Guns and Roses in Qatar

First the guns. Even from a distance, something looked wrong. The unnaturally tapered barrel, the wholly impractical wheel pattern: surely these couldn't be real?
guns, of sorts
And real they are not, fashioned entirely out of fibreglass and as useful as a chocolate fireplace. But I suppose not out of place in a town that builds Venice's Grand Canal inside a shopping mall.

roses, posing
And these are the two singers and one keyboard man who constitute the replacement for Boggs & the girls. They're trying hard, but its not an improvement. The phrase keyboard karaoke comes to mind.
All is not lost on the music scene, however. Ramada's Orion bar is now hosting a Sri Lankan trio of piano (real piano), acoustic guitar and female vocalist. Career musicians, and no youngsters, this outfit uses no synthetic or recorded backing of any kind. If they stop playing, the music stops! Salon music, not too loud, well played and sung, and eminently listenable.

Comments

  1. Very interesting post about life in Qatar, and not at all what I expected it to be about. I thought maybe you were going to talk about Guns and Roses visiting Qatar, but I never really did follow the band.

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  2. Greetings Jewel - thanks for the visit! The most amazing thing about Qatar is how fast it changes physically through manic demolition and construction, and how slowly it changes in its manners and customs. The Guns & Roses title was a pretty obvious hook - sorry about that! And they're not my favourite band either (though the Seaview band in Dubai covers them better than most).

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