Dubai, Nov. 10, 2005 – Rock The Casbah!

Dubai was a kind of summer holiday for me - only because of the high temperatures of more than 30°C in mid-November. I was wanting to visit the United Arab Emirates for a long time and Phil playing a concert there was a unique opportunity to make this wish come true.
I stayed in Dubai for a whole week because otherwise the long flight would not make sense. It was a wonderful time with friendly people, an absolutely safe and tidy city and a lot of things to see.
The day before the concert I was on a Little Dreams Foundation charity event. In a hotel next to the famous Burj al Arab Hotel there was a tennis exhibition in favour of the organization founded by Phil and his wife Orianne. The line up was very unique with senior tennis world stars such as Björn Borg, Michael Stich, Henri Leconte and Ilie Nastase. It was a very entertaining evening and in the break between the two matches I had the pleasure to meet Orianne at the Little Dreams Foundation merchandising stand.
The next day the concert was going to take place at the Dubai Autodrome, a racetrack outside Dubai in the desert. An outdoor concert in November! A very special location for the biggest rock concert in the U.A.E. ever. The stage was located in the center of a hairpin bend of the racetrack. As there is not much public transportation (busses etc.) in Dubai I took a taxi to the venue. Funnily enough the taxi-driver neither had any idea where the Autodrome was nor did he know who Phil Collins was. Thanks to a look on the map before leaving the hotel I was able guide him to my destination. Finally I arrived at the venue about 1.5 hours before the doors opened. Not too early according to my experiences with general admission concerts in Europe but in Dubai I ended up being one of the very first people to be there!
But the next odyssey was already on – which entrance should I take? According to a flyer with a venue map which I had collected at the Virgin Megastore in the city I had to take the orange coloured gate. The staff at the Autodrome didn't have any idea where I had to go and told me that I could take any entrance. Anyway, I chose the orange entrance because the ticket I had was coloured orange. I went inside but finding the right way wasn't really easy. So I walked until I had reached a point from where I could see the back of the temporary tribunes. But there was no obvious gate where to wait at.
After a while the soundcheck started and I could hear pretty much everything. At that time some security staff had arrived where I waited and they didn't seem to have any plan either. Me and two other people were the only ones at this kind of entrance. After the soundcheck was over, they told us that we would only be allowed to enter with a wrist band. To collect it we should go back (!) to the entrance and show our tickets. And that's what we did. When we arrived at the "real entrance" about 200 metres back from where we had waited (obviously alreay inside the venue!) we saw the actual queue – about a hundred metres long - still waiting in front of the gates. After we got our wrist bands we returned to "our entrance" and immediately were let inside.
So I ended up being the first to stage in "The Cage". That's what the standing area right in front the stage was called – funny name! When I passed the last security check and walked patiently to the very front some crew members where still figuring out how to cover some cables on the ground. As soon as they saw me they raised alarm and asked via walkie-talkie why the gates had already been opened. I tried to calm them down by telling them that me and only two other people were already inside and that the main gates were still closed.
While waiting for the show to start I met another couple of people from various countries – e.g. Lebanon, India, USA, Syria and Bahrain. Again it was great to see people witness their first ever Phil Collins concert!
The concert started on time though it was already 9.30 pm. A logistical challenge because after the show finally ended around midnight, everything had to be brought to the airport and immediately carried to Düsseldorf for the next show. The band only has one stage and one set of equipment. So everything had to be taken from Dubai to Düsseldorf within less than 48 hours! A logistical challenge for me as well because I was also planning to go to both Düsseldorf concerts.
The show itself was brilliant as always though nothing spectacular happened. The setlist was exactly the same as in Budapest a fortnight ago and Phil's voice was obviously better again. As a special souvenir a golden cap with a pink veil had made it's way into the hat collection used for Wear My Hat. During Take Me Home they displayed some Arabic letters on the backdrop screen. I was told that this was just Arabic for "Dubai"!
After the concert I was back in my hotel at around 1.45 am and had to get up at 5.00 am again to be at the airport in time. My flight home departed on time at 9.00 am – just 9 hours after the concert was finished! When I arrived back in cold and misty Düsseldorf it was early afternoon. But I had won the race against band, crew and equipment! The chartered aircrafts - the band's VIP Airbus A319 and the Antonov An-124 carrying stage and equipment – were still sitting on the apron in Dubai when my flight took off. The crew had to travel on a scheduled aircraft via Munich while I had the pleasure to fly nonstop.
 

