On a hot sweaty night here in Dubai, Deacon Blue performed to a packed crowd of over 2500 people at The Irish Village. Getting towards the end of the season for outdoor shows, it seemed like the world and his wife had turned up for the event, and Ricky Ross & Co, didn't disappoint. As the local Gulf News put it: "Fans were treated to a rousing selection of the band's hits...coming over crystal clear from a superbly balanced PA system. Usually, bands at this venue tend to be a bit muddled soundwise in the early part of their shows, with instrusive bases drowning the vocals. But from the very first note, lead singers Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh were coming over a treat" Great words indeed, and high praise for our Audio Engineers Rob Turner and Alex Hore, well done chaps!
The Dubai show followed their previous night's gig at The Club in Abu Dhabi, which we also covered. So from our side, back to back gigs, in different Emirates meant that Saturday was a day of sleep in the calendar!

The first ever ‘hair’event of its kind in the Middle East was recently presented to an invited audience at the Al Bustan Hotel in Dubai. The entire production took over six months of careful planning, design and consultancy to ensure a stunning and memorable event.

John Henrys Operation Manager, Andrew McLeod, handled every element of the event, from the initial designs through to the construction of the set, lighting, audio and show production. With hundreds of VIP’s and invited guests, international stylists from Europe, models from all over the world and the renowned Tap Dogs performing live on stage, the event captivated the audience and received fantastic reviews in local and trade press.

Indeed, it has just been announced that the event was awarded gold at the International Advertising Association awards, holding off competition from Virgin and Marlboro to name but a few. With over 600 nominations to contend with, the Wella / John Henrys production was voted the best Special Event in the Middle East, a well deserved success to all involved, and another satisfied client.

For the fifth year, the "adidas Streetball Challenge" returned to Dubai, at the Global Village. Once again we supplied Audio, Lighting, Structures, Offices, Toilets and DJ for this highly popular event.
This year over 420 teams took part over the two day period of Thursday and Friday 24th/25th.
Along with the main Audio system next to the centre court, we also supplied the highly versatile Toa horn system to take annoucements over the whole site. Grandstand seating was also supplied by us, along with the organiser's offices and toilets etc. As our client's have come to rely on, we supplied the complete solution for the event!

For a successfull launch of the world's best selling Alcho-Pop here in Dubai, MMI approached us to supply all lighting and sound requirements for the event at The Jumeirah Beach Club on Monday.
The event was packed with bar managers from the largest chains in the Emirates and the evening was filled with promotions and games to get the Smirnoff message across. Following the colour scheme of Ice we lit the whole area in white light, and then picked out the bars and DJ areas, whilst also moving gobos around the area. As part of their promotion, the 'Commando Girls' will be visiting various bars throughout the month, so as they made their entrance we filled the place with smoke and created the 'ambush' effect. So if you're planning a product launch either inside or out, talk to us and we can give you a multitude of ideas to make your event get people's attention.

'cos we were all at DIMC! The weekly beach party we supply lights & sound for held at Le Meridien Mina Seyahi was taken to a New Year climax on Monday night. We put in place a 15m x 18m ground support structure, with an EAW 850 system placed in each corner pointing onto the dance floor which had been built on the beach. The team of Rob Turner on Audio and Kris Collier on Lights made sure all went smoothly, whilst DJ Karl Baker got the crowd to fever pitch as the New Year dawned and kept the momentum going into the small hours of the 1st.
Further down the beach the Caledonian Society held their Hogmannay Ball, so inside their impressive marquee we installed a small EAW 850 system, lights and backline. Alex Hore, (looking very dapper in his suit!) took care of Audio, whilst new man on the team Russell Jude VanBuerle was on Lighting duty. Now back to reality, everything's been pulled out and back in the warehouse, well until we load in for this Friday's show there! See you there if you can make it..........and a Happy New Year from all the crew here at John Henry's Overseas Ltd!

The annual conference for Wella was event managed by us, working closely with our preferred suppliers.

The venue, Al Maha resort, is approximately 60kms from Dubai. The greatest challenge was the logistics of moving PA, lights, AV, generators, marquees and toilet units into the desert site. With no access roads, we used 4x4 vehicles and 6x6 trucks and cranes to place all the required equipment.

