened to know someone who knew um uh Amita Batchon, and they had this massive show. They had uh it for for our Indian viewers, and we that we had Amita Bachan, we had Anul Kapoor, we had Shudevi, they were massive stars, they still are. Um, and uh Anum Pomker, the comedian, and Anul Kapoor, uh no, sorry, uh uh uh Amita Batchan came flew over the wall in a hot air balloon, if you remember, into the cheap seats, which was I the guy never looked so terrified, but it was a it was a lady pilot, and she was really good. And but I thought it was a great idea. So the cheap seats, you know, they couldn't get him, but they could see him really close. And then Anul Kapoor came in on a camel and Shredevi came in on a white horse, and um Anno Pumpker, um, my mate Ian was was doing the smoke machine, he was coming up through the stage, and it was just totally obscured by smoke. Yeah, Ian didn't know how to switch the thing off. Uh, it was crazy. And if you remember, our our he wanted a uh a screen, a projection screen each side of the stage, which was massive, of course, because it was a big stage. And the the the the the tailor said, Oh no, I've got a friend who can provide the the projection. So I said, Okay, he said you're too expensive, and he'd run out of money by then. Anyway, they had this big screen like this, with this little little image in the middle, because he'd got some Kodak screen uh projector or something, and it was like it was hilarious, but anyway, that was that that was quite uh along that line or those lines of balloons, camels, white horses.

SPEAKER_03:

Any other bizarre requests for unusual lighting, sound, accessories, stage props?

SPEAKER_00:

Lighting side is always left to last, anyway. So they they leave it up to whatever you wanted to do, really truly. So it's very, very little requests as such, because they didn't have any idea. But I don't know about sound.

SPEAKER_03:

Any challenging ones for you, Kevin? Like sort of speakers remotely placed and no straightforward.

SPEAKER_02:

You can't mess with what it's gotta be, you know. Yeah, speaker's a speaker, isn't it? Speaker, yeah, it's gotta be either side in the front, but uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I've worked on some most bands were quite accommodating, weren't they, to be fair, because it really wasn't what they were used to. And um uh, I mean, I I'm even looking at some of the pictures from those days, you know, there's no masking. We'd we'd never get away with that now. I know I know that doesn't affect the sound or life, but the whole visual of it. I think they they took it for what it was, they they quite often used it as a pre-production to their big tour. Yeah, um, try some new songs, uh, and and a bit of a holiday, you know, bit of sun on their back.

SPEAKER_02:

The two um engineers that came out, uh uh what's um uh the one who worked who sang with the crusaders, um Nightlife. That uh that woman Oh Randy Crawford. Andy Crawford, her Norwegian sound engineer, made that PA sound like the C D.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that was the best sound I've ever heard. I actually always say they were the best band I've ever seen that are so sound like the record, lost and then Chris Chris Rea as well.

SPEAKER_02:

His his sound was incredible.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, it's just also sounded like you know, to be fair to Martin Rig, Martin, you know, the the the the Martin Rig had a very warm, very nice sound.

SPEAKER_02:

Umbersome, just a little bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Now, guys, I'm I'm thinking about those conditions you sort of set up and rigged and everything else, and uh the shows you put on. There must have been some which standout in terms of you know your proudest achievements. So, Graham, what would you say is perhaps your biggest and proudest achievements?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I don't know, all of them really, because we actually managed to pull it off on the wall. It was a miracle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the one that we really pulled off was Gypsy Kings on the beach. Oh, yeah. Because we we rigged or the ballet, yeah, well, the ballet as well, but but gypsy kings, we actually rigged the whole thing, had it all working. I went off to the shops and came back, and half of it wasn't. So we had to replan the whole thing an hour before it actually came off because one of the dimmer packs had gone down, so we had to repatch all what was left to get it to work to give it some sort of performance. And the LD was saying that's one of those things, if it doesn't work, we can't use it. So we'll have to re-redesign it. So that's what we did. We'd redesigned the whole thing for that show an hour later. And he just went with it. I think that was the big thing. Everybody accepted the fact that it was you got what you got, and if it didn't work, you you couldn't use it. There's no going down the road to pick up another amp or another dimmer pack or anything.

SPEAKER_02:

We used to sell them things like that, didn't we? Yeah, yeah. When they arrived, we said to the guys that you know You've got to take it as it is. This is what it is.

