Moving to the Sound of Drums

It's almost time for the Dubai exchange to go live, and the last people have moved out of the temporary offices into the shiny new building at the financial centre site. They were literally drummed out of the place.

While boxes and chairs were carried down one staircase, we snuck into another entrance to get breakfast, where Dubai Drums were stirring the place up with their African beats. After 15 months in the 'shed' most people were glad to move into the final location, 'Precinct 5', next to the landmark Gate building. To say good-bye, the Marriot hotel laid on a scrumptious breakfast, and to add a de-stressing factor to the morning, everyone was invited to join in the drumming. That sounded like a recipe for a lot of noise to start with, but in actually turned out to be a powerful sound. Talents emerged with a resident didgeridoo player and some great dancers as well as a fabulous frog backing band (respect to Emily, Pauline and Muna).

Before and After - Drumming is easier than it looks

Listen to real-live drumming here!

Peas are in da House

Concert highlight of the year, the Black Eyed Peas were here for a concert at Airport expo.

A groovy session, although it would have helped if the sound had been better. Although Airport Expo is not actually based in an aircraft hangar, it certainly sounded like it. But otherwise the event was very civilised, with food and drinks stalls (even selling six-packs of Corona), free M&Ms and lots of space to dance. We got free tickets courtesy of a friend who won them in a radio competition, but I expect the people who paid something like 400 Dirhams for the VIP tickets at the back of the auditorium were probably a bit miffed to be miles away from the stage.

But the Peas did their energetic hip-hop thing and the school kids as well as the grown-ups were entertained with the usual hits and plenty of backflip action on stage.

Musical Double-Bill Dubai style

Living in a town where we have to grab what cultural events we can get our hands on we sometimes end up with strange combinations. Welsh opera and 80's Rock, anyone?

Wales@Wafi was a little sales show to give us a taste of the attractions of 'Wales. World Nation'. An interactive stand to show to geography of the place and a duet of opera singers were presented to attract the attention of bored designer shoppers. Sweet, but selling a friendly, inoffensive place like Wales with a slightly country-bumpkin reputation to these jaded visitors to the glitziest and emptiest shopping place of them all is going to be an uphill struggle.

Tenor vs. Knopfler - It's Alien vs. Predator in the Musical Arena

In the evening there was Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. A whole other thing. This guy can rock on down. All the Straits hits and a lot of his own new stuff (links require iTunes to be installed), which was a great showcase for his superb guitar skills. The venue was great, too: the outdoor amphitheatre at Media City has good acoustics and when you get bored you can watch the big cranes with their bright spotlights swing round the Marina building site across the way with its 24-hour, non-stop operation like giant storks. Or watch the late-night workers in the media offices behind the back of the stage lit up by their computer screens.