Abu Dhabi Diary, Part 4
We’re set up,rehearsed, tanned and sound checked. Then the news arrives that the party is actually a masked ball, which was very exciting news. Especially as guests were to wear uniquely designed and hand-crafted Venetian masks that they had flown over from Italy to the palace a few days before. Each mask was worth between £200 – £300 and we were shown into a room with over a thousand masks laid out on a table and told to chose one to take and wear for the ball?!
I told you it was very cool!
Meanwhile, whilst most of the band are picking out our favorite Venetian masks, we had left Chris tweaking the lights. Baring in mind that it’s his band AND he’s the front man for the gig somehow it didn’t occur to him that perhaps HE shouldn’t be going up a 20 foot ladder to play with the lights on the rig. That’s Perhaps why I like this photo so much:
This is what happens when you leave Chris on his own.
Nearly Gig Time
After returning back to the hotel and getting ready for the gig I came up with a cunning plan to get past security at record speed, as despite now having passes it still took an age to get in. It was simple really,
Nick and I were just going to tell them that Heidi (backing vocalist) was Shakira. We just had to act as her security, you know, talk into our sleeves, hold our ears, the works. It turns out that despite being the busiest time we were ever at the palace that we slipped straight in.
That night we ate at the Emirates for the first time. I have never seen a more extravagant buffet. Ice sculptures over looking lobsters, the biggest prawns I’ve ever seen (although that could have been another plate of lobsters?), a huge carvery with meat that melted on the plate, never mind in your mouth. Caviar, fraguar, 3 giant chocolate fountains… the list goes on.
Personally I liked that there were 2 waiters standing like statues by our table and the second you’d finished something or looked like you were thirsty they jumped into action. I think you had to be their for that experience but it was crazy.
Over lunch we found out an interesting piece of information. Apparently the tickets for our gig were being sold for £600 each. Neil and I had counted over a thousand seats in the ball room and estimate that they made £750,000 from ticket sales. I should have asked for more money 🙂
By the time we saw the stage again they had mounted 2 or 3 remote control TV camera on and around the stage which fed to the 30 plasma screens mounted around the ball room and 3 projectors (because sometimes 30 40-inch screens just aren’t enough).
The good news is that I’ll not only be getting hold of Nick’s videos that he took during the trip but also the video from the Emirates (although the guy controlling the cameras wasn’t making a great job of it).
Quite a lot happened from this point so I’ll try and touch on the important stuff.
The dodgy white jackets came out for the horns in the first set… I say white. Mine was more dirt than white but you couldn’t tell unless you wearing it … or looking at it.
It was however better than the bow ties the other guys wore for set 1
The masks made up for the jackets and the girls looked especially good in their masks.
Gig Time – Finally
We played really well through the night and a couple of songs were so popular we had impromptude solos to extend them. I’ve got a few shots that some people took of the performance but videos will do the gig itself more justice than I can describe.
We played 4 sets in total that covered 4 hours. Adding to the 3 hour sound check it turned out to be a 7 hour day of trumpet playing which was pretty hardcore. I wouldn’t have had a chance without Andy Taylor, our sound engineer, who was absolutely brilliant. Again proving that a sound tech can make or break a gig. Especially for brass!!
Between each set we had our own table, with a few more masks and party toys. I kept half of the menu for the evening as I thought it’s be fun to post:
Obviously playing or always being about to play meant that I couldn’t stuff my face like I wanted to but the few courses I tried were incredible.
After our 3rd set we all left the hall to head towards the beach where we found a 10 foot bar made out of ice and full of champagne. We could see the lights and hear the noise from Shakira’s gig on the other side of the palace but it was even more exciting when they asked Chris to count down the new years for the UAE which climaxed in a multimillion pound fire work and music display erupting over the sea.
This evening just got better and better.
It was hard to believe that we still had a set to play after all that – that’s real commitment Shakera!!!
But it was loads of fun; Mr Matt McCloud (percussion) left his platform to shake on the stage 🙂 and the backing singers danced with the brass as we played. It was only fair that the brass make a break for the other platforms and give Andy T a heart attack. I can still hear his voice as if I were next to him when he told me his thoughts on this the next day: “The horns are off their mic’s, They’re OFF THEIR MIC’s!!” 😛
We went down a storm and at 2:30am we finally finished and sat down to enjoy a nice chilled glass of champagne.
One of my best memories of the trip was pointing out to Andy Powell (keys) that the champagne bottle we had was a little further than I was willing to reach, summoning a waiter and asking for a fresh bottle which was placed a couple of inches closer to my hand than the half full one we were drinking previously. I’m only ever going to be able to do that once in a lifetime so why not??
We all chilled out until 6am when we went back to our hotel. In these 3 days I ended up clocking up 4 hours sleep in total and then slept for 14 hours on the 2nd of January when I got home. On the 4th my body showed me how unhappy it was about the abuse I’d given it by coming down with the flu. I regret nothing!!
So that’s it for my Abu Dhabi Diary’s. I hope they were a good read. I’ll convert the posts into a shorter version for a page and add the video when they come. I think it deserves it’s own page. At least till next years new years gig. 😀