SPEAKER_00:

It's gonna be horrendous, but you know. And most of them used to go go home saying it was really good. We really enjoyed it because we didn't have any uh emphasis on being this. It was just a relaxing time to to get involved with the band and listen to the band, really, really so yeah. I think most most of it was good. Ballet was well, that was more hideous than anything because uh the actual lights were so strong, so big. I think it was a alain that we actually did a stage which was like three feet off the ceiling. So they they danced directly underneath the lights. They re-choreographed as well. They looked really good, they looked really stunning. They were very hot, very, very hot. Yeah, there's something like about 80k of light. Wow. And the power power system used to be the best when I first went out in the Middle East. You'd see all this 1.5 cable all twisted together and wound up running out to the Abu Dhabi beach, and that was powering the actual lighting system. Because you imagine what was it, 40, 80? It was about 120k of light. So the amount amount of power we used to draw. And the electricians number didn't understand that these big cables had to have the same going all the way back. So they'd run 50 50 meters or 100 meters of twin and earth.

SPEAKER_01:

Over years, over years, uh uh Graham, you you got friendly with all the electricians and they they started to work with us, didn't they? You know, you did a good job. You you know, you the thing is what I'd say, Phil, is both Kevin and and Graham and all All the guys actually, the guys that actually succeeded, they were very good diplomats and very good at getting alongside and accepting what they had in front of them. Meaning, you know, you get you get an electrician who doesn't understand at first is a bit hostile, but they were very good at turning it around and getting them on their side. Because if you don't get these guys on your side, you you you can't work, can you? You know? But uh hats off to both of you. I work with both of you and and others which we'll mention in a minute, but um, because they they deserve their their mention.

SPEAKER_00:

We spent a lot of time sort of in the higher ballroom waiting for the truck to arrive at three in the morning talking. Talking to the little guy that's polishing all the brass. Yeah. And uh yeah, we used to spend a lot of time with the electricians and stuff like that. Just having cups of tea and chats and and listening to their ideas of what they want to see or what they want to do or where they want to go. It was part of it, it's part of them learning and us learning from that.

SPEAKER_03:

A key attitude is Russell saying, being sort of diplomatic and uh building up a relationship and rapport with the the local supporters, uh support teams, and uh finding out uh their side, as you say, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Well we used to we used to walk straight through the kitchens and hi at Regency saying hi to everybody and picking up our sandwiches to take up to the rooms because they would let us go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's like three in the morning.

SPEAKER_03:

So I'm always curious when we've our guests to find out what it's doing these days. So uh so you, Kevin, what are you up to these days? How how did your career evolve after being in the Gulf and the Desert Rats?

SPEAKER_02:

Cool. Yeah, it's a long story. Another podcast, another podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

Actually, Phil, I think we are gonna invite Kev back on and uh possibly Graham later because especially Kev, he did a lot of stuff after, which I think would be really good values, maybe in series two.

SPEAKER_03:

So a little teaser, you'll be back, Kev, and uh you can spill the beans in our second series.

SPEAKER_02:

I do caring now.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02:

I look after an Al Thomas guy.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, right, okay. So um that will save for another one, as you say, Russ. That'd be great. Good. Um what about you, Graham? Very briefly.

SPEAKER_00:

Briefly. Um majorly young I was an electrician, but I still run my own lighting company. So I do, okay, yeah, but not doing as well as it could do, but it's in Cornwall, so there's very little to that.

SPEAKER_01:

What were you doing for this ice rink last week? Because I wouldn't do this podcast without you, Graham. I have to tell you, I waited for you because uh there's no there was no point me doing that because you were there for me, you were there from the beginning and you were there at the end. So uh I I I'll I'll talk about ends also Kevin, but I definitely wanted you on this. Talking about ends, I don't know if you can see this or not.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh yeah. Uh Arabic Dav sailing across the screen, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well that's that was my leaving gift from my ally.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Remember, because you were the one that got it. Was I? Yeah, so Simon wasn't sure whether it that I was actually an employee, so should I actually have anything given to me for leaving as a leaving present?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I got F4, so you did well, mate.

SPEAKER_00:

I got nothing as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Well the stretch is we're not bitcher, are we not bitter, are we, Kev's bad guys? Maybe we can maybe we can share it, Graham. We can have it for a year each or something, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

I can pass it around. I can sale it to you, no problem.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, why not?

