‘I WON’T ABANDON DUBAI’
BRENDA G. first arrived in Oman on September 15, 1979 to be with her husband who was working for the MOD in Oman. She was not allowed to live there as her husband was on a single status. They decided to take a trip to Dubai to see if Brenda could live and work there.
Within six hours of arriving in Dubai, Brenda was offered a job at the Red Lion at the Metropolitan Hotel where they went for lunch. There was a piano there so my father persuaded my mum to play it and within seconds the manager (at the time he was known as Bill the Bar) leaped over the bar and offered her a job playing the piano on the spot! This led to her playing there every Friday for years and as live entertainment was scarce in the Gulf in those early days people came over from Qatar and Bahrain just to spend the day listening and singing to her tunes. She also found an apartment on the same day and was one of the first to move into The Al Ghurair Centre.
(A quarter page article along with photo was published by the Khaleej
Times of May 23, 1980 about her piano playing and history)
She also played on her own at Dirty Nellies on a regular basis at the Ramada Hotel and sometimes accompanied Dave Blackely the singer who ran the bar.
Frank Carson (famous Irish 70’s comedian) performed at Dirty Nellies and needed a lady pianist for part of his act... Brenda G was hired for this.
On that same day of her first arrival in Dubai, Brenda was also hired (and sponsored visa wise... unheard of at the time) by an employment agency as a PA and was hired out to various MDs of big companies and was often headhunted as her skills as a PA were top class. She also ran the MEED office (Middle East Economic Digest) for many years as well as constantly being asked to play the piano at various venues throughout Dubai and Oman. Brenda also was hired by local Dubai families to play at weddings and parties.
During the first Gulf War, Brenda G. was PA to the GM at TNT Skypak and at the time many Brits were leaving Dubai as they and their respective companies deemed it unsafe for them to remain. But Brenda G staged a sit in and said “There is no way I am abandoning Dubai at this time as Dubai is my home and I still have two jobs to do. Besides I am not leaving my dog and my children Ellen and Russell who live here.” She was allowed to stay.
When Tommy Cooper came over to Dubai to perform he heard mum play and became a huge fan of hers and made her play his favourite song Smoke get in your
eyes six times!! She has also been on the BBC’s Kenny Everett show winning the fastest pianist against four other pianists playing Rachmaninov.....
Brenda G could play classical and contemporary music as background at VIP events as well as sing songs at local hangouts. She also directed various musicals when they performed in Dubai and Oman.
She will also be remembered for driving her white open top jeep called Delilah, (even in the summer months) whilst holding the lead out the window so her dog could run along beside her on the sand plot outside her building. At the traffic lights once Shaikh Mohammed wound down his window and complemented her on her Jeep (as it was one of a kind).
Brenda reluctantly retired and left Dubai in 1995 having worked for TNT for many years. She returned to the town of Ebbw Vale in Wales where she was born.
In 2005 Brenda lost her eldest son Scott to two brain tumours. Scott was also a talented musician in the famous cabaret band Tomfoolery starring Owen Money and Brian Conely. Brenda has never got over this though she continued to play up until her two heart attacks in 2011 which nearly killed her. The doctors claimed it was a miracle she survived.
She is now in a care home and although mentally still as alert as ever she keeps saying she wants to go home... meaning Dubai... as it was a huge part of her life and she was at her happiest there.
She has three remaining children and six grandchildren.
We celebrated her 80th birthday on March 23, 2014.