The UAE has enjoyed a long, lively love affair with Guns N’ Roses – but now, we are ready to take that relationship to a whole new level.
Over the years, there have been multiple visits from both of the band’s main players, and a few loyal sidemen. But tomorrow, audiences will see Axl Rose and Slash together on the same stage in the UAE for the first time.
The Not in This Lifetime... Tour, which kicked off last April, features guitar hero Slash and bassist Duff McKagan back in the band for the first time in 23 years. But over the past decade – during which the idea of such a “classic line-up” reunion was just a misty-eyed dream – loyal local fans have lapped up numerous chances to bathe in the bittersweet GN’R afterglow.
In early 2008, Slash and McKagan stole the show at Dubai Desert Rock Festival in the band Velvet Revolver – which also featured former Gunners drummer Matt Sorum. It was one of the supergroup’s final gigs before vocalist Scott Weiland quit to rejoin Stone Temple Pilots.
Nearly three years later, Axl brought his version of Guns N' Roses to Yas Island, in late 2010, on the final stretch of the band's decade-long tour in support of Chinese Democracy – the wildly delayed, sole non-Slash LP that was eventually released to global chagrin in 2008.
One of that version of the band's bit-part players was to prove a perennial UAE visitor. Guitar virtuoso Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal first appeared at Dubai's Hard Rock Cafe in 2012 to help local rockers Point of View launch their strong debut album Revolutionize the Revolutionary.
It was the beginning of a long-running relationship with the award-winning UAE band, which culminated in a joint tour of India, and follow-up gigs at The Fridge in 2013 and The Music Room in 2014.
When Axl brought his GN’R back to du Arena in 2013, Bumblefoot appeared onstage in a Point of View T-shirt.
On Friday, the PoV relationship reach another level, as the Dubai rockers to support the reformed Guns N’ Roses at the Autism Rocks Arena.
Axl's 2013 concert came just weeks after Slash brought his solo tour to Dubai Tennis Stadium, with a band that featured singer Myles Kennedy. They performed six GN'R classics, all from 1987 breakthrough album Appetite for Destruction.
The number of Guns N’ Roses tribute bands who have played The Music Room in Dubai would be embarrassing to count, if they had not proved to be so fun. A planned visit to the same venue by Gilby Clarke – GN’R’s rhythm guitarist during the world-conquering glory years of 1991 to 1994 – was cancelled in 2015, as was a gig at Abu Dhabi’s The Exchange Lounge, allegedly due to security concerns on the United Kingdom leg of the tour.
If all this proves anything, it is that the GN’R’s legacy runs far deeper than the fetishised early line-up. Even the touring juggernaut of the early 90s starred three non-founder members – Clarke, Sorum, and keyboardist Dizzy Reed, who joined in 1990 and is the only member aside from Rose to have enjoyed uninterrupted membership since then.
Friday night, then, is just the latest chapter in the ongoing love affair between UAE audiences and Guns N’ Roses – and don’t count on it being the last.
rgarratt@thenational.ae
WEST ASIA RUGBY 2017/18 SEASON ROLL OF HONOUR
Western Clubs Champions League
Winners: Abu Dhabi Harlequins
Runners up: Bahrain
Dubai Rugby Sevens
Winners: Dubai Exiles
Runners up: Jebel Ali Dragons
West Asia Premiership
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Runners up: Abu Dhabi Harlequins
UAE Premiership Cup
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UAE Premiership
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Jebel Ali Dragons 26 Bahrain 23
Dragons
Tries: Hayes, Richards, Cooper
Cons: Love
Pens: Love 3
Bahrain
Tries: Kenny, Crombie, Tantoh
Cons: Phillips
Pens: Phillips 2
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
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'O'
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THE LOWDOWN
Photograph
Rating: 4/5
Produced by: Poetic License Motion Pictures; RSVP Movies
Director: Ritesh Batra
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Farrukh Jaffar, Deepak Chauhan, Vijay Raaz
PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES
Saturday (UAE kick-off times)
Watford v Leicester City (3.30pm)
Brighton v Arsenal (6pm)
West Ham v Wolves (8.30pm)
Bournemouth v Crystal Palace (10.45pm)
Sunday
Newcastle United v Sheffield United (5pm)
Aston Villa v Chelsea (7.15pm)
Everton v Liverpool (10pm)
Monday
Manchester City v Burnley (11pm)
MATCH INFO
Crawley Town 3 (Tsaroulla 50', Nadesan 53', Tunnicliffe 70')
Leeds United 0
