Syria Today Gorillaz article

There’s a new article on the Syria Today website which gives a ‘behind the scenes’ look at Gorillaz’ recent show there. Amongst the revelations is the fact that the ticket sales barely covered the Gorillaz’ 92-strong party’s hotel bill, and that the rest of the costs had to be covered by the promoters. There are new pictures too. Check it out on the Syria Today website here.

September 2010
Headlining Damascus

By A.H. Howard
Photos Carole al-Farah

At the Gorillaz press conference before their Damascus concert in July, a foreign journalist asked London rapper Bashy to give a shout-out to a prominent British radio DJ.

“Yo, this is your boy Bashy here in Damascus with Gorillaz, getting ready to drop the bomb – boom!” he obliged.

The Syrian reporters present, unaware of BBC Radio 1 Tim Westwood’s famous catchphrase “drop the bomb” – a metaphor for playing musical tracks – stirred nervously. Bashy, grinning and oblivious that his reference had disturbed the audience, then cocked his fingers like a pistol and fired off a few imaginary rounds.

However confusing, the event marked the convergence of the international music scene with Syria. Before Gorillaz, one of the only famous Western musicians to have performed in Syria was Enrique Iglesias, a fading Spanish pop star who gave a concert in Damascus in 2007. But while Iglesias’s slow, romantic ballads resemble popular Arab music, the genre-defying style of the Gorillaz marked the entrance of something entirely new to Syria. With their unprecedented concert, as well as the arrival of several big-name trance DJs to the Damascus party scene this summer, local music promoters say Syria is poised to become a regular destination for international acts.

Spurring dialogue

Under the careful leadership of Gorillaz’s front man Damon Albarn, Bashy’s gaffe was an exception to an otherwise smooth event that deftly combined British rock with traditional Arab music.

“It’s not random why we’re here, you know,” Albarn told Syria Today shortly before the concert at the Damascus Citadel on July 25. “We’re here to start a musical dialogue between Western and Middle Eastern musicians.”

Albarn is no stranger to blending musical genres and traditions. While he formerly fronted Blur, the iconic rock band that epitomised the 1990s ‘Britpop’ era, in 1999 he created Gorillaz with British cartoonist Jamie Hewlett. This ‘virtual band’ consists of four animated characters who form the visual front, freeing Albarn from the constraints of a regular band and allowing him to record with a diverse and rotating group of blues, rap, electronic and rock musicians.

In Damascus, Gorillaz included 64 musicians, among them blues legend Bobby Womack, the Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, Syrian-Lebanese rapper Eslam Jawaad and the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music. The latter performed alongside Bashy and fellow British rapper Kano for the track “White Flag” which features on the band’s new album Plastic Beach.

Albarn succeeded in his quest to blend Western and Arab music and the results will have lasting implications, Elizabeth White, director of the British Council in Damascus, said. The council helped organise the event. While international artists routinely stop at the nearby capitals of Beirut, Cairo and Amman as part of their tours, they have long skipped Damascus. This is slowly changing, White said. Foreign bands, she said, lack familiarity with Syria and the ‘axis of evil’ stigma against it, popularised by the former US presidential administration, aggravated this divide. It only takes one high-profile act to alter perceptions and, according to White, Gorillaz did just that.

“The fact that a band like Gorillaz can play here and prove that it works is significant,” she said. “There [was] electricity, a beautiful venue and an audience which gave them a better reception than they hoped for. It all worked so well. I think word is bound to spread.”

The rise of trance

Word has already spread within another musical genre. Over the past 12 months, a nascent scene for trance – fast-tempo, synthesised, electronic dance music – has taken hold in Syria. Khalid Hawasli, a well-known Syrian-Canadian who is a fixture in the Damascus dance club circuit, can be partly credited for this development. In 2009 he approached EQ, a Montreal-based promotions agency and suggested they sponsor concerts by trance DJs in Syria.

“Syrians have been going over to Beirut for a long time to see DJs,” Hawasli said. “It seemed so obvious to bring the music to Syria instead.”

Hawasli relied on EQ’s name and extensive contact list and in March he began coaxing progressively more famous DJs to perform in Damascus. As the acts became more prominent, his outdoor raves increased in popularity. In six months, Hawasli has organised four parties. The most recent event, at the Hacienda Club in Yafour on July 22, featured Dutch trance pioneer Ferry Corsten who was last year voted the seventh best DJ in the world by DJ Mag. The show attracted about 1,700 young Syrians who paid between SYP 1,500 (USD 32) to SYP 2,000 (USD 43) for entry.

When word got out that Corsten had played in Syria, other big names such as British DJs Above & Beyond clamoured to get on the bill. They will headline Damascus’s next dance party on October 7. Hawasli, who has started advertising his Damascus concerts in Beirut and Amman, is expecting to double his crowd.

“The Syrian nightlife scene has so much potential,” he said. “Give me two years and I will make it like Lebanon’s.”

Financing the fun

Before Damascus can become a regular on the region’s concert circuit, however, the shows must become profitable. While EQ, via Hawasli, is profiting from bringing DJs to Syria, Gorillaz took a financial hit to put on their Damascus gig.

A trance concert is cheap to host, with usually only one performer and his or her equipment. In contrast, shows put on by bands like the Gorillaz are expensive, complicated endeavours involving a large number of people and a huge volume of equipment. The SYP 3.3m (USD 70,000) raised from ticket sales barely covered the hotel bill for the 92 band and crew members, Naji Baz, chief executive officer of Buzz Productions which sponsored and promoted the event, said. Although he declined to give a specific figure, Buzz Productions covered all remaining costs including transportation, security, staging expenses and equipment.

“As a promoter you only get such an opportunity once in your career,” he said. “If you don’t take it without hesitation, then you don’t deserve to be in the industry.” The concert, he added, was “a completely unique event, made possible by a lot of good will from a lot of people.”

A lot of that good will came from the band. Albarn and fellow performers played for free, representing a six-figure loss of earnings for the group. In London, Gorillaz would be disappointed not to sell out a venue with 100,000 seats, Albarn said, with ticket prices starting at SYP 3,337 (USD 71). In Damascus, the band sold about 3,000 tickets for SYP 1,000 (USD 21) or SYP 1,500 (USD 32), giving middle class Syrians a chance to check out the performance.

The Gorillaz concert confirmed that there is a local audience keen to hear music outside the Arab tradition. However, the question of whether staging large-scale rock concerts in Syria can become economically viable remains unanswered. Similarly, the Iglesias concert in 2007 was not a money-making venture. Local firm LiBaladi and several other private Syrian businesses organised and financed the show, with proceeds going to charity. The trance parties, however, prove that international performers can be financially successful in Syria on a smaller scale. Baz said his company is now seeking and booking foreign rock bands with lower budgets to come to Damascus.

Although it was cumbersome, the Gorillaz show has kick-started a new period of dialogue between Western and Eastern music. Before the July show, a statement from Gorillaz said of the concert: “It shows that it is possible to perform there. This shouldn’t be a one-off gig – it should be the start of many, many bands going over there.”