Photo credit: Gulf News

It’s hard to think that this happened over 5 years ago now. SLB wearing denim and trainers on stage. Unspeakable! But very nice indeed. By the way, this post had been in my draft folder in all this time!

Flashbacks of lazy Sunday mornings came back to me when I would do house chores with Arena playing in the background in our tiny cassette player. That was the first record my father bought for me. I played that tape to death! I was worried that the player would actually act up and catch the tape and tear it, but it didn’t. Trusty little thing.

I was actually glad that I waited all this time to see them up close, in person because I have appreciation for their music and not just their pretty English looks anymore. And seeing these two interact on stage was just freakin’ fantastic! Every 80s child’s dream come true.

Dom and JT together was a feast for the eyes and the ears. They played well together. And JT’s blue bangs made it to the Dubai show. That was playful and cute. Of course, everyone was looking forward to the solos and chanted for JT to “Play that fuckin’ bass, John!”. Simon was worried that we would not be allowed to swear, but hey, it’s a Duran Duran concert, you cannot not scream for JT to play that fuckin’ bass.

I had a brief moment of fame prior to the intro to The Reflex, one that is etched in my mind forever. Simon asked if there was a male volunteer in the audience and I quickly pointed to the guy standing next to me. He saw me so he started to make his way down from the stage, and there I was internally freaking out! He squeezed past the cameramen and the security guys and stood in front of the guy I just pointed. Literally inches away from me. *high pitched screaming* I took a selfie but it was awful because I was shaking with excitement. I mean, I waited 28 years for this moment, come on! Anyway, I did wave hi to him as he walked towards us and gingerly held his arm that was resting on the railing and he didn’t mind. Only after he walked away that I realized I should have asked for a hug! Ugh!!!!

Also they had huge a screen up on the top of the stage so that was all caught on tape. You can see my hat and my bespectacled fat face next to the guy in the crowd. A friend who was watching in the stalls sent me a text message saying “I see you!”. That was so cool. Thank goodness someone posted this on YouTube or I would not have proof!

Members of the media were also taking pictures of the audience so here’s me and a group of other people (including Lesley who I met in person for the first time that evening) just before the show started. Yes, I wore a woolly knitted hat and a waterproof jacket. It was March, it was cold out at night.

This was their set list for Dubai as taken from JT’s website:
BEFORE THE RAIN-PLANET EARTH-VIEW TO A KILL-ALL YOU NEED IS NOW-REFLEX-COME UNDONE-SAFE-NOTORIOUS-GIRL PANIC-TIGER TIGER-WHITE LINES-ORDINARY WORLD-HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF-SUNRISE-WILD BOYS (GIRLS ON FILM)-RIO

Just realized that I still had an iPhone 4 at the time because one of the tags on this post was iPhone 4 Photos. How time flies!