Six centuries ago, the English folk hero Robin Hood and his bandit gang allegedly ran riot in the rolling green woodland surrounding the city of Nottingham. Last weekend, more than 100,000 outlaws of a different kind gathered in nearby Castle Donington. Clad in leather and chains, tattoos and torn jeans, the heavy metal hordes arrived in their thousands to celebrate the world's biggest hard rock festival: Download.
Perched on the edge of a motor racing track, directly under the take-off flightpath of East Midlands Airport, Download lacks some of the idyllic rural charm of Glastonbury or Womad. But it still overlooks the lush green heartland of Middle England and remains one of the most genuinely friendly events on the rock calendar. Heavy metal fans share a warm communal bond, and a self-deprecating sense of humour, that you will not find at any other festival.
Castle Donington holds an almost mythical significance in Britrock folklore. It can hardly be a coincidence that almost every major UK metal star was born within an hour of here. Birmingham and the surrounding West Midlands produced Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, the Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and dozens more. Both Motörhead's Lemmy and Slash from Guns N' Roses, bizarrely, grew up in the nearby industrial town of Stoke-on-Trent. Nottinghamshire gave the world Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, South Yorkshire produced Def Leppard - the list goes on and on. There really must be something in the water here.
Although Download itself was only launched in 2003, this year's event was billed as a 30th anniversary celebration of its fabled forerunner, Monsters of Rock. The two biggest stages were named in tribute to the festival's original promoter, Maurice Jones and the rocker Ronnie James Dio, both of whom died in recent months.
As a statement of your megabucks supergroup power, bringing your own full-sized stage to a rock festival ranks pretty highly. Arrivals at the Donington site were greeted with the bizarre spectacle of two main stages squatting side by side, the right one reserved exclusively for Friday night's headliners AC/DC. Presumably this grandiose act of one-upmanship was designed to allow the Anglo-Australian hard rock veterans to mount their full special-effects spectacular, which included a full-sized steam train crashing through the back of the stage, blazing pyrotechnics and a gargantuan inflatable woman.
For a band so utterly devoid of style, wit or originality, AC/DC were surprisingly entertaining. Almost every song, even all-time classics such as Highway to Hell and YouShook Me All Night Long, essentially consisted of basic 12-bar blues super-sized to stadium-rock dimensions. The shorts-wearing, school-uniformed guitarist Angus Young and the ungainly, gravel-voiced singer Brian Johnson made an unsavoury pair, their lyrics thick with relentlessly smutty, leering innuendo. And yet their performance was propulsive, dynamic and undeniably funky. AC/DC may offer an incredibly conservative product, but nobody sells more than 200 million albums by putting on a dull show.
In recent years, heavy metal has seen a similar multi-generational shift towards more mainstream rock, with both fans and bands heading into middle age together. Download has increasingly reflected this trend, with the upper end of the bill becoming something of a showcase for recently reformed or reactivated rock veterans from the 1970s and 1980s.
Even this year's youngest headliners, Rage Against The Machine, have a 20-year history and originally disbanded a decade ago. Although the politically radical Los Angeles quartet have been largely dormant since then, they were catapulted back into the limelight last Christmas by a Facebook campaign to make their 1992 single Killing in the Name a Number One hit in Britain, which was organised by fans primarily to deny the coveted slot to Simon Cowell's Pop Idol winner Joe McElderry. Mission accomplished.
A week before Download, Rage played a free show in London to thank their fans and affirm their opposition to vacuous production-line pop idols. Introducing Know Your Enemy at Donington, the band's singer Zack de la Rocha declared: "This isn't about Simon Cowell, but it might be about what he represents."
Later in their two-hour set of slamdancing funk-rock and blast-furnace polemic, the outspoken frontman also paid tribute to "our brothers and sisters in Palestine", demanding that western governments challenge Israel over its "brutal blockade of Gaza".
Promising new acts seemed thinner on the ground at this year's Download, although the spiky-haired Hollywood pin-up Jared Leto's melodic pop-metal outfit 30 Seconds To Mars sounded polished and lively enough to escape the curse of being a famous actor's vanity project.
The former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash also drew a huge and appreciative crowd with his latest glam-metal collective, even if they turned out to be essentially a pale copy of his old band. Predictably, they earned their biggest cheers with the ancient GNR hits Sweet Child o' Mine and Paradise City.
Britain may host more rock festivals than any other nation, but this wet little cluster of islands also has the most notoriously unreliable summer weather. Alas, after two dry days, the clouds gathered over Donington on Sunday and Download turned into "Downpour". Heavy rain dampened Billy Idol's lightweight pop-punk sneering and Motörhead's grizzled biker-rock grunting, but at least comic relief was at hand in the form of Steel Panther, a superbly well-observed parody of 1980s poodle-metal bands. With their sleazy lyrics and highly realistic pastiche songs, this big-haired LA quartet brought some much-needed levity to a drab, drizzly, muddy afternoon.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The essentials
What: Emirates Airline Festival of Literature
When: Friday until March 9
Where: All main sessions are held in the InterContinental Dubai Festival City
Price: Sessions range from free entry to Dh125 tickets, with the exception of special events.
Hot Tip: If waiting for your book to be signed looks like it will be timeconsuming, ask the festival’s bookstore if they have pre-signed copies of the book you’re looking for. They should have a bunch from some of the festival’s biggest guest authors.
Information: www.emirateslitfest.com
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Profile of Bitex UAE
Date of launch: November 2018
Founder: Monark Modi
Based: Business Bay, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: Eight employees
Investors: Self-funded to date with $1m of personal savings
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
'Saand Ki Aankh'
Produced by: Reliance Entertainment with Chalk and Cheese Films
Director: Tushar Hiranandani
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Prakash Jha, Vineet Singh
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
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If you go
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Chicago from Dh5,215 return including taxes.
The hotels
Recommended hotels include the Intercontinental Chicago Magnificent Mile, located in an iconic skyscraper complete with a 1929 Olympic-size swimming pool from US$299 (Dh1,100) per night including taxes, and the Omni Chicago Hotel, an excellent value downtown address with elegant art deco furnishings and an excellent in-house restaurant. Rooms from US$239 (Dh877) per night including taxes.
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The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
