“Luckily, the whole team survived the night!”
I have always wanted a Les Paul guitar, so much so that when I was a teenager, I built one for myself from scratch. Sadly, my playing skills were sorely lacking, and the idea of playing a gig at Wembley was shelved rather quickly! But it worked! And I was pretty chuffed with my engineering abilities. Many years later, for my 50th birthday, my wife bought me a Honey Burst Les Paul, with effects pedal and a small amp. With these, I could make a lot of noise, none of which was soothing to the ear! Guitar lessons were swiftly suggested to save us all, and I could not help but agree! I found a great teacher nearby and booked my first 30-minute slot for the following Saturday. On arrival at my teacher’s house, whose name was Jim, I saw the previous pupil leaving. His guitar was taller than he was! I went inside, and introductions were made. Jim asked me if I wanted to be able to read music, play the guitar, or both.
“I just want to play the guitar!” I grinned.
“Okay”, he said, “we are going to use what are called guitar tabs. This tells you which string to use and what fret to put your finger on. This only works if you already know the song you wish to learn.”
I nodded, supremely keen to get going.
Jim then handed me a piece of paper with the James Bond theme on it. I knew this song well, and by following the tabs, I was able to play something resembling a tuneful rendition of the James Bond theme on my Les Paul.
When I left 30 minutes later, I could now claim that I could play the guitar, even if it was only one song! This was roughly in 2003.
I continued my lessons with Jim every Saturday until I joined Etihad Airways in 2005. About 6 months in, the technical director suggested that we should have a ‘team building’ exercise somewhere in the desert. Everyone begrudgingly agreed, as is usually the way with corporate-organised fun. Once the date was arranged, the director asked me if I would be willing to play my guitar at the event. I agreed, my first gig! On my return to England, I swiftly booked a lesson with Jim and told him about my gig so he could help me put a set list together that I could hurriedly practice! We selected three songs, Albatross, Apache and Smoke On The Water. I practised these three songs for the next two weeks in my apartment in Abu Dhabi until the day arrived when we all ventured into the desert.
The first activity was ‘Dune Bashing.’ This is where you are loaded into a 4×4 and the driver races around the desert at high speed. It’s genuinely good fun, but if you ever decide to do this, I would strongly suggest not sitting in the back 2 seats, as 90% of the people who did were violently sick afterwards! Next came the options of a camel ride or driving a quad bike before we gathered for the team-building exercises. One of them was that a team of us had to work together to carry a single employee and feed them through a series of hoops. This was all very well, except for the fact that some of the team members were Arab women, and it is just not acceptable for people to put their hands on them, no matter how trivial this may seem to Westerners. The Director had no clue about this until I informed him about this very serious piece of etiquette. After much fuss from him, he agreed to swiftly cancel the exercise, much to the relief of pretty much the whole team. Other such activities were less culturally offensive but equally tedious and pointless, so I won’t waste my virtual ink.
After they finished, we were invited to dine in authentic Bedouin style, sitting on rugs in a large, cool tent. The food was excellent, and the after-dinner entertainment came in the form of belly dancers and my debut gig on a borrowed acoustic guitar! I have to say the gig went as well as it could have, but being an acoustic, it wasn’t very loud, and I immediately missed my electric guitar. I made it through my set and even got a round of applause, so I was pretty happy! I was glad when the Belly Dancers came out, though, it was time to let the professionals shine! Team members were invited to join the dancers, including myself, where we all made a complete arse of ourselves, but we definetly all bonded through the hilarity and humiilation. No alcohol was consumed at all during the event, which was probably for the best. After this, we settled down for the evening, and the tent was rearranged for us all to sleep in. It was a lovely, cool night, a calm, gentle breeze, and so, so quiet. It wasn’t long before we all fell asleep. I woke in the night to hear some loud scuttling on the rugs. I turned to see what it was and saw a thick swarm of scarab beetles. Believe me, they are enormous! At this point, I immediately sought the lofty refuge of a table rather than duke it out on the rugs with the Scarabs! After about an hour or so, they disappeared again into the sands, I made a note to do a head count in the morning to check for any missing team members!
Luckily, the whole team survived the night! After a light breakfast, our desert experience came to an end, we were loaded into mini buses and taken to a hotel where we could freshen up. After that, we returned to the head office for a full day of work. Team building my arse! About a week later, I was back in England to go out for dinner with friends. We went to a lovely pub called The Parrot in Forest Green. It was owned by Gary Brooker, a member of the band Procol Harum, who famously wrote Whiter Shade Of Pale. Because of this, a lot of musicians tended to frequent this establishment. As we walked past the bar to the restaurant at the back, I saw Jim, my guitar teacher, sitting at the bar.
He saw me too, turning as he said, “David! How was the gig in the desert?!”
Several gentlemen at the bar turned towards us at this point, intrigued by our conversation.
“The gig was excellent”, I replied, “I think I might do it again!”
But I never did.
This was a great experience for me and all of us, mainly just so I could say I played my first gig, and to see the beauty of the desert in an authentic Arabian setting. But in my opinion, if you want to build a good team, listen to their needs and motivate them properly, rather than just thinking up pointless exercises. Be professional and respectful rather than pretending to be.
If you’re team has a solid foundation, then it will never crumble. Which is one of the main philosophies behind Dalriada.
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