The Wanton Bishops need a break. The members of the Lebanese rock band are four months into a European tour. On Friday, July 31, they land in Dubai for a one-off gig, then fly to Los Angeles to record an album, before heading back on the road for more gigs in Europe and North Africa. The duo don’t expect to have a week off – or any time at home in Beirut – before December.
“Man, you know what the road’s like,” says frontman Nader Mansour with a sigh. Surely it’s a dream life, right?
“It’s a dream before you do it,” says the 31-year-old. “People say: ‘You’ll see all these new cities every day’, but all you see is a hotel room – and you try not to jump out of the window.”
The band – a rough, lo-fi, garage-blues indie outfit – are on tour to promote a new version of their debut album. First released regionally in 2012, Sleep With the Lights On is an infectious haze of grizzled blues grooves, weeping guitars, wailing harmonicas and growled chants.
It was remastered and repackaged, with four extra tracks, for a global release this year, and the subsequent promotional tour of France, Germany, Holland and Morocco has seen the duo anointed as international ambassadors of the Middle East’s underground rock scene.
“Without wanting to be, or claiming to be, we are [ambassadors],” says Mansour. “There’s a lot of responsibility with that – and we’re not very responsible people.”
While Mansour makes no effort to sugar-coat life on the road, he takes comfort from the warm welcome the band have received from European crowds.
“They know the lyrics better than me, which is very helpful,” he says.
Marketed abroad as a “Lebanese Black Keys” – a comparison the bemused singer says is “not accurate, but I take it with a big smile” – the Bishops’s Middle Eastern heritage is proving to be a mixed blessing.
“There’s a lot of interest in the exotic story, but then you’ve got to twist that into an interest in the music itself,” Mansour says. “That’s a hard thing to do – everybody looks at you like some kind of exotic fruit.”
With their ragged leather- and-denim get-up, tattoos, scraggly facial hair, hedonistic intent and late-night lyrics, The Wanton Bishops make success look easy. But it wasn’t.
“I’m going to sound douchey and preachy when I say this, but [as a band] you’ve got to accept that in the first two or three years you’re not going to make a penny,” he says. “And you’ve got to accept that more than 60 per cent of what you do won’t be music, it will be Skype calls and stuff like that – and it’s very frustrating.”
After all that toil, and having finally arrived at the point where they “have people around to do those things so you can do music”, potential disaster struck this year.
Much has been made of The Wanton Bishops’s mythological backstory – Mansour came to co-founder Eddy Ghossein’s aid in a fist fight outside Beirut’s Bar Louie – but that bromance could have been shattered when the latter announced he was backing out of this tour. Why? He fell in love.
“It was the relationship or the music,” says Mansour, “and he went with the relationship.”
The band’s former touring bassist, 23-year-old Salim Naffah, has been brought in as a full-time band member, while Ghossein will still contribute to the new album.
“Everybody tends to think Salim is Eddy with a beard,” says Mansour. The irony? It was Naffah’s cousin whom Ghossein fell for.
“It’s a big happy family. Eddy is opting for a calmer life, he won’t do the road but he’s on the record – the family got bigger.”
One of the original line-up’s biggest gigs – with Naffah still on bass at the time – was supporting The Who at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after-race concert last November.
“Man, it was probably one of the most beautiful nights we’ve had,” says Mansour. “We’ve warmed up for Guns n’ Roses and Lana Del Rey and they were complete a******s – I can say it and I’ll represent it. But The Who were the classiest people on the planet.
“These guys are rock n’ roll royalty – they can be a******s, but they weren’t. They listened to every song we played in detail and spent a good hour backstage with us giving us feedback – it was genuine, they took the time. It was just surreal, these guys are as humble as it gets.”
The Wanton Bishops are already preparing psychologically for the release early next year of album number two – which Mansour promises will add broader touches of psychedelia, and even synthesisers, to their raw roots sound – followed by an even bigger, more gruelling, tour.
First, however, is the release of a documentary film about the band’s pilgrimage to record in America’s Deep South last year, which will be launched in Los Angeles, London, Paris and Berlin in September.
“I didn’t think we were entertaining enough, but when I watched it, actually we’re not that bad,” adds Mansour, with a wry smile.
• The Wanton Bishops perform for The Other Side at And Lounge, The Address Dubai Marina, Friday, July 31, from 9pm. Dh100 on the door
rgarratt@thenational.ae
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
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Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
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VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
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Match info
Australia 580
Pakistan 240 and 335
Result: Australia win by an innings and five runs
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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Nick's journey in numbers
Countries so far: 85
Flights: 149
Steps: 3.78 million
Calories: 220,000
Floors climbed: 2,000
Donations: GPB37,300
Prostate checks: 5
Blisters: 15
Bumps on the head: 2
Dog bites: 1
Law%2041.9.4%20of%20men%E2%80%99s%20T20I%20playing%20conditions
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Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
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BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
SPECS
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Company%20profile
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Pox that threatens the Middle East's native species
Camelpox
Caused by a virus related to the one that causes human smallpox, camelpox typically causes fever, swelling of lymph nodes and skin lesions in camels aged over three, but the animal usually recovers after a month or so. Younger animals may develop a more acute form that causes internal lesions and diarrhoea, and is often fatal, especially when secondary infections result. It is found across the Middle East as well as in parts of Asia, Africa, Russia and India.
Falconpox
Falconpox can cause a variety of types of lesions, which can affect, for example, the eyelids, feet and the areas above and below the beak. It is a problem among captive falcons and is one of many types of avian pox or avipox diseases that together affect dozens of bird species across the world. Among the other forms are pigeonpox, turkeypox, starlingpox and canarypox. Avipox viruses are spread by mosquitoes and direct bird-to-bird contact.
Houbarapox
Houbarapox is, like falconpox, one of the many forms of avipox diseases. It exists in various forms, with a type that causes skin lesions being least likely to result in death. Other forms cause more severe lesions, including internal lesions, and are more likely to kill the bird, often because secondary infections develop. This summer the CVRL reported an outbreak of pox in houbaras after rains in spring led to an increase in mosquito numbers.
MATCH INFO
FA Cup final
Chelsea 1
Hazard (22' pen)
Manchester United 0
Man of the match: Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
Profile of Hala Insurance
Date Started: September 2018
Founders: Walid and Karim Dib
Based: Abu Dhabi
Employees: Nine
Amount raised: $1.2 million
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, AB Accelerator, 500 Startups, private backers
The Bio
Name: Lynn Davison
Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi
Children: She has one son, Casey, 28
Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite Author: CJ Sansom
Favourite holiday destination: Bali
Favourite food: A Sunday roast
THE SPECS
BMW X7 xDrive 50i
Engine: 4.4-litre V8
Transmission: Eight-speed Steptronic transmission
Power: 462hp
Torque: 650Nm
Price: Dh600,000