Musicians and artists from across the UAE and the region will come together for a tribute concert to honour late legends on November 18 at The Music Room in Dubai.
Organised by Musicians United, a multi-genre underground group, Lost Legends will feature music by everyone from Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon to Michael Jackson.
“We’ve all been influenced by artists and bands that have left an impression on our musical preferences, musical styles and even in our habits and culture,” said Vin Nair, founder of Musicians United. “An artist of Michael Jackson’s stature will never walk the face of this earth [again] and he’s just one name who has had an impact on millions all around the world.”
Kram Zurc from Up The Ante, one of the groups performing, added: “The music we play today has been heavily influenced by some of the greats, some of whom we’ve lost over the years; this is our way of saying thank you to those legends.”
Ahead of the event, Gulf News tabloid! introduces you to some of the performers.
UP THE ANTE
Up The Ante are an all Filipino, multi-award winning band formed in the UAE in November 2013. Winners of the Global Village Band Challenge in 2015 and Classic Rock Coffee Battle the same year, they are a band that have had their share of tragedies. In early 2015, their bassist, John, was killed in a skateboarding accident. They came back from that and reunited to continue delivering high energy concerts. They will pay tribute to The Beatles and Queen’s Freddie Mercury.
OVERDRIVE
Overdrive’s members come from all over the world. The conception of the band is quite unique, with each member coming from a very different musical back ground, from blues all the way to death metal. Their only one goal is to have fun playing music and wreak havoc along the way.
DOMINION
UAE’s first real super band that likens itself to ‘Kings of Chaos in the USA’ was formed in August 2016 and is the brainchild of Vin Nair, frontman of Vin Sinners and Stanley Joseph, lead guitarist of Loose Cannons. The band’s focus is to have musicians from different backgrounds and interests unite to play gigs with the intention of creating a performance that is all about improvisation. Dominion will pay tribute to Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead, Jon Lord of Deep Purple, Ronnie James Dio, Jim Morrison of The Doors and Cliff Burton of Metallica.
EXIT 43
This band has been around the circuit for several years. Led by Mike Atallah on vocals and guitars, Nadeem on bass guitars, Nabil Shubassi on the keyboards and a recent addition of Gilbert Haddad on drums, the band has moved towards a progressive sound in recent times. Their big influences are Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Dio, Savatage and Pink Floyd, to name some. The band plays classic rock that most have grown up to.
NASER MESTARIHI
Naser Mestarihi is a Qatari-born Jordanian-Pakistani singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is based in Dubai. He is the first rock musician to ever officially release a rock album out of Qatar, the Naser Mestarihi EP. He released his second album, 1987, in 2013. Naser released is third album Praed Street, a collaboration with drumming giant Cobus Potgieter, in March 2016.
Naser composes all his music and lyrics, including drums. He also co-produces all his albums and handles all the musical arrangements. Although Naser will play mostly original tracks, his influences are from plenty of the biggest legends of our time.
ETERNITY MINSTRELS
In September, a bunch of progressive metal enthusiasts came together to form Eternity Minstrels. Comprising a line-up of talented musicians with diverse backgrounds, and mashing musical influences of rock and heavy metal, the band features Ali Joseph on bass, Gilbert Haddad on drums, Fadi Stanboulieh on guitars, Karim Al Khayat on guitars and frontman Rajiv Sehgal.
The band took to the stage for the first time at the Musicians United’s Great American Rock and Metal Tribute, and immediately took the local music scene by storm, gaining recognition as a high energy metal band with tremendous technical proficiency. The band is renowned for its improvised covers of popular artists.
OTHER ARTISTS
MUDASSAR JACKSON
Mudassar has been awarded by MTV in 1999, for and as the “World’s Best Michael Jackson Tribute Artist” for Live Vocal and Dance. He has performed live at various venues in UAE and across gulf. He will play some of the biggest songs of the late King of Pop along with members of the band Dominion and will also perform solo on the night.
ALAA AL FAQIR
Alaa Al Faqir has taken the UAE’s guitar world by storm over the past year or so. Originally from Jordan, he was one of the featured ‘Lords of the Strings’ at a Musicians United event in August. Alaa will join Mudassar Jackson on one Michael Jackson’s classics called Give in to me. He will also join Dominion to play tribute to his favourite guitar player Gary Moore.
HAITHAM AL KHATIB
Haitham is a veteran of the local music scene in the UAE, playing with his band Xceed. Originally from Lebanon, Haitham has resided in the UAE for many years. He is regarded as one of the greatest classic rock voices in the country with an uncanny ability to hit a high range of notes.
Don’t miss it
Tickets to Lost Legends are priced Dh70. Call 04-3598888.