SPEAKER_00:

I'll bring it over.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you know, you get some new speedos and get to the pool, mate.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, my reward was great memories. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_01:

We we talk a lot about nostalgia on this podcast, and that's what it is, really. I mean, when I retired three years ago, and I had a lot of people, I mean, Stan Urban, who you remember, Graham and Kevin, you work with, you know, he came, he just said, one I've kept in touch with him all the time. And you know, these people were like nice acquaintances, but they weren't like you know, you never had time. Yeah, but he said, I'm gonna come and visit you. I said, Welcome, come. And we spent two two weeks, glorious weeks, sitting by the pool, just laughing our asses off at all the old stories. He said, You know, you really need to do a podcast. I said, Well, I've been thinking about it, you know, because you do, you know, and we've we've if you look through some of the the episodes we've had, we've had interesting people, but they've all been people I've worked with or known or whatever, and it's been really nice to link up again with them because even though it was hard, it it you it's still there, isn't it? You still have it.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it that that was all the fun part of it, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but I I can I just mention um my predecessors, like I said, were Phil Bowdry when I and Colin, who went on to work with Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, uh you know, um uh real professionals in the business, uh worldwide, really. Um obviously you do Colin um uh in the first place. Um and then Mark Mark Aitken, who um promised to send me some pictures, he's a professional photographer now. Yeah, uh great lad. And um Paul Garner, who is um the son of one of Simon's friends from British Airways, um Julian, I can't remember Julian's last name. Kevin and I were trying to think of Julian's last art.

SPEAKER_00:

I can't remember either.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh obviously Murray, I mean Murray, long-suffering Murray, he really suffered for his art in the sound. I always felt felt bad for Murray because he he he really wanted you know it to be good, but it it's so hard to do a good job with that sound rig sometimes. Yeah, so it was good. Um and Mike the Chippy, is he still with us?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, he's still with us.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, send him my regards, Mike the Chippy.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and rubber, rubber was another one.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and he's yeah, he's tour managing now, and he's um living in Spain. Is he? And he's out with uh various bands and Paul Johnson, of course. Yeah, Paul Johnson sort of retired a bit more. He's yeah, backed off from the sound side of it, and I think he's looking after his mum.

SPEAKER_01:

And lastly, right at the end, the most racist um uh lowie in the world, Dave Flocton. What a character, but I mean I I mean we used to blush occasionally some of the things he used to say. I don't know. Anyway, I'm not proud of him. Yeah, he used to call him he nicknamed him buff. Yeah, big ugly fucker. And you know the funny thing about he used to brag about being the best heavy metal um sound engineer in London. But if you remember, um Dave used to walk sideways like this because he was deaf in one ear. How can he be a sound engineer and be deaf in one ear? So anyway, there you go. There's another character for you.

SPEAKER_00:

Who's the other one that was short-sighted? It was a short-sighted guy as well. Well, he used to mix the sound. And he couldn't he could already see the stage. So he didn't know when he was coming on. He said when they always speak when they come on, so he said, I just mix from that. John John Harper, who basically I took over from. Oh right. Yeah, I forget what the show was. Yeah, it could have been Demon Dennis Resources in my first show, but I don't know whether he got involved with that one. It was already Yeah, John John Harper he said that it um he gave me a month. He said you're only you'll only be here a month. He said because you want to stick it. He said, I'll be here. So ten years later he came back with Johnny Bassy or somebody one of the bigger stores. He came back and said, Chris, are you still here? Well, that was like nearly ten years ago. I've never been able to get away.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, there was easy.

SPEAKER_00:

That was quite amazing. He did my first one and he did my last one. So that was amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

Um Brian, Brian Miller was quite serious with me one day because he got the impression that I was parting a bit, and you know, he knew about things like and he sat me down, he said, Look, I'm gonna tell you this seriously. He said, go easy on the part. I wasn't parting, nothing you know, just a bit of a wine beer after the show, maybe, but nothing. I never was really like that. No, but he he sat me down quite seriously. He said, Look, he said, I have to tell you this. He said, one of your predecessors I had to send back in a in a coffin. I had to tell the parents and the family. He said, because he he you know, and you know, it makes sense because the golf was so hard in those days. The the weather, and if you got to drinking a bit and that, you know, it it it it really wouldn't have been good, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