The four day build up included ground compaction to ensure the site was suitable for the structures being built. Yet another service we offer in the desert! The two day event went as planned with no problems, the only trouble we had was the lack of mobile phone reception! A long walk to the top of a dune made calls possible…..sometimes!

The concept worked so well that there has been interest in creating a package for the resort to offer to potential corporate clients. What better way to attract the attention of your delegates than by sending them to a 5 star desert retreat, where their mobiles don’t work!

When it comes to creative ideas and solutions, we can do it all, again! For the recent launch of their new model, Audi chose to work with us and take advantage of our skills, experience and creative thinking.

Linking the new A8 to its racing heritage, we designed and built a replica of the Le Mans pit lane on the beach at Le Meridien Hotel in Dubai! Adding to the authenticity, Audi air freighted the winning R8 car from the Le Mans 2000 race. This car took pride of place during the launch (well it is valued at over £1,000,000!) alongside the new A8.

Taking only four days from initial load in to load out, the stage area was over 30 metres in width and 20 metres in depth. Our new ground support system allowed us to offer a clear span while using a vast quantity of intelligent lighting and a flown EAW KF850 PA system.

The invited guests were pampered with a four course dinner in a marquee adjacent to the launch site, entertained by a jazz band and two Sony videowalls. At the appointed time, the sides of the structure were removed and the guests found themselves in the midst of the pit lane with all of the associated noise and smells! The impressive Audi A8 W12 made its entrance along the pit lane to the equally impressive opera score chosen specifically for the event.

Another successful event and a very satisfied client!

To start their Asian tour, Danish rockers Michael Learns To Rock visited Dubai on Thursday October 25th and John Henry’s were there again supplying all the Production; Stage, Lights & Sound. The event was held before a sold-out crowd at the Nad Al Sheba race course – home of the world famous Dubai World Cup (the richest horse race in the world).

We built the stage between the racecourse and the winner’s enclosure and put our newly acquired Thomas ground-support system on top. The ground support consisted of a 3-truss system, with a fourth truss behind on scaff towers. This system managed to carry all the moving lights their LD requested and the positive response from the public and the newspapers made it all worthwhile! So after a 2 hour set including an acoustic show in the middle, off they went into the night, or more true, to the aftershow party!

Well it's a hard life here in the Gulf. Between October 15th and 19th our crew spent the week down at the Gitex Shopper Exhibition, looking after the catwalk, lights and sound that we built for the T2 Technology Fashion Show. Every day it was models, models, and more models. Strange, everyone wanted to work that gig!
Our ground support raised everything high above the catwalk, with a 27 x 18 metre box, on top of 9m legs. All sound and lights were hung from the truss and on the stage part of the catwalk we erected a 3 x 3 Sony video wall. Kris was placed at the end of the catwalk with a live camera, this image was then mixed onto the main screen in between stock video footage by Jay. Bob and Alex took care of the Audio side, whilst Dave handled lighting duties.
5 shows a day, kept us busy, whilst in-between shows our guys got the chance to trawl the halls and spend their hard earnt dosh on the latest techno gadgets!

After two successful shows in Oman for the British troops, Oct 10th saw Geri Halliwell fly into Dubai for the first of the seasons large shows in the Tennis Stadium.

Supported by Dane Bowers the evening started with Dane and his dancers taking the stage to much applause. When Geri came on the crowd went mad. Performing all her latest songs, including album title "Scream If You Want To Go Faster", the ex. Spice Girl wowed the crowd with slick dance routines accompanied by her four male and four female dancers.

It was the encore from just released in the UAE "Bridget Jones' Diary" that got the crowd to fever pitch. Complete with umbrellas and storm effects, the evening ended on a high.

For us here at John Henry's though, that was only the beginning. We had supplied all the Event Production, Stage, Lights, Sound, Audio Visual and Crew, so it was now time to de-rig and get some of the gear the 153km's South-West from Dubai to the UAE's capital Abu Dhabi.

At 6 o'clock in the morning we all arrived in Abu Dhabi, to set up the show again, this time at the Abu Dhabi Hilton, in their new arena, The Hilton Beach Club.

So within 12 hours we were ready to go again, and on came Dane, followed by Geri, this time to a slightly smaller crowd, but nonetheless enthusiastic. After the show a well earned beer by the beach bar for all, and then it was back to Dubai for Gitex, but that's another story!