Dubai: Sandance’s first event of 2012 – the next is April 6 with Kaiser Chiefs -- got the musical year off to a strong start with M People, DJ Yoda, Snow Patrol, Calvin Harris and DJ Erick Morrillo partying with more than 12,000 fans on the Nasimi sands.
After battling a traffic bottleneck on The Palm, the crowd poured into the beachside Atlantis venue to hear Heather Small – looking incredible in a body con dress – perform hits Movin On Up with her band, M People as the sun set.
As the line up suggests, there was something for everyone – and DJ Yoda alone provided a surprising variety with his pop-culture-heavy hip hop set. What do we mean by that? Well think a remix of the Super Mario Bros theme; Beastie Boys laid over a video of Sesame Street; and hip hop beats to YouTube classic videos of light sabre battling cats.
But it was Northern Irish soft rockers Snow Patrol that many in the crowd were there to see, as the packed mass of people squeezed in front of the stage testified.
“You’re in fine voice tonight,” called out lead singer Gary Lightbody, after the 12,000 had sung along heartily to one of the band’s biggest hits, Chasing Cars.
Lightbody himself was in fine voice, giving perfect live versions of “Run”-- most successfully covered by Leona Lewis -- “Take Back The City” and their most recent radio hit, “This Isn’t Everything You Are”. After praising the Atlantis to the moonlit skies, Lightbody apologised to anyone who had tried to take a picture with him in the hotel earlier.
“I was wearing shorts, and have very skinny legs. You don’t want a picture of that,” he said. Another chatty Lightbody highlight? When he spotted an audience member who was dressed in a cardboard box covered in silver foil with “Snow Patrol” written on it. He took the costume onstage with him and put it on. “Fits me like a glove,” he laughed. “Or like a box.”
The band finished up with hits “Open Your Eyes” and “Just Say Yes” -- a track they had offered to Gwen Stefani which she said no to – before Scottish DJ Calvin Harris took the stage. Lightbody dedicated a song to Harris, adding “and Calvin, I have that money I owe you.”