There was an underlying thing there, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, probably. Yeah, probably. But talking about drinking, uh Phil, I know this has gone on a bit, but it's really important. Saudi Aramco, Kev and I were we were really having a good laugh the other night. Sadiqi. Yeah, the Sadiqi, and I was telling Kev, and Kev told me some funny stories. We took we took Paul Young to Saudi Aramco. I mean, uh it's just amazing, and he was a big star, you know. And I remember he got invited to this Indian family's house after the show, and the Indian grandmother wouldn't let him in until he sang something, you know. Um, and uh, so he had to sing something on the doorstep, and then she let him in. But I got cornered in a kitchen with some bludgeoned faced uh oil rigger from from Aberdeen, and he was like, Try this, Siddiqui, it's fantastic. That's that's that's best Scotch whiskey. I was like, No, that's rocket fuel. Well, try this, this is dambui, it's fantastic. It's rocket fuel. He said, Well, try this, this is whatever it was. I said, No, it's it's rocket fuel, it's all the same. He said, I've been drinking this for 20 years and it hasn't affected me. And I said to him, look in the mirror. He's blown up his garage three times. I mean, you know, they used to make their own alcohol, it was crazy, yeah. Crazy, crazy.

SPEAKER_02:

We uh we had to get out of the country quickly on on Paul Young, if you remember. You had to what? We had to get out of the country quickly on Paul Young. We we didn't do the last show. We had to rush to the airport, yeah. Because um, because they had objected to the girls singing, the backing vocalists.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, the incredible fabulous starts.

SPEAKER_02:

And so they were doing this whole like investigation, and then we got word from the guy who was driving us around and that through his boss, that they were going to come and arrest us. So we I tailed it to the airport and got on a plane to Bahrain. Literally like two hours.

SPEAKER_03:

A narrow escape. Any other narrow escapes before we wrap it up? Because I mean that's that's that's that's a good tale, that one is. Yeah, poor young ones. Yeah, I mean he'll he'll remember that one. Final Russell, you're saying uh you're giving names, you're saying hi to the various names from from that time. What about the crew, the patan crew? You wanted to give them a shout out, so to speak.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I I I you remember when we were doing the Bolshoi ballet on the beach in the hill, you know, it was so hot, it was so brutal. And we all used to go for a communal swim. Do you remember? And all the patan crew, they used to wear all their patan outfit and swim. And I just found this incredibly funny because you know, all the all the girls, Russian ballerinas were in their bikinis, and Graham was in his speedos, and Kev was wearing his strange outfit, and I was wearing probably something something as equally strange. But I was swimming along, just like trying to cool down, and all of a sudden there was a tap on my shoulder. You know, I was swimming, and and I turned around, and it was one of uh Cherice crew, one of these Pakistani Patan guys who went, Hello, my boss. I I nearly drowned, I just found it incredibly funny. Hello, my boss. I was like, hello. Well, I'll say uh everybody with a boss.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, hello, my boss Russell. Time to wrap it up with a big, big thank you to the pioneers, we might say, of uh shows in the Gulf region. And you think about the guys in uh in the region now, what they've got in terms of well, they've got everything, they've got everything, they've got a massive choice of uh bands, uh crews to put these shows on, and uh the technical standards. Well, I mean, leaps and leaps and leaps, isn't it, from from the eighties and early nineties? So, yeah. I don't think they got it.

SPEAKER_01:

I I think guys, looking back, you should be really proud of what you did. I saw firsthand how you blood, sweated, and teared over this equipment that needed constant loving and nurturing and patching up and you know, plastering together. And uh I I really thank you for the work you did with me, and and I think you really deserve your place in in rock and roll history. So I've called you the desert rats uh who brought rock and roll to to the Gulf. And uh anyone who's watching this who are now doing it, just think back. These guys did it a long time before you, and uh uh well done. It's really good to catch up with you again as well. Good to see you the opportunity, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And from me, a fascinating behind the scenes look at what it was like in those days. I remember things from uh a different perspective, and it's always been great to be involved with uh the shows across the Middle East, the desert rats. Thank you very much for joining us. And coming away next, a fascinating slideshow for images from the days we've been talking about the bands, the people, the events. And you want to have a look at that slideshow? Well, go to YouTube for the video version of this podcast. There's a link at the end of the page. Available on Apple, Amazon, and Gami, Spotify, Deezer, Google, and all good podcast channels, and also now on YouTube. And if you would like to have a podcast production for your organization, you can in touch with me. Drop me an email, fillblizzardmedia at gmail.com. Philblizard Radio Production.