Less than 24 hours after my arrival from the U.A.E. I was already standing in front of the LTU arena to queue up for the gig that night. What a difference: more than 6 hours of flight to Dubai but just a drive of 15 minutes from my home to the LTU arena! Compared to Dubai it was terribly cold in Germany. So after long 7 hours of waiting I was happy that the doors were finally about to open. Due to some technical problems with the new electronic gates at the entrances it took another 45 minutes until we were finally allowed to enter.
Again I was lucky to get a place right at the barrier at the center of the stage. The roof of the arena was closed of course and the heating was turned on. So inside the stadium it was really comfortable.
As these two shows were played in favour of the Little Dreams Foundation, the LDF Band opened for Phil. This special support act was introduced by no-one else but Mr. Collins himself. He came out with some phonetic German written on his famous papers and announced the young talents. What they played was really good and their performance even made some of Phil's band members come out and watch them. Must have been great for the boys and girls to even get some attention from the likes of Luis Conte, Arnold McCuller & Co.
From the first moment on it was clear that we were going to see a magical night. Sometimes you can tell what makes such a concert special. I had seen 3 shows and a rehearsal concert before. I had been to concerts on three continents. But now as Phil was playing just 15 km away from my hometown the concert somehow was better than ever. I could not really say what it was but there was definitely something special going on between the band and the audience.
The drum intro was slightly extended and different than usual this time. A sea of lighters during songs like A Groovy Kind Of Love or One More Night was a great sight again. Once more I was honored by getting the microphone to sing "Sussudio" and right afterwards Phil even said something to me. Unfortunately it was too loud to get what it was. The only word I could clearly understand was "tomorrow" – no idea what the message should have been. I doubt that he really recognized me from Dubai but you never know.
As the first encore It's Not Too Late was back in the set. What a pleasure to see and hear this wonderful song again. When the show was over I was totally overwhelmed by this performance.
After meeting up with some fellow fans after the show I was finally at home around 2.00 am and had to get up early again to queue up for the second show.
The next day was a kind of groundhog day for me. I was at the arena around the same time as the day before and therefore had to wait another 7 hours. Same cold weather though we had a bit more sun towards the evening. This time the gates worked fine and my "pole position" in the queue resulted in a front row place again. Once more Phil introduced the LDF Band and they played a slightly different set than the day before. It was obvious that they were more relaxed that evening. The night before they still seemed to be a little bit nervous.
The concert itself was outstanding again – with a special surprise at the end. The drumparts were a bit more standard-like this time. The mood of this large audience was excellent again! Another full house of course. Phil was mentioning that tonight would be the last concert in Germany. This time I didn't sing Sussudio... So I guess what Phil said last night was something like "You won't get the mic tomorrow" or so.
Now for the surprise: After Sussudio when it's time for the encores usually either the singers come out with the band and do It's Not Too Late or Phil, Luis and Chester come out and play the drum intro to Take Me Home. This time it was different and therefore I expected a surprise. First Phil did a little speech mentioning again, that it was the last German concert "for the foreseeable future" (whatever that means...) and he thanked everyone for the support over the years. Then they did Always! It was absolutely awesame. This song is one of my all-time favourite covers Phil has ever done. I had expected a surprise maybe after I realised that this was the last concert in Germany and Always was likely to be it. But it was so great when they finally really did it! Phil fucked up one lyric line towards the end but nobody cared. It was really emotional and unforgettable! It's Not Too Late wasn't played and after Always they directly started the drum thing before Take Me Home.
When the concert was over I straightly headed home because the next morning I had to catch my flight to Dublin.

Another short night was ended by an early wake-up call. When I arrived at the airport and had just checked in I saw some well-known people coming towards the same check-in desk as me: Dave Rule (guitar technician), Alain Schneebeli & Michel Colin (sound engineers) among others. So at least some of Phil's road crew would be on my flight. I knew Michel Colin, Phil's front-of-house desk mixer, from the rehearsals so I said hello and talked to him while we walked past the security checks and customs. I even had the pleasure to talk to Bill Cantos' wife, Mari Falcone. They all told me that they had the option to travel to Dublin on the crew busses – a 24 hour ride! So they decided to fly to Dublin on their own.
Once I arrived in Dublin I met a friend of mine at the airport and we both headed for our hotel next to Temple Bar. After a little sightseeing in the afternoon we went to bed pretty early. I was enormously tired after this weekend: Thursday night a show in Dubai, Friday the flight back home, Saturday and Sunday the shows in Düsseldorf and now the flight to Dublin with the show the next night. I just needed a rest!
So after a good night's sleep and a relaxed morning in Dublin we started queueing at The Point in the early afternoon. So what's The Point? It used to be a tram depot decades ago and you still can see some railway tracks outside the building. The hall itself is very small compared to the venues I had been to before. Queueing in Dublin was better organized than in Germany although it was awfully cold and there was nothing around – not even toilets!
Doors opened on time and it was no problem to get to the front once more. The stage looked very cramped in the hall and they could not use all of the lights. At the beginning of the show Phil tried to speak some Gaelic but obviously without much success. After his last sentence the people in the audience all looked a bit puzzled. So he rumpled his notes, threw them away and from that moment on sticked to English. The audience seemed to be a bit lazy first but the longer the show went the more they sang along, clapped and enjoyed themselves. In the end they really did an outstanding job with the sing-along parts and cheered when Leland Sklar got a shamrock hat during Wear My Hat!
My impression was that Phil wasn't on top of his voice that night. At first it made me a little worried because I thought he might have done a bit too much in Düsseldorf. But the show went along without any flaw. The set was the same as on the first night in Düsseldorf and looking back it was the last time for me to see It's Not Too Late. As I heard afterwards they weren't sure about playing Always again. So after the soundcheck Phil let his singers decide and of course they chose It's Not Too Late.
Everyone who has seen a show no matter if in 2004 or 2005 knows about the unbelieveable bass on the intro to In The Air Tonight. In Dublin I heard the maybe heaviest bass I can remember. It was even underlined by the vibrating and buzzing wooden floor under the stage. I think if the intro would have lasted a little longer they would have blown the roof off The Point!
As The Point happens to be in walking distance from the city centre we didn't even have to take a bus or taxi back to the hotel. In the end it was a good decision to skip the second Dublin show in favour of a day off at home before my last trip to Glasgow.