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 [email protected]