Dubai Forums Dubai Discussions Dubai General Chat

Personally I think this is a bit ridiculous. The song in question was written 25 years ago!!!! And the band haven't played it since the 1980's. Far more offensive artists have played here. Plus the arabic version of Emirates Today which started all the fuss, took the song lyrics out of context. The band were singing about historical things. It wasn't their personal opinion. So are the authorities going to dig into the past of every act that comes here and ban them for earlier indescretions? What about Chris DeBurgh? He's done the same, no-one stopped him coming. Interesting to note this is all because of two, count em TWO people!

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06 ... 25024.html

Show Must Go On
Monday, 13 March 2006


Heavy metal legends Saxon will not be performing at this year’s Dubai Desert Rock Festival after outrage in the UAE over one of their songs from the 1980s, which includes lyrics about freeing the Holy Land and spilling Muslim blood.

Concert organisers, Centre Stage Management (CSM) said yesterday that Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) had withdrawn permission for the band to perform on Thursday “without citing a specific reason.”

However, CSM said that controversy created by the publication of the song’s lyrics in local media had influenced the decision.

“Band members were immediately labelled in most Arabic newspapers as racists, Arab haters, who wanted to put all Muslims to the sword,” Joann Shams, business development manager for CSM said.

No one from the DTCM was available for comment yesterday. Last week, a local Arab paper translated and published the lyrics to Saxon’s 1984 song ‘Crusader’ and said:

“The question here for the band and the organisers is what will Saxon do in Dubai’s land and on Arabian sands? Are they going to make us, the Saracen heathens, taste their music just as if their guitars were swords made of steel.”

“Saxon...calls for the mass extermination of Arabs,” the article added. CSM said the band’s management was informed last night and that they expressed “shock” over the decision.

The latest entry on Saxon’s web site said yesterday: “The band is just preparing for their first Dubai appearance and looking forward to it”.

Saxon had been scheduled to arrive on Thursday morning and perform alongside five other bands, including Megadeth, at Desert Rock. More than 4,000 tickets have been sold so far and organisers expect 8,000 to turn up