Dubai Media City
Dubai Media City At that time, before the establishment of the ‘free zones’ in Dubai, in order to set up a company you needed to have a local 51% partner / sponsor. With the free zones came the opportunity for 100 % business ownership. Traditionally, it was common practice for investors to make arrangements with […]
Sunny with Occasional Rain | Dubai Beginnings
Dubai Beginnings Sunny with Occasional Rain Two things were becoming clear as I was moving towards a longer term commitment to Dubai and exploring the possibilities of staying perhaps for a year or two. First was that I would need to find a good sound engineer and second I would need to acquire some understanding […]
Sunny with Occasional Rain | Dubai Creek
Dubai Creek Sunny with Occasional Rain The Dubai Creek in the old part of town was historically the hub of life and survival for the young Emirate, as the graceful, hard working Arabic dhows plied the trade routes backwards and forwards around the seas of the Middle East and Asia. my first residence, unaptly named […]
Sunny with Occasional Rain | Leaving London
Leaving London Sunny with Occasional Rain It was a feeling of expectation mixed with a certain degree of finality when I arrived in Dubai may 1999. I had finally made definitive closure with my London life, 30 years of extraordinary memories and experiences, surfing on the rapids of the 70s music industry and the waves […]
Sunny with Occasional Rain | A Defining Meeting
A Defining Meeting Sunny with Occasional Rain Spiteri Part One I remember the night I met the two Spiteri brothers, Jorge and Charlie as though it were yesterday. It was just another regular London evening. I was heading back to my Notting Hill apartment, tired, probably a bit the worse for wear from long hours […]
Sunny with Occasional Rain | Forays into Production
Forays into production We had gained enormous confidence from the Polydor deal, but other plays were also in motion. As we were writing and looking for new ideas to develop, Rob was becoming much in demand as a musical director, Charlie was on the verge of signing a deal as an artist with EMI and […]
Sunny with Occasional Rain | Spencer Kirsch and Young
Spencer Kirsch and Young. Amazon Music Rob Young was a truly gifted musician. In virtuosity and orchestration he was in a special class but I had a flair for melody and we gelled well together as a writing team. We wanted to produce some of our song but needed a partner with access to funding if […]
Sunny with Occasional Rain | Dealing with a Problem
Back to the music days Early forays into production I had learned a lot about the way things worked in the music business, initially from my father, and later from my own experiences as a playing musician, which further exposed me to the kind of deals, offers, structures etc that could be negotiated with a […]
Sunny with Occasional Rain | Dealing with a Problem
Dealing with a Problem I have a new and strange medical condition-(of course like most people, I have several), but this most recent one is annoying, baffling and very intrusive -although thankfully not painful. I go to sleep quite normally and wake up almost in a monthly cycle with the left side of my face […]
Sunny with Occasional Rain | Bill Wellings
Bill Wellings Sunny with Occasional Rain I met Bill during the interim job phase at Music for Pleasure. He was an imposing looking guy, early fifties, tall, rugged featured with a slightly shuffling gait. He was quite fearsome in some ways, often dressed in casual, safari type clothing, looking more like a backwater hunter than